There were no big dreams at first for John L. Gokongwei, Jr.

There was none of the noble intention to help the country, nor the lofty ideal to create jobs. At 13, John L. Gokongwei, Jr. just wanted to survive. After all, his mother and five other siblings were relying on him to see them through the poverty they found themselves in after John Sr. died.

So using the bicycle which he bought on credit, John Jr. would travel everyday to the next town’s marketplace in Cebu to sell goods like soap, candies, candles, etc.

Yet seven decades later, after successfully becoming a trader, a manufacturer, an industrialist, a philanthropist – and most of all, a family man – Mr. John looks back and thinks everything is going according to plan!

“Well, I think everything is on schedule. We have a united family, we have a good business foundation, all our eight businesses are doing very well and they are either number one or number two. Our investment in ASEAN countries ought to be very good,’’ assesses the founder and chairman emeritus of JG Summit Holdings.

So well-mapped out that JG Summit’s businesses are now lording it over their respective segments. Cebu Pacific (CEB), for instance, is now the Philippines’ largest airline, having flown about 2.5 million domestic and international passengers from January to March 2010 alone. The 14-year old airline company owns 51 percent of the market share.

Yet there is no stopping the 83-year old Mr. John from still going to the office everyday, albeit only on a “part-time’’ basis; from still preaching the gospel of hard work and entrepreneurship; and from being a shining guidepost to his six children who each has taken the lead in the conglomerate that also includes publishing, telecommunication, and retail.

Only son Lance, for instance, is president and chief operating officer of JGSHI. Mr. John proudly beams as he emphasizes Lance’s academic feat as a double summa cum laude graduate of Economics and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

So how do you raise a child to become like that, we ask.

“I did good also. I was on top of the class for every year I studied. But Lance did a good job, better than me,’’ Mr. John says.

Mr. John is also proud of the work that the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation (GBF) has been doing in the area of education. A significant endowment made to the Ateneo de Manila University
led to the John Gokongwei School of Management (JGSOM), a regional powerhouse in the field of management education.

GBF has also aggressively donated facilities and scholarships, and supported educational programs to help train our next generation of business and government leaders in schools such as Immaculate Concepcion Academy, Xavier School, De La Salle University, the University of Asia and the Pacific and the University of San Carlos.

In 2007, GBF granted 34 young Filipinos, the first batch of GBF China Scholars, with full year-long scholarship to the prestigious Beijing Language and Culture University, in Beijing, China. These scholars study Mandarin and Chinese culture in the hopes of strengthening the Philippines’ global competitiveness by application of knowledge in their home country. Forty more scholars will be home soon from their studies in Shanghai.

GBF’s other major projects include a Learning and Development Center for skilled graduates in various engineering fields, as well as a multi-media learning center for school children.

But amid the success, there have been constant non-negotiables with Mr. John as a husband and a father. “Making money doesn’t mean you don’t go home. I go home for dinner practically every night even when I was building the business, back when my children were small,’’ he states.

And then there are the Sunday lunches, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., which the entire family has been doing for about 20 years now. “Oh this is when we talk about everything under the sun, politics, chismis. Everything, nothing is sacred!’’ he beams.

In an interview which he rarely gives, John L. Gokongwei, Jr. tells us, among others, why there are no secrets to success, just hard work; why everything must be built brick by brick; and why in his most colorful and admired life, he has chosen to live unafraid. (Ivy Lisa Mendoza)

STUDENTS AND CAMPUSES BULLETIN (SCB): People are inspired by your story, at how you took on the responsibility to take care of your family at a very young age…

JOHN GOKONGWEI, JR. (JG): I started working when I was 14, and I started with nothing.

So you can imagine how hard I had to work to be able to earn my first thousand pesos or so.

But it’s not only how hard you work but how you do your work. Some people work 16 hours but they don’t produce anything. The important thing is to be able to adjust to the conditions, to the changes, like the war. I started during the Japanese occupation when everybody was basically equal. I started learning the hard way and from then on, I just continued. I’m still working until now. I’m 83, but yes, I still work part-time now.

