Myrna Yao: An untiring advocate of women’s economic empowerment
SINCE she was 10 years old, Myrna Yao wanted to be an entrepreneur. Her early influence was her parents, who were engaged in copra trading in Bicol.
Yao learned the ropes of business at a young age. During her grade school years, she helped her parents man their sari-sari store during her free time. While manning the store, the young Yao noticed lots of women going to their trading center to sell their produce.
“I realized that these wonderful group of women are doing a lot to help their families. At that time, I aspired to help women like them someday so they can have better lives,” she said.
Richwell Trading
IN 1980, Yao and her husband Alberto established Richwell Trading Corp. to distribute Goodwill tires. Being the lady boss of the company, she noticed the skeptical attitude of some of her counterparts in the industry, which was male-dominated at that time. But she wanted to prove the cynics wrong, and she steered Richwell to become the top dealer in the country.
However, the success being enjoyed by the company slowed down when Goodwill started to control the delivery of tires. “We’re already at the peak of our business and this sudden development forced us to open a new business,” Yao recalled.
Here comes Barbie
AS their tire dealership slowed down, Yao started looking for new business opportunities.
This time, Yao wanted to put up a business that focused on children. The result was the introduction of Barbie dolls in the Philippines.
“When I started the Barbie business in the country, I wanted to share the happiness and fun with little girls in the Philippines who don’t have to travel abroad to have their own Barbie doll,” Yao said.
Yao’s business wizardry emerged again as the Barbie business grew 25 percent annually because she decided to offer more products, such as different brands of toys, children’s shoes, baby products, children’s apparel and other seasonal toys. “Our company became one of the top 3 distributors of every product category in the market,” she said.
Just like any other entrepreneur, Yao also experienced the so- called birthing pains in her business. She said these came in the form of challenges in distribution, hiring of the right employees, choosing the right products, and generally growing the business.
Yao also acknowledged that competition and marketing were big challenges they have to hurdle. Nevertheless, perseverance made Richwell perform better and become more successful. “Challenges are sometimes beneficial if you know how to address them,” she said.
Despite being a successful entrepreneur, Yao does not want to rest on her laurels and just relax and do a lot of traveling.
“A lot of my friends kept on asking me why I am still working. I told them I have to think of the people around me, especially my employees who depend on me.”
“I am still thinking how I can give them a better quality of life,” she added.
Yao said Richwell is like a family. She gets a high degree of fulfillment seeing her staff enjoying their work. This is in sync with her management style, which was inspired by the Japanese concept of inclusivity, ownership of brand, teamwork and delegation.
Although she is hands- on when it comes to the business details, Yao sets a standard of reaching their collective goals, with corresponding rewards for good performance.
“I run the business like a family ownership,” she said.
Yao’s childhood dream of empowering women was realized when she was appointed chairperson of the Philippine Commission of Women during the term of President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo. This gave her the chance to launch the Great Women Project, a program partnership between the Philippine Commission of Women and the Canadian government.
“The idea, concept and birth of this program and project started from my idea to empower women to become micro entrepreneurs with the help of different government agencies,” she said. The program, which was funded by the Canadian government, lasted for more than 10 years and helped in the economic empowerment of women.