Doing business the Hapee way

It is as interesting and sometimes as heated as our national elections, at least in the world of Filipino-Chinese businessmen. I am referring to the change in leadership in the influential Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce & Industry or FFCCCI.

It is always widely talked about and much anticipated, for good reasons. FFCCCI, after all, is the most powerful Fil-Chi organization in the country, with some of the biggest industrialists as members. It can push for policies and help improve the business environment, one way or another.
Many of the biggest names in business have led the organization to greater heights. Its chairman emeritus is taipan Lucio Tan.

It is therefore no surprise that toothpaste tycoon Dr. Cecilio Pedro is this year’s chosen leader. He will lead the organization as president for two years.
I talked to Dr. Pedro recently and he is excited to steer the organization to greater heights, just as he has done with his company, Lamoiyan Corp., the company behind Hapee toothpaste, the first and perhaps the only Filipino company  to penetrate the toothpaste industry dominated  by multinational giants Colgate and Close-Up.

Dr. Pedro, a Filipino Chinese businessman, was actually supplying aluminum toothpaste tubes to Colgate-Palmolive Co. and the now Unilever Group, but in 1985 the companies began to use plastic laminated tubes instead of aluminum collapsible tubes.

He was left with a stockpile of aluminum tubes. He then decided to go against the giants and created Hapee toothpaste and sold this at affordable prices.

The rest, as they say, is history.

The company sponsored the 1988 Philippine Olympic Delegation and was thus recognized as the official toothpaste of the Olympics to Seoul, South Korea.

It went on to gain the respect of consumers to garner several awards such as Most Outstanding Toothpaste Manufacturer several times; TOYM for Business Leadership in 1991; the Apolinario Mabini Award for Employer of the Year in 1993 and many more.

In the mid-2000s, the company expanded to neighboring countries such as China, Vietnam and Indonesia and is now exporting to the Middle East, Papua New Guinea, Russia and Hong Kong.

This formidable determination to succeed and grit to go against giants have made the company one of the most established local companies in the Philippines. It is also this kind of leadership that would guide him in steering FFCCCI.

Digitalization

He has a lot of plans lined up, such as helping the organization realize the value of digitalization.

“Digitalization is the key to moving forward,” he said.

“How do we make business and the community globally competitive? We have to be very good in technology.”

Thus, FFCCCI will be working with the government on various projects. The end goal is to make the Philippines one of the most competitive countries in Southeast Asia.

World-class students

Dr. Pedro said the organization will likewise prioritize education and digitizing education.

“Right now we are working with schools – from kindergarten all the way to high school, we have to go online,” he said, adding that Filipino graduates must be world-class and able to compete with the rest of the world.

One initiative the FFCCCI is working on is a plan to bring world-class educators such as those from Singapore or China to help Filipino students.

Ease of doing business

Another priority of FFCCCI is to work on improving the business climate in the country.

“The next step is ease of doing business. The permits, how do we streamline this? There’s red tape. From 40 permits, we can reduce this to 20 and then 10,” Dr. Pedro said.

He is also proposing having a COO of sorts or a little president in our country to address the day-to-day on the ground realities faced by businessmen.

“We are working hard with the government and Congress so that we can hasten efforts and so we can bring in investors,” he said.

Another area that FFCCCI will be working on is energy supply, which is always a concern for businessmen.

“We are pushing for the possibility of nuclear power,” he said, adding that other countries in the region are utilizing it and are able to provide cheaper energy to consumers.

Stepping down

Clearly, it’s going to be a busy two years for Dr. Pedro as he leads this organization which was born in 1954.

It’s good that running his company Lamoiyan won’t get in the way as he has already passed on the baton to his son Joel last month.

It’s now up to Joel to lead Lamoiyan the Hapee way or even better.

Lamoiyan is actually one of the few organizations in the Philippines that employs PWDs.

This clearly shows that it’s not all profits for Dr. Pedro.

In fact when I asked him if he plans to bring Lamoiyan to the public as has been widely anticipated in the past, Dr. Pedro said it’s not all about expanding and expanding.

He said the company will only do an initial public offering if it cannot generate funds to expand.

While profit is important to make a business sustainable, it is not as important as running a business to help others and for the glory of God, he said.

“I come with nothing, and I will go with nothing. Why not make a difference for the glory of God? Why not help people in need?” Dr. Pedro said.

This is perhaps Dr. Pedro’s secret to success – running a business the better way, the Hapee way.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.