Tatang at 100: SM heritage tenant partners share lessons learned from Henry Sy Sr.
Strive to be different from your competitors. Be hyper-focused on your core business. Pay close attention to your customers’ changing needs. Don’t be discouraged by challenges that will inevitably come your way.
These are just some of the invaluable pieces of business advice that the founders and top management behind some of the country’s leading brands learned, not from school nor from books, but rather from SM Group founder Henry Sy Sr. himself.
Sy, fondly called Tatang, shared these nuggets of wisdom through direct conversations with the founders themselves as they started out with him in his first major malls, from SM City North Edsa in Metro Manila to SM City Cebu and SM City Iloilo in the Visayas. These lessons have been passed on to the new generation of entrepreneurs who consider Henry Sy a legend.
Take care of the customer
Robert Palomo of Great Image, one of the biggest names in the local photography and digital imaging industry, shared that Tatang used to tell him to “engage the customers,” stressing that retail is not just about having quality goods but about giving clients an emotional connection to the brand.
“You have to engage the customers, you have to feel the senses of the customers,” Palomo recalled Tatang telling him back in 1986 during one of his frequent rounds of the SM City North Edsa’s outlets.
Stay hyperfocused
Enrico Dee, founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Foodee Global Concepts that started with Chin’s Express but has since expanded to include Tim Ho Wan, Mesa, Kam’s Roast, and Hawker Chan, is still guided by Tatang’s advice for him to devote his energy and resources to growing his chosen line of work, which was food.
Staying focused on the business was Tatang’s secret to success, shared Dee, and he is applying this to his own group that continues to flourish and expand.
Today, some 85 percent of his 190 outlets across different brands are in SM Supermalls, a reflection of the close relationship that his group has established over decades.
Lead by example
Tatang also made an impact by leading through example.
For Cafe Laguna founder Julita Urbina, what most impressed her about Tatang was how he and his wife Felicidad did not call attention to themselves and comfortably mingled with the staff members and the retail-goers who went to the opening of SM City Cebu, which helped transform Cebu’s retail sector.
“They are so simple and down to earth. I asked myself then, ganyan ba ang may-ari ng SM? I had another picture in my mind. But I was so happy na ang bait nila. They are very warm to even simple merchants like us,” she said.
The 81-year-old also admired how the SM Group continued to flourish and indeed reach new heights even after Tatang’s passing, and she took this successful transition as an inspiration for how she and her own family will go through their own as the Laguna Group welcomes the entry of new blood.
“Ang ganda nilang model (They are a good model),” shared Urbina, who has transferred the reins of the business that now includes 11 outlets across various brands, including Lemon Grass and U Kitchen, to her children.
Innovate and accept change
Brothers Steven and Christopher Kokseng, part of the second generation now handling Harbour City Dimsum House Co. Inc., one of Cebu’s beloved homegrown brands, share Urbina’s sentiment that Tatang and his children, who helped expand SM’s reach to include banking, property development, and infrastructure development, are the paragon of humility.
Christopher shared that the example they have set of constantly changing while staying true to its core is what they learnt from the Sy family. This they apply to their restaurants having food that is always lami (delicious), paspas (served quickly), and barato (cheap), but injecting new menu items that answer the needs of the new generations.
“We see what they are doing, that it is not enough to just grow the business. We have to innovate. We notice that even with so many malls, they still do something differently. If SM is innovating, then we as tenants need to innovate, too,” said Christopher.
Next generation: Learning from the past
Like the Kokseng brothers, Mars Florete III, Executive Vice President – Finance of the F&C Group of Companies and CEO of Sbarro Philippines, did not get the chance to learn directly from Tatang, being part of the next generation of leaders of the family-led jewelry company with some 73 stores, of which 53 are in the SM network.
But his father did and would always talk to his children about how much he admired Tatang, who would have turned 100 on Oct. 15.
“My father always considered Tatang to be among his business idols and he would always talk about his accomplishments.” Florete said.
“They had many similarities, and my father would always remind us that even if you become successful, always be humble,” he added.
Gina Sarabia-Espinosa, president of Sarabia Jewelry, which has its flagship store at SM City Iloilo, will certainly agree with that view and the principle set by Tatang that it was vital to the continuing success of a company to both change and at the same time remain the same.
That means staying true to the corporate values of product excellence and superior customer service in their designs and product quality, the same way that the SM Group has continued to open up to new ideas and services.
Sarabia-Espinosa considers herself fortunate for having learned directly from Tatang, who used to visit Iloilo quite often. SM Delgado was the first department store outside Metro Manila, after all, evidence of how fond he was of the progressive province.
Felix Gorriceta III, president of Karat World who also comes from the renowned Sarabia family of Iloilo, likewise learned the value of innovation from the SM group.
“SM makes us innovate. If you don’t, you’ll be left behind. You have to push yourself and adapt to new ways of thinking, of having a global perspective,” shared Gorriceta, whose family has been in the jewelry business since 1974, starting in Iloilo City before venturing across the Philippines with the help of SM.
“They gave our brand the chance to prove our worth,” said Gorriceta. “From a small player from the province, they gave us a chance to try our luck in Metro Manila and across the country. If not for them, we could have just settled in Iloilo.”
Indeed, it was SM that gave these brands a chance to sparkle and become household names. SM Supermalls, founded by Tatang Henry Sy, continues to be a home for thousands of brands that thrive and grow, guided by the values laid down by a man who boldly took one brave step to put up a simple shoe store in 1958 and since then, established an enduring legacy.
