Many people aspire to have personal freedom and financial independence or want to be an entrepreneur but do not have huge capital. The route is typically via trading (buy and sell), opening a small neighborhood store or eatery, getting a franchise kiosk, or becoming a multi-level marketing (MLM) distributor. MLM, also known as network marketing, is a modern direct sales […]

Goldilocks is celebrating its 50th anniversary this 2016. Founded by sisters, Milagros Leelin Yee and Clarita Leelin Go, and their sister-in-law Doris Wilson Leelin, they were baking delicacies in their Makati City apartment to serve doctors, nurses and, eventually, hospital patients. The business grew and led to the opening of the first Goldilocks store, on a humble 70 square meter […]

Vitarich was supplying dressed chicken to the fast food industry when they launched Texas Chicken Restaurant. The latter has since closed in the Philippines. Lamoiyan owner Cecilio Pedro’s previous company was a supplier of aluminum toothpaste tube to the likes of Unilever and Colgate when Happee Toothpaste was eventually launched at a much lower price point. Mega Sardines was launched […]

Poor farm-to-market infrastructure, higher cost of feed products versus neighboring countries, import liberalization, smaller margins, rising operating costs, high bargaining power of major fast food chains and supermarket groups, commoditization – these were major problems that Bounty Agro had to contend with simultaneously a decade ago. External forces were enough to stop any additional investment and perhaps, even divest in […]

I met Joey Concepcion in 1982. I was a 20-year old fresh graduate working in the brand management division of RFM co-owned by his family. He was working there a year ahead of me as promotions manager. I remember hitching a ride with him during some of our Cabuyao plant meetings. I decided to be an entrepreneur in 1985. Tony […]

Happy Skin is a cosmetics brand that was recently awarded by Ayala Malls as the Most Promising Retailer for 2015 and by Watsons as the Most Promising New Cosmetic Brand of the Year for 2015. A former marketing executive of Unilever, its CEO Jacqe Gutierrez shares her insights about entering a highly competitive cosmetics industry in the Philippines. Q1: There […]

Many people want to have their own business but lack the capital. The Duterte government wants to push for more businesses. In fact, the new Secretary of Trade and Industry (DTI) Ramon Lopez wants malls and major chain stores to allocate free space to SMEs to give them a fighting chance to grow. A practical way to be an entrepreneur […]

Mercury Drug, the leading drugstore chain in the Philippines has a free and transferable customer loyalty program known as Suki (regular customers) Card. Launched in 2001, a portion of the amount spent is stored in the customer’s Suki Card for them to buy products in the ‘future’. Ms. Cora Lim, a top executive of Mercury Drug described the Suki Card […]

Stripe allows web developers to embed a web payment service in about five minutes, making it as easy as embedding a YouTube video. Founded by two Irish college dropouts, brothers Patrick and John Collison, who have since moved to Silicon Valley, their early investors include the founders of a competing company, PayPal, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. Stripe is disrupting […]

Josiah Go features the movers and shakers of the business world and writes about marketing, strategy, innovation, execution and entrepreneurship

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