The 3rd Aboitiz Future Leaders Business Summit

Last Friday, I spent most of the day (and half of Saturday) attending the 3rd Aboitiz Future Leaders Business Summit (AFLBS) held at the Waterfront Hotel. This year’s theme was “Shaping the Filipino Youth into Becoming World-Class Leaders.” This was a two-day forum that brought together all the top third and fourth year college students from 21 colleges and universities throughout the country.

We’ve attended the two previous Aboitiz summits, but this time, it had a major difference. The 87 students now came from all over the country when previous summits focused only on students from Cebu’s top universities and colleges. Another difference from the previous summits was that this time, the Aboitiz Group brought in some 30 members of the academe to immerse with the students as they intermingled with the chief executive officers of the Aboitiz Group of Companies. Call it timely that the Aboitiz Future Leaders Business Summit has now expanded nationwide, just like the Aboitiz companies that have also expanded nationwide.

The future leaders were able to hear the various speakers, starting with Jon Ramon Aboitiz, president and CEO of Aboitiz & Company, Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV), who gave a stirring opening remark. Jon gave an overview of what the students could expect from the summit and how Aboitiz started in the late 1800s and has expanded throughout the country in the power generation sector and worldwide through their shipbuilding companies. What I especially liked in Jon Aboitiz’s speech was when he said, “What kept us going through the years? Family unity, teamwork, a solid vision to excel and serve our customers and shareholders. Today Aboitiz is strong and still based in Cebu. Often we are called probinsyanos, so what? We’re proud of it!”

Erramon Aboitiz talked about business strategy and virtually gave away the secrets of the success of the Aboitiz Group of Companies to the students. But this is the Aboitiz philosophy… it is never greedy; it always shares its knowledge with others. But more importantly, it speaks of the confidence of the Aboitiz CEOs that they can impart their guiding business principles, which is why the Aboitiz Group is one of the few world-class companies in this country and yes, we’re proud that they’re based in Cebu! 

Incidentally after the summit last year, the Aboitiz Power Group bagged the Magat Dam, then later the Ambuklao-Binga Dam. Last week’s summit was also quite timely because the Aboitiz Power Corp., through the AP Renewables Inc., its wholly owned subsidiary, bagged the famous 747-MW Tiwi-Makban geothermal complex, which is composed of the 289-MW Tiwi plants in Albay and the 458-MW Makban facilities in Laguna and Batangas, from the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) for a cool $447 million. This puts the Aboitiz Group into the business of clean and renewable energy, which geothermal energy has to offer.

There were many other speakers, like Roberto “Bobby” Aboitiz who spoke about the Aboitiz Construction Group and gave the vision of Metaphil “to be the preferred contractor of our clients.”  Jimmy Aboitiz, executive vice president and CEO of the Visayan Electric Co. (VECO), talked about the challenges of a service-oriented business. Then there was Romy Ronquillo, a trustee of the Aboitiz Foundation, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of the Aboitiz companies and family, and Enrique “Endika” Aboitiz, president and CEO of the Aboitiz Transport System Corp. (ATS). They all made great speeches; unfortunately we don’t have enough space to put them all in this corner.

This two-day summit was designed to provide the student delegates with the knowledge, the skills and the motivation to be the best that they can be in their chosen careers… that they, too, can be at par with the world’s best! This is known to all of us… that we Pinoys are globally competitive in whatever jobs are available in the world market. That’s perhaps because we are born leaders in our own little way. Where we fail miserably is in our system of governance that continues to fail the Filipino people, year after year after year since we threw out the Marcos Dictatorship 22 years ago!

Seeing the healthy exchange between the students and CEOs I’m sure that those students would go back to their respective schools with renewed hope that there are companies like the Aboitiz Group that teach them to be world-class leaders. How I wished that the Aboitiz Group would do a similar summit straight into the hallowed halls of Congress where our political leadership reigns, but true leadership is seriously lacking although it is needed especially in these harsh and trying times so that our nation could finally move forward.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, “Straight from the Sky,” shown every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.