Pioneering spirit extolled in Lopez Service Awards

The 2019 Lopez Service Awardees (l-r): Jessie Jorge Lopez (5), Rodrigo Enano (30), Jose Gerald Marasigan (5), Carla Paras-Sison (20), Ea Dulay (25), Pia Muriel Amores (10), Ma. Norie Avorque (5), Maricel Manalo (10), Gloria Marzan (5), Niña Rjoy Teodosio (5), Ghandie Martinez (5), Jerome Mendoza (10), Ian Carlo Alvarez (5), Jowe Daño (10) and Constantine Cano (5). Not in photo: Milani Caimol (20) and Diosdado Peñamante (5)Five organizations within the Lopez Group of companies gathered on July 26 at One Rockwell for joint service awards with the theme, “Innovative Transformations through a Pioneering Entrepreneurial Spirit.”

Honorees came from Lopez Inc., Lopez Holdings Corporation, INAEC Aviation Corporation and Eugenio Lopez Foundation Inc., which administers the Lopez Museum and Library. Also present were employees of Lopez Group Foundation Inc.

Balancing act

In opening the program, Lopez Inc. president Federico R. Lopez (FRL) said the Group’s success lay in a culture that allowed the personality profiles of hunters and explorers, with their risk-taking and search for new frontiers, to thrive alongside those of settlers, farmers, homemakers or administrators, whose attention to detail provide the fiscal discipline to keep “the house in order and the ship on track.”

“It’s getting the combination right that allows companies to focus and decide on those few capabilities that will define them and make them strategically distinct in what’s become a crowded marketplace,” FRL said.

He added that as the world shifts paradigms to address the climate crisis occurring globally, it will be the fusion of the Lopez Values of a pioneering entrepreneurial spirit, business excellence and social justice that will be “essential beacons as we navigate the 2020s and beyond.”

Reinvention

In his inspirational message, Lopez Holdings chairman and chief executive officer Manuel M. Lopez (MML) recounted instances where the Group demonstrated a pioneering entrepreneurial spirit. Mentioning first how in the early 1930s, the late brothers Eugenio H. Lopez Sr. and Fernando H. Lopez started Iloilo Shipping, Iloilo Transportation Co. and INAEC, MML proceeded to laud the trail blazed by ABS-CBN in introducing Filipino viewers to color television and broadcast and live broadcast via satellite after World War II.

After the Edsa Revolution, ABS-CBN was the first to offer its content overseas through The Filipino Channel and with the global distribution of its TV series and movies. On the power side of the business, First Philippine Holdings Corporation pioneered in building natural gas-fired power plants now under First Gen Corporation. “Innovation means reinventing ourselves… Challenges arise out of nowhere and from everywhere—from competition, government regulation, natural and man-made disasters, customers with limited buying power, customers who demand the very best. Innovative transformations are the key to sustainability. The pioneering spirit makes us agile. It keeps our minds active and eager to change as circumstances demand. I encourage you all to keep innovating, to keep reinventing yourselves,” MML said. (Story/Photos by: Carla Paras-Sison)

Lopez Group chairman emeritus Oscar M. Lopez toasts the awardees