Filipino billionaire Sabin Aboitiz on leading The Great Transformation for business success
Filipino corporate leader Sabin Aboitiz believes that just as animals need to adapt and seek out sustainable habitats and food sources to survive, modern companies must also continually transform themselves to stay ahead of an ever-changing world.
The 57-year-old, CEO of one of the largest businesses in the country, says that when he took the helm of Aboitiz Equity Ventures in 2020, adaptation was at the top of his agenda. As a result, he initiated what he describes as The Great Transformation.
He described the impetus behind his strategy in an exclusive interview with Global South World.
“It's like we're just being in tune with the times, and it's reminding us, that we must transform because we live our lives every day, and sometimes we transform automatically when we're forced to - like the pandemic. People had to do certain things because they were forced to. We don't want to go there. We want to be prepared, right? Let's not be forced to do something. So let's lead. Let's not follow.”
The efforts he is making are so important that he did not consider the word “transformation” sufficient on its own to express the urgency and the scale of the challenge. So, taking inspiration from the Great Migrations of Africa, which saw mass movements across hundreds and thousands of miles, he decided to add a prefix.
“The transformation is something that we need to do so to escalate and make sure that we kind of exaggerate what transformation is needed. We put these two words together,” he said.
And of course, at the heart of The Great Transformation is technology. Aboitiz Equity Ventures’ interests span operations as diverse as Coca-Cola, Mactan airport, UnionBank and its core earnings driver, AboitizPower. Bringing systems and data across those operations can deliver huge benefits to customers in all sectors, Aboitiz believes.
“We can use data to be able to benefit the whole instead of individual companies. So, our clients in food data, for example, can benefit the bank and maybe benefit our clients of Coca Cola who can benefit the bank, too. And our clients of the distribution utilities, for example, again can benefit the food group or the Coca-Cola Group and that data used to be able to have better information on customers so that now creates a premium.”
Aboitiz describes his business as the first Asian Techglomerate and is passionate about its ability to improve the lives of Filipinos, whether through expanding the reach of education or finding solutions to generate cleaner affordable energy.
