Bestlink College Of The Philippines
1044 Brgy. Sta Monica , Quirino Highway , Novaliches Quezon City Philippines

“A COMPILATION
OF 15 FILIPINO ENTREPRENEURS”

Submitted By: Carolina Lopezbaños
Submitted To:

Introduction
Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone. But when it’s right, it’s the most satisfying career path a person can pursuit.
We might be thinking what is the suitable path for us to be a successful person in future. Regardless of our definition of success, there are a great number of common characteristics that are shared by successful entrepreneurs. Even if you don't have these characteristics, don't fret. Most can be learned with practice and by developing a positive attitude, especially if you set goals and produce a strategic long term planning.
Entrepreneurship brings the meaning of the willingness to develop , to organize and to manage a business venture along with its risk to in order to make profit and to produce a successful business. There are a few local Malaysian entrepreneurs that are well known in the global business market which are listed by Forbes.

HENRY SY

Henry Sy’srise to the top is a feel good story for the ages. In 1936, at the age of 12, he immigrated from mainland China to help run his father’s grocery in Manila, often sleeping on display counters because he had no place to sleep. The spartan life he lived probably played a big part in molding Sy’s character as a smart and calculating businessman, and that is probably why he is still a hands-on owner at the prime age of 80. He regularly visits his malls to check on how things are running, and is usually spotted wearing his trademark Hawaiian shirts.Sy’s work ethic and determination has made him one of the country’s leading businessmen, and a prominent name in the international business scene. The boy who once worked 14 hours a day long before the 24/7 concept caught on is estimated to be worth a cool $1.7 billion, not bad for a guy who still keeps his first cash register (a brass one) in his office.Henry Sy, Sr. opened the first Shoemart store along Rizal Avenue in downtown Manila in 1958. He conceptualized a chain of shoe stores, each characterized by a distinct merchandising layout never before attempted in the country. In the sixties, the company expanded its shoe store chain. It was one of the pioneers in the new urban centers when it opened bigger shoe stores at the Makati Commercial Center in 1953 and in Cubao in 1967.In the seventies, Shoemart marked its shift from a shoe store to a full line department store with SM Echague, and later SM Makati in 1975. This was also the time that Shoemart became known as SMShoemart or simply SM, a name that has become synonymous with one stop shopping excitement. SM positioned itself for growth in theeigthies, diversifying into the supermarket and appliance store businesses. Late 1985 marked the opening of its first shopping mall, SM City North EDSA. SM emerged as a key players in the shopping center industry in the 1990’s giving rise to the malling phenomenon in the Philippines.Today, SM is a dynamic group of companies with core businesses in retail merchandising and shopping centers, and complementary businesses in financial services and real estate and tourism development. In early 2005, SM Investments Corporation, its holding company, launched what is considered the biggest initial public offering in the Philippine Stock Exchange.
SM’s 22 supermalls, 25 department stores, and hundreds of retail stores have become part of the lives of many Filipinos. More than 1.5 million customers visit SM supermalls everyday. These are places where they shop, eat out, watch movies, or simply spend fun timestogether with family and friends. SM Group is a retail giant with 38,600 employees and annual revenues of $1.7 billion. More than that, SM has made its impact in the local and international business community, and is recognized as one of the top companies in Asia.Mr. Henry Sy Sr.’s formula for success is a fourteen-point list of attitudes and practices that one must strive for in order to succeed in business and in life. One of them reads: “Be disciplined. Second best does not exist. In work, always strive for excellence in products, service and operations. Put a premium on savings because of the need to be prepared for all contingencies in business, politics and personal life. Do not waste anything. And try to live a simple life.

JOHN GOKONGWEI
When John Gokongwei, Jr. was born in 1926, one of the finest building in Cebu city ( the first one in the city to have an elevator, in fact) built by his prosperous great-grandfather stood as a lonely reminder of his clan's vanished wealth. By 1942 during the Japanese occupation, the profits from the movie houses owned by his father had disappeared, too. If others had rags-to-riches stories, the young Cebuano's story was riches-to-rags.
Thus, at the tender age of 15, Gokongwei had to venture into the buy-and-sell business, selling all sorts of items: foodstuff, soap, candles, textiles, anything that could help his family of six siblings and widowed mother to survive. He would travel in decrepit saliboats to Lucena south of Manila to purchase goods for resale in Cebu.

He arrived in Manila, Philippines in 1950 to start a trading firm, and with the modest profits, entered the cornstarch business. Believing in the young entrepreneur's abilities, china Bank granted him a substantial loan. By 1956, John Gokongwei had become a millionaire. He eventually entered into the food, garments, textiles, real estate, electronics, department store, flour and sugar milling, agribusiness, hotels, publishing, cement, petrochemicals and banking industries, making him one ofthe riches men in Asia.

