Today I am going to features the best life story of the best and richest man in the

country of Philippines. He is no other than “Henry Sy”, the best retail magnate who
own well-established 33 SM Malls. He is also the bank magnate and owns a majority
share in China and De-Oro-EPCI bank. It is one of the best and inspiring stories
because he was the best entrepreneur and built all SM Malls. He becomes the biggest
banker as well as richest man in Philippines surpassing both the Ayalas and Lucio
Tan.

So, are you ready to learn and inspire from the best success story is the Philippine
entrepreneur story. This success story narrated by the “Teresita Sy-Coson” daughter
of Henry Sy.

Introduction:

Henry Sy was born in Xiamen, in China in October 1924. Henry Sy was not born with
the silver spoon in mouth. Since a toddler, he had aimed to become the best
businessman, so went to try his luck in other countries. At the age of 12, he went to
Philippines to change the miserable life of his father in a foreign country.

He was always committed with his goal to get succeed. He did everything that helps
him to alleviate life and work hard till night

Earlier business:

Henry Sy. would buy goods from “Divisoria Flea market”. He carries all goods on his
back and then sells them in a small store of her father called (sari-sari). When both
going to close the store, they would sleep in a small space to makes their way of
living much better.

He decided to make some extra income, so he had no time to play with friends. World
war-2 came and the store of his father eventually burned and robbed. He did lots of
selling and buying many odds things during war and helped his family to survive.
After the war, he ventured into purchasing American Shoes that were imported by the
Enterprising Gis.

Evolution of SM Mall:

He enrolled himself to a school. He gets graduation degree in commerce from “Far

Eastern University”. He sold overrun and rejected shoes. He wants to change his life.
He never gives up and always try hard to achieve the best success. After failures in
business, he stood back-up and attain a goal.

In 1958, he established a shoe store in Quiapo, Manila. The name of the store was
“Shoe Mart”. For the time, he was purchasing many shoes, leather goods, and
accessories. He hopes to change the way of shoe manufacturer strategy.

He senses lots of opportunities that enable him to open Shoe Mart “SM” which the
world first air-conditioned shoe store. The store merchandise shoes in a classy and
inviting format. With the best success story of the store, he decided to open more
stores. But his dream not came true because he was unable to get more suppliers.
Most manufacturers refuse to listen to him at that time. He did not cooperate with the
volume that he needed. Because of these reasons, he shifted gradually toward apparel
and other merchandise with the help of her mother.

Learning from others:

Henry Sy Learn lots of innovative things from his suppliers, employees, and
customers. With intensive on-site job research, he got enough confidence to expand
his business to the department store chain.

In life many needs are grow-out and to fulfills these needs, you should become
determined. With strong determination, you can easily take some extra challenges and
can easily be done things differently to get better success.

In 1970, the store became the full-line department stores that change the name from
“Shoemart” to SM with the pioneering store at the Makati City. He invested in the
properties for malls that were patterned after the suburban shopping centers.

Problems occur during the construction of the first mall:

In 1972, he opened department store after two months of Martial laws. At the start,
the business worked slow but get succeed with time. He continued to open more
exceeding departmental stores in such a way that one time came, he had no space in
exciting shopping centers. He thought about long-term goals.

On November 25, 1985, 1st supermall opened in the city of Quezon. Today there are
43-malls across the country Philippines and the branches in China.

With lots of criticism and armed with the optimism and sheer determination, he
opened supermarket, departmental store, and tenants.

At the same time, the “Shoemart Makati” was faced with severe strikes. At that time,
he was so disappointed, but his employees and customer encourage him to proceed.
At this difficult time, he never discourages and boosts his confidence to continue his
business. He was committed to achieving a valuable goal for an organization. He not
only convinces himself but also his team members to follow his enthusiasm.

Later on, the Henry Sy. focus to expand their business. The building was constructed
slowly at the start. During construction of the new building, delays in constructions
because of cement shortage and coups of 1989.

Asian crisis:

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During 1997, when the Asian crisis came, the team of Henry Sy. continued to plan an
expansion of mall that includes the “Mall of Asia” which was envisioned the biggest
and most renowned mall in the region of Asia. But planning stopped because Henry
recognized the Tsunami-like effects in Asia. They went on progressively and open
other malls.

