Cooperativism gains headway in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Cooperatives, whether they are groups of farmers, fishermen, vendors, or electricity users banding together for a common purpose, are people-centered organizations formed to benefit its members. They are government partners in the delivery of livelihood and micro-entrepreneurial activities geared to addressing the problems of illiteracy and poverty. They help alleviate the living conditions of members through marketing support, credit facilities, new technology, adult education, livelihood opportunities, and scholarships for children.

In the Philippines, cooperatives are registered with the Cooperative Development Authority, created by Republic Act 6939, and signed into law on March 10, 1990, to promote the viability and growth of cooperatives as instruments of equity, social justice and economic development. Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, equality, equity and solidarity. The members learn honesty, transparency, social responsibility and caring for others. The use of funds is for mutual, rather than individual, benefit.

Cooperativism in the Philippines started in the 19th Century when Filipino travellers to Europe, including the National Hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal, brought the idea of the economic movement to the country. While in exile in Dapitan, Dr. Rizal set up a school for the poor and a store on a cooperative basis.

Today, cooperatives are gaining momentum as vehicles for the economic empowerment of poor and rural Filipino workers. There are more than 20,00 registered cooperatives nationwide, and they help in the pursuit of people-oriented projects to benefit target beneficiaries, especially small farmers and fisherfolk.

It is hoped that given more government incentives as well as private sector support, the cooperative movement in the country will continue to flourish and make a difference in the lives of many Filipinos
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Young man has novel condotel project

This driven 23-year-old goes for minimalist black-and-white design, but has aggressive, maximalist approach to real estate

By: Alex Y. Vergara
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Gabriel “Gab” Perez, 23, is a young man in a hurry. As founder, president and CEO of Green Asia Real Estate & Development, the Ateneo management economics graduate doesn’t seem to be letting anyone or anything get in the way of his pursuit to be a real estate mogul.

The youngest in a brood of three, Perez is almost singlehandedly orchestrating the funding and construction of the family-owned Angelica Manor—an eight-story, 65-unit condominium building in Pasig. He has proven himself to be an inquisitive and forward-thinking newbie. But at the same time, he has no qualms about admitting that he’s also a creature of habit.

“You’re the third person this week to notice my cell phone,” says the eligible bachelor good naturedly, referring to his Nokia 6303. “What’s wrong with it? It’s not a smart phone, but it does the job quite well. It even comes with a camera. Anyway, all I need to do is call and text.”

We’re also not the first person, says Perez, to tell him that we expected someone young and supposedly hip like him to carry around the latest iPhone. He says he’ll give Steve Jobs’ favorite gadget a thought.

He may not be that into gadgets, but the tall Perez is a natural when it comes to fashion. He says he shops for clothes here and abroad only when necessary.

Savoring traveling

He savors traveling abroad, especially to Europe, basically to get ideas for his future projects, one of which is a condominium hotel named Privato. Located also in Pasig, the project recently broke ground.

Despite his seeming nonchalance about fashion, his efforts show in his choices as well as the mix of high and low brands he wears: Tod’s driving shoes, Hermès black leather belt, dark gray blazer with gingham collar detail by Randy Ortiz, Tyler gingham shirt, Louis Vuitton Damier Graphite billfold and dark Defacto Industries denims.

The same expensive but no-frills approach to fashion extends to his choice of furniture and interiors. His 60-sq m condo unit at the Angelica Manor is, as Perez describes it, clean, linear, crisp and stark due mainly to his decision to limit the color scheme to black and white.

Angelica Manor, named after his mother, a doctor, is almost fully occupied less than a year after it was finished. Perez flew the coop fairly recently, but he’s open to the idea of moving back to the family’s Quezon City home to be with his empty-nester parents. His two older siblings are married.

“It’s a special unit consisting of three bedrooms, living room and kitchen,” he says of his Pasig digs. “I got the entire front area, which didn’t require the merging of units or knocking down of walls. I knew from the start that I would do a lot of entertaining, so I made sure I incorporated open spaces into the design.”

While not a few people take a lifetime to find their niche, Perez says he knew what he wanted to do even before finishing college. To his dad’s relief, he didn’t parlay his stint as a student council officer into a career in politics.

“Since I was quite active in campus politics, going into politics was my original plan, until I interned at Discovery Suites Hotel and Sta. Lucia Realty,” he says. “That was when I decided to pursue real estate.”

