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Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines 2004 Winners
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Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines 2004
Woman Entrepreneur 2004
Socorro C. Ramos
Founder and General Manager
National Book Store, Inc.
In 1940, when Ms. Socorro C. Ramos was approaching 18, she began working as a salesgirl in Goodwill Bookstore in Escolta. The store was owned by her brother and his wife. The store was located on the ground floor of the building that housed Panciteria Nacional. Later on, because of her selling skills, she was put in charge of the store. She married Jose Ramos and together they started National Book Store.
After overcoming many hurdles brought by the Japanese occupatiom, fires, and natural disasters, National Book Store made its transition from a general merchandise store to a store that sells more than books. Upon finally settling in a nine-story building along Avenida Rizal in 1965, National Book Store has been growing nonstop. It has lived up to its name, selling school books, office supplies and even greeting cards. In 1973, Ms. Ramos successfully obtained licenses to reprint Hallmark greeting cards. She also convinced publishing giants like McGraw Hill, Prentice Hall, and Addison-Wesley to allow National Book Store to reprint textbooks, making them much more affordable to Filipinos.
Today, nearly 65 years after Ramos couple opened the first National Book Store in Escolta, the red and white colors of the company’s brand are seen in over 70 locations nationwide. In 1996, the family opened Powerbooks to address the reading public’s need for specialty books at affordable prices.
“Nanay Coring,” as she is fondly called, also deals with her 2,500 people with motherly concern, and has been rewarded with the loyalty of her employees and a relatively low turnover rate. Among her awards are the Agora Award for Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship (1991) and the DTI Outstanding Filipino Retailer Award (2001).
In the next five years, Ms. Ramos and her family plan to increase their stores to a hundred. Many communities still lack access to affordable books and school supplies, and Ms. Ramos’ goal is to widen National Book Store’s reach in the Visaya’s and Mindanao.``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
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Master Entrepreneur 2004
Felipe L. Gozon
Chairman, President and CEO
GMA Network, Inc.
Atty. Felipe L. Gozon is credited for the impressive turnaround in recent years of GMA Network, Inc., a conglomerate of companies engaged in radio and TV broadcasting, post production services, filmmaking, music recording, and new media.
Atty. Gozon was part of the triumvirate which, in the mid-1970’s, brought GMA from the original American owner, Mr. Robert (“Uncle Bob”) Stewart. The other two major owners were Gozon’s brother-in-law Menardo Jimenez and former Rizal Congressman Gilberto Davit, now represented by chief operating officer EVP Jimmy Davit, Jr. At first, Atty. Gozon served as GMA’s Chairman while Jimenez served as CEO.
GMA occupied the No. 1 slot for some time, but slipped to second place in the mid-1980s. When Atty. Gozon assumed leadership of the network in 2000, he rallied everyone to strive to be No. 1 again. All his efforts paid off when GMA grabbed the No. 1 spot in the daytime slot on December 23, 2003, and the network has been on the rise since then.
GMA currently has a network of 46 VHF stations and can be seen via satellite in a number of households in Asia, Australia, and Hawaii. It can also be hard on airwaves through AM and FM stations in Manila and Cebu and through 27 RGMA radio stations throughout the country. GMA recently launched its international channel.
Among his plans for the network are the re-launching of its UHF channel and the raising of additional capital through GMA’s initial public offering in the first quarter of 2005.``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
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Emerging Master Entrepreneur 2004
Tomas Victorino A. Meneses
Founding Chairman and CEO
Tynor Drug House, Inc.
Contrary to his name, Mr. Tomas Victorino “Tiny” A. Meneses is a big man in the pharmaceutical industry. The Founding Chairman and CEO of Tynor Drug House, Inc. established the company in 1978 as a manufacturer and distributor of locally produced and Swiss-made pharmaceutical products.
After graduating with a Humanities degree from Ateneo de Manila on a scholarship, Mr. Meneses was hired as a sales representative for Swiss pharmaceutical company Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis). After several years of working in the industry, he learned the trade and decided to put up his own company: Tynor Drug House, Inc.
Mr. Meneses started out with me-too products but soon realized that to succeed in the industry, one has to constantly innovate. He focused on research and development, which led to the foundation of unique products which have gained a strong following in the local market: the Cherifer product line, a leading brand in its market and a multivitamin highly prescribed by pediatricians; OB Max and OB Smart, used as both prenatal and post-natal supplements; and Natalac, 100% natural lactation enhancer.
At present, Tynor is just one of the companies in the growing Meneses Group of Companies. Sister companies in the group are Time Machine Cosmetiques, Inc., which formulates skin care products; PMB Salon Specialties, Inc., which manufactures, imports, and distributes hair and scalp care products; InterMed Marketing Philippines, Inc., which markets and distributes Tynor products; Gruppo Medica, Inc., which manufactures pharmaceuticals and food supplements; and Tynor Agrovet Division, Inc., which markets imported and locally manufactured veterinary products. Over the next few years, Mr. Meneses is eyeing expansion on the region and in the USA.``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
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Small Business Entrepreneur 2004
Wilson P. Ng
President & CEO
Ng Khai Development Corp.