Expansion of business into different markets:

The business grew in numbers instead of the size and serving various more modest
markets. The business also expands from departmental stores to hardware stores,
supermarkets, appliance superstore, and others.

As we mentioned above that Henry Sy. was one of the greatest bankers so he also
looked into the banking business. He established the “Banco de Oro” bank that was a
medium-sized bank. The members of the business were considered conservative in the
lending process. The business strengthened and reorganize while developing the best
growth strategies that started working in 2000.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2bETzUf_dY

Encouragement:

He was encouraged by the “Consolidation program of Central bank of the

Philippines”. Due to this encouragement, he motivates to make the Philippines banks
competitive relative to its area.

Acquisitions of Banco De Oro:

Banco De Oro also made some acquisitions due to moratorium on banking. It acquires
some banks like United Overseas Bank branch, First eBank. Deo Heng Philippines,
Banco Santander Philippines branch. The most recent acquisition made by Banco De
Oro is Equitable PCI bank.

Awards:

With all his achievements, Mr.Sy collected different awards. The detail of these
awards is given below:

Management Man of the Year in 1999 by Makati Business Club

Honorary Doctorate in Business Management in January 1999 by “ Da La Salle
University”
40-Riches Filipinos for the year 2008–2012
Forbes Magazine Heros of Philanthropy
1st Chinese-Flipone receipt of the “PRA President Awards” in 2005
SM Investment; Greater Achievement of Henry Sy:

SM Megamall is the world second largest shopping mall in the Philippines and the 9th
largest mall in the world. Sy’s family-owned SM investment is the holding venture for
SM Retail and is the largest chain of departmental stores of supermarkets.

Based on the 2018 Forbes World’s Billionaires, the estimated net worth of Sy is $20
billion. It is three times larger than the upcoming fortune of the richest Tycoon.
In 2017, Sy stepped down as the chairman of SM investment Co. He gets the
honorary title of “Chairman Emeritus” as the recognition for the founder of SM
group.

Future of SM mall:

Sy’ mall empire is riding on a rise of artificial intelligence with best robotic
concierge. The white robots offer information on proms, deals, and events from the
adorable touch screen that is mounted on the chest. It also replies via voice to the
basic questions.

According to the chief operating officer “Steve Tan” told ABS-CBN news that:

“We believe that technology helps us in upgrading service. The SM group and the Sy
family involve not technology.”

Personal life:

Henry Sy. was married with “Fedicidas Tan”. She was a shoelace vendor. Both had
six children. Henry Jr. and Teresita are the recent vice-chairpersons of SM investment
Co.

Death:

Henry Sy died at the age of 94 in his sleep. The body of a billionaire was discovered
on 19 January 2019 in his home. The funeral of great entrepreneur took place in
Taguig at the Heritage Memorial park on January 24, 2019.

End words:

With the inspiring story of Henry Sy, you can learn about the ideals of success. The
story of Henry Sy tells us that never give up from a failure. Failure is the first step to
success. According to Henry Sy, if you fail, never discourage but try again. When you
do something well, then never change your ways. Success is not always good luck but
is the combination of good credits standing hard work, time, readiness and
opportunity. Success will never last when you don’t take care of this precious wealth.

Humble Beginning
The Beginning of Henry Sy’s Success Story
Henry Sy was not born with a golden spoon, in fact he belong to a poor family in Quanzhou,
China. Sy, migrated in the Philippines when he was twelve and started working for his
father’s small sari-sari store located in Quiapo, Manila. The small store that they owned was
burned down by fire when the second World War took place which led for Henry’s father to
return to China. Instead of coming with his father to China, he insisted to stay with a firm
determination to become successful here in the Philippines.

Left with only 10 cents in his pocket, Sy started to empower himself by studying commerce,
learning English and Filipino language at the same time. He began selling GI boots (surplus).
Sy focused on trading shoes on the onset which lead him to discover local supplier (Philippine
made) and explore in importing shoes to be able to cope up with the supply and demand
chain.

He married a fellow Chinese immigrant lady and blessed with six children in their marriage.
Felicidad, Henry’s wife helped Sy in the business process all the way. Felicidad is a lace
vendor in Manila which also have given Sy an idea to bring in other goods and products
inside his Shoe Mart.

