John Gokongwei, Jr.

John Gokongwei, Jr. jumped to the 2nd place on the list of Forbes’ richest people in The Philippines with
a net worth of $5.5 Billion from being 5th place last year with $3.9 Billion.

He was also born in China, but unlike Henry Sy, he came from a wealthy family in Fujian province. John
started his business with a cornstarch plan in the 1950s and now he owns Universal Robina Corporation
which is one of the leading manufacturers of snacks in Southeast Asia and the Robinsons land which is
likewise one of the largest property developers in the country.

John Gokongwei life story is another rags to riches success story of a true Filipino Taipan entrepreneur.
His business empire company known as John Gokongwei Summit Holdings, Inc. or J.G. Summit Holdings,
Inc. for short has been one of the most successful conglomerate in the Philippines today competing with
more solid names such as SM Malls, PAL, and Ayala.

It has business interests in branded consumer foods (Universal Robina Corp.), real estate property
development (Robinson’s Land Corp.), air transportation (Cebu Pacific Air), banking and financial services
(Robinson’s Bank), telecommunications (Sun Cellular and Digitel), petrochemicals (J.G. Summit
Petrochemical Corp.), and United Industrial Corp. of Singapore.

John Gokongwei Story started in 1927 in the Chinese province of Fujian where he was born. Because
they needed to escape the turmoil in China, they migrated to the province of Cebu here in Philippines
where his grandfather Pedro Gotiaoco operated a successful chain of movie houses. Let’s view another
entrepreneur story as we witness Gokongwei’s inspiring story with the various challenges that he faced
delivered as part of his speech to the 20th AD Congress last November 21, 2007.

Before I begin, I want to say please bear with me, an 81-year-old man who just flew in from San
Francisco 36 hours ago and is still suffering from jet lag. However, I hope I will be able to say what you
want to hear…
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Thank you very much for having me here tonight to open the Ad
Congress. I know how important this event is for our marketing and advertising colleagues. My people
get very excited and go into a panic, every other year, at this time.

I would like to talk about my life, entrepreneurship, and globalization. I would like to talk about how we
can become a great nation.

You may wonder how one is connected to the other, but I promise that, as there is truth in advertising,
the connection will come.

I was born to a rich Chinese-Filipino family. I spent my childhood in Cebu where my father owned a chain
of movie houses, including the first air-conditioned one outside Manila. I was the eldest of six children
and lived in a big house in Cebu ‘s ForbesPark. A chauffeur drove me to school everyday as I went to San
Carlos University, then and still one of the country’s top schools. I topped my classes and had many
friends. I would bring them to watch movies for free at my father’s movie houses. When I was 13, my
father died suddenly of complications due to typhoid. Everything I enjoyed vanished instantly. My
father’s empire was built on credit. When he died, we lost everything-our big house, our cars, our
business-to the banks. I felt angry at the world for taking away my father, and for taking away all that I
enjoyed before. When the free movies disappeared, I also lost half my friends.

On the day I had to walk two miles to school for the very first time, I cried to my mother, a widow at 32.
But she said: “You should feel lucky. Some people have no shoes to walk to school. What can you do?
Your father died with 10 centavos in his pocket.” So, what can I do? I worked.

My mother sent my siblings to China where living standards were lower. She and I stayed in Cebu to
work, and we sent them money regularly. My mother sold her jewelry. When that ran out, we sold
roasted peanuts in the backyard of our much-smaller home. When that wasn’t enough, I opened a small
stall in a palengke (market). I chose one among several palengkes a few miles outside the city because
there were fewer goods available for the people there. I woke up at five o’clock every morning for the
long bicycle ride to the palengke with my basket of goods. There, I set up a table about three feet by two
feet in size. I laid out my goods-soap, candles, and thread-and kept selling until everything was bought.
Why these goods? Because these were hard times and this was a poor village, so people wanted and
needed the basics: soap to keep them clean, candles to light the night, and thread to sew their clothes. I
was surrounded by other vendors, all of them much older. Many of them could be my grandparents. And
they knew the ways of the palengke far more than a boy of 15, especially one who had never worked
before. But being young had its advantages. I did not tire as easily, and I moved more quickly. I was also
more aggressive.

