Plantersbank SME Speaker Series promotes entrepreneur optimism

MANILA, Philippines - Many more opportunities will present themselves to entrepreneurs once the Philippine economy starts making an upturn. And when this happens, Filipino entrepreneurs must seek to improve and provide better value to customers.

This was the underlying message shared by renowned management consultant and the country’s leading motivational speaker Philippine STAR columnist Francis Kong, who was invited as guest speaker for the Cavite and Metro Manila run of Plantersbank’s SME Speaker Series held at the Tagaytay Country Hotel and Edsa Shangri-la Hotel respectively.

With the theme “Managing the Upturn: Steering your Business on the Road to Recovery”, the speaker series shared valuable management lessons and tools as well as key insights on how entrepreneurs can make their business receptive to change and adapt to the continuously evolving business environment.

Speaking before an SME-packed audience at the “by-invitation” event, Kong encouraged entrepreneurs to expand their knowledge of the business and of the business environment to enable them to ride the tides. He also advised them to keep a sharp eye for emerging areas of consolidation or expansion.

Through the SME Speaker Series, Plantersbank hopes to help boost entrepreneur optimism and help SMEs identify growth opportunities in 2010. “The Filipino entrepreneur’s resilience and ingenuity has always helped our SMEs survive any economic downturn and once again, these qualities stood out and disproved last year’s bleak economic forecast. Businesses are beginning to pick up and were able to adapt and ride the tides of the current economic condition. This is why we find today’s topic very relevant as we seek to steer our businesses to seize the emerging opportunities”, says Plantersbank chairman and president Ambassador Jesus P. Tambunting.

Now on its second year, the SME Speaker Series puts an added dimension to Plantersbank’s portfolio of innovations for enabling entrepreneurs, among them the Small Business Forum, the SME social networking site Bizster.com.ph and the SME Business Park, the country’s first industrial development solely focused on SMEs. Since it began, it has toured key cities nationwide. 

Aside from Globe Business which has been the bank’s constant partner in all the speaker series, Plantersbank also partnered with the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Cavite Inc. (PCCI-Cavite), the Cavite Small and Medium Enterprise Development Corp. (CASMED) for its Cavite run.