Ng Khai Development Corporation’s story begins in Cebu, with a man whose passion for computers matched his drive to become a successful entrepreneur.
Mr. Wilson P. Ng was born in 1965 to a Filipino-Chinese family where he says “being an entrepreneur was expected.” Mr. Ng discovered his passion for computers in college and followed a career in Information Technology after graduation. But he had to forgo his plan of pursuing his own business when his father passed away in 1989, leaving him in charge of the family business.
It was only in 1992 that Ng Khai Development Corporation, Mr, Ng’s brainchild, was born, initially as a computer software company. Not long after, Ng Khai broadened its product base to become a non-stop shop for integrated IT business solutions. The company offers a vast array of IT products: computer hardware, software, web development, training, and systems integration among others.
Over the years, Ng Khai has grown to keep up with the Dynamic IT industry. The business caters to the Visayas and Northern Minadanao areas and has partnered with big IT names such as HP, IBM, Microsoft, and Cisco to ensure the deliver of premier-quality services and equipment to its customers. Ng Khai is the only Microsoft Large Account Reseller in the South, and is the exclusive Visayas distributor of 3M Visual products.
Through the efforts of Ng Khai, Mr. Ng hopes to improve the Visayas and Northern Mindanao economy by making them attractive to investors as outsourcing sites. He firmly believes that young Filipino professionals outside the National Capital Region should have equal opportunities to work in their provinces and not to have to go to Manila or overseas to find suitable employment.
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Agribusiness Entrepreneur 2004
Rodrigo E. Rivera, Sr.
Chairman & CEO
RD Corporation
Mr. Rodrigo E. Rivera, Sr. was a banker for 20 years before he decided to put up his own company, RD Pawnshop, with very limited capital in 1976. While the pawnshop business was flourishing, Mr. Rivera and his wife invested their earnings with other enterprises that similarly prospered. Mr. Rivera also attracted former colleagues in the banking industry to help him out in his business, making sure that the business units were growing while new investments were prudently planned and executed.
In less than two decades, the family business grew into a group of 42 companies and subsidiaries. RD Corporation is the holding and managing entity. The flagship company is RD Fishing Industry, Inc. which serves the global market. Fresh tuna, tha main produce, and canned products are exported to Europe and the USA, Japan and other countries, while local brand Diana is sold in the Philippines.
With 8,000 employees, the RD Group of Companies is also into banking real estate, hotels, and resorts, agriculture, credit and gemology, and pawnshop operations. Mr. Rivera is keen on expanding outlets. He also has plans for RD Corporation to go public to help fund further expansion.
In 1999, Mr. Rivera was named the Outstanding Countryside Investor of the Year as well as one of the Top 20 Employers. He was appointed as Papua New Guinea Honorary Consul General for Mindanao in 2001 and received the Rajah Award of Excellence in 2004.
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Socially Responsible Entrepreneur 2004
Cecilio K. Pedro
President & CEO
Lamoiyan Corporation
In the late 1970s, Mr. Cecilio K. Pedro’s Aluminum Containers, Inc., was the major supplier of aluminum collapsible toothpaste tubes to colgate-Palmolive and the Philippine Refining Company. However, in 1985, these companies began using plastic laminated tubes. Mr. Pedro had to close his factory but soon realized his old equipment could still be put to good use. He reopened his factory as Lamoiyan Corporation, now known as the manufacturer of toothpaste brands Hapee and Kutitap.
Mr. Pedro succeeded in making Hapee the No. 3 toothpaste brand in the country, the first Filipino to ever penetrate the toothpaste market dominated by multinational companies. He has since diversified his product line to include Dazz dishwashing paste and liquids, Tenderly fabric enhancer, Fash detergent, and Gumtech, a special gum-formula toothpaste.
Mr. Pedro has chosen to use his entrepreneurial skills to help provide opportunities to others. A staunch advocate of the hearing-impaired, he helps proved free college education to at least 200 hearing-impaired students through the Deaf Evangelistic Alliance Foundation, Inc. (DEAF), which he currently chairs. He also employs 30 hearing-impaired staff in his company, and helps provide them with free housing. To narrow the communication gap between his hearing-impaired and hearing personnel, he has also required his managers to learn sign language.
Mr. Pedro hopes to establish Lamoiyan in neighboring countries such as China, Vietnam, and Indonesia, and later on to become the preferred brand in Asia.
Among the awards he has received are the Outstanding Filipino Retailer by the Philippine Retailers Association in 2001, the TOYM for Business Leadership in 1991, and the Agora Award for Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship in 1991.``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
