ILOILO City – With many having become respected institutions and stalwarts in the Iloilo business community, family businesses continue to thrive in this city, even as the times signal a growing need to evolve to survive tough market competition.
“80 percent of listed companies in the Philippines are family owned and 76 percent of our graduates from any college will likely work for a family-owned business,” Neil Montesclaros COO and executive director of Premier Family Business Consulting, Inc. told the media during a press conference sponsored by the Iloilo Business Club at Hotel Del Rio on Thursday.
“I think in Iloilo it’s even higher, with around 90 percent or higher of the economy here in Iloilo driven by companies that are family-owned,” continued Montesclaros, noting the wealthy and prominent land-owning families in the region that have run successful businesses.
In a bid to further strengthen relationships of Filipino families in business, Premier’s biennial Family Enterprise Excellence Conference (FEEC) is set to come back with a powerhouse of international and local speakers to share stories and reveal best practices of running family enterprises in the era of millennials, women empowerment, and economic integration – to be held in Cebu City this September.
Family business owners, shareholders, and consultants from different parts of the country are anticipated to join the conference that will be held at the Marco Polo Plaza Cebu on Sept. 28 to 29.
“Ilonggos tend to have the quality na very family-oriented [that’s why many of them thrive here in the city],” Iloilo Business Club executive director Lea Lara told Panay News. “As in all places, the challenges Ilonggo family-owned businesses face are competition and the market forces. But Ilonggo businessmen naman are known to be resilient, as long as they’re making a modest living and can provide for their families and send their kids to good schools, they persevere.”
“We feel this conference can really help Ilonggo businessmen, since enterprises in the city are predominantly family-owned,” Lara added. “Those who have manifested so far are really familiar family names involved with local family business – in the hotel industry and in retail. Not all family businesses can hire private consultants and coaches, but opportunities like this allow them to come up with a game plan, more or less, to grow and evolve their business.”
The two-day event, dubbed as the largest national family business conference in the Philippines, is organized by Premier Family Business Consulting (PFBC), a multi-disciplinary Philippine family business consulting group affiliated with the Family Firm Institute (FFI)-USA.
“We aim to equip families in business with both global and local knowledge in achieving harmony and sustainability amid our fast-changing and challenging business environment,” said PFBC founder and CEO Jonathan Ramos.
Around 500 delegates are expected to attend this year’s conference with the theme, “The Knowledge of Khan (Genghis Khan): Fathoming the Myths and Truths of Family Business”, featuring international speakers namely, Borja Raventos, a family business advisor in Europe who is a 16th generation family business shareholder of one of the oldest family businesses in Spain; Prof. Toshio Goto, one of the leading and pioneering family business consultants in Japan that is also home to many centuries old family businesses in Asia; Prof. Roger King from Harvard University and founder of the Center for Asian Family Business and Entrepreneurship Studies; Jeremy Cheng, a transgenerational entrepreneurship expert from Hong Kong; and the country’s very own Jonathan Yabut, a motivational and leadership expert who has been leading millennials in family business.
Cebu’s Espina-Garcia cousins from the century-old power generation business and Architect Felino Palafox who owns the top Filipino family-owned architectural firm in the world will also be gracing the conference.
“It’s going to be a rare opportunity to gather all these experts under one roof in two days so we hope that families in business would come and join us in the conference,” concluded Ramos./PN