TONY TAN CAKTIONG
When fast-food mogul Tony Tan Caktiong was starting out in the food business, he was fascinated by Walt Disney cartoon characters. Thus, when he was looking for a name and a mascot for his first ever hamburger store, he scanned his trove of Walt Disney memories and looked for a character that embodied his philosophy in life: One who spread happiness but was very productive, as "busy as a bee."radar screen flew the image of a bee, a supporting, though often unnamed, character in Disney movies."The bee hops around, very busy, producing honey. This represents life’s sweet things. Because even if you’re busy, you have to be very happy. You have to be jolly. Because if you’re not happy, being busy is not worth it," smiles Tan Caktiong, 51, the only business tycoon I had ever met whose eyes twinkle when he smiles. ("They say I look like the Jollibee mascot!" he jokes.)Thus was born, "Jollibee" and the secret formula that was to guide Tan Caktiong into transforming a two-branch mom-and-pop ice cream parlor (with branches in Cubao and Quiapo) into the country’s leading fast-food chain: "Be busy, but most important, be happy."It is a simple philosophy that has guided Tan Caktiong’s life, and his ever-growing business (467 Jollibee stores in the Philippines and 30 abroad). After graduating from the University of Sto. Tomas in 1975 with a degree in Chemical Engineering, Tan Caktiong set up the Cubao Ice Cream House in the Coronet Theater and the Quiapo Ice Cream House with money lent by his parents. He was newly married to Grace, and needed a business in order to start a family.Because he was in the store everyday, he noticed that Filipinos are not satisfied with just ice cream when they venture out to eat.
We are in his office in the Jollibee Plaza at the Ortigas Center for this one-on-one interview and photo shoot with The STAR and PEOPLE Asia magazine.Like Tony Tan Caktiong, the office is bright, simple and uncluttered. It looks like a happy place and why not – Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) posted a net income of P383 million in the first three months of the year, an increase of 41.6 percent from the year ago level! The first hamburger served by the Cubao store, christened "Jollibee" in 1978, came from his sister’s recipe. From her also came the recipe of the palabok fiesta. "My role was purely that of taster!" says Tan Caktiong.Just as he realized he was not a cook, Tan Caktiong also realized very early on in the business that he had to rely on more than just the members of his family, supportive though they were, to build the business. "Early on, we organized the structure by hiring professionals. We realized that in terms of marketing, finance, human resources, we did not have the skill. So as early as then, we started delegating. We had a vision, we wanted to be big, we were driven!"So that meant being less parochial, although he admits that a typical Chinese-Filipino family tends to keep management positions within the clan. The decision paid off for Tan Caktiong, a father of three who unwinds by regularly playing tennis and taking pictures of beautiful landscapes with his state-of-the art Canon camera.In 1984, six years after Jollibee took flight, the company soared. It reached the P500-million sales mark, giving it a perch in the list of the Philippines’ Top 500 Corporations. In 1987, barely 10 years after it got its wings, Jollibee made it to the Philippines’ Top 100 Corporations. It then became the first Philippine fast-food chain to break the P1-billion sales mark in 1989. In 1994, it acquired Greenwich Pizza, and a year later, the franchise of Delifrance, an international food company. In 2000, Jollibee acquired Chow King, which allowed it to have leadership in the Oriental quick-service restaurant segment. Today, there are a total of 995 Jollibee, Greenwich, Chowking and Delifrance stores nationwide! Recently, JFC also acquired the Yong He food chain in Mainland China.

BRYAN TIU
Mr. Bryan Tiu grew up absorbing the entrepreneurial culture of Divisoria where his parents ran a textile business. Most of his father's clients were Japanese and his exposure to them led to his appreciation of Japanese culture.
As an aficionado of Japanese cuisine, Mr. Tiu saw a gap between Japanese fine dining and low-end Japanese restaurants. He saw this gap as a potential niche and was confident that he could provide good Japanese food without necessarily hurting the diners' pockets.In 2001, Mr. Tiu established his first Japanese casual dining restaurant in Madison Square Greenhills. The restaurant was named Teriyaki Boy, introducing the image of an animated Japanese boy to appeal to a more relaxed target market. Teriyaki Boy started to attract adolescents and young working professionals. Since then, it has built a loyal following from the C and B markets. By 2005, Teriyaki Boy's swift and steady growth prompted Mr. Tiu to consider a merger with a company that could ensure Teriyaki Boy's long-term presence in the industry. After a year of careful consideration, he signed a merger with the Lorenzo Group in late 2005. The Lorenzo Group now controls 70% of the Teriyaki Boy, and Mr. Tiu retains 30% ownership. This decision, he believes, was a major breakthrough in assuring Teriyaki Boy's future by stabilizing its presence in the industry. The merger has also allowed Mr. Tiu to focus on the aspects of business closest to his heart: site development and research and development for Teriyaki Boy.