After each day, I would make about 20 pesos in profit! There was enough to feed my siblings and still
enough to pour back into the business. The pesos I made in the palengke were the pesos that went into
building the business I have today. After this experience, I told myself, “If I can compete with people so
much older than me, if I can support my whole family at 15, I can do anything!” Looking back, I wonder,
what would have happened if my father had not left my family with nothing? Would I have become the
man I am? Who knows? The important thing to know is that life will always deal us a few bad cards. But
we have to play those cards the best we can. And WE can play to win! This was one lesson I picked up
when I was a teenager. It has been my guiding principle ever since. And I have had 66 years to practice
self-determination. When I wanted something, the best person to depend on was myself. And so I
continued to work.

In 1943, I expanded and began trading goods between Cebu and Manila. From Cebu, I would transport
tires on a small boat called a “batel”. After traveling for five days to Lucena, I would load them into a
truck for the six-hour trip to Manila. I would end up sitting on top of my goods so they would not be
stolen! In Manila, I would then purchase other goods from the earnings I made from the tires, to sell in
Cebu. Then, when World War II ended, I saw the opportunity for trading goods in post-war Philippines. I
was 20 years old. With my brother Henry, I put up Amasia Trading, which imported onions, flour, used
clothing, old newspapers and magazines, and fruits from the United States.

Advertisement

In 1948, my mother and I got my siblings back from China. I also converted a two-story building in Cebu
to serve as our home, office, and warehouse all at the same time. The whole family began helping out
with the business.

In 1957, at age 31, I spotted an opportunity in corn-starch manufacturing. But I was going to compete
with Ludo and Luym, the richest group in Cebu and the biggest cornstarch manufacturers. I borrowed
money to finance the project. The first bank I approached made me wait for two hours, only to refuse
my loan. The second one, China Bank, approved a P500,000-peso clean loan for me. Years later, the
banker who extended that loan, Dr. Albino Sycip said that he saw something special in me. Today, I still
wonder what that was, but I still thank Dr. Sycip to this day. Upon launching our first product, Panda corn
starch, a price war ensued. After the smoke cleared, Universal Corn Products was still left standing. It is
the foundation upon which JG Summit Holdings now stands. Interestingly, the price war also forced the
closure of a third cornstarch company, and one of their chemists was Lucio Tan, who always kids me that
I caused him to lose his job. I always reply that if it were not for me, he will not be one of the richest men
in the Philippines today. When my business grew, and it was time for me to bring in more people- my
family, the professionals, the consultants, more employees- I knew that I had to be there to teach them
what I knew. When dad died at age 34, he did not leave a succession plan. From that, I learned that one
must teach people to take over a business at any time. The values of hard work that I learned from my
father, I taught to my children.

They started doing jobs here and there even when they were still in high school. Six years ago, I
announced my retirement and handed the reins to my youngest brother James and only son Lance. But
my children tease me because I still go to the office every day and make myself useful. I just hired my
first Executive Assistant and moved into a bigger and nicer office. Building a business to the size of JG
Summit was not easy. Many challenges were thrown my way. I could have walked away from them,
keeping the business small, but safe. Instead, I chose to fight. But this did not mean I won each time.

