MAP Management Man of the Year 2018

TO be a great manager, one must be an inspiring leader. This requires a strong commitment to long-term growth, adherence to the highest ethical standards, and the constant pursuit of greatness in a company through shared ideals and goals.

For Fernando Zobel de Ayala—this year’s Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) Management Man of the Year—management excellence also translates to a great willingness to embrace change and constantly innovate. For Zobel, managerial excellence is therefore not a result or an outcome, but a constant ambition and a never-ending challenge.

“While our more established businesses have already carved out identities as leaders in their industries, we constantly push ourselves to innovate and seek new ways to add value to our customers whether through new ways of doing things, new products and services, or completely new business models,” Zobel said.

- ing the businesses we are in or by moving into new industries. We are always searching for potentially disruptive trends and look for ways to take part in the transformation of sectors.”

From the ground up

Zobel graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard in 1982 and went on to take a program in International Management at Insead in France. While still a student, he already took on various jobs during school breaks, including working for a plantation in Mindanao and an energy company in Brazil.

1n 1982, Zobel returned to the Philippines and joined Ayala Corporation. He did not start at the top of the corporate ladder as most people would expect. Instead, he was made to prove his mettle and ability for leadership by training with various subsidiaries and holding junior positions in various Ayala companies.

“I started my career learning about different parts of the Ayala Group,” he recalled. “I then decided to focus on Ayala Land and built my career there for many years. As my father prepared for his retirement, he asked my brother and I to spend more time in the holding company and he invited us to sit on many of the Ayala Group boards. Over time we assumed senior leadership positions in Ayala Corporation.”

Transformative businesses

Fernando Zobel is the President and COO of Ayala Corporation and chairman of various subsidiaries of the company, including Ayala Land and Manila Water.

As chairman of Ayala Land, Zobel is being recognized for “nurturing the strategic transformation” of the company “by improving the commercial and residential landscape of several areas all over the country, and by being a solid proponent of providing greater access to affordable housing to help augment the country’s housing backlog,” said the MAP.

The MAP is also honoring Zobel for “helping steer the Ayala Group to being consistently ranked by the global investor community as among the best in the Philippines for management excellence, corporate governance, sustainability, and people management.”

artistic programs. This is evident in his “support and leadership in nation-building organizations, such as Centex (education), Habitat for Humanity (housing), HERO Foundation (fallen soldiers), Caritas (church), Asia Society (culture) and National Museum of the Philippines (arts).”

Keen eye for art and design

Zobel is an avid fan of modern art and enjoys reading and learning about contemporary art in his spare time. This eye for fresh artistic concepts is evident in the aesthetic appeal of Ayala Land’s estates, which continues to set the bar on how mixed-use developments are designed and constructed in the Philippines.

According to William Higgins, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects who has worked on Ayala Land projects: “Fernando has a sensitive eye for design, the compassion for a green environment, and a focus on the user-friendly nature of Ayala’s buildings, parks and townships. He has also initiated, fostered, and nurtured a keen sense of social and environmental responsibility within the company to develop projects at any scale that not only exhibit a high standard of design, but also give back to the Filipino people places that they enjoy as individuals and families.”

In 2017, Zobel was awarded the Andrea Palladio International Prize as a recognition for his role in developing architecture in the Philippines. The Dedalo Minosse’s Andrea Palladio International Prize is a unique architectural award in that it recognizes the role of the client in the design process. Organized by ALA-Assoarchitetti, the Italian association for professional architects, Dedalo Minosse’s Andrea Palladio International Prize is given to an architect’s client who has distinguished himself through his work in the last 20 years. It was awarded to Zobel de Ayala as part of the awards’ 20th anniversary celebration. The annual awarding ceremony has been held in Vicenza, Italy since 1997.

This well-rounded approach to managerial excellence appears to be the distinguishing mark of Zobel’s leadership, as he continues to bring the Ayala group into the future by integrating development models and fresh multi-stakeholder perspectives into traditional business approaches.

Management Man of the Year

Fernando Zobel de Ayala is the 42nd recipient of the MAP prize, an accolade he now shares with his father, Jaime Zobel, and his brother Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala 2nd, who leads Ayala alongside Fernando.

“I am deeply honored to receive this recognition, and greatly humbled to join the company of such an illustrious group of individuals— many of whom I highly admire and respect, and have had many fond memories with as friends, business partners, and mentors,” said Zobel.

He previously received the Philippine Legion of Honor, Rank of Grand Commander in 2010. A few years later, Zobel and his family were bestowed the IMD-Lombard Odier Global Family Business Award, which recognizes global family businesses that embody exceptionally high standards.