SCB: Part-time for you means how many hours?

JG: Part-time (smiles)! But I travel a lot also because you pick up a lot of things when you travel. Most of my businesses have started from my travels, like the airlines, the snacks, all these beverages.

SCB: They say entrepreneurs can be categorized into three — head, heart, or guts. What kind of an entrepreneur are you?

JG: No, you cannot work on gut feel alone. I read three hours every night, on every subject. You have to know what’s going on, you have to analyze. It’s not just about gut feel. Everybody has gut feel, but some are successful, most are not. You have to learn about the area you’re going into, what it’s all about.

There are four rules that I always follow.

First, is there a market for it. Second, you have to have resources to back it up. Third, you have the manpower and infrastructure.

But most important, you have to have the stomach for it. Can you sleep at night, can you work 12 hours a day? Because there are hundreds of millions of people doing the same thing, some are successful, some are not.

You cannot depend on luck. This is hard work, diligence, feasibility studies… but the most important thing is you go into the right business at the right time. For instance, the fax machine. It’s useless now. You have e-mail now and it’s free, so the fax machine is gone and you still insist on getting into the fax machine business. What is important is going into a business that has growth, and where you can compete.

SCB: You said in one of your speeches and in your book, that entrepreneurship is the way out of poverty.

JG: That’s one way out but it’s not the only way out. Not many people are fit for that kind of work. Most people, even friends I know, really want a nine-to-five job. Entrepreneurship is a very hard but very rewarding job. Even if you’re not successful, it’s rewarding. You have to be on your toes 24 hours a day.

SCB: But how can a poor person even dream of becoming an entrepreneur?

JG: Well, I had zero when I started. I remember I bought a bicycle on credit during the war (laughs). I think it was only R100 and I used it for four years. That’s where I started my business life, on a bicycle.

SCB: People laud you for your foresight in business, that before you start a business
you somehow knew that that really was the next move to take...

JG: But for the first 10 years, I didn’t dream that way. I just moved on from one business to another. But when I started my factory, that’s when I really planned what to do next. So from cornstarch to coffee, to snacks, to textiles, to petrochemicals, to airlines, publishing, telephones. Our airlines are very, very successful, we’re number one now in the Philippines. Our telephone, we’re not number one but we’re number three. But our new telephones, we’re number one, seven out of 10 are subscribers to us.

SCB: Like Cebu Pacific which has paved the way for Filipinos to travel more both locally and internationally.

JG: Everybody travels now. Like the maids, they’re so happy, they can go home for a weekend and come back for nothing.

Before, they would take the ship and would cost them a lot of time and money. There are so many people who thank me ha. They can go to Bangkok, Shanghai, R1 lang ha.

SCB: A few years from now, would budget airlines still be as popular despite the oil crisis?

JG: That’s the trend all over the world. It’s low prices, point to point. No frills. People pay for convenience and reliability, especially in an airline. We’re 96 percent on time. Our record is the best in the Philippines.

That’s why we have now more than 50 percent of the business.

SCB: You really like challenges. Like when you put up Blend 45 Coffee, you went against the giant Nescafe?

JG: As I said, when I started the cornstarch, the next step was consumers. So the biggest item there in the consumer market was coffee. I looked around, its Nestle. So we did and we’re still around. We have Blend 45 and Great Taste.

SCB: Looking back at your hard life when you were younger, is there anything there that you would want to change if you had the power?

JG: I think I had a good life. Although it was hard, I loved the challenge because it was worthwhile. I was in the palengke, I was 15 and wearing short pants. All my competitors were 30, 40 years old, and I could ran faster than them (laughs)! I could work harder.

SIX CHILDREN, 40,000 EMPLOYEES

SCB: Do you encourage young people to start working as early as 14 or 15 just like how you did it?