By 1976, at age 50, we had built significant businesses in food products anchored by a branded coffee
called Blend 45, and agro- industrial products under the Robina Farms brand. That year, I faced one of
my biggest challenges, and lost. And my loss was highly publicized, too. But I still believe that this was
one of my defining moments. In that decade, not many business opportunities were available due to the
political and economic environment. Many Filipinos were already sending their money out of the
country. As a Filipino, I felt that our money must be invested here. I decided to purchase shares in San
Miguel, then one of the Philippines’ biggest corporations. By 1976, I had acquired enough shares to sit
on its board. The media called me an upstart. “Who is Gokongwei and why is he doing all those terrible
things to San Miguel?” ran one headline of the day. In another article, I was described as a pygmy going
up against the powers-that- be. The San Miguel board of directors itself even aid for an ad in all the
country’s top newspapers telling the public why I should not be on the board. On the day of reckoning,
shareholders quickly filled up the auditorium to witness the battle. My brother James and I had prepared
for many hours for this debate. We were nervous and excited at the same time. In the end, I did not get
the board seat because of the Supreme Court Ruling. But I was able to prove to others-and to myself-
that I was willing to put up a fight. I succeeded because I overcame my fear, and tried. I believe this
battle helped define who I am today. In a twist to this story, I was invited to sit on the board of Anscor
and San Miguel Hong Kong 5 years later. Lose some, win some. Since then, I’ve become known as a
serious player in the business world, but the challenges haven’t stopped coming. Let me tell you about
the three most recent challenges. In all three, conventional wisdom bet against us. See, we set up
businesses against market Goliaths in very high-capital industries: airline, telecoms, and beverage.
Challenge No. 1: In 1996, we decided to start an airline. At the time, the dominant airline in the country
was PAL, and if you wanted to travel cheaply, you did not fly. You went by sea or by land. However, my
son Lance and I had a vision for Cebu Pacific: We wanted every Filipino to fly. Inspired by the low-cost
carrier models in the United States, we believed that an airline based on the no-frills concept would
work here. No hot meals. No newspaper. Mono-class seating. Operating with a single aircraft type. Faster
turn around time. It all worked, thus enabling Cebu Pacific to pass on savings to the consumer. How did
we do this? By sticking to our philosophy of “low cost, great value.” And we stick to that philosophy to
this day. Cebu Pacific offers incentives. Customers can avail themselves of a tiered pricing scheme, with
promotional seats for as low a P1. The earlier you book, the cheaper your ticket. Cebu Pacific also made
it convenient for passengers by making online booking available. When we started 11 years ago, Cebu
Pacific flew only 360,000 passengers, with 24 daily flights to 3 destinations. This year, we expect to fly
more than five million passengers, with over 120 daily flights to 20 local destinations and 12 Asian cities.
Today, we are the largest in terms of domestic flights, routes and destinations. We also have the
youngest fleet in the region after acquiring new Airbus 319s and 320s. In January, new ATR planes will
arrive. These are smaller planes that can land on smaller air strips like those in Palawan and Caticlan.
Now you don’t have to take a two-hour ride by mini-bus to get to the beach. Largely because of Cebu
Pacific, the average Filipino can now afford to fly. In 2005, 1 out of 12 Filipinos flew within a year. In
2012, by continuing to offer low fares, we hope to reduce that ratio to 1 out of 6. We want to see more
and more Filipinos see their country and the world!

Challenge No. 2: In 2003, we established Digitel Mobile Philippines, Inc. and developed a brand for the
mobile phone business called Sun Cellular. Prior to the launch of the brand, we were actually involved in
a transaction to purchase PLDT shares of the majority shareholder. The question in everyone’s mind was
how we could measure up to the two telecom giants. They were entrenched and we were late by eight
years! PLDT held the landline monopoly for quite a while, and was first in the mobile phone industry.
Globe was a younger company, but it launched digital mobile technology here. But being a late player
had its advantages. We could now build our platform from a broader perspective. We worked with more
advanced technologies and intelligent systems not available ten years ago. We chose our suppliers based
on the most cost-efficient hardware and software. Being a Johnny-come- lately allowed us to create and
launch more innovative products, more quickly. All these provided us with the opportunity to give the
consumers a choice that would rock their world. The concept was simple. We would offer Filipinos to call
and text as much as they want for a fixed monthly fee. For P250 a month, they could get in touch with
anyone within the Sun network at any time. This means great savings of as much as 2/3 of their regular
phone bill! Suddenly, we gained traction. Within one year of its introduction, Sun hit one million
customers. Once again, the paradigm shifts – this time in the telecom industry. Sun’s 24/7 Call and Text
unlimited changed the landscape of mobile- phone usage. Today, we have over 4 million subscribers and
2000 cell sites around the archipelago. In a country where 97% of the market is pre-paid, we believe we
have hit on the right strategy. Sun Cellular is a Johnny-come- lately, but it’s doing all right. It is a third
player, but a significant one, in an industry where Cassandras believed a third player would perish. And
as we have done in the realm of air travel, so have we done in the telecom world: We have changed the
marketplace. In the end, it is all about making life better for the consumer by giving them choices.

