MANNY V. PANGILINAN

BUSINESS LEADER

WAIT AND SEE, WAIT AND REAP.

Manny V. Pangilinan, or MVP, is arguably the most highly-regarded Filipino businessman today. He juggles leadership of First Pacific Group, the Indonesian company that started it all; telecommunication giants PLDT and Smart Communications; Maynilad Water Services and Meralco, among many other philanthropic ventures.

Those who have worked directly with MVP, describe him as quiet but extremely sharp. He knows what questions to ask and is very good-natured, exchanging wisecracks with his team to keep the atmosphere upbeat.

Pangilinan’s key to success has been an uncanny knack for seeing gems in the rough, buying them, installing good management and then selling them at 10- to 20-times its original value.

MVP has revealed in his own PLDT pro-SME campaign story that his biggest value is honesty— both mental and financial. The former is an abstinence from self-dealing and the latter is being transparent to stakeholders. Probably the biggest stakeholder of MVP’s career is the youth, and he has already invested a great deal into improving the standard of Ateneo de Manila University.

While many pundits call him shrewd, the true measure of MVP’s success is in the pudding— his assets remain dominant leaders in their industries. While there were initial grumblings about his choosing PLDT over shinier investments in Hong Kong back in the early 2000s, MVP is quietly reaping the rewards today.

His story continues to amaze not just because of its social-strata-defying slant but because of the underlying Filipino morale of it all—that when you study and work harder than everyone else, you will get to where you need to go.

In a Philippine Star interview with Wilson LeeFlores, MVP shares, “We must learn how to play local, but think and earn global.” Thankfully for the rest of the Philippines, he continues to show the way.—MY