He narrowed his choices between construction, an area familiar to his dad, an engineer who does occasional projects for the Department of Public Works and Highways, and real estate. Soon enough, he opted to focus on the latter, and eventually founded Green Asia two years ago.

“Making roads isn’t my passion,” he says. “I can’t imagine myself going into the food business, either. I don’t want to deal with perishables. Real estate, which involves the entire process of choosing a location and building design, excites me. I like things that are tangible. I like to see things rise.”

He’s also glad he took up business administration instead of civil engineering. He continues to hone his business skills by taking up graduate studies in entrepreneurship also at Ateneo.

“On hindsight, by not taking up civil engineering, I saved myself from all the math,” he says with chuckle. “I think my passion for building is innate, but the skill is something that’s nurtured. I’m not ashamed to ask questions, to learn the ropes. I figured I could pull it off as long as I know how to end it.”

Buckling down to work

After securing a loan, Perez buckled down to work on Angelica Manor. It helped, he admits, to work with the best people in the business. He scoured Metro Manila in search of the best, most reasonably priced materials.

There were times he had to haul off sample materials in his car.  Since he was having so much fun learning and discovering new things, he never thought of it as work.

But rather than embark on the project blindly, he also did his homework. He read up and validated his knowledge by asking the right people, even bureaucrats he dealt with while securing permits and other pertinent papers.

“After accompanying me during the initial meeting while we were planning Angelica Manor, my dad felt I could do it myself,” he says. “I was basically on my own after that.”

Whereas Perez directly sold condo units at Angelica Manor to interested parties, he plans to employ a different marketing approach to appeal more to investors, balikbayans and retirees with extra cash for Privato. He will still be on top of the project, but perhaps not as hands on as he was.

“You’re not just a unit owner when you buy a condo unit at Privato,” says Perez. “Since it’s a ‘condotel,’ you also buy a share in the hotel operations. We will operate the hotel, and every month you get a share in the earnings, whether or not your unit is occupied.”

Unlike buying a condo unit, investing in a condotel saves you from all the headaches that come with maintenance. Since a management arm would be running Privato, you’re also spared from dealing directly with hotel guests. You or your friends can even use the room for free for 15 days a year.

“The 15 days can either be staggered or used continuously,” says Perez. “And unlike in other condotels, you can transfer the privilege to visiting friends and relatives from abroad. The arrangement is quite ideal because most of our investors have homes in Metro Manila anyway.”

You’re also spared from paying huge association dues. And the best part is you’re not stuck with a non-performing asset should no one occupy the room. That isn’t the case with a condo unit, which you have to rent out continuously to help you maximize your investment.

“In other words, you earn without even lifting a finger,” says Perez. “Once you’ve invested in Privato, your investment keeps on earning income for you. We in Green Asia call it the art of investment.”

Son of owner not allowed to eat in exec lounge

By: Theresa S. Samaniego

Philippine Daily Inquirer

 2share16 10

RAUL Joseph Concepcion

At a young, tender age of 7, Raul Joseph Concepcion, unlike most other kids, spent his extra waking hours working for the family business.

Concepcion tells SundayBiz that he actually enjoyed those times when he was tasked to punch cards of different colors, stack them together, and after which he would use these to play monopoly.

But the harsh reality of working in a “real office” struck him hard when at the age of 11, Jojo, as he is fondly known, was sent to the company’s factory to finally get his hands dirty.

It was ironic that the present chief of Concepcion-Carrier Air Conditioning (CCAC), one of the country’s leading provider of cooling solutions, then had to work with two conditions under his father’s explicit orders: one, he cannot work in an air-conditioned room and second, he cannot eat in the executive floor so he can truly mingle with their factory workers.

Son of owner

“The monicker really given to people like myself is we are SOO [son of the owner]. But in my father’s case, you have to earn the title, for you to be a COO or CEO,” Concepcion explains, adding that they all had to work hard and know the company from the bottom up. This was why all his free time in the mornings were spent in the office to learn.

Coming from a family of mostly businessmen, Concepcion relates that their dad has always been very clear about them having to work for the family business.

THE MULTI-AWARDED Concepcion-Carrier Air Conditioning Company plant.

“We were always expected to work, so that expectation level was brought up from day 1. We were expected to manage the business,” he says.

