In January this year, San Miguel Corporation drastically recast its vision and mission statements.
The new SMC vision says:
“We are San Miguel.”
“Guided by a strong sense of social, environmental, and economic responsibility, our businesses will lead efforts to deliver on national goals, setting the pace of progress in the Philippines.”
Right away, the 128-year old business behemoth declares that it takes on purposefully the three major responsibilities any company worth its salt should have – social responsibility, environmental responsibility, and economic responsibility.
In 2003, SMC defined its vision as:
“San Miguel will be among the largest food, beverage and packaging companies in the Asia-Pacific. We will carry into new markets our over a century-old tradition of quality and integrity. Consumers will take pleasure in reaching for our products and services because they are the best value for money. Our food and beverage brands will be in every household and every retail outlet. We will meet our consumers’ everyday needs, delighting their every taste. Through our products and services, every occasion to drink and eat will bring enjoyment — a celebration.”
The 2003 vision statement imbued the dream SMC Vice Chairman and President Ramon S. Ang has always had for the company. He took over as SMC president in 2002.
In the 2003 vision, RSA declared that San Miguel must grow, grow big, and grow bigger. By expanding existing businesses and making them even more profitable and relevant to the Filipino consumer. And by diversifying into new businesses and making San Miguel itself even more vital and strategic to the long-term growth of the country.
In the 2018 vision, San Miguel must still grow and frenetically at that, but not at the expense of harming the Filipino social fabric, harming the environment, and harming its old culture of profit with honor. San Miguel must make profits, and it does so in a grand way, but not excessively as to harm the Filipino consumer.
This brings San Miguel to one core value that San Miguel takes seriously – “malasakit” – the Filipino word for caring, concern and empathy. This is inspired by SMC Chairman and CEO Eduardo M. Cojuangco.
Malasakit is manifested in many ways and San Miguel tells us how:
“We do what is right ”
“We believe in doing our best ”
“We take accountability for our decisions”
“We think innovation”
“We help our people succeed”
“We are a good neighbor”
We advocate sustainable development”.
Sum up SMC Chair ECJ and President RSA:
“Our goal is no longer just to make everyday life a celebration, but to do what we can to make a better world.”
That world is mainly the Philippines and the region where the country belongs Asia. (After Prime Minister Mahathir’s election, RSA immediately flew to Malaysia to look for business opportunities. Mahathir wants to cut down Malaysia’s crippling debts, which means the government will be unloading some precious assets and undertake efficiency-inducing projects.)
SMC’s new vision and mission statement “takes into account our responsibility and role in nation- building. Similarly, we’ve taken the very same values that have guided us for so long and recast them in the context of the big issues of the day. Our new vision, mission, and values reflect who we are as a company and what we stand for,” explain ECJ and RSA, adding:
“Today, no job is more important for us than to build a company that can deliver on our nation’s goals. In much the same way we were bullish about anchoring our future growth on our country’s potential just 10 short years ago, so too are we determined today to play a critical role in propelling the Philippines to developed economy status.”
Reading its new vision, mission and values, we ask then what San Miguel has been doing lately. The company is undertaking the largest expansion ever in its 128-year history, at a cost of P742 billion for 18 factories.
Additionally, San Miguel plans to spend another P750 billion to build Asia’s most modern airport, with four runways (plus space for two more), that can handle 100 million passengers initially (expandable to 200 million later) and can park at the same time, 200 planes, in Bulacan, 20 mins from EDSA. The present NAIA can park at most 40 planes.
The new airport and the expansion of its other businesses will not harm San Miguel’s capacity for debt – which is six times its earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation (EBITDA). The EBITDA gearing ratio, according to Ang, will increase to 2.9x, from 2.0 at present.
San Miguel is currently building 18 major facilities or factories under the Food and Beverage cluster alone.
SMC is planning or building six new breweries, six new feeds mills, an export-oriented spam plant (under the Hormel brand) and a bottling plant.
Say ECJ and RSA: “The impact of the expansion of our food and beverage businesses becomes even more compelling in light of our decision to consolidate San Miguel Brewery Inc., San Miguel Pure Foods Company Inc., and Ginebra San Miguel Inc., into one powerhouse consumer company: San Miguel Food and Beverage, Inc.”
“With this, we are creating the biggest consumer company in the Philippines. What’s truly exciting is, that by bringing together three outstanding organizations, we are going to be able to extract significant synergies from their operations and use their combined strengths to the greatest advantage. We will be able to leverage on each company’s unique consumer insight, market knowledge, and extensive distribution and logistics network.”
— Tony Lopez
