Ayala rallies other businesses to work together, not compete

MANILA, Philippines — The Ayala Group has rallied other Philippine businesses to work together instead of competing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“We either succeed together or not. It is a time for all of us, particularly the private and the public sectors, to learn to cooperate rather than be at odds with each other,” Ayala chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said at the ATR Asset Management virtual webcast “ESG & Sustainable Investing: The Rise of Purpose.”

Zobel, a graduate of Harvard Business School, said no specific leadership style could work in all types of crisis. But, people need a leader who has a point of view, he said.

“You need to have a sense of what the future will look like. You need to have a sense of how things should be run,” he said.

Good leaders, Zobel explained, should also be able to connect the dots, bringing together different ideas and facts and using them to create a holistic road map to a future that is far from the status quo.

He said leaders should have empathy and be comfortable listening, understanding, and connecting to people.

The Ayala group of companies has been actively working with the national and local governments in building facilities and setting up equipment to expand the country’s testing, tracing, and treatment capacity through Taskforce T3.

The conglomerate is also working with other private companies to safely reopen the economy.