Challenge No. 3: In 2004, we launched C2, the green tea drink that would change the face of the local
beverage industry — then, a playground of cola companies. Iced tea was just a sugary brown drink
served bottomless in restaurants. For many years, hardly was there any significant product innovation in
the beverage business. Admittedly, we had little experience in this area. Universal Robina Corporation is
the leader in snack foods but our only background in beverage was instant coffee. Moreover, we would
be entering the playground of huge multinationals. We decided to play anyway. It all began when I was in
China in 2003 and noticed the immense popularity of bottled iced tea. I thought that this product would
have huge potential here. We knew that the Philippines was not a traditional tea-drinking country since
more familiar to consumers were colas in returnable glass bottles. But precisely, this made the market
ready for a different kind of beverage. One that refreshes yet gives the health benefits of green tea. We
positioned it as a “spa” in a bottle. A drink that cools and cleans- thus, C2 was born. C2 immediately
caught on with consumers. When we launched C2 in 2004, we sold 100,000 bottles in the first month.
Three years later, Filipinos drink around 30 million bottles of C2 per month. Indeed, C2 is in a good place.
With Cebu Pacific, Sun Cellular, and C2, the JG Summit team took control of its destiny. And we did so in
industries where old giants had set the rules of the game. It’s not that we did not fear the giants. We
knew we could have been crushed at the word go. So we just made sure we came prepared with great
products and great strategies. We ended up changing the rules of the game instead.

There goes the principle of self-determination, again. I tell you, it works for individuals as it does for
companies. And as I firmly believe, it works for nations. I have always wondered, like many of us, why we
Filipinos have not lived up to our potential. To be a truly great nation, we must also excel as
entrepreneurs before the world. We must create Filipino brands for the global market place.

When we started our own foray outside the Philippines 30 years ago, it wasn’t a walk in the park. We set
up a small factory in Hong Kong to manufacture Jack and Jill potato chips there. Today, we are all over
Asia. We have the number-one-potato- chips brand in Malaysia and Singapore. We are the leading
biscuit manufacturer in Thailand, and a significant player in the candy market in Indonesia. Our Aces
cereal brand is a market leader in many parts of China. C2 is now doing very well in Vietnam, selling over
3 million bottles a month there, after only 6 months in the market. Soon, we will launch C2 in other
South East Asian markets. I am 81 today. But I do not forget the little boy that I was in the palengke in
Cebu. I still believe in family. I still want to make good. I still don’t mind going up against those older and
better than me. I still believe hard work will not fail me. And I still believe in people willing to think the
same way. Through the years, the market place has expanded: between cities, between countries,
between continents. I want to urge you all here to think bigger. Why serve 86 million when you can sell
to four billion Asians? And that’s just to start you off. Because there is still the world beyond Asia. When
you go back to your offices, think of ways to sell and market your products and services to the world.
Create world-class brands. You can if you really tried. I did.

As a boy, I sold peanuts from my backyard. Today, I sell snacks to the world. I want to see other Filipinos
do the same.

Not all greats start from small beginnings. Sometimes, they are born privileged, later to be taken away
from them, but succeeding once again in the future. This is John Gokongwei Jr.’s story.

JG

(Photo grabbed form forbes.com)

You may have heard of Universal Robina Corporation, JG Summit Holdings, Cebu Pacific, and the
Robinsons Corporation. These are all John Gokongwei Jr. ’s fruits of labor which he got from pure
determination to survive.

Gokongwei Jr. was once a scion of a wealthy Filipino-Chinese clan. He was born with a silver spoon—he
was studying in one of Cebu’s premiere schools (San Carlos University), and their family was known to be
one of the richest in Cebu. Unfortunately, one day, all these things he enjoyed were taken away from him
when his father died. The creditor seized their home and cars, their business were gone and suddenly
everything he had had disappeared.
They became flat broke. At 15, Gokongwei Jr. had to work to provide for his family. His mother had to sell
her jewelries. His siblings were sent to China where the cost of living was cheaper. He sold roasted
peanuts and opened up a small stall in the market, where he had to compete with other vendors to sell
his goods. He sold soap, candles, and threads to earn money. Determined as he was, Gokongwei Jr.
knew he had an advantage as he was younger, therefore he used this as a strength in his job.

