Joey Concepcion on how MSMEs can optimise their full potential

As this was happening, several pharmaceutical companies offered to help the government secure vaccines. Philippine procurement laws, however, prohibited the government. AstraZeneca then approached SM’s Tessie Sy Coson and BDO’s Nestor Tan to see if they could partner with the government in a possible workaround. On the recommendation of Tessie, I was looped in, as I perhaps had the most flight time with public-private sector cooperation concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.

In October 2020, I and the private sector embarked on the vaccine procurement initiative which we then called A Dose of Hope (ADOH).

I believe ADOH was a milestone in the public-private sector cooperation during the pandemic. Beyond providing the usual cash or in-kind resources, the business sector took on some of the public health risks by putting its trust in the unknown, thus securing a place for the Philippines in the global vaccine queue.  

We designed ADOH as the world’s first tripartite agreement between the private sector, the pharmaceutical company and the government. The vaccines we bought from the pharma company would all be donated to the government: half would be for the workers and persons recommended by the donors, and the other half would be used at the government’s discretion. This design spread the risk of vaccine procurement and made it manageable for all parties. The Philippines can now buy vaccines directly, and the private sector shares the risk. For the government, it was able to circumvent regulatory roadblocks that prevented the purchase of a non-FDA-approved treatment.

Looking back, Project ARK and A Dose of Hope are proof of what the private sector can contribute to public sector efforts.

Throughout this time, Go Negosyo remained active and even was able to adapt to the times. Our MSME mentoring programs continued and were conducted using social media and online meeting platforms, and before long, as restrictions began to ease, we were able to resume our mentoring roadshow, Mentor Me on Wheels.

What challenges do you see now in your respective industry? How do you intend to help address these challenges?

We need to scale up our MSMEs: help the micro become small, the small become medium, and the medium becomes large. Our advocacy in helping MSMEs rests on three pillars: access to mentorship, access to money and access to markets.

We address this through our various events or programs like Kapatid Mentor Me (KMME), Kapatid Agri Mentor Me Program (KAMMP), and our MSME roadshow, 3M On Wheels, where we invite successful entrepreneurs to mentor aspiring and small entrepreneurs in major urban centres.

Given how the pandemic accelerated e-commerce in the Philippines, we are stepping up our efforts to help MSMEs in their digitalization journey through events and programs like The Digital Shift, Mentoring the Mentors, and Digital Sign-Up Now. I believe the digital economy holds so much potential to help our MSMEs level up.

What can you say to those who’d like to follow in your footsteps?

I tell our entrepreneurs to always look at the bright side. Building a business is always harder when you’re pessimistic. Challenges will always be there, so you will need an optimistic mindset to survive.

Have confidence in yourself. I was once an underdog in the beverages and ice cream business but we were able to beat Coca-Cola, Magnolia and Nestle. There will always be opportunities out there. Where there are problems, there are opportunities.

Entrepreneurship is about nurturing great ideas and building brands. Don’t be intimidated by technology. Social media, for example, is a fantastic tool for building your brand, and it’s where small businesses can be on an even playing field with the big brands.

Who do you look up to for guidance, inspiration or mentorship?

I often view my relationship with my father, Jose “Joecon” Concepcion, Jr. and my uncle, Raul T. “Ronnie” Concepcion, and the relationship between two other great men in my family, my grandfathers Jose Concepcion, Sr. and Salvador Araneta, as one of mentorship.

The common thread that ran through all these men was their deep love for country. Driven by a vision of industrialization for the Philippines, my grandfather eschewed a comfortable retirement and started Concepcion Industries when he was already in his sixties. His vision would be kept alive by Uncle Ronnie, who proved that a Filipino company that makes appliances can compete with international brands.

Don Salvador Araneta was not only a great Filipino industrialist and the pioneer who dared ask why the Philippines didn’t have its own flour milling company, he was also a nationalist and served as cabinet secretary under two presidents.

My father, Joecon, loved organizing people, rallying them to causes as high-minded as free and fair elections, or as mundane as which of his fellow political prisoners would clean the toilets at the detention facility during the Martial Law days. He organized NAMFREL, which to this day is the standard for constructive activism in civil society. In 1971, he became a delegate to the Constitutional Convention.

My uncle Ronnie, meanwhile, would spend time on the ground trying to gain a real-world understanding of the causes he espoused, namely consumer rights and oil price hikes, eventually leading him to found the Consumer Oil Price Watch.

Though all these men—Joecon, Ronnie, Jose, Sr. and Salvador Araneta—were themselves astute businessmen (capitalists, even) they never thought of business as a zero-sum game. It was never about decimating the enemy. It was about building, adapting, advocating, changing, and in Joecon’s very memorable words, about lighting a candle rather than cursing the darkness.

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