OFWs to be next taipans — Sy Coson

One of Fortune Magazine’s 50 most powerful women in international business plans to lead her conglomerate – which includes the country’s biggest mall chain and the second largest bank – through the new millennium by being "dispassionate, nurturing and not bossy."

Tessie Sy Coson, chairman of the merged Banco de Oro-Equitable PCIBank and SM Investment Corp. vice chairman, is also a mother of three who was widowed three years ago. (She was happily married to the late Louie Coson.)

Her many responsibilities now leave her little time to sleep, and no time for romance – which she doesn’t seek. "I have no time for those things anymore," the fiftysomething Sy Coson smiles. "I believe in getting married only once. One great love in life is enough."

But apparently, one great job isn’t enough for the convent-bred Sy Coson, who was reared on her father’s knee to appreciate and value hard work. "When we were growing up, our family was lower middle class, and I saw how hard my parents (taipan Henry Sy Sr. and his wife Felicidad) worked. That made me want to work hard, too."

Sy Coson believes that it was her father’s migrant mentality (he was born in Fujian, China) that made him hungry to succeed, rising to become one of the Philippines’ wealthiest men.

"He came from a poor family, so he was hungry for work," says Sy Coson, who predicts that the taipans of the next generation will come from the ranks of today’s Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).

"They have the drive and the hunger," she says.

Sy Coson sees all the SM branches (around 28 of them) as "catalysts and enablers" in the communities they are in. Aside from providing jobs, the SM malls also do outreach programs. While her father builds malls, her mother Felicidad, on the other hand, builds churches and takes care of Catholic priests. According to Tessie, her mother, who was born to a poor Chinese family in the Philippines and did not finish college, always reminded her brood "never to forget your beginnings."

Sy Coson says that is why SM Malls sell merchandise that is within the everyman’s reach. The family also pours one percent of its companies’ earnings to the SM Foundation, which is into school buildings, low-cost housing and medical missions. Sy Coson flatly denies that her father gives signed post-dated checks to kidnap syndicates for the family’s protection.

"And in the rural areas, I guess they feel the contribution to the community SM is making," she points out, saying no one unjustly taxes them either in the countryside.

Her business philosophy is simple: "Work hard so you will have money to give away."

It is what she teaches her 18-year-old daughter, whom she once saw cooking spaghetti to give away to a group of cigarette vendors. It is also what drives her to work hard, saying that with the BDO and Equitable PCIB merger, "we will not be cutting down on people, but people will just have to work more."

Happiness, to Sy-Coson, "is being in that place between having too much and too little."

And is she in that special place right now?

"I’m not complaining," she smiles.

Sy Coson says that despite her busy schedule she finds time almost everyday to cook vegetables for her father, who is now 82 years old and semi-retired.

"But he isn’t just consulted in our business decisions – he has to approve of them," says Sy Coson. Her father’s one frustration, she says, is that he didn’t make it in the tourism and resort business – a dream he has not abandoned. Aside from the Taal Vista Hotel, the family is developing a sprawling resort property in Batangas

With her drive, her work ethic and yes, her nurturing spirit, Sy Coson – reportedly "Daddy’s Girl" – isn’t just into malls, real estate and banks. She’s into fulfilling dreams, including that of the poor migrant from Fujian who believed from the day he set foot on Philippine soil that it was a land where dreams could come true.