A center for business and society

To make more meaningful Phinma’s marking of its 67th anniversary last November, we announced our latest partnership with the De La Salle University (DLSU) Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business. I share below excerpts from my message announcing the Phinma-DLSU Center for Business and Society.

Today, we celebrate Phinma’s 67th anniversary. It is a time to celebrate, yes, but it is also a time to reflect on what we set to accomplish. We’ve said that our mission is to build a better Philippines and to help make lives better, particularly for the underserved in our society. There is much of which we can certainly be proud, successfully making lives better for families and communities through our various products and services. Today, we are most proud that we have made good quality education accessible to some 150,000 families that otherwise would not be in a position to uplift their lives through education.

Yet our country remains poor, a laggard among our Asean peers, and too many Filipinos still live below the poverty line. And our education system performs worse than even some of those in the poorest countries in the world. Under these circumstances, how does a company like Phinma make good on its aspirations to help build a better country and to make lives better?

Our natural inclination is to blame all on our political leaders. And I would be the first to say that, indeed, there is much reason to complain. And I strongly adhere to the idea that leadership matters. In the post-Marcos years, we have had three presidents whose administrations showed a genuine desire to do what was good for our country, and three who were motivated only by greed for wealth and power. And the impact was manifested in the manner our economy performed, in how Filipinos felt about their country and its prospects, and how the world viewed us.

Yes, leadership matters, but it is we who elect our leaders. If we want good leaders and a better country, we must do our part. And I have come to the view that business enterprises and their leaders have a particular responsibility to do their part in improving the lot of our country and our countrymen, in view of the vast resources in the hands of enterprises, and the positions of influence held by business leaders. This is the context around which we have decided to sponsor at DLSU the Phinma-DLSU Center for Business and Society that will be housed most appropriately at the DLSU Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business.

With an initial seed fund from Phinma, my family’s EMAR Corp., and my own personal contribution, it is our hope that this center will become the country’s foremost advocate for business as a force for good. The center’s aim is to produce business leaders who will embrace the idea that business has a responsibility beyond profits, that business must do its part in bringing about a better Philippines and a better life for Filipinos, that business must be a force for good. A corollary hope is that we will produce business executives who will not be afraid to speak out and take a stand on issues of national importance even if outside the strictly business field, and who will be willing to be active citizens in the pursuit of better leaders for our country.

This the center will do through research and case studies that will enhance the curriculum of the college of business initially at DLSU, but hopefully ultimately reaching other colleges of business as well. The center will also propagate the message of business as a force for good within the business community through publications, conferences, and discussion groups. We hope to work with other existing initiatives and key business organizations that encourage businesses to walk the talk in becoming responsible partners in nation-building and lifting more and more families and communities from poverty—of business going beyond the call of duty and embracing the idea that it takes an all-of-nation approach to address every nation’s biggest challenges.

It is my hope that the center will galvanize the business community to move in this direction with more urgency and help build a better Philippines in 2024 and beyond.

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Ramon R. del Rosario Jr. is chair and CEO of Phinma Corp. and is a board member of Makati Business Club.

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Business Matters is a project of Makati Business Club ([email protected]).