Over lunch, six business leaders talk about how they weathered Covid’s challenges and how they are bracing up for a brighter future. Tatler talks to Zalora’s Paulo Campos III, Wildflour’s Ana de Ocampo, HSBC’s Peter Faulhaber, Shangri-La’s Amit Oberoi, Santos Knight Frank’s Rick Santos and SM’s Steven Tan
Tatler Philippines: Thank you all for being here. Basically, we wanted to start with the challenges you all faced in the past two years. How did you address them and where are you now?
Steven Tan (ST): It was the first time in 62 years that SM closed shop! We opened our first shoe store in 1958 and only in 2020 did we close our malls. For two months. But of course, it depends on you if you’re just going to wait or if you’re going to do something about it.
For us in SM, we accelerated our own e-commerce. We went into omni channels. We had personal shoppers in all our malls, in Metro Manila and in the provinces. Grab was not there yet, particularly in our malls in the provinces. So, we contacted the displaced jeepney and tricycle drivers to help us with the deliveries. They acted as our third-party delivery. This gave them livelihood and at the same time helped our business. In times of crisis, you tend to help each other more; and this is very Filipino. This is the beauty the pandemic brought out.
Paulo Campos III (PC): Online was the only way you could shop for some time so there was really a tremendous acceleration of e-commerce adoption. Our estimate is about five years’ worth of new customer adoption of e-commerce in just the first year of the pandemic. Of course, it presented challenges too. Like, ensuring that we could keep up with the supply chain, logistics, sourcing…and increasing customer expectations.
The biggest trend we saw was that consumers are now buying a wider range of categories. And the amazing growth in online grocery. This behaviour did not exist pre-pandemic. My wife and I alone depend on aggregators for our supply of food. And we think all these trends are here to stay.
Ana de Ocampo (AdO): Our brand was able to pivot by putting up more pillars, like delivery which was zero, pre-pandemic. We also built a pantry where we sell stuff made in our kitchen, including branded consumer products which we will launch soon.
During the pandemic, I also realised that data and information are important. I formed a team of (kinda weird for a restaurant) industrial engineers who give me all the metrics and analytics on which I can base my decisions. And it really helps a lot. Sometimes I can’t function without first checking.
Dining is coming back, but delivery is one pillar that we will continue to strengthen because we see an opportunity here.
Amit Oberoi (AO): This hotel really needs business travel, big events, and the infrastructure around it to be successful. During the pandemic, a lot of effort was made to create products that the people were looking for and do deliveries. But most of our foods are not suitable for travel. So for us, we need people to really come here.
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Peter Faulhaber (PF): For me, one of the many challenges of many industries, including banking, is the wellness/mental health aspect. We spent 2020 locked in our apartments and houses in meetings and Zooms. What used to be a two-minute conversation by the water station in the office easily extended to longer on Zoom with ten other people. People were burning out from working way too much in the past two years. We knew this was not sustainable. So, we tried to limit meeting lengths and the number of attendees. We used other technologies to not have to talk to ten different people. We assessed what support we could provide our employees that will help with everyone’s mental wellness, like providing seminars to manage stress, wellness activities, and professional services they can run to. We also implemented our SIX Focused hours, allowing employees to knock off work early on a Friday or have a no-meeting Friday every month. But we still reached peak Covid, peak Zoom. So we are back in the office now, at 100 per cent office capacity.
Rick Santos (RS): The lockdown for two years was, I guess, most devastating for hotel and tourism, then retail. Offices slowed down. But the beds, meds, and sheds grew. Data centres picked up—that’s the new thing—despite the high cost of power—also, REITs. The law was passed ten years ago, but rules and regulations were implemented just a couple of years ago. So, we saw several big conglomerates launch their REITs.
We’re looking forward to recovering. The hardest-hit sectors should have the most to gain. Retail should be a gainer. And hotel and travel. The island resorts were probably one of the hardest hits because of the problem of getting there. Fortunately, business travel is starting again.
I agree with Peter that all this work from home and Zoom meetings can be draining, and now the most important thing is getting the people back to the office.
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AO: I think most of the people resisting going back to the office is less about getting the Covid, but more about avoiding the commute. But this is not good. At some point, you need to get to know whom you are working with, at the same time be able to have an exchange of ideas.
AdO: In my case, a lot of my staff have kids who are still in school. So, they need to tutor them at home.
TP: Are things getting back to normal? How are you preparing yourself for the change?
AO: Covid is not over. But I don’t think everyone has the mental strength for [another lockdown].
PC: We see this too in our business. Even if there was a major channel shift towards e-commerce in 2020, in 2021 the story was more about the uncertainty of the future. And thus, this macro-economic consumer crunch. Consumers were not spending because they just did not know for how long they will be in this.
However, we see the fear easing tremendously. We see this in the type of products Zalora sells—more discretionary spend, more lifestyle spend, occasion wear.
AO: Do you see people buying for convenience rather than for safety?
PC: Very much so. For the convenience. Now they are spending again and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Now, they’re making those purchases that they have put off. In 2021, our sales plummeted when there was an announcement of a change in alert levels to be stricter. This is not the case anymore, so it’s very promising for us.
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