Picture2

Companies comprised of JG Summit Holdings

It was in 1943 when Gokongwei Jr. began trading goods from Cebu to Manila. When the World War II
ended, he saw this as an opportunity to trade goods in the Philippines. He put up Amasia Trading with
his brother which helped bring back his siblings home to help out with the business. He then went on to
pursue other business ventures: from cornstarch manufacturing, to food production, to purchasing
shares in San Miguel Corporation, the then leading business in the 70s. He had a vision to make every
Filipino fly thus the creation of the low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific, in 2003 he established a mobile
company, in 2004 he introduced C2 beverage, and all that comprise Gokongwei Jr.’s empire, the JG
Summit holdings.

It didn’t always go smoothly—in between these success come failure. He had a hard time to get a loan,
but fortunately one bank trusted him. He started getting recognized at the business scene but before
that he had to fight for a position. His loss and failures were broadcasted. But still he succeeded—and is
now considered as a key player when it comes to the powerful business sector.

Now, John Gokongwei Jr. is the second richest Filipino in 2016, according to Forbes Magazine. Aside
from being a business magnate, he is also a philanthropist. And with all the businesses he owns in the
country, he provides thousands of jobs to people. With his story, he hopes to inspire people to have the
determination to bounce back in life without ever quitting.
 "We need blood and sweat and hard work to make the Philippine economy compete globally, for our
family businesses to be world class in this era of globalization. We must compete not just with rhetoric
and words. We need hard work, perseverance, innovation, courage, and total dedication. We need to
slug it out."

He’s known to be a philanthropist. John Gokongwei, Jr. is a prominent Chinese Filipino businessman with
holdings in air transportation, banking, food manufacturing, petrochemicals, power generation,
publishing, real estate and property development, telecom and textiles. In 2009 Forbes magazine issue,
Gokongwei has a networth of $720 million making him the fifth Philippine richest businessman.The
entrepreneurial career of John Gokongwei, Jr is one of the most cited in Asia. Once a scion of a wealthy
clan, the young Gokongwei overcame the death of his father, the creditor’s seizure of their home, and
the loss of the family business to bounce back from adversity. The shock and humiliation so steeled him
that a bank’s rejection of his loan application failed to dishearten him in the 1950s, when he was starting
his first factory. Nor did his failed attempts to join San Miguel Corporation dim his spirit two decades
later.

He was born August 11, 1926 in the scenic Gulangyu isle across Xiamen City, in the Fujian Province of
South China. But he spent his childhood and first became an entrepreneur in the resource-poor yet
dynamic trading port city of Cebu, where his great- grand father, Pedro Lee Gotiaoco, had risen from
poverty to become one of the wealthiest merchants and leaders of the Chinese business community.
Later, the reversal of fortunes forced the teen-aged John to peddle soap, thread and candles using his
bike. By age 17, he was riding the batel, traveling two to three weeks with products to sell from Cebu to
Lucena and then on to Manila. During World War II, the young Gokongwei also sold diamonds in Cebu as
a result of the trust placed on him by the older Chinese traders, who were impressed with his initiative.

After the war, Gokongwei setup Amasia, a trading firm that imported textile remnants, fruits, used
clothing, and old newspapers and magazines from the U.S., and stocked them on the ground floor of a
two-story apartment, above which Gokongwei’s family lived. Next, he moved to Chinatown in Manila to
start a corn-milling factory producing glucose and cornstarch. The 30-year old entrepreneur lacked
capital, but had good shinyong or “trustworthiness,” so China Bank officials Albino SyCip and Dee K.
Chiong granted him a P500,000 clean loan to start him off. Gokongwei has since moved from one
venture to another, reinvesting his earnings and working for half a century to build a conglomerate.

