2007 Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award Recipient to Share Experiences with Notre Dame Entrepreneurship Society Students
Jaime Zobel de Ayala, CEO of the Ayala Corporation, received Harvard Business School's 2007 "Alumni Acheivement Award"
June 30, 2008:
Mr. Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, an internationally renowned businessman and entrepreneur, added to his impressive list of notable achievements in 2007 when he became the first Filipino to receive the “Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award.”
Mr. Zobel will arrive on campus at Notre Dame on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 and will serve as the Entrepreneurship Society Fall Keynote Speaker of 2008. The event will be held in Debartolo Hall Room 102 at 7:30PM. Mr. Zobel will have much to impart to the Notre Dame community both as an entrepreneurial leader and an ethical business role model. Mr. Zobel will share his perspectives and answer the questions of students on a range of issues from entrepreneurial success to his efforts in restoring local and global faith in the Philippines.
Today, Zobel embraces his role as the leader of the 173-year-old firm, where his innovative, entrepreneurial style of management has benefited both Ayala and an island nation that faces significant social and economic challenges. However, Jaime Zobel originally didn’t plan to start his career in the family business. After completing a training program at the venerable Ayala Corporation—the largest and most widely diversified conglomerate in the Philippines—and attending Harvard Business School, he accepted a short-term position at Ayala and never left. When his father retired from the presidency in 1995, Zobel, still in his mid-30s, became president and CEO. In 2006 he was appointed chairman, retaining the role of CEO while his brother Fernando became president and COO.
The past, for the Ayala Corporation, includes an impressive history entwined with the Philippines’ own complicated political and economic evolution. Representing the seventh generation of his family to lead the company, Zobel inherited a legacy of prudent management that preserved Ayala’s interests through times of revolution, colonial rule, dictatorships, and war—not to mention earthquakes and volcanoes. Established in 1834 as an agricultural trading house, the $16.3 billion grouping of companies today is involved in almost every sector of the Philippine economy, with major holdings that include Ayala Land, the Bank of the Philippine Islands, Globe Telecom, and Manila Water.
Under his leadership, Ayala Corporation has shown strong growth over the past decade despite fluctuations in the Asian economy. Recent initiatives, such as a public-private partnership with the Philippine government to distribute water; a global portfolio of business processing services; and expanded electronics manufacturing into Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, and China, have been profitable, allowing Ayala to post a 57 percent rise in net income in the first half of 2007. Asiamoney magazine recently named Ayala the best-managed large capitalization company in the Philippines.
Yet Zobel is not satisfied with business success alone. In a country where one-third of the population lives beneath the poverty line, he is an advocate of political and economic reform and a champion of investing in the bottom of the business pyramid. “I believe business should channel resources and skills toward providing the broader population—including marginalized and underprivileged sectors—equal access to products and services, as well as a stake in the overall economy,”
His dedication to addressing inequalities in Philippine society is in keeping with the company’s tradition of social outreach through the Ayala Foundation, a $22 million nonprofit focused on improving public education, enhancing cultural and historical pride, and building young Filipinos’ leadership potential. “I have a tremendous desire to see the Philippines become more engaged with the rest of the world,” declares Zobel, who serves on numerous boards and is chairman of the World Wildlife Fund in the Philippines. “Both as a businessperson and as a Filipino, I believe the best investment we can make is in broadening the outlook and skills of our country’s next generation.”
Fittingly, his talk’s theme will be on “SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS THAT ENGAGE THE BASE OF THE SOCIETAL PYRAMID—A WAY FORWARD FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH.” According to the Ayala Corporation:
Doing business in an emerging market poses the twin challenges of addressing the needs and the untapped potential of the more significant number of customers/consumers coming from lower income segments and taking a more active / catalytic role in poverty alleviation and the overall social development agenda. Business models or strategies that deliberately target the broader base of the social pyramid by inventing or co-inventing market-specific products through the innovative use of technology, developing relationships with non-traditional partners, and building local capacity can prove to be sustainable, financially viable, and value-enhancing for both business and the community at large. The Ayala group offers some examples of how it has successfully adjusted and aligned its business models with its social and value-creation objectives.
Mark Bennett is Co-President of the Notre Dame Entrepreneurship Society. For more information about this event please contact him at mbennet2@nd.edu
Did you know?
- Although the organization was only 18 months old at the time, 79% of Members that attended the first two meetings of spring of 2008 rated the Entrepreneurship Society as a Top 5 undergraduate organization at Notre Dame.
Getting To Know
Inoh Choe
- Hometown:
- Korea
- Major:
- Consulting and Psychology
- Contact:
- inoh.choe@gmail.com
- Class:
- 2011
Why Entrepreneurship Society?
"The biggest asset in business is having the confidence and motivation to create a vision and follow through on your plan. The Entrepreneurship Society provides a cutting-edge environment where passionate and motivated students can take their vision and transform it into a reality. Through a variety of well-planned activities such as the Case Study Challenge, it gave us the tools to learn about teamwork, organization, creative thinking, as well as important speaking skills. The Entrepreneurship Society is a perfect mesh of exciting real-world applications and professionalism. Without a doubt, the skills I learned have made me more confident working in teams, thinking innovatively, and acting as a leader."