Alfonso Yuchengco’s legacy

Complacency, an old adage goes, is one of life’s biggest tragedies. As American rights leader Benjamin Mays said, success breeds complacency and complacency breeds failure.

We’ve seen this happen in both politics and business, but especially in business.

The Kodak story, for instance, is one such cautionary tale. Some 11 years ago today, Kodak filed for bankruptcy, no thanks to its inability to ride on the dizzying digital camera wave. One of America’s greatest success stories came to an end.

In the Philippines, complacency is a common killer too in businesses, aside from peculiar and complex family trees, internal family squabbles and greed and corruption.

Many of the old companies weren’t able to cross generations because of these problems and more.

Among conglomerates, some have become complacent too and ignored the need to evolve.

Luckily for their stakeholders and shareholders, however, some Filipino conglomerates continue to embrace change and are striving to become even better.

The Yuchengco Group of Companies (YGC), chaired by the indefatigable lady tycoon Helen Yuchengco-Dee, is one example, unveiling recently its steps toward a major reorganization.

Her grandfather, Don Enrique Yuchengco and father, Alfonso Yuchengco, would surely be happy to see how she has been leading the group.

It’s not easy after all to lead a conglomerate which traces its origins all the way to the 1930s.

This is its story, according to YGC:

“The Yuchengco Group of Companies traces its origins to the founding in 1930 of China Insurance and Surety Co., a non-life insurance company, by Don Enrique Yuchengco, father of Ambassador Alfonso T. Yuchengco.

“Don Enrique and his wife, Maria Hao Tay, were 4th or 5th generation migrants from Southern China. Before World War II, Don Enrique had sizable interests in lumber, construction, tobacco and rice milling.

“When Don Enrique passed away, the young Alfonso took over the reins of the family enterprises and began to chart a new direction marked by rapid growth and expansion. Sharing his father’s vision, he embarked on an aggressive expansion program for the insurance company, creating the Malayan Group of Insurance Companies.”

It was under