CEBU, Philippines - Entrepreneurial skills like people management are basically useful to chief executives of a city, province or country. The application and implementation of these skills in government service, however, differs from those in private institutions.
This according to businessmen in Cebu.
“There are similarities but there are differences too,” RMN (Radio Mo Nationwide) president Eric Canoy said.
Rey Calooy, president of the Filipino Cebuano Business Club said the principles in running a business and running a country are basically the same if our government leaders practice corporate governance.
“In corporate governance, the chief executive officer or manager is responsible for its shareholders. The same as country governance, the president or local chief is responsible for the taxpayers as stakeholders,” he told The Freeman.
For his part, Prince Warehouse Club Inc. president Robert Go said a businessman can efficiently run a country and is even more efficient in running a province or city.
“Basically, running a big business is no different from running a public office efficiently. The only difference is that in private business, you don’t need politicking, PR and spending money to make people happy,” he said.
Go however said private and public office cannot be compared like black and white.
Tourism Chief Joseph “Ace” Durano, who is also an entrepreneur, said management principles and systems are the same but they have to be applied differently, as private organizations and government organizations are two different settings.
For his part, Golden Prince Hotel president Benny Que said the only difference in management in public and private sector is that a manager of a private company can select his or her people or people while in government, a manager can’t.
“You have to deal with people that you do not (even) know,” he said in a separate interview.
Presidential aspirant Manuel Villar Jr., in a roundtable discussion with The Freeman on Wednesday, said that he is banking on his entrepreneurial skills, especially his managerial ability to eradicate poverty in the country, if and when he gets elected to the presidency this coming national election.
“We are not just poor. We are poorly managed. (And) the reason why we are mismanaged is that we don’t include management skills in the criteria of (the country’s) presidents,” he told editors and reporters of The Freeman.
Businessmen-turned-politicians Efrain Pelaez and Glenn Soco earlier said in separate interviews that transparency and foresight are two of the entrepreneurial qualities they have that they can apply if elected in their respective posts, as Mayor of Lapu-Lapu City and Vice Governor of Cebu.
Meanwhile, Jay Aldeguer, president of Island Souvenirs Inc. said management in both settings is similar in many ways, especially in management of people and running an organization.
La Nueva Pharmacy president Robinson Uy supported Aldeguer’s statement. However, the similarity lies in a way that both managers have to generate revenue.
“But in government, there are many exceptions in implementing something just to please the voters, which may not be good at some point,” he said.
As for exporter Jenifer Cruz, “business is for profit while running a country or town is public service.”