Businessman Bunny Pages has been chosen as this year’s Grand Chamber Entrepreneur of the Year.
Pages, chairman and chief executive officer of Pages Holdings, Inc. (PHI), is a chemical engineer by profession.
He ventured into the world of entrepreneurship, with the help of his five children and with hardly any resources nor confidence, at the age of 49.
Pages Holdings now runs a total of 13 businesses including Thirsty, Lantaw, Mooon Cafe and Cafe Racer with more than a thousand employees.
Pages Holdings also owns and operates Play House Preschool, B.R.I.G.H.T. Academy, My Playroom Kids Care Center and Guitar World, all of which are doing well.
MOTTO
“Play to win instead of playing not to lose” is Pages’ motto and entrepreneurial strategy. He is also guided by “kaizen,” Chinese for continuous improvement.
Pages said he was able to get to where he is now by taking risks and learning from his mistakes as well as collaborating with his family and employees.
He makes sure all business decisions are made as a family. He and his five children – John, Charlie, Randy, Cheryl and Michael – always meet and discuss their options, ideas and suggestions freely. It is
a very collaborative arrangement, he said.
If one of them says no, he said chances are they do not pursue the project. Everyone must be of accord, he added.
RISKS
Many of their successful projects started out as huge risks, with very little market research.
“We go by gut feel. We get aggressive, take risks and hope for the best,” he told Cebu Daily News.
“I don’t know what it is – maybe it’s entrepreneurial drive, maybe it’s just a strong sense of the right think to do, or maybe it’s divine intervention,” he added.
Projects like Lantaw in Cordova and the recently opened Rico’s Lechon are examples of the huge risks they took in establishing their food businesses.
He said they were pleasantly surprised when the Lantaw Native Restaurant in Cordova did well, despite its remote location.
“Cordova is very far. To put up a restaurant there is not something many people would do. But surprisingly, people started traveling there just to eat at the restaurant,” he said. Lantaw was opened in 2012.
Because of its success, they decided to open a branch in Busay in 2013 and another outlet at the South Road Properties (SRP) in 2014.
Bunny also shared that they had planned to open a barbecue restaurant in what is now known as Rico’s Lechon on Acacia Drive.
“My daughter Cheryl suggested it and we decided to try. It was already being built – the walls, the space were already there – when I sensed that it wasn’t going to work,” he said.
Pages said he noticed that restaurants nearby had a similar concept and they were not doing well.
“These businesses seemed like they were dying, and I felt like this wouldn’t click. So I gathered my family and said: ‘Listen, I don’t think it’s going to work. Does anyone have any other suggestions?’” he said.
One of his five children suggested putting up a restaurant that would serve the popular Rico’s Lechon and other lechon-based dishes.
“There is no way to explain how these things simply just fell into place,” Pages said.
Of his five children, he said Charlie is the “restaurant whiz.”
“Charlie is the one who conceptualizes and designs the restaurants. The restaurants are his brain children,” he said.
As happy as he is about receiving the prestigious award, Pages said he feels a lot of pressure as Entrepreneur of the Year to be able to do more, especially for the young and aspiring entrepreneurs.
He said he begged off of nominations once before, in 2014, because the company was going through many projects and he felt that “it was not yet time.”
This year, he decided to go through with nominations but did not expect to win.
“I was probably up against bigger businesses. Contrary to what most people believe, my company is not yet that big, and our businesses are not that successful,” he said.
Pages plans to further expand his family’s businesses, including the opening of a Rico’s Lechon at SM Seaside City as well as in Talisay and Lapu-Lapu cities.
His family is also considering townhouse development and plans to enhance the support system for their businesses.
“The businesses grew quite fast and our support system is struggling to support the growth,” he said.