It was not at all an overnight success for Henry Sy, he started selling shoes in the streets of
Manila under the heat of the sun and the cold of the rain. At one point in his past, Sy was shot
by a shrapnel and almost die in excessive bleeding, someone helped him, that someone
became his friend and as an act of gratitude, he bacame a business partner and now indeed
became successful because of him. There has been so many obstacle in the start up process
but was able to overcome it one step at a time.

Shoe Mart
SM – Henry Sy’s Most Successful Venture
Henry Sy Success StoryWho doesn’t know SM? In the present situation, you can find SM in
almost every corner of the street. There’s SM City Malls, SM Hypermarket and SM
Savemore. All differs from their classification but under the same umbrella of SM Prime
Holdings.

And yes, SM means “Shoe Mart”. Sy’s flagship company. His very first branch was opened
in Carriedo, Manila which became so popular and successful that leads Sy to open up two
more branches in no time. In 1972, Sy venture in selling other products than shoes in his mall,
that’s when his very renowned Department Store and Supermarket emerged. His mother came
right after the sucess of his mall opening to help him in managing the supplies as they are
now handling not only shoes but other products like RTW dresses. Not long after, his father
also came to give a hand in the operation of the business. After opening branches, he ventured
into building supermalls, SM North in Quezon City is the very first Supermall of SM, it was
opened 1985, followed by the Megamall in Mandaluyong City which faced a serious financial
crisis back in year 1997 that has led the opening of this supermall to be delayed many times
from the original completion date.

Banco De Oro
In 1967, Sy started to venture into banking industry as he bought Acme Savings Bank which
he later change its name to Banco De Oro. His initial goal upon venturing to banking was to
provide for his supplier’s cash management. During those years, competition became very
stiff in the retail industry, competitors like Isetann and Good Earth, havig acquired a bank
added in his business profile, he was able to win over the ravaging competition and survive
among all of them.

Sy bought China Bank in 2006 and PCI bank in 2007 and and merge it to their main bank
Banco De Oro. The merge has led Banco de Oro to become the country’s third largest lender.

Now, as many as his SM Malls, BDO branches are everywhere. Attracting clients from the
basic savings of a simple individual to a corporate accounts that they handle. It is no doubt,
BDO gained the trust and confidence of the Filipino market.
SMDC

SM Development Corporation was a vision from one of Henry Sy’s son, Henry Sy Jr. His son
sees huge opportunity in providing the basic need of shelter for Filipinos with SMDC. With
its undeniable success which now has 31 projects and was able to deliver complete unit turn
over of 50,000, SMDC has become a new way of life for urban living.

The very first project was launched last 2003 in Paranaque City, Chateau Elysee. SMDC are
known to name their projects based on the location premise of the area. SMDC Shore
Residence within the MOA area are known to be just beside the shoreline of Manila Bay.
Wind Residences in Tagaytay are known for its high altitude climate to name a few.

Convenience is the major consideration in picking up for the location of each project keeping
in mind the perimeter to the major needs of consumer. SMDC maintain sophisticated designs
and top of the class amenities.

Successfully Going Global

As the success continues, Sy didn’t mind taking the risk to go global. In year 2001, the very
first SM Mall was opened in China. Branches in China continues to expand and now has 6
branches in the following region: Chengdu, Xiamen, Suzhou, Zibo,Chongqing and Jinjiang.
SM primes in China maintains high level of occupancy with a long term relationship with the
Local and International brand and suppliers.

SMDC also started to venture out in China in 2016. Their China project was named: Silk
Residence in Chengdu China. This global step for SMDC was a strong testament of the
company’s firm commitment on developing world class project that is well-acknowledged by
the international target market.

At the age of 93, Chairman Emeritus, Henry Sy was able to acquire numerous awards and
recognition in the field of business especially in retailing and banking as well as in his
management skills. The second generation of the family has now taken over the business and
continuing the legacy their father have established.

In business, it is not important how much money you have in your pocket, what’s important is
how much dedication and perseverance you will put in it. Your hard work is priceless and
your passion to what your doing is a treasure.