JG: It depends if they have no father and they have to work for a living, support their brothers and sisters, yes, why not! But if they have the money to go to school, finish your schooling. But during the war, there was no school. You either starve or you work.

But summer jobs, yes. My grandchildren, I let them work. Even my children worked during summer when they were young.

SCB: Did you tell them to work?

JG: They followed me and my wife who was also working. She started the Robinson’s Department Store chain and she gave it to Robina to run. Robina has been doing a good job.

SCB: How did you raise your six children to be so well-grounded whereas you were also busy making money and putting up businesses at the same time?

JG: Making money doesn’t mean you don’t go home. I go home for dinner practically every night. I don’t go out. And every Sunday we meet the whole family, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for about 20 to 30 years now.

SCB: Should they all be present?

JG: (Laughs). They are all there, but sometimes they’re invited by their in-laws.

SCB: What transpires during those Sunday lunches?

JG: Oh we talk about everything under the sun, politics, chismis. Everything, nothing is sacred. Sometimes we discuss about politicians, business people, how the Philippines is doing compared to the rest of the ASEAN countries as we are being left behind now in the ASEAN.

SCB: Lance graduated with a double degree…

JG: Summa cum laude with two degrees in three and a half years.

SCB: So how do you raise a child to be like that?

JG: I did good also (smiles). I was on top of the class for every year I studied. But Lance did a good job, better than me. I couldn’t do it in three and a half years, summa cum laude with two degrees, in Economics and Engineering.

SCB: Were you strict with him?

JG: No. You know when my children were still young, they had allowances. But when they buy books, there’s no limit. They can even buy a thousand dollars worth of books, even from the US. Anything, as long as it were books. So they are very wide readers, like Lisa, Lance and Robina. They read all sorts of books.

SCB: How do you divide which business goes to what child? Like Lisa is publishing...

JG: She went to Columbia University for her masters in Journalism. When she came home, she was assigned to the telephone business. After that, she said, Daddy I don’t like the telephone business. What do you like? I want journalism, a magazine. I said go ahead. She started with I think only P50,000 or P100,000 (laughs).

SCB: But did you have doubts about her establishing a publishing company?

JG: I did not expect it to grow so fast. She did a really good job. Many people have tried that business and many failed. She did it in eight years. She did a good job. We now have 27 titles. She has more titles than all the others combined. Yes! Magazine, that’s a lot of chismis (laughs).

SCB: Do you match their interest with the business they would be assigned to?

JG: No, they just tell me what they like. I don’t force them into anything. I suggest maybe, not even suggest, they feel what they like, they tell me, like Lisa wanted to go into publishing, Robina into retail.

SCB: When they have problems with the business, do they run to you?

JG: No, they run to Lance. Very few things come to me now. Like buying San Miguel, that I’m involved in, that’s P40 billion. But the day-to-day no more. In fact, I have a feeling they don’t want me to intrude anymore (laughs).

SCB: Do you miss being part of that day-to-day business?

JG: The first year, I felt, how come I have nothing to do. But I have found work on my own. I travel a lot now. I love travelling.

SCB: When your children were younger, was there conscious effort on your part to train or groom them to handle any business?

JG: No, just by example I guess, like I love to read. Lance, Lisa, Robina and Marcia, they all love to read. Working hard, they see how hard daddy works and mommy works.

SCB: Who was the first one to show potential in business?

JG: Lance came back when he was 21 years old. He worked for me and he has been working for 22 years. Robina came back from NYU in 1982. Lisa came back in the ‘90s. She worked in Miami for a publishing company and she wanted to stay for one or two more years. But I said, “Come back.” (laughs) And now she’s happy she came back because she has a beautiful son now. The kid, I play with him every night.

SCB: You have 11 grandchildren now?

JG: It’s going to be 12 in August (laughs).

SCB: Do you spoil your grandchildren?

JG: I play with them but I don’t spoil them. I think their parents spoil them.

SCB: But if they asked you for something, do you also do to them what you did with your kids like sky is the limit for books?

