From selling shoes at 8, SM’s Tessie Sy-Coson still sees the perks of being small

详细摘要

'My dad always tells his friends that if he can do it, you can do it too,' says Teresita Sy-Coson, recalling her childhood helping out at Henry Sy Sr.'s little shoe shop that would grow into the SM empire

BIG HOPE. Teresita Sy-Coson hopes more small businesses will grow into bigger enterprises.

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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?

“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.”

“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.

Long before SM became the empire it is today, Tessie was an eight-year-old helping in her father’s shoe store.

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