Tatang Sy’s advice to children

Written by Honey Madrilejos-Reyes / Reporter

Thursday, 30 April 2009 23:50

IT may be said that the various crises this country has experienced—some of them caused by internal difficulties and some from setbacks originated abroad—are battles all won by the SM Group, founded by the Philippines’ richest man, Henry Sy Sr. And even if countries worldwide are battling the impact of the global recession, the group, which owns the largest chain of shopping malls here, is still seeing opportunities in these tough times and stays confident about ending the year with a double-digit growth in profit. BUSINESS lessons are shared by Henry Sy Sr. (top left) with his six children, three of whom are shown here— Tessie, Hans and Harley. While the older Sy still sits as chairman of SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), the group’s holding firm for investments in shopping malls, financial services, retail merchandising, real-estate development and hotel and entertainment, it is now his children, led by eldest daughter Tessie Sy-Coson, who run the empire. The BusinessMirror this week got a rare chance to talk to three of Mr. Sy’s six children—Tessie, Hans and Harley—what advice their father gave them in dealing with the current crisis. Tessie, who chairs the country’s biggest bank BDO Unibank, Inc., says, “Patience and prudence. But remain aggressive when opportunity arises.” Hans, who heads SM Prime Holdings in charge of mall development, adds, “My father just tells us there’s always time for opportunity, but nevertheless he still reminded us not to chew more than what we can swallow. I guess that’s what brought us to where we are today. Be very prudent, be very practical and be very realistic about the situation.” Youngest son Harley, who sits as president of SMIC, imparts, “Basically, what my dad said is to work harder.” Mr. Sy’s three other children, Henry Jr., Elizabeth and Herbert, head the group’s property development, hotel and entertainment and supermarket operations, respectively. The SM group celebrated last year its 50th anniversary, marking the growth of the company that started from one shoe store in Carriedo, Manila to a well-built conglomerate with current market capitalization of P144.8 billion. And this accomplishment, says Mr. Sy’s children, owes much to their father’s determination, guts and grounded optimism. “He has been through many challenging times and seen many economic and political changes in the country. But he has been fortunate to be able to move his business on the uptrend throughout the changing times. He has maintained a low profile until recently when his company had become public. He knew long ago that his journey in business would take a thousand steps. He has already climbed several hundred steps and now, he expects us to continue the climb to the thousandth step,” they said. On Wednesday, the country’s retail king received the Lakan ng Kalakalan Award from the Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop). The award was handed out by President Arroyo, Ecop chairman Miguel Valera and Ecop president Sergio Ortiz Luis in rites at the Manila Hotel. The man called “Tatang” by employees is considered iconic in Philippine business because his saga mirrors in many ways the ups and downs of the country’s economy—only, he almost always makes the right gamble when things are pretty low, investing in big projects despite economic gloom. Call it instinct, business savvy or faith, or a combination of all, says one observer, adding, “maybe that’s why the company’s jingle says “we’ve got it all for you.”