JG: I have only two grandchild that can read now, the rest are five years old and under. My grandson is a very good piano player and a very good golfer. But he didn’t top the class so I asked him why. He said because his mommy wants him to play the piano and his father wants him to play golf so he has no time to study!

SCB: You and your wife didn’t try for another boy because you have only one son?

JG: We have five girls and a boy, we tried after Lance but four came out so we stopped. It’s actually a reverse of us siblings, we’re five brothers and one sister, so reverse!

SCB: Did Lance get more privileges than his sisters because he’s the only boy?

JG: Not as a member of the family, but in business, yeah, he’s the head. He built up the airlines himself just like Lisa with publishing with little help from the company.

SCB: Who among your children is more like you in personality, temperament, character?

JG: I think Lance and me have more in common, achievement wise. We push for more excellence in anything we do.

INVESTING IN EDUCATION

SCB: You’re always donating money to schools?

JG: Not always (laughs).

SCB: Well to many schools, like San Carlos in Cebu and Xavier, why this much investment in education?

JG: My first donation was when I was 29 years old. I donated a school in San Carlos in Cebu. That was the start. From then on I’ve been donating to De La Salle, to Ateneo, to UP, ICA, Xavier and then my wife’s school, St. Stephen’s. Then we put up a technical schools for engineers. That’s very successful. We also have 40 scholars who study Mandarin, with all expenses paid for one year. The second batch is coming home next month.

SCB: Why is that so? When we interviewed Lance, he said he himself doesn’t know how to speak Mandarin.

JG: Well I don’t know how to speak Mandarin either. But I can see the future, it’s China in the next 25 years. The power is shifting to the East. It’s going to Japan, Korea, China, Singapore. Imagine the mighty US, borrowing from China, owing China $1 trillion! So we have to be like a ship, we have to move out somewhere else. Our next neighbor is China. Potentially I think most economists think that China will be the No. 1 economic power by year 2014.

SCB: Why didn’t you learn how to speak Mandarin yourself?

JG: I never went to a Chinese school. I studied in Catholic schools all my life. My wife went to a Chinese school that’s why she speaks Mandarin. But my grandchildren, they have tutors at home and they can speak Mandarin. When I went to Fudan University some months ago to visit our scholars, all the students there were foreigners, Americans, English, Germans, Italians, thousands of them!

That’s the best university in China. It’s like the Ateneo. The school is very well run, the dean is very down to earth, very nice. If you stay in China for a year, you’ll see the growth of the industry. You get affected. I did. I get amazed by the progress.

SCB: How are your scholars chosen?

JG: They have six months here first, at the Ateneo Confucius Institute before they are sent abroad. After their course, they have to stay in the country for three years to serve. Out of the 40, we have lawyers, doctors, engineers, politicians, councilors. Quite a variety, from 21 to 27 years old.

SCB: How do the scholars use their knowledge of Mandarin?

JG: If you know Mandarin and you have a job, you can double your salary. We pay double the salary because we can send them to China, to Thailand, to Singapore. If you only know English there, you cannot survive especially in China.

SCB: Do you also employ your scholars after their studies?

JG: That’s not a requirement. We only kept three.

SCB: Why these big investments in education?

JG: That’s one way to save the country, good education for people. Our educational standards are falling, except for some very good schools like Ateneo, La Salle, UP. Some standards, especially our Mathematics and Science are very poor.

SCB: But why mostly to private schools, why not the public schools?

JG: I feel that the priests, like Ateneo and La Salle, will do the job in educating the youth. They have done a good job so far.

UNAFRAID

SCB: Did you know that you have a fan page in Facebook?

JG: (Surprised) Who put it there?

SCB: Your fans...

JG: There must be somebody. Facebook? Not Twitter?

SCB: (Laughs) You use Twitter?

JG: No. I have no time for that.

SCB: You’re also on Wikipedia.

JG: What’s Wikipedia?

SCB: It’s an online encyclopedia.

