The Gokongwei way

Yes, the Gokongweis always do things their way. 

Hard work, a sense of humor and humility are distinct Gokongwei family traits. And despite their wealth, the Gokongweis are also cost-conscious or matipid, or as Robina Gokongwei-Pe likes to say, kuripot.

When I first met the young Robina in the mid 1980s — then working as a uniformed salesperson at the family’s Robinsons Department Store — her only accessory was a necessary steel brace for her scoliosis. And a brown Cardam’s handbag made in Marikina by the Samson clan of shoemakers. “I have only two bags, and the other is black, also by Cardam’s. I buy my clothes on installment from an aunt who supplies dresses to Robinsons,” she said then.

It was only after her marriage to lawyer Perry Pe that Robina allowed herself the luxury of Prada shoes and bags (gifts from Perry) and traveling business class on their honeymoon.

Me and Mrs. John: “She’s the one I want to marry,” said John when he first met Elizabeth, who went to the US to study medical technology. He would visit her regularly. Now Mrs. John plays the role not of a med tech, but a dietician of sorts as she watches what Mr. John eats. His favorites are lechon and pata tim. “Without these, I feel like I’m eating like a poor man.”

Yes, times are a-changing. Last Thursday night, when the family celebrated patriarch John Gokongwei Jr.’s 85th birthday at the fully-packed ballroom of Crowne Plaza Galleria in Ortigas, Robina, now wearing a glamorous red Vic Barba gown, said in her speech: “Thank you for being a modern dad. Thank you for giving me $2,000 pabaon for our honeymoon to Europe. We were able to make Justin (the couple’s eldest son) there because we stayed in a nice five-star hotel.”

And for this celebration, it wasn’t at all a kuripot dinner party, what with a seven-course feast including lechon, panzanella with smoked tuna, seafood Florentine soup, US beef tenderloin in red wine port sauce, sea bass Florentine, hazelnut mousse, creme brulee with caramelized strawberries and all the fine wines you wanted.

“Looks like our dad is getting soft on cost management,” declared Lance Gokongwei in his speech. That evening, John was in a very generous mood — especially for his favorite advocacy, which is providing free education for bright but underprivileged students. Having given away P200 million to Ateneo for its John Gokongwei School of Management, John now donated P250 million to De La Salle University’s College of Engineering.

“We are proud supporters of your generosity,” Lance stated, adding that since John has been giving away so much from the family coffers, “it looks like Hannah and Jacob (his own kids) will have to be scholars.”

“Thank you for giving us good homes, and for being an inspiration and a good example to us,” said Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng in her speech.

Home for the Gokongwei daughters and their families is a cozy unit for each in a building where their parents stay, the better for family bonding especially on weekends when John and his wife Elizabeth enjoy the company of their children and grandchildren. 

And that brings us to another Gokongwei trait. Lance said that there are two things that his father values most: a resilient business, and a loving family, maintaining and growing each without sacrificing either one.

This clan of entrepreneurs that provides jobs to 50,000 families and has built a business empire that includes food manufacturing, department stores and malls, banks, condominiums, hotels, an airline and magazine publishing have only one source of happiness: family.

Dancing and singing for grandpa: The Gokongwei grandchildren Justin,Therese, Julia, Hannah, Josh, Jed, Jacob, Ella, Noah, Jack, Joan and Luke perform their birthday gift onstage.

“When we were young, our father would tell us stories and encourage us to read books,” Robina and Lisa would often say. “Our gifts or rewards from him were always books.”

According to Robina, in this family of storytellers, “it is the men who are more mahilig sa chismis.”

To which Lance counters: “I only like listening to rumors; I don’t create them.”

Obviously it pays to listen. The Gokongwei men certainly have their eyes and ears keenly attuned to the needs of the times. How else to explain the fact that it was John and Lance Gokongwei who revolutionized the tourism industry in the Philippines by spearheading budget travel for every Juan through Cebu Pacific Air and introducing nice but affordable Go Hotels?

It was an evening of love and laughter from each storyteller, but the best storyteller of the night was the celebrant, John Gokongwei, who almost made us cry when he told the story of how he started as an entrepreneur. “When I was young, my father owned many movie theaters in Cebu, and my friends and I could watch all the movies we wanted for free. But then he died when I was 13 years old, and we found out that he had a lot of unpaid debts.”

Soon enough, their movie theaters and their nice house with a garden and a fountain where they lived for 12 years were confiscated by the people to whom they owed money. “After my father died, my friends and I still tried sneaking in to the theaters that my father owned, but the new owners found out and drove us out.”

The burden fell on John to help his mother and his siblings survive. “The first thing I did was buy a bicycle,” said John who used this to buy and sell wares — from peanuts to soap and candles — and he earned P30 to P40 a day. Eventually, he moved his buy-and-sell little business to Manila where people had more purchasing power and where he became a bigger entrepreneur.

“When times got tough, I got tougher,” narrated John. “After the war, I saw that companies like Ayala and San Miguel were so big — and I asked myself: My God, how did they become so big?”

Through hard work, discipline, values and putting one’s feet on the ground — these, Lance cited, were what made his dad Big John. The very same things that now inspire the children to carry on.

“The only problems that may face anyone in business are complacency and a sense of entitlement,” said Lance.

That will surely never happen. That is not the Gokongwei way.