Mr. Cecilio Pedro, chief executive and president of Lamoiyan Corporation believes that periods of crisis also provide numerous opportunities; it really just depends on how one chooses to view the situation.
Lamoiyan is actually the Cantonese name of Pedro’s grandmother. Born of Filipino-Chinese descent, Mr. Pedro knows what it’s like to be in such a dire situation. For 8 years since 1977, his former company – Aluminum Containers, Inc. – was raking in as the major supplier of aluminum collapsible toothpaste tubes to multinational consumer goods giants Colgate-Palmolive and Philippine Refining Company - now Unilever Philippines.
Hope after aluminum phaseout
But products, especially those peddled to mass consumers, are constantly in a state of evolution. And in 1985, one of these major shifts occurred in the toothpaste segment when both companies junked their aluminum packaging for plastic laminated tubes. Almost in an instant, Aluminum Containers’reason for being ceased.
But Pedro wasn’t about to give up. After all, he still had the equipment, which could still be utilized somehow. “I had to find a business that would make use of my existing facilities,” Pedro recalls. The most logical option he thought was to make his own toothpaste. Still, this proved to be easier said than done.
“Initially, my capital was very small, and you need a lot of resources to compete,” he admits. Pedro thought of forming joint ventures with other companies from abroad, but found the royalties to be too expensive. “I was forced to create my own brand locally,” he says. To accomplish this, he knew he had to find a source or a supplier that could help him with the technical expertise of producing toothpaste. He found one through a friend: a company that was making toothpaste for hotels in Japan who agreed to assist him with the technical know-how.
Branding and pricing
The knowledge may have come from Japan, but Pedro wanted a product that was unmistakably Filipino. He wanted to use local flavors, and he and his team researched and tested close to 200 formulations until they found what they thought to be the most ideal. The whole process took two years, and in 1987 he opened Lamoiyan, better known in the market as the makers of Hapee toothpaste.
To sell Hapee – against well-entrenched foreign brands like Colgate, so strong a brand name that many Filipinos at the time used it almost generically to refer to all kinds of toothpaste – Pedro had to come up with an effective marketing strategy to attract consumers by first pricing his product at around 30 percent lower than the leading brands and by coming up with an effective advertising campaign that had strong recall. The result? Lamoiyan now has the No. 3 toothpaste brand in the Philippines. Lamoiyan is 100% Filipino-owned company.
Most importantly, the confidence gained by the company from this initial success has allowed Lamoiyan to diversify its product line, which now includes Dazz dishwashing paste and liquids, Tenderly fabric enhancer, Fash liquid detergent, and Gumtect, a special gum-formula toothpaste. For his accomplishments, this Business Management graduate from the Ateneo de Manila University has received numerous awards and citations, including the Ten Outstanding Young Men award for business entrepreneurship.
Link up and conquer
After nearly two decades of local success, he is now focusing on bringing his fight against the multinationals to the regional arena. As foreign markets increasingly open up due to globalization and free trade, Pedro notes that “the only way to be competitive in the world is you have to be big.” “Unless you compete globally, you can’t survive the onslaught of the giants,” he warns. Just like when he was put into a corner with the phaseout of aluminum tubing.
“I am now forced by the economic environment to go international,” he says. The first step in the direction, he says, is to begin exporting Lamoiyan’s products through simple distribution agreements. Pedro has identified Vietnam to become his first overseas market. Pedro says the Vietnamese consumer market is still underdeveloped – but with a significant population of around 80 million. Moreover, Vietnam’s economy is growing very fast, he points out. “We’re just going to export first,” Pedro clarifies, adding that he is not yet looking at setting up factories abroad.
This is why Lamoiyan is also set on going public. While Pedro has no definite timetable as yet, he says this initial share offering will happen in the next few years. “That’s another venue to raise money to be able to compete with the giants,” he points out.
Faith and blessings of God
For all the logic and deliberation that went into building Lamoiyan, Pedro acknowledges another important factor to his success: faith. Indeed, Lamoiyan’s factory complex along South Superhighway is imbued with uncharacteristic calm that borders on serenity. Its simple office is far removed from the corporate hurly-burly as employees are constantly reminded of the things that truly matter in life.
Pedro isn’t ashamed to embrace his faith and urges others to be, at the very least, more comfortable in acknowledging the role of God in their lives. “We always put emphasis on the role of the CEO, the COO, the CFO, and the so called framework of technology and human capabilities in moving companies forward,” he says. “You will find few books on CEOs who would tell you that their success is attributed to God and not from their capabilities.”
And this, according to Pedro, is what really set Lamoiyan apart. “We attribute our success to the blessings of God and not divine intervention,” he states, adding that this vision is disseminated among all employees of the company. “It’s very difficult to compete with the multinational companies,” he says. “That’s the bottom line. That’s why you also got to have faith.”
Making profits and helping others
A longtime Christian, Pedro has made Lamoiyan an instrument in helping him spread the Good News. “People who get close to God introduce the gospel to other people,” he notes. As such, his employees attend Bible studies every week and the company, on top of providing the expected personnel benefits, also sees to the spiritual growth of its people. “We are careful in choosing people who in certain ways will be working with Lamoiyan,” he adds. “They have to principally believe in God.” In fact, Lamoiyan’s corporate motto is “To make a difference for the glory of God.”
Apart from his strong spirituality, Pedro has also won the admiration for his work in helping people with disabilities, particularly the hearing-impaired. As chairman of the Deaf Evangelistic Alliance Foundation, Inc., he has helped bring free education to hundreds of dead-mute Filipinos, some of whom are also employed at Lamoiyan. “They’re given priority to work in this company,” Pedro says, adding that his foremen and supervisors can communicate in sign language. 20% of Lamoiyan's workers are deaf-mute.
For Pedro, success really boils down to grabbing opportunities, both in terms of making profits and helping others.
Acknowledgement:
NEGOSYO Book - 50 Joey Concepcion’s Inspiring Entrepreneurial Stories
ABS-CBN Publishing, Philippines
pinoy stories - blog #6
No comments:
Post a Comment