JG: I’m also there? I know my speeches are in the Internet.

SCB: Do you have a speech writer or do you write yourself?

JG: None, just me and I ask Lisa to look at it...but all the ideas are mine.

SCB: What’s your favorite place?

JG: Shanghai, San Francisco, Hawaii, Geneva. Three months ago I went to this famous ski place in Switzerland where all the rich people go.

SCB: Did you attempt to ski?

JG: No, at my age, my bones, I won’t be able to repair it.

SCB: Were you ever into any sport before?

JG: Half an hour walking, even 45 minutes swimming. I swim every day.

SCB: And you read everyday…

JG: At least two hours before I go to sleep, books, magazines, newspapers.

SCB: What’s the latest book you’ve read?

JG: It’s a very thick book, 600 pages. It’s about the fall of Citibank and all these institutions like Lehman Brothers. I have finished 90 pages. But my wife is reading it also.

SCB: In one of the speeches you delivered, you said “I chose to live my life unafraid even during the times when I was afraid.”

JG: True.

SCB: When were these times that you were afraid and what were you afraid of?

JG: Many times. Even now, you have the things that you are afraid of.

SCB: Like?

JG: Like everything. Anything can happen.

Look at BP (British Petroleum), the second largest oil company in the world.

The stock price went down by half and not even sure if that is enough. They might even become bankrupt. Look at Citibank, from $60 a share, it’s now $4. Look at Bank of America, Lehman Bros. And that’s all in the book I am reading now “Too Big to Fail”. You should read that, it is a very good book. Lance gave it to me. It is like mystery, murder, and murdering companies,
big companies, companies that you thought would survive forever but they are all dead.

SCB: How do you avoid being unafraid amidst all these?

JG: Just shut your brain (laughs). To me, sleeping is the best remedy for everything. That’s why I love sleeping.

SCB: Can you sleep well at night?

JG: I am not gonna sleep well but I love sleeping (laughs).

SCB: How many hours a day do you sleep?

JG: Six hours at night, and lunch at least one hour. If I don’t sleep at lunch, I am dead. I cannot function.

SCB: Outside of business, is there anything or anyone that you are afraid of?

JG: What should I be afraid of outside of business? The only thing that we are all afraid of is death. Everybody dies anyway.

As Christians, we fear that when we die we would go to either heaven or hell. But I don’t believe there’s hell, it’s just to scare us.

SCB: Is there anything or anyone that you fear…like your wife?

JG: We are mutually fearful of each other (laughs).

SCB: Where’s your favorite local destination?

JG: Cebu...

SCB: Siyempre, but besides Cebu?

JG: Boracay.

SCB: So you’re a beach person?

JG: We’re actually building a resort/condo in Cebu, called AmiSa. It will be ready I think by the end of the year. It’s near Shangri-La hotel. We fly daily to Cebu and I think more than 10 flights a day to Caticlan.

SCB: Aside from travelling what else do you do in your spare time?

JG: I work and then what else, I read.

SCB: Do you still play golf?

JG: I stopped playing golf 10 years ago. I played for 25 years but I was a lousy player.

SCB: Do you have time to watch TV?

JG: Yes. When I use the treadmill for half an hour, I watch CNN and BBC, the morning news. I always have that at eight o’ clock.

SCB: What about movies?

JG: Once a week the most. We have 12 cinemas here.

SCB: What was the last movie you saw?

JG: It was last Sunday. What was it? How come I forgot about it already (laughs)?

SCB: (Laughs) Prince of Persia?

JG: Oh yeah, Prince of Persia. It’s fantasy, something you would dream about. There’s another one that is good, it’s about killing and espionage.

HOPE FOR THE COUNTRY

SCB: Did you ever consider working for the government?

JG: (laughs) I was too busy building this institution that I hope will last for sometime.
But you don’t have to work for the government to help the country. We have 40,000 employees and if I worked for the government, I won’t be able to help those 40,000 employees and give them jobs.

