Who are the champions in profitability among Philippine businesses, especially those that are publicly listed? Here are some that this writer has reviewed. Congratulations, may you help the Philippine economy grow faster regardless of our politics, and help push social progress, too!
Kudos to Manuel “Manny” V. Pangilinan or MVP for leading the country’s most profitable company, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), with its consolidated core net income of P39 billion in 2011. This is the biggest in profitability, although it’s down from the previous year. MVP also declared a 100-percent dividend for stockholders for the fifth year in a row.
For their JG Summit Holdings Inc., John Gokongwei Jr. and his family reported a record-high net income of P21.59 billion last year, up by 32 percent from the previous year due mainly to extraordinary gains from the sale of Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (Digitel) to PLDT, offsetting a drop in core earnings.
Henry Sy’s conglomerate SM Investments Corporation (SM) reported a 15-percent growth in net income for 2011 of P21.2 billion from P18.4 billion last year. Consolidated revenues rose 13 percent to P200.7 billion, compared to P177.2 billion in 2010. SM has enjoyed a strong performance by its core businesses.
San Miguel Corp. (SMC) chairman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. and president Ramon S. Ang reported a 2011 net income of P17.5 billion amid the firm’s acquisitions and continuing diversifications in energy, infrastructure and other businesses.
Ayala Corp. of the Zobel-Ayala clan said that its consolidated net income hit P9.4 billion in 2011, 16 percent lower than the previous year’s P11.16 billion, which included an extraordinary net gain of P3.6 billion versus only P611 million this year. Profits at their Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) grew 13 percent to P12.8 billion in 2011, while their Globe Telecom Inc. outperformed the Philippine telecom industry as core net income increased by 11 percent to P10 billion, since revenues increased nine percent to an all-time high of P67.8 billion.
Most businesspeople, professionals, politicians, and even athletes, search the world and look throughout history for examples of outstanding leadership to learn from. We usually study iconic statesmen like Winston Churchill, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Tang Dynasty Emperor Li Shimin, business tycoons like Steve Jobs of Apple or Asia’s wealthiest taipan, Li Ka-Shing of Hong Kong.
Publishing so many books about success secrets or leadership styles has become a cottage industry globally, due to increasing popular need or demand for guides to self-improvement. In fact, Steven Covey’sSeven Habits of Highly Effective People has been the National Book Store chain’s all-time bestseller for years, NBS founder Socorro C. Ramos once told me.
In their interesting, practical and not preachy book entitled The Leadership Lessons of Jesus: A Timeless Model for Today’s Leaders, Bob Briner and Ray Pritchard hold up the shining example of Jesus Christ as a leader worth emulating by all of us — whether leaders or would-be leaders. Even non-Christians can learn from this book by rediscovering the life of Jesus.
The book is composed of 52 short segments on verses from the Bible’s Gospel of Mark, which illustrates the leadership principles of the greatest person who ever lived. Each chapter starts with a long passage from the book of Mark and zeroes in on one verse. The rest of each chapter is a mini-reflection or discussion on each leadership characteristic or strategy. For example, the authors narrate a modern tale about temptations confronted by a leader as an example of the book of Mark’s story on the temptation of Jesus by Satan.
Among the many helpful leadership principles cited by this book include the ability to delegate, the practice of strategic withdrawal, loyalty and integrity. Other lessons are on: The Call, Followers, Authority, Discipline, Teams, Plans, Attacks, Unity, Faithfulness, Vision, the Unexpected, Rebukes, Strategies, Loyalty, Gratitude, Public Relations, Flattery, Commitment and Management.
The beginning of the book underscores the importance of truth for faith and performance, stressing that how a leader is perceived is something he or she can never hear too much of. It is deemed that the best lives are those in which people are committed to a calling and seeking to please and serve God while maximizing their talents and visions.
We should be reminded about the difference between management, which pays people to follow orders, and leadership, which inspires others to work selflessly as a team with others.
Leadership is personal, not isolated from the people. One part even underscores the importance of breaking bread with those you lead, which reminds me of GMA Network, Inc. CEO Atty. Felipe Gozon, who has this unique practice of having lunch once a month with all the birthday celebrants among the company’s employees. He uses this intimate monthly lunch to talk directly to them about his leadership and the plans of their company.
Here are some of the ideas from the book that Robert D. Steeled wrote about, followed by my own comments:
• Leaders are disciplined in time management. For all her political shortcomings, this part on time management reminded me of my former Ateneo economics professor, ex-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who once told me her secrets to leadership are “time management and energy management.”
• Leaders use prayer as reflection. How many of us, whether business leaders, professionals, housewives, students or political leaders, pause to often pray and reflect?
• Leaders are teachers, and can teach under all circumstances, including negative situations.Leaders teach not only by preaching, but also by the eloquent examples of their lives, in terms of integrity, work ethic, humility, and moral courage.
• Enduring leaders are compassionate. Nelson Mandela of South Africa was a victim of apartheid but he personified compassion and national reconciliation. Harvard economics honors graduate and NBA basketball superstar Jeremy Lin not only readily, humbly and quickly forgave a former ESPN journalist for an anti-Chinese racist slur in writing a news headline, he recently even had lunch with the latter to talk about basketball and the Christian faith.
• Diversity is good for team building.
• Core values are enduring, but in practice adaptation is essential.
• Speak to the masses but nurture an inner core of future leaders.
• Understand the importance of strategic withdrawals and pauses.
• The setting for major announcements or intense dialogues is important. Airport hotels are pedestrian; retreats with memorable environments enhance and nurture intentions and goals.
• Some visionaries will be considered lunatic, even within their own families, therefore the price of leadership is also the willingness to bear persistent pain and rejection in the face of disbelief and constant criticism.
• Many will know of the leader, but very few will know who the leader really is.
• Expect to be unappreciated, but avoid sharing too much too soon.
• Know when to move on, and prepare your successors, encouraging them to move into the world “two by two” so they can reinforce one another and learn from one another.
By: Wilson Lee Flores
http://www.philstar.com/business-life/792990/business-lessons-jesus-christ
