60 years in the making

My father, Ruben Sy Su founded SYSU and Company in 1948, a trading company which primarily imported grocery items from the United States. The first office-warehouse facility was located in bustling Chinatown, which was at that time the very heart of trade and commerce in the Philippines.

At a tender age of 11, instead of letting me spend Saturdays gallivanting with friends, my father gave me my first job — to swat away flies that flew in when office doors were swung open and were bothersome to the office staff. It was, needless to say, a mundane task; but I did it with enthusiasm, each time trying to “break the record” of the number of flies I had swatted the previous week. This weekly experience helped me realize that although not all jobs are glamorous, each and every position in a company contributes to its total success. In reaching your goals, you have to be willing to get down and dirty.  Success does not come by seeking “glamour” positions.  You succeed by putting your best into whatever job you have, seeing each and every experience as an opportunity to learn and grow.

As a teenager, I would spend summers working as my father’s collector. I made it a habit to always count my collection before issuing receipts. However, on one occasion, an old customer paid me a sizeable sum in loose change — P0.05 centavos, P0.10 centavos, and P0.20 centavos — and smirked as if to say, let’s see if you’ll have the patience to count that! Much to his surprise, I positioned myself in an obscure corner of his store and spent the next hour or so counting the collection.  I cannot remember now whether the amount he paid was correct or not but what I did take from that experience is that there are no shortcuts.  Success takes hard work and patience. You cannot expect to succeed if you do not have the patience and will to strive for your goals.

On another day, I had with me a particularly big collection. Afraid of getting mugged, I put all the cash in a straw bayong and put fresh vegetables on top to disguise my stash. From here I learned the importance of creativity in solving problems. There is a solution to every problem — you just have to learn to think outside the box. Today, this also means being open to new ways of doing business.  It means changing with the times and keeping up with the latest trends. It means having the flexibility to apply the wisdom of past experiences to the developments of the present day.

By the mid-1970’s, SYSU and Company went into nationwide distribution. By this time I had already finished school. I first worked as an inventory clerk and as an invoice typist before I was promoted as salesman. The sales position enabled me to travel to many different provinces across the Philippines and to meet all sorts of characters along the way. This helped hone my people skills and enabled me to adapt to different personalities and cultures. By interacting with all these people, I came to understand the importance of integrity and sincerity in doing business. Always think for the long term and not only in making one-shot deals. This lesson I have carried on until today. Whether it is in dealing with small mom and pop stores or the heads of multi-national corporations, one must always be sincere and practice integrity.  Though this may sometimes equate to lesser profit, ones good name and good relationship with others far outweigh any perceived loss.

By 1979, my father incorporated the company and called it, as it is known today, SYSU International, Inc. In the 1980’s, SYSU International expanded its operations to manufacturing of McCormick spices and toll packing of products such as Del Monte Catsup and Vinegar. The business was evolving and with it, as to be expected, came trials of all kinds — trials that, at times, seemed impossible to overcome. However, as in life, I learned that all trials actually present opportunities for learning, growth, and improvement. Trials are battle scars that, once overcome, give us wisdom, inner strength, and confidence. Most of all, trials remind us that no matter how excellent we strive to be, we are never fully in control. Instead, it is God who controls all things and perhaps the whole purpose of us having to go thru trials is for us to learn to really trust and depend upon Him.

Today, SYSU International Inc. is the country’s leading distributor of premium food brands.  It is also manufacturer of Clara Ole, SYSU’s house brand. A line of tomato-based sauces, jams and jellies, dips and dressings, rice mixes, and bbq marinades, Clara Ole’ is a 100 percent Filipino brand that has been growing exponentially and gaining a significant chunk of the market — a feat close to my heart because it is a brand named after my beloved mother, Mrs. Clara Sy. SYSU also provides toll packing services for several world renowned brands and manufactures proprietary products for key players in the food service industry.

SYSU has indeed come a long way. In fact, it has been 60 years in the making.  Through all her growth and developments, the many people who have come in and out of her doors, and the ups and downs she has gone through, one thing remains as her constant bulwark and guide — the values my father taught me by letting me experience life.  These values are the very same values my siblings and I hope to instill in the family’s third generation as we prepare them to take SYSU to greater heights in the years to come.