The Gokongweis’ flagship company had originally focused on “food, clothing and shelter,” but today it
has become the most diversified conglomerate in the Philippines. It controls the biggest snack food
producer, Universal Robina Corporation, the URC branded Consumer Foods Group, and the URC Agro-
Industrial Group. Robinsons Land Corporation, developer of residential and office condominiums,
shopping malls and housing projects, boasts the largest number of hotel rooms (1,140) in the country.
The successful Robinsons malls have built over half a million square meters of total leasing space
nationwide.

Cebu Pacific Air, which entered the market in 1996 on a strategy of offering “low fare, great value,” has
grown to become the second largest domestic carrier in the Philippines.

On March 04, 2003, Gokongwei made a rare appearance to celebrate the launch of Sun Cellular by his
Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc., the largest fixed- wire telephone service provider in Luzon
outside Metro Manila.

Gokongwei paid his dues to philanthropy when he established the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation. In
1999 the foundation put up GBF training Center as an advanced technical school for engineering
graduates; it also launched the Children’s Library, the multi-media libraries at the Robinsons shopping
malls.

John Robinson L. Gokongwei, Jr. was born on August 11, 1926 in Gulangyu, Xiamen, Fujian Province,
China. He is a Chinese Filipino businessman with holdings in telecommunications, financial services,
petrochemicals, power generation, aviation and live stock farming. As of September 2014, Gokongwei is
the fifth richest entrepreneur in the Philippines, with a net worth of over $5 billion, ranking behind only
to Henry Sy, Lucio Tan, Enrique Razon and Andrew Tan.

John Gokongwei was born into a wealthy Cebu-based family, originally from China's Fujian
province. The family fortune was lost when his affluent father died. John was 13 years old at that time.
He initially supported his family by peddling items along the streets of Cebu from his bicycle. From the
age of 17 to 19, he traded using a wooden boat, taking items to Lucena by sea, and thence to Manila by
truck. After the Second World War, he started his own company called Amasia, which imported textile
remnants, fruit, old newspapers, magazines, and used clothing from the US. During this time, he courted
a young girl, Elizabeth, who would later become his wife. In the early 1950, along with his brothers and
sisters who returned from China, he started to import cigarettes and whiskey too.

In 1957, seeing that trading would always have low margins and would always be dependent on
government policies, the family concern entered the era of manufacturing. With a loan of 500,000 pesos
from Dr. Albino Sycip, then chairman of China Bank, and DK Chiong, he started a corn milling plant
producing glucose and corn starch. The company was named Universal corn products and later expanded
into Universal Robina Corporation. San Miguel Corporation was a big customer of theirs.

In 1961, as his company started to launch brands such as Blend 45 (an instant coffee brand, to compete
with Nestle's Nescafe), John returned to school to study and obtain an MBA at the De La Salle University.
A decade later, he underwent a 14 week advanced management program at Harvard.

John is married to Elizabeth and they have six children. All of his children play an important role for his
empire and other enterprises owned by JG Summit Holdings. His son Lance is now the president of JG
Summit Holdings while his brother James is the Chairman Emeritus.

Gokongwei’s rag-to-riches is one of the most inspiring stories everyone can possibly read. According to
him, his motivation comes from his competitiveness. He said competition is good for the soul. He also
gave advice to young entrepreneurs who also want to make it big someday. They have to love their work.
Instead of spending, they have to save money. It is also essential to look for places where there is a
competition. Work hard and the most important ingredient for success is to love work.

John Gokongwei will always be that small boy who used to sell soap and candles in a Cebu market.
Today, he makes the world a better place with his enterprise. He believes that every Filipinos can do the
same. Everyone has their chance to make it big in the entrepreneurial field. He said that even the big
players today started off small.

At present, JG Summit six (6) core businesses: branded consumer, agro-industrial and commodity food
products in Universal Robina Corporation, real estate and hotels in Robinsons Land Corporation and
United Industrial Corporation (Singapore), telecommunications in Digital Telecommunications Phils., Inc.,
petrochemicals in JG Summit Petrochemicals Corporation, air transportation in Cebu Pacific Air, and
financial services in Robinsons Bank.

