ENDEAVOR
Filipino Management Ethos: Pathways to Shared Prosperity, a forum presented by the Diwa-Kapwa Advocates, will be held today at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in Makati City. As one of the convenors, I wish to share with readers why and how this forum came about.
Let’s begin with the end in mind.
By the first quarter of 2025, we wish to publish a Diwa-Kapwa Fieldbook on Stories and Practices of Filipino companies that believe in and propagate the Filipino management ethos in organizations and workplaces. Ethos pertains to “the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations.”
This ethos, embodied by Diwa-Kapwa, has been forged on the anvil of day-to-day management practice. It involves praxis, or the “exercise or practice of an art, science, or skill; customary practice or conduct; or practical application of a theory,” as defined by Merriam-Webster.
At the start of today’s forum, my task is to share the genesis and evolution of Diwa-Kapwa praxis and how it enriches the Filipino management ethos. I am sharing it, too, with our readers.
On Sept. 15, 2008, my wife and daughter welcomed me at the JFK airport in New York City.
At the start of what I had intended to be a sabbatical – during which I wanted to synthesize my thoughts on my doctoral dissertation – this breaking news sent shock waves across the world: Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, two giant investment houses in Wall Street, had collapsed. AIG, the world’s largest insurance company, also teetered on the brink. A global financial meltdown was underway.
This brought the world to a stark realization. What was thought of initially as a financial crisis was, at its roots, a moral crisis. Free- market capitalism, which propagated the imperative of continuous wealth creation and accumulation, had apparently gone overboard.
Within a month, I had the good fortune of being able to meet in person the authors of books that provided the backbone for my research.
Then, on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008, while waiting for the start of the 12:15 p.m. mass at the St. Francis Church that was just across my daughter’s apartment, I experienced an epiphany with this important realization:
“Spirit-led organizations adopt a paradigm shift and undergo thorough transformation. They reject the greed-driven norms of capitalism and the free market that triggered the Wall Street collapse during the fall of 2008. They embrace humanism and partnership. They demonstrate that, truly, ‘Business is a road to God.’”
The insight, “Business is a road to God,” was inspired by “Baseball is a Road to God,” the title of the commencement speech of Dr. John Sexton, president of New York University, at my daughter’s graduation which was held in Yankee Stadium just five months earlier, on May 15, 2008. Dr. Sexton teaches an elective with the same title to NYU undergraduates.
According to him, this thesis is validated by the fact that, prior to the 1992-1993 season, there were nine back-to-back winners of Major League Baseball’s highly coveted Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award. Each of the winners represents each of the nine positions in the baseball diamond field. Stated otherwise, there was one winner for every position. No two winners occupied the same position. According to Dr. Sexton, only God could have made this phenomenon possible.
This researcher’s insight ran along parallel lines: if “baseball is a road to God,” then “business is – and can also be – a road to God.”
This insight gains credence within the context of contemporary history. What was thought of initially as a financial crisis in 2008 was, at its roots, a moral crisis. Free- market capitalism, which propagated the imperative of continuous wealth creation and accumulation, had apparently gone overboard.
Writing for Trumpet, Joel Hillker and Robert Morley asserted that the root cause is simply this: “Greed and its associated sins: lying, stealing, coveting.” Indeed, they pointed out, the excessive love of money is “the root of terrible evil.” And a problem of this magnitude cannot be adequately addressed by financial bailout packages or government-mandated regulations.
Two important thoughts converge into an insight. A change in the hearts and minds of people is possible if people use their vocation – or business – as a road to God.
I converted my dissertation into a book entitled DIWA: Spirit-Led Organization in the Philippines, and sub-titled, Charting Pathways to Excellence. With the support of then People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) President Ramon Segismundo, a companion book was also launched during the organization’s annual conference in October 2017. This was entitled KAPWA: Filipino Management Ethos for Workplace Excellence and Global Competitiveness. Highlighted in KAPWA was the EDSA People Power uprising in 1986 that demonstrated the efficacy of solidarity as a model for regime change that was replicated in other countries that similarly brought about the peaceful downfall of well-entrenched authoritarian leaders.
These were preceded by a book entitled Forging Management Excellence on the Anvil of Culture edited by Gerardo Cabochan, Jr., who co-also edited KAPWA with this author and emerged as a Diwa-Kapwa thought leader.
Gawad Kalinga’s pathfinding program on empowering and enabling very poor families to build and own their homes – in partnership with benefactors from among the largest corporations and Filipino communities abroad – is also showcased. The power of tapping into the Filipino bayanihan spirit and Kapwa ethos, that earned United Laboratories (Unilab) the Ramon Magsaysay Award, as well as the stellar examples of PMAP Employer of the Year firms such as Manila Water and Manila Electric Company are documented.
In today’s Diwa-Kapwa forum we will hear from visionary entrepreneurial and corporate leaders: Mary Grace Dimacali of Mary Grace Café, Jun Caboachan from Pandayan, Linda Zulueta and Andrea Lorenzana of Piandre’ Salon, Arturo ‘Archie’ Yan of Glacier Megafridge, Pebbles Puyat from Thousand Oaks Packaging Corporation, Renato ‘Ato’ Jiao from Globe Telecoms, Shirley Ann Aspacio of Human Nature (a Gawad Kalinga subsidiary), John Jay Romero and Bernard Nuyda of CDO Foodsphere; and Ma. Merza Alejandrino and Rexan Dayao of Unilab.
May their tribe increase!
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