SCB: Did you vote?

JG: I voted, yeah.

SCB: Who did you vote for?

JG: It’s already passé now.

SCB: What is your hope for the country this coming administration?

JG: Change. Mr. Aquino’s got good genes, that will come out okay.

SCB: But that is not enough…

JG: Well, nobody is perfect. So if you will rank him from 1 to 10, I think he’s 8 or 9, it is good enough. I think he will do a good job.

SCB: Do you have unsolicited advice for the President-elect?

JG: No. I think he has enough (laughs). He must have like 10 million advisers. I can’t imagine the problem that he has now, even in picking his Cabinet. His Cabinet will show what kind of government he will have.

SCB: In your speech in 2002 at the Ateneo School of Management, you ended your speech by saying that the age of globalization was here. That was eight years ago. What are we in now?

JG: It’s still in that stage but a lot of countries are complaining because they cannot compete in this world. But let’s see what happens. Especially in Europe now and in Eastern Europe, Greece, Portugal, Spain, they have a big problem. The unemployment rate in Spain, for example, is almost 30 percent. We are in the age of globalization; there is no more tariff among the ASEAN countries. The ASEAN is one country now because there is no tariff. The ASEAN signed a treaty with China also with zero tariff so we have a community of one billion, eight hundred million people! But you have to be very efficient.

Otherwise, you are dead because anybody can ship anything.

SCB: Do you think that most Philippine businesses are equipped to handle that?

JG: No. Many are not. Our industry is having problems, we cannot compete anymore.

SCB: So how can entrepreneurs be ready for that? What does it take for them to be prepared?

JG: Well, I mentioned that also in my speech. You have to have a favorable employee-employer relationship because in our country, the labor laws favor the working class. But then, what is the use of laws if nobody will even put up a factory?

Then there’s also the interest rates, which compared to Thailand and Malaysia, are about double or triple. Land prices are 50 percent higher than those in Thailand, in Malaysia or Indonesia. There are now industries that are wiped out. The textile industry has been wiped out. The shoe industry is wiped out. The apparel industry is half gone.

SCB: What’s left?

JG: Even the furniture. Can you imagine we ship furniture from abroad? They really have to bite the bullet. Like in Greece now and Spain, the government decided to cut salaries of all government workers. They are declaring strike everywhere but in the end, they have to give up because the government has no money. Like in General Motors, they were paying people who were retired full salary. That’s why they went bankrupt. Can you imagine General Motors getting bankrupt? But they were bankrupt. We have to be really, really realistic to compete.

SCB: So what direction should Philippine businesses take to compete?

JG: As I said, you really have to be able to compete based on the conditions that are available to you. The labor laws in this country are very good for labor but then for industrialists, they cannot put up industry where they cannot compete.

SCB: Is it more of the government’s concern?

JG: Not only the government but everything combined. And we have very few entrepreneurs who would risk money to put up factories and all that.

SCB: You have achieved a lot but do you still have a dream left unfulfilled?

JG: Well, I think everything is on schedule.

We have a united family, we have a good business foundation, all our eight businesses are doing very well except for petrochemical. All are either number one or number two. Our investment in ASEAN countries ought to be very good. It was suffering for six years and it turned around in the last two years with a big bang, especially last year, it was very good. It’s improving and we are very competitive. The areas that we were not competitive, we have given up like ice cream, textile. Everybody has given up textile because we cannot compete.

SCB: One last question...

JG: So many last questions (laughs).

SCB: (Laughs) What’s your advice to young people in business who want to be successful?

JG: Feet on the ground and dream. Put your feet on the ground first. You have to build it brick by brick, don’t just jump. The ones who jump don’t last long. You have to build the tower brick by brick, it took me 70 years, a very long time.

Interview by RACHEL C. BARAWID, ANGELO G. GARCIA, RONALD S. LIM, INA H. MALIPOT, JASER A. MARASIGAN, and IVY LISA F. MENDOZA.