Millennials’ key to success: Technology and social edge

MANILA, Philippines — Today’s Filipino millennials must embrace technology and their inherent social advantages and traits, saying these will drive success for the future young Filipino leaders.

This was the message of Erramon Aboitiz, president and CEO of Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV), to 90 of the country's best and brightest college student delegates at the 12th Aboitiz Future Leaders Business Summit (AFLBS) in Makati City.

This year's summit plenary session was held at Dusit Thani Manila on November 10, the first time this part of the summit was held in Manila after 12 years of being held in Cebu. It carried the theme: “Filipino Youth, Global Leaders: We Drive Change for a Better World.”

In his talk, Aboitiz acknowledged that the AFLBS delegates — 56 from Luzon, 24 from Visayas, and 10 from Mindanao, coming from various degree courses such as Accountancy, Engineering, Economics, and Psychology, among others — enjoy the benefits of technology that provide them unprecedented access to information that is essential to their success in the future.

“Your generation intuitively understands technology as it has always been a part of your life, growing up in an electronics-filled environment that enables online and social media communication with anyone, anywhere in the globe, 24/7,” Aboitiz said.

“The vast information on the Internet also fundamentally changes the way you learn things about our world. You millennials are also acknowledged as being able to present far more creative and innovative solutions to problems than any other generation before you. You are the most ethnically diverse generation and therefore tend to be tolerant of difference,” he added.

“With these distinctive characteristics, you millennials already have what it takes to become global leaders,” Aboitiz said.

The AFLBS began in 2006 as a three-day gathering of Cebu’s brightest student leaders, with the vision of preparing them for the corporate world.

It is now an annual phenomenon that brings together top-ranking students from the country’s finest universities for a four-day summit on business and leadership.

The AFLBS provides participants the opportunity to learn and practice leadership skills and management concepts.

The program—consisting of a plenary session, six breakout sessions, and an exciting mixer activity — will expose student delegates to the world of business, corporate life, responsibility and nation building.

This year’s keynote speaker was top motivational speaker, entrepreneur, author, and “The Apprentice Asia” winner Jonathan Allen Yabut.

During the summit, top Aboitiz executives and team leaders from different Aboitiz business units such as Erramon I. Aboitiz, Txabi Aboitiz, Sabin M. Aboitiz, Jim Aboitiz, and Dmi Lozano also shared their thoughts, experiences, and advice that will inspire and encourage delegates to create a difference in society.

This year’s AFLBS also re-engaged the most number of alumni in its 12-year history in a grand homecoming for AFLBS batches 1 to 11. (FREEMAN)