Filipino firms, tycoons urged to embrace new thinking to grow

FILIPINO companies and industry tycoons should learn to embrace new thinking like tapping start-ups to grow.

Jojo Flores, co-founder and vice president of Sillicon Valley–based start-up accelerator Plug and Play, said most industry tycoons in the Philippines still rely on their own research and development, innovation platforms and own people for the next-generation technology.

“They still believe in the old school, ‘my new products are going to come from inside my company,’” he said in a press conference on the sideline of the fifth edition of Geeks on a Beach in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, last week.

He said that while this is still the mentality big traditional companies in the country espouse, firms with operations worldwide are thinking otherwise.

Flores recalled a conversation with the chief innovation officer of national Panasonic two years ago, who told him that the company hasn’t invented anything else after the VHS.

That time, Flores also had the same discussion with the chief innovation officer of the 100-year-old hospitality group Hilton, who told him they were shocked that a company like Airbnb with less than 10 years of existence in the market and no assets of its own would grow to be worth as much as them.

“This is what we’re hearing now from more than 300 large companies. I’ve already had Filipino companies come to Plug and Play where I tell them to have an innovation play. I tell them I’ll show them products and companies,” he said.

However, Flores said these Filipino companies only shrugged off the idea and gave him the impression that they did not need this kind of intervention.

Plug and Play has bridged the start-up community with the world’s 300 Fortune Companies, including Mercedes Benz, Johnson & Johnson for pharmaceuticals, Maersk for supply chain, Exxon Mobil, and Walmart for retail, among others.