Boey Cruz: A cut above the rest
February 12, 2003 | 12:00am
His name is Joey but with a "B." He is the vice president of Innovations and Concepts, the holding company of Franck Provost hair salons. The parlors are family-owned businesses and getting it right is the responsibility of 30-year-old Boey Cruz. As owner and manager of these luxury beauty parlors, our six-foot-tall bachelor reports for work at 8 a.m. and stays on until 8 p.m., six days a week. His parlors specialize in cutting and styling hair. While the Franck Provost salons in Makati and Alabang are known for the attention they give to their pampered customers, his Fabio Salsa salon in Rockwell was designed to give faster haircuts.
Boey Cruz is comfortable with himself. It is his job to look at sales books, iron out problems with their 95-member staff, authorize purchases for the salon and be physically present. Strengthened by the strong family ties that he has, his business partners are his mother and sister. His work continues at home where, with his sister Trisha and mom Baby Cruz, Boey plans how to add services for their customers.
A graduate of AB Humanities at Ateneo, Boey reflects on how he frightens people with his size, the joys of sandwiches and going home.
Name an embarrassing moment at work?
A stylist comes to me and says he has a problem with a customer. After 10 minutes of my talking to "the" customer, the stylist tells me that it’s the other customer.
On what occasion do you lie?
In my business, you can’t tell people that they don’t look good.
Which living person do you admire most?
The group of people in the service world who cater to so many clients. These workers have to adjust instantly to each customer’s moods.
What is your passion?
The family business which can’t be left in the office. My mom is a perfectionist so we talk about it at home continuously. What services can we add? How to keep the staff happy?
What is your most fervent wish?
For Filipinos to develop a sense of national identity.
What sports/hobbies do you like most?
Basketball once a week in Urdaneta park. Shooting on the firing range.
What film influenced your life?
I was still so young when I watched To Kill A Mockingbird. The local people avoided the white man who defended a black man falsely accused of rape. Doing the right thing is not always easy.
Which hero of fiction can you most identify with?
Odysseus of The Odyssey by Homer. I read the book in both English and Latin.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
My pride.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Dishonesty, which includes keeping someone from knowing the truth.
What do you dislike most about your appearance?
My size scares off a lot of people.
What is your current state of mind?
Occupied with the business side of the salon.
If you had the chance to change something in your life, what would that be?
I have been to so many funerals and I wish that I could have said what I did not get a chance to say to some of those who have died.
What is your greatest extravagance?
My chronograph watches.
If you could date any celebrity in the world, who would that be?
I wouldn’t. I don’t like the attention.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
To wake up every morning thinking that this will this be the day and I will have no problems.
What words or phrases do you overuse?
What is it now?
What is the quality you most like in a man?
His education.
What is the first thing you look for when you meet a woman?
Breeding. How she carries herself, the clothes that she wears, the things she says.
What is your favorite journey?
Going home, knowing I have done what I was supposed to do.
Name a moment that brings back happy memories.
I really had fun during my whole childhood with my cousin Aaron. My sister Tisha had a motherly instinct and we would tell her to make us a sandwich. When she tired of making sandwiches, she would ask us to change the game. We would then play hospital; she would be a nurse and make us a sandwich. Let’s play airplane, she was the stewardess. Make a sandwich.
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