Among the many business stories and anecdotes to quote, my favorite
would be this one. It becomes my favorite because it takes place in a
setting which is very much a part of me...Makati in the 1970s.
It is also my favorite because it reflects the savvy of a seasoned business tactician.
The
person involved is Alfonso Yuchengco. In the early 1970s, hotshot
investment bank Bancom Development Corp. wanted to merge Yuchengco's
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) with Far East Bank to create the
Philippines' largest domestic lender. Bancom's Sixto Roxas teamed up
with Augusto Barcelon in a buyout bid. "Yuchengco made it appear that he did not have the money [to purchase the two men's RCBC shares],"
recalls lawyer Leonardo Siguion Reyna, an RCBC Director. "So Roxas and
Barcelon quoted their price - $7 million. They never knew what hit them
when Yuchengco called their bluff." The tycoon had secretly lined up
funding from long-standing banking associates in the U.S.
A
tactician's mind and openness to foreign ties are hallmarks of
Yuchengco's style. Add prudence. His caution may have held back RCBC's
growth, but the conservatism of the nation's sixth-largest bank was
highly rewarded as the Asian economic crisis of 1997 reeled on. At that
time, RCBC says it has only $165 million in foreign borrowings - 1% of
the banking system's foreign loans of $16 billion. The money was lent to
clients with a natural hedge, such as exporters. "We were able to
lessen our exposure to loan defaults," says RCBC vice chairman Alfonso
"Tito" Yuchengco III, the youngest of the founder's eight children.
Whenever
I am faced with a situation in business wherein a gun seems to be aimed
at me, I have learned from the story above to simply keep quiet and
gather the resources needed to meet the threat head-on and strike at the
moment when the opposition least expects it. I guess it's quite like
the ending of Die Hard where a shirtless Bruce Willis taped his pistol
behind his back so as to create the impression that he was unarmed and
vulnerable. Nice.
-taken from my old blog on Multiply.com
byLloyd Tronco
September 08, 2009
Among the many business stories and anecdotes to quote, my favorite would be this one. It becomes my favorite because it takes plac...