Admittedly, Concepcion says the “brainwashing” done to them by his father made it a little easier for them to accept the fact that they would soon run the business.

Food, according to him, was also one of the baits that his father used to entice them to work.

“We had an open budget, but we had to eat with the workers. We can go to the canteen and order everything we want. That was the bribe,” he relates.

When asked if he thinks that his father became too imposing for him to like the job, Concepcion notes that he didn’t see it that way as he has always wanted to work for the family’s business.

“I always dreamed of working for and leading the company. It was something really expected of me so it wasn’t very difficult for myself to adjust,” he shares.

Deemed as the family’s favorite, Concepcion admits that his parents may have spent more time nurturing him and exposing him to the business which helped him to really want to come into the family’s business.

Living abroad

Concepcion’s sheltered life, however, took a strange turn when he was sent abroad to study.

“My parents decided for us to experience the world. They wanted us to experience living alone in a less protective environment,” he says.

“The problem is in the Philippines is that you live in a very protective environment – you have your yayas, your maid, your driver so you don’t experience life,” he adds.

Concepcion relates that he had to live separately from his family for about 10 months and stay with people he didn’t know.

This setup, he claims, had helped build his confidence level and his character.

Add to that the fact that living in the US was a different experience altogether for the young Concepcion, who was then forced to learn to do things by himself –from folding his bed, doing his laundry to cleaning his area. He was likewise lumped with the other Asians since during that time, not too many Americans had seen a Filipino in their entire lives.

“This is the ’70s and the ’80s, so imagine going to that environment. It builds a lot of self-confidence in you and that experience is really what carries you through life,” Concepcion says.

He adds that his early marriage, although a challenge, has likewise helped in shaping him for who he has become today.

Honing skills

It was in 1987 that Concepcion officially joined his family’s company, Concepcion Industries Inc.

He, however, was given a different task by his father, who had then just decided to venture into agriculture, having a bought a prawn farm in Pangasinan for him to manage. From scratch, Concepcion was able to grow the business and at the same time, hone his own managing skills.

“Again, I’ve had a lot of learnings from that. Growing the farm developed my business style and philosophies. The farm taught me to work very hard. I was even then called  ‘boy putik’ because I was always muddy, but I took it as part of really learning the business, and that really brought down the philosophies and values I had in running this business,” he explains.

He then took various positions at the credit and collection, manufacturing, sales, after sales service and then finally went for the corporate, eventually landing in the position of CEO.

Challenges

According to Concepcion, there are multiple challenges in running the business, such as dealing with changes of the people and the environment.

“People tend to underestimate managing a business here in the Philippines. Demands of consumer and business are changing. The rules of the game are changing. My competition today is not locals. It’s the foreign companies, the multinationals whose companies’ total valuation is bigger than the Philippine economy,” he explains.

But one of the more daunting challenges will be from the family point of view in the generation of leadership, how is the baton passed from one generation to the next.

“When you join a company and you’re the owner, am I there because of my name or am I there because of what I can do? I think that challenge was more to myself than to the employees. Proving that you know we were worth the position that we carry. That, I tell you, is the biggest challenge faced by companies like ourselves where you have a family corporation, where you tend to tangle up family affairs and business affairs—that’s very critical,” Concepcion explains.

But Concepcion has proven his naysayers and detractors dead wrong.

As the third generation Concepcion in the airconditioning business, Jojo has diligently carried his family’s heritage, taking the joint venture between Concepcion Industries and Carrier Corp., to lead the way as the company became the country’s most trusted provider of innovative cooling solutions.

And despite the success of the company, Concepcion says he remains hands-on in the business.

“I don’t micro manage. You have to know your staff. I’m very easy to relate with. That’s the advantage – people can easily come to me, talk to me and we discuss. but I challenge them. Every time, I try to raise the bar, motivate and challenge people to do best,” Concepcion concludes.

At present, CCAC’s market leadership has been borne out of its strength in offering the market the best cooling solutions and backing this with excellent after sales services. These cooling solutions, according to CCAC, are defined by individual customer needs and are adapted to Philippine weather conditions and use.

By end-2010, CCAC registered a 32-percent growth in its total sales to P4.5 billion. With the overall AC market earning P13.8 billion last year, CCAC’s sales represented 45 percent of the overall share with 250,000 units sold during the period.