‘Focus on core business game changers’

CEBU, Philippines —  Ayala Corporation top honcho Fernando Zobel de Ayala called on Cebuano businessmen to make a serious stance in shifting business focus to three core game changing pillars—digitalization, sustainability and collaboration.

In his keynote speech during the Mandaue Business Month (CBM 2022) Business Summit, held Thursday August 18, 2022, Zobel emphasized the need for businesses to reset and re-think in the way “we do business” as the impact of COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way the world moves, thereby affecting everyone’s decision making process, much more for businesses.

Zobel’s speech was delivered virtually by his nephew Jaime Alfonso Zobel de Ayala who heads the Business Development and Innovation Units of Ayala Corporation.

He emphasized the critical role of adapting full digitalization across businesses, regardless of size in order to accelerate growth in the new landscape.

Zobel mentioned the group’s massive shift and its subsidiary companies like Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Gcash, was able to achieved growth in the middle of the pandemic, at the same time assisting people in their journey to digital-driven lifestyle.

BPI for instance, gained a total of 290,000 new digital clients from May 2021 to May 2022. Gcash, on the other hand, logged P3.8 Trillion gross transactions in 2021.

Likewise, Zobel emphasized the importance of environmental sustainability in every business organization.

“Our persistent experiences in natural calamities have shown us the urgency with which we must respond to the ongoing climate crisis and our shared responsibility to protect and safeguard our planet and people. It has become increasingly clear to us that the way forward is not business as usual,” he pointed out.

While big companies like the Ayala Group have their own commitments to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions in the next few years, but the Micro-small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) may find it hard to prioritize “given the more immediate needs of the business.”

Thus, Ayala Group is opening its doors to partner with small and medium businesses for efforts in finding practical and collaborative solutions for the environmental challenges.

Learning from the two-year challenge brought about by the pandemic, Zobel highlighted the power of collaboration, working hand-in-hand in unity with the government and “with each other in our national COVID-19 recovery response. This story of collaboration brought the Philippines to today’s steady recovery, he said.

“I believe that this moment of collaboration will only intensify and become the norm moving forward,” Zobel noted adding that as the Philippines recovers to pre-pandemic dynamism MSMEs and regional groups such as MCCI will play a critical role.

Zobel emphasized Ayala Group’s willingness to support MSMEs, and members of the MCCI, saying “If there are any opportunities for the Ayala Group to be more helpful and relevant for MCCI and its members please let us know. We are happy to have a conversation on how we can help.”

The Mandaue Business Summit 2022 dubbed “Ushering The Great Reset; Riding the Tailwinds of Change” held at Marco Polo Plaza Cebu on August 18, 2022 also featured power speakers such as Asian Development Bank (ADB) senior economist Ifran Ahmad Qureshi, Union Bank senior executive vice president Ana Maria Aboitiz-Delgado, Ateneo Institute for the Digital Enterprise director Mario R. Domingo, among others.