Businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan, more popularly known as MVP, is contemplating retirement, acknowledging in an exclusive interview with Context.ph that Father Time is whispering in his ear, telling him to slow down.
If you had asked him a decade ago about retirement, Pangilinan would have looked at you quizzically. Now, the businessman who founded Hong Kong-based First Pacific in 1981 is just four months away from celebrating his 77th birthday is quick to admit the thought of giving up his CEO role has “increasingly” crossed his mind.
“It is staring me in the face. I know I only have X years to go in my useful life. And I’m planning for that (retirement),” he told Context.ph on the first Sunday of March at his office at the PLDT headquarters in Makati.
A staff said “boss MVP” is particularly “fond” of his offices at the Ramon Cojuangco Building, especially during weekends when the place isn’t buzzing with activity.
Although he still works on weekends, Pangilinan is usually more relaxed. On that Sunday afternoon, he wore a knitted sweat shirt, a trouser and loafers, sporting an impish smile as he acknowledged the Context.ph crew preparing the video equipment, quipping: “Do we really need to do this interview?” before proceeding to another meeting room.
He later changed to a blue—of course, as an Atenean that’s his favorite color–wind breaker, one with Meralco stamped on it. He only goes to the office in the afternoon on weekends, explaining that Saturday and Sunday mornings are “sacred” to him because those are the only times he could catch up on sleep.
Pangilinan still plays badminton at least twice a week, with national team players who he says he sometimes beat by “bullying” them to submission. Those sessions, however, take their toll on his septuagenarian body, particularly his knees; yet another reminder he is no longer spring chicken.
But Father Time’s clarion message does not apply only to MVP but to many other executives in the Metro Pacific Investments group, whose business interests span utilities, infrastructure development, broadcast, mining, real estate, healthcare, and lately, agriculture. A cursory survey show many of those who serve in the Metro Pacific group’s management and boards are past 60, some even older than Pangilinan.
“Generally, our core of CEOs is aging. Our board of directors is also aging, and some of our directors are not too healthy. So we need to address that as well,” said Pangilinan.
Metro Pacific has already started the search for new and younger talents who will lead the group into the coming decades.
“It is difficult to find the right people, especially you have to foreshadow what the future CEO might be in a fast changing world,” said Pangilinan, noting that the selection committee must also consider the potential businesses the group might get into in the future as well as the skills needed by future CEOs.
Even with existing businesses, adeptness in deploying technology to improve efficiency and the potential of businesses is an essential quality future CEOs must possess, he said.
Another important quality, said Pangilinan, is honesty.
“Meaning, not only financial integrity but also intellectual integrity. In other words, you are able to say what it is or to report what needs to reported to the board, to management, etcetera. I think that is very, very essential. And part of the problem that we recently experienced is precisely that,” said Pangilinan, alluding to the controversial overspending in PLDT’s aggressive network upgrade and rollout.
PLDT disclosed in December that it has uncovered PHP48 billion in budget overruns over the past four years starting 2019, forcing it tighten internal financial controls, revamp its management, and order an independent audit. Over that four-year period, PLDT has budgeted PHP379 billion for capital spending, mostly for expanding its nationwide fiber network.
Pangilinan is optimistic that even with “stringent requirements for CEOs of this group” Metro Pacific could find replacements, “hopefully, younger folks who are attuned to technology.”
