There sat Teresita Sy-Coson, heiress to SM’s multitrillion-peso empire, being asked what hope small businesses had left in the Philippines.
A weak economy, a weak peso, high interest rates, rising living and fuel costs, and now artificial intelligence. Could a small business still thrive?
Tessie, as she’s fondly called, smiled.
“We always have a lot of challenges. But the good thing about a small business is sometimes, those can be just noises,” she said. “You just look into your market, search your market, work hard, and you’ll be able to get over it.”
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“That’s the good thing about small businesses. You don’t have to worry about government regulator, accounting [principles], compliance, environment,” Tessie added.
Perhaps not the best legal advice, but an amusing observation from the vice chairperson of SM Investments and chairperson of BDO. And there is some truth, especially in red-tape laden Philippines; while small firms have rules to follow too, they don’t face the same compliance demands as a listed mega-company.
Besides, if anyone understood the difference between small and big, literally and figuratively, it was Tessie.
In her shoes
Long before SM became the empire it is today, Tessie was an eight-year-old helping in her father’s shoe store.
At the ASEAN Inclusive Growth Summit on Wednesday, November 11, she laughed when veteran broadcaster Rico…