When business leaders take a break

Four formidable business leaders — Tony Boy Cojuangco, George Yang, Emily Abrera and Charo Santos Concio — recently took a break from their harried professional lives and, together with an impressive list of artists, juxtaposed their prowess in guitar playing, singing and prose and poetry reading one Friday evening at the Bulwagang Gantimpala of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). The side-by-side presentation of leadership concepts with music and dance, aptly called “Counterpoint: Musical Suites For Leaders Of The 20th Century,” was a rare and unusual display of power and glory.

The head honchos gave their all, and without a doubt, were able to hold their own with the country’s premier professional performers. Abrera, chairman emeritus of McCann Worldgroup and chairperson of the CCP, narrated the show and seamlessly put into elegant expressions the parallels between art and leadership, culled from The Universal Principles of Great Art and Their Applications To Leadership and Management, a scholarly piece of literature from Eduardo Morato Jr. Counterpoint is a lesson in leadership set in various art forms. Let me share with you a mixture Morato’s musings and this writer’s appreciation of the show.

Balance And Contrast

In eastern philosophy, there is yin and yang — forces that balance one another. A choreographer is keenly aware of this as he makes dancers cut through space with dazzling speed or embrace the stage in serene stillness. We need yin and yang in the workplace. Leaders counterpoint task and people, goal and process, pressure and nurture, command and creating confidence in others.

The qualities of similarity and disparity, of equilibrium and asymmetry, both in art and leadership, were manifested in the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra’s powerful interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach’s concerto under the baton of conductor laureate Oscar Yatco, complemented by a Philippine Ballet Theater dance routine choreographed by its artistic director, Ronilo Jaynario. Good balance and contrast are features of successful performances, especially those that require sudden changes in musical and dance movements. Indeed, the PPO and PBT recitalists have both.

Harmony

When there is a pleasant gelling of the elements, one experiences peacefulness. Sometimes we stumble into it in nature, oftentimes it finds us as we sit in our favorite chair and a tune wafts in from memory. When life’s elements gel and come together there is harmony. Leaders and guitar players understand this. As fingers on frets become chords and chords become harmonies, so do people flow into organizations then into partnerships and eventually into long-term relationships.

Andrew York’s Lotus Eaters, Willy Cruz’s Bituing Walang Ningning and Ernesto Lecuona’s Andalucia carried out by the Guitar Friends Ensemble of St. Scholastica’s College Guitar Orchestra gave life to the meaning of harmony with the structure, the progression and the rapport of their guitar chords that produced music pleasing to the ear. The group brings together Cojuangco, chairman and CEO of ABC Channel 5, and three other business leaders — Jaddy Vitug, Vince Abella and Greg Yu.

Unity

When was the last time you were held in awe by the blues and amber of the sunset? Wondered about the great artistic hand that paints cloud, water, land in the most brilliant of hues? In leadership, as in great art, there is unity in the message — a wholeness reached as the elements converge in one inspiring piece. Choirmasters and leaders maintain this sense of purpose, a singularity of command and a unity of action.

The unified arpeggios of the Philippine Madrigal Singers as they interpreted Barry Manilow’s One Voice, adding the coalition of their vocal powers to the William Tell Overture, and the amalgamation of lyrics and melody giving soul to Arnel de Pano’s Lipad ng Pangarap dramatized the significance of unity — a popular concept observed by people in many forms. The artists defined it via an unusual and highly improbable combination of sounds which all seem connected to the same theme in the life and thoughts of the enamored audience.

Will

As the actor creates a role, he asks, “What does this character desire? What keeps this character from going after it?” The actor appreciates the tenuous strand that binds the “desiring” and the “willing.” Leaders recognize this tension as well. The great leader, like the artist, has a grand design, a big dream to achieve while at the same time cognizant of limits and potential. The great leader demonstrates supreme will in his work.

Will is diligent purposefulness, the determination to win and the spirit to make people happy and connected. Tenor George Yang, chairman of the Golden Arches Development Corporation, exhibited what “will” truly means when he carried out with gusto Giuseppe Verdi’s La donna e mobile from “Rigoletto,” which segued to the sterling feat of Rachelle Gerodias, the Philippines’ premier soprano singing Estrano … Sempre libera from “La Traviata,” and Libiamo from the same opera in a duet with Yang.

Empathy And Compassion

The consummate artist understands humanity and empathizes with the many moods and foibles, the joy and the pain and expresses these in the most captivating literary phrases, musical passages, and visual compositions. The leader inspires by understanding the needs, awakening the minds and touching the hearts of his people. Who said, “Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch you wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential”?     

The audience genuinely absorbed the true essence of both empathy and compassion in leadership. Thanks for the telenovela medley performed by Della Besa and Ana Maria de Guzman on duo piano, and OPM numbers from pop icon Gary Valenciano who accompanied himself on a grand piano. The tandem act of Besa and de Guzman and Valenciano’s more sober rendition of his hit song Sana’y Maulit Muli and a spiritual ditty Could You Be Messiah? got them connected to appreciative theatergoers. They were seen as sympathetic, concerned and, individually, exhibited a very close understanding of each other’s artistry.

Truth

It is being faithful to one’s self and being one with one. Truth is original creation. The leader who espouses truth is transparent in her words and deeds. She is open to new ideas and freely shares her own. She accepts criticism to improve herself. She deals openly, honestly and selflessly. “The search for the truth can never stop. It cannot be adjourned, it cannot be postponed. It has to be faced, right there, on the spot,” Harold Pinter claimed.

Truth was apparent as ABS-CBN president Charo Santos Concio’s delivery of Pablo Neruda’s poetry meshed with the soothing string quartet of Joseph Esmilla, Gina Medina, Dino Decena and Renato Lucas who recreated Maurice Ravel’s and Alexander Brodin’s Nocturne. Their collective performance was honest, executed in good faith, earnest, and afforded care and respect to their materials.

Universality

Poet and Nobel Prize laureate Pablo Neruda said, “I have often maintained that the best poet is he who prepares our daily bread: the nearest baker who does not imagine himself to be a god. He does his majestic and unpretentious work of kneading the dough, consigning it to the oven, baking it in golden colors and handing us our daily bread as a duty of fellowship.

“And, if the poet succeeds in achieving this simple consciousness in an immense activity, in a simple or complicated structure which constitutes the building of a community, the changing of the conditions which surround mankind, the handing over of mankind’s products: bread, truth, wine dreams.”

The great leader is, at once, the exemplary exception, while, at the same time, the everyday man or the everyday woman.

Universality demands comprehensiveness in range. To be truly universal or world-class one has to cover all or a whole, collectively and without limit or exception. Art and music should be available equitably to all members of a society, and so should active and positive leadership to make a difference. Both have to embrace humankind, affirming or denying what people do or what they say.

The idea of universality came alive with Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, performed by practically the entire cast. The world is a stage, a canvas for our imaginations. It is a looking glass that gives back to us the reflection of our faces. Frown and the world will turn sour upon us. Laugh, and the world will be a jolly and kind companion.

Congratulations to the CCP and thank you for bringing us “Counterpoint,” put together by the combined talents of Chris Millado, Katsch Catoy, Eric Cruz and Alex Cortez — on its 40th anniversary.

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E-mail bong_osorio@abs-cbn.com or bongosorio@yahoo.com for comments, questions or suggestions. Thank you for communicating.