In the business of carrying on the family’s legacy
Bienvenido “Donnie” Tantoco III disproves an old adage about family businesses not lasting three generations. He and his cousins carry on the legacy and are helping flourish Rustan’s, the retail enterprise their grandparents Bienvenido “Benny” Tantoco Sr. and Gliceria “Glecy” Rustia-Tantoco built in 1952. It was then expanded by the couple’s children to become today’s Rustan Group of Companies.
Donnie is the president of Rustan’s Commercial Corp. that runs the conglomerate’s first and flagship company, Rustan’s Department Store. He’s also a cofounder, as well as the president and chief executive officer, of the mixed specialty store, grocery, and restaurant called Joel’s Place.
He and his wife Crickette Yu-Tantoco have ventured into their own with Nena’s Sanctuary, described as an “omni-channel, lifestyle retail and leisure destination.” They built it as an homage to Donnie’s parents, Rico and Nena Tantoco, who developed the Sta. Elena Golf and Country Estate in the city of Sta. Rosa in Laguna. Nena’s Sanctuary is found inside the sprawling property.
Donnie and Crickette, as chairperson and president respectively, run Nena’s Sanctuary with their three children: twin daughters Camille and Nicole, and son Bienvenido Christian. Camille takes care of the administrative side, while Nicole leads the research and development department. Christian is the creative director, aside from being brand director of Joel’s Place.
Learning from elders
For Christian, being the youngest in the brood is a “definite yay” as he has the unique vantage point of seeing what came before him, while learning from his elders.
“My parents taught me how to think for myself, how to form and cultivate my own values,” he told Lifestyle via email. “My siblings also teach me how to get along with different personalities, dispositions, and points of view.”
Christian may fit the “nepo baby” tag for having close familial connections to a big business, but that doesn’t deter him from blending in with everybody else at work. He started as a trainee at Rustan’s Superstores Inc. right after high school in 2013 and a brief stint as a volunteer in a social enterprise. He then took on a few entry-level positions in various affiliate companies, plus internship at an upscale department store in London, England.
Upon graduation in 2018 from Boston University, he rejoined his clan’s conglomerate, first as business development specialist at the Royal Wiseborn Retailers Inc. and then, in 2020, as head of marketing at Adora.
“To the extent possible, I try to add as much value as I can to whatever is assigned to me,” he said. “I recognize and respect the authorities above me, while trying to add value from my unique vantage point, experiences, and skills.”
Christian’s dad described to us, also via email, how he and his wife see and nurture their youngest: “We are mentoring Christian to recognize his gifts, and use it well for his God-given purpose. We are fascinated by the gifts we see in him.”
Donnie added, “At the end of the day, what we see is a very creative person, that cares deeply about the Filipino culture, artistry, and identity. We see a man that also wants to create businesses that elevate the lives of the bottom and the middle of our population income pyramid.
“We see a man that seeks to empower others by somehow helping create access to training, education, exposure, and, best of all, opportunities. Rather than oligopolies or monopolies, our son wants to create communities that are thriving ecosystems.”
As the parents teach their son to retain his ideals, they also encourage him to be “pragmatic in a persevering way” with strong core values and moral compass.
As coworkers, Donnie noted that he enjoys doing research and development tasks with Christian. “This includes exploring through reading, immersing, and traveling. I love seeing the world and its opportunities through his eyes. He is a great source of learning for me. Most of the start-up concepts that we have done recently were seeded by him.”
Golden rule
Donnie shared some life lessons that he’s learned from his elders that he has passed down to his children. From his late Lolo Benny, he learned to put great value on their employees and encourage them to achieve self-actualization.
He said he guides his son toward this path with some pieces of advice: “Include your team in the assessing our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. And include your team in cocreating a strategy to grow, to survive, flourish, and make a difference. Always leave a place or person better than when you arrived in it.”
Donnie said his own father taught him and his siblings about “meaningful pain and suffering.” It’s about experiencing “rejection, pain, setbacks, opposition, and failure” when taking one’s “purpose path.”
He continued, “My dad taught us ‘short-term pain, long-term gain.’ Resist the temptation to believe that ‘the end justifies the means.’ Every time a person, especially with power, falls for that, he or she damages his or her soul.
“Be pragmatic, be a warrior, take every bull by its horns, but at that end of the day don’t sell out. And if you do sell out once in a while, don’t justify it in your mind and heart.
“When you are suffering or in pain for your purpose, then that pain is meaningful. If it’s meaningful then how can it be suffering, after all?”
He made it clear, though, that he lets his children decide how to accept and interpret those life lessons in their own way. This echoes his wife’s main approach to let their children be true to themselves.
Christian similarly got a lot of life lessons from his dad, his favorites being, “You get 50 points for showing up” and “Humility is the little engine that could.”
He explained that the first life lesson teaches him that consistency and constancy are key to advancing in any venture, pointing out that being present is already half the battle.
Learning humility, he added, leads to optimism, hard work, and perseverance to make it to one’s destination.
Additionally, he’s learned that running a business is about putting people before profits. “My siblings and I try to keep this in mind in helping to run the businesses. Take care of your people and they will take care of your business.”
Father-and-son dynamics
Donnie has observed that he and Christian are leaders who seek to empower: “We think leadership is about serving and not being served. A leader can never abdicate his power, accountability, and role. But he must also orchestrate and organize the work of the team in a way that unites and harnesses their efforts, talent, creativity.”
The difference between them, he pointed out, is the scale and scope of responsibilities that he had in his youth. At that time, Donnie’s grandfather and father entrusted him with huge challenges and enormous resources. Looking back, he said, “Metaphorically, I had to build engines while I was already driving the car at 200 miles per hour.”
Donnie pointed out that while Christian has comparatively less job responsibilities, his son has more to offer. There’s “humility combined with a strong sense of purpose” and then being strong-willed like Crickette.
At the same time, he added, the young man knows how to inspire his team to give their all, to work and contribute from a very high level of commitment and maximum effort, while being assertive, too.
He also loves how his son challenges him, like when they have those talks that “wise” Christian starts by saying, “Dad, I hope you don’t find it disrespectful if I duke it out with you!” It means to challenge Donnie’s thinking, analysis, and the like.
Donnie made it clear, though, that “each of my kids has a quality or character that fascinates me and makes me grateful to be their father.”