Robinsons Land Corporation is the real estate arm of the conglomerate and is one of the industry leaders
in the country. It is involved in the development and operation of shopping malls, hotels, mixed-used
properties, residential condominiums, and land and housing developments. To date, Robinsons Land
Corporation has 32 shopping malls, 57 residential buildings, 8 office buildings, 31 housing developments
and 9 hotels all over the country. Robinsons Land Corporation continues to foster communities of
harmony and to build the foundation for the dreams of the Filipino people.

Rags to riches stories are living proof that tons of effort and a relentless pursuit of goals do pay off.

The same goes with familiar riches to rags anecdotes, from which we can learn a lot of lessons.
It’s kind of a mix of both for John Gokongwei, Jr., the founder of business giant JG Summit, and the
Philippines’ second richest man according to Forbes and he once shared his real-life narrative to the
audience of the 20th Ad Congress in 2007.

He began by sharing a little about his household –“a rich Chinese-Filipino family”, he described, that ran
a movie house business in Cebu, where he grew up. He was a youth that lived a well-off life, residing in
an exclusive village, and attending one of the country’s most prestigious schools, the University of San
Carlos.

It was indeed ‘the good life’, until one day.

At 13, Gokongwei lost his father to complications caused by typhoid.

“When he died, we lost everything — our big house, our cars, our business — to the banks. I felt angry at
the world for taking away my father, and for taking away all that I enjoyed before.”

To make ends meet, his brothers and sisters were sent back to China “where the living standards were
lower”, while he and his mother stayed in Cebu.

Adjusting to a whole new lifestyle was no easy feat, but the young Gokongwei did what he had to do —
“I worked”.

After using up the earnings from what was sold of his mother’s jewelry, they ran a stall of roasted
peanuts in their new, smaller home.

He further helped with their income by acquiring a booth in a public market to sell soap, candles, and
thread. Even at a young age, Gokongwei already demonstrated his strong business acumen, having
carefully chosen the market he’d do business, and the goods he would sell.
“I chose one among several palengkes a few miles outside the city because there were fewer goods
available for the people there.”

He did this at the tender age of 15, competing head-to-head with merchandisers much older than him.
“Many of them could be my grandparents,” shared the business magnate.

Business went well for the young businessman — he earned enough profit to support his family, and to
keep his store running. According to him, what he earned back in the day helped build the empire he has
today.

“After this experience, I told myself, “If I can compete with people so much older than me, if I can
support my whole family at 15, I can do anything!”

Gokongwei began to break boundaries and started trading products with Manila-based enterprises in
1943, going on long trips on sea and on land to bring his goods from Cebu.

At 20, together with his brother, he launched Amasia Trading which imported food and items from the
USA after World War II.

Come 1948, he reunited with the rest of his siblings as they returned to the Philippines and became part
of the business.

He then decided to start a cornstarch manufacturing company. Just like any humble beginning, financing
is a challenge. A determined person he is, Gokongwei pursued a bank loan to set up his new venture. The
first bank, however, rejected his request.

It was the second bank that granted him the loan, and since then, the tycoon has always been grateful to
banker Dr. Albino SyCip for the support.
“Years later, the banker who extended that loan, Dr. Albino Sycip said that he saw something special in
me. Today, I still wonder what that was, but I still thank Dr. Sycip to this day.”

Dr. SyCip wasn’t wrong in trusting the businessman as that very company would be very competitive,
and would soon pave the way for more corporations.

According to the magnate, “It is the foundation upon which JG Summit Holdings now stands”.

From there, amidst years of hard work and tough challenges, John Gokongwei was able to build more
businesses, introduce affordable but quality options to consumers, and create more job opportunities for
his countrymen.

Some of his companies include Cebu Pacific, Universal Robina Corporation, Robinsons Land Corporation,
and Summit Media.

Recently, he was recognized as 2017’s Management Man of the Year by the Management Association of
the Philippines.

“To be a truly great nation, we must also excel as entrepreneurs before the world. We must create
Filipino brands for the global marketplace.” – John Gokongwei, Jr