SOCORRO RAMOS

In 1940, when Ms. Socorro C. Ramos was approaching 18, she began working as a salesgirl in Goodwill Bookstore in Escolta. The store was owned by her brother and his wife. The store was located on the ground floor of the building that housed Panciteria Nacional. Later on, because of her selling skills, she was put in charge of the store. She married Jose Ramos and together they started National Book Store.
After overcoming many hurdles brought by the Japanese occupatiom, fires, and natural disasters, National Book Store made its transition from a general merchandise store to a store that sells more than books. Upon finally settling in a nine-story building along Avenida Rizal in 1965, National Book Store has been growing nonstop. It has lived up to its name, selling school books, office supplies and even greeting cards. In 1973, Ms. Ramos successfully obtained licenses to reprint Hallmark greeting cards. She also convinced publishing giants like McGraw Hill, Prentice Hall, and Addison-Wesley to allow National Book Store to reprint textbooks, making them much more affordable to Filipinos.Today, nearly 65 years after the Ramos couple opened the first National Book Store in Escolta, the red and white colors of the company’s brand are seen in over 70 locations nationwide. In 1996, the family opened Powerbooks to address the reading public’s need for specialty books at affordable prices.
“Nanay Coring,” as she is fondly called, also deals with her 2,500 people with motherly concern, and has been rewarded with the loyalty of her employees and a relatively low turnover rate. Among her awards are the Agora Award for Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship (1991) and the DTI Outstanding Filipino Retailer Award (2001).
In the next five years, Ms. Ramos and her family plan to increase their stores to a hundred. Many communities still lack access to affordable books and school supplies, and Ms. Ramos’ goal is to widen National Book Store’s reach in the Visayas and Mindanao.

LOLITA HIZON Lolita O. Hizon is a Filipino entrepreneur and matriarch of Pampanga's Best, the pioneer in meat processing industry in Central Luzon.
Hizon's neighbor was a meat vendor who does not want to let some unsold pork get spoiled. Thus, she asked Hizon to help in cooking them. She came up with the formula to cure the meat. She revised the traditional Capampangan pindang or fermented pork to acquire a unique salty-sweet taste. She named it tocino which was derived from a sweet Spanish delicacy. She further refined the formula and processing procedures until her tocino turned out to be the cornerstone of a business and a staple item on a Filipino family's breakfast table.
Today, Pampanga's Best Inc. is a multi-million meat processing company operated and owned by the couple Angelo Dizon and Lolita Dizon and their children. It now offers Tocino, Hotdogs, Longaniza, Ham, Bacon, Tapa, Burger Patties, Corned Beef, Embotido, Barbecue, and Chicken Nuggets, which are distributed and sold by their partners nationwide. The company has acquired AAA Category, the highest level for a manufacturing plant, from the National Meat Inspection Service.
Hizon was one of the ten Filipino finalists of the first Entrepreneur of the Year International Search in 2003 by the Ernst & Young, a global leader in assurance, tax, transactions and advisory services. CECILIO PEDRO

Mr. Cecilio Kwok Pedro is the CEO and President of Lamoiyan Corporation which is popularly known as makers of the first Filipino toothpaste brand, Hapee toothpaste. He is born of Filipino-Chinese descent and he is a Business Management graduate of the Ateneo de ManilaUniversity and has received numerous awards and citations, including one of the TenOutstanding Young Men award for business entrepreneurship.He began his life in the business industry as the owner of Aluminum Containers, Incwhich was the major supplier of aluminum collapsible toothpaste tubes of multinationalconsumer goods giants Colgate-Palmolive and Philippine Refining Company - now Unilever Philippines. But when amajor shift occurred in the toothpaste segment both these companies junked their aluminum packaging for plastic laminated tubes. This caused the close down of Aluminum Containers, Inc. But Mr. Pedro didn¶t give up. He used his existing facilities and a lotof adamant determination and hard work and founded Lamoiyan Corporation.Mr. Cecilio K. Pedro is also a longtime Christian and for all the logic and deliberationthat went into building Lamoiyan,Pedro acknowledges a very important factor to his success:faith.Apart from his strong spirituality, Pedro has also won the admiration for his work inhelping people with disabilities, particularly the hearing-impaired.

ALFREDO YAO

Alfredo M. Yao is one of the most admired businessmen in the Philippines today. The two flagship companies of his sprawling Zesto Group are called Zest-O-Corporation and Zest Airways. The names couldn’t be more appropriate. After all, these are enterprises built on the foundation of Yao’s enormous enthusiasm for finding another way.Indeed, when his new packaging technology failed to gain traction, Yao started making juice to sell the pack. Thus, one of the country’s largest beverage companies — Zest-O-Corp. — was born. Similarly, when his airline, Zest Airways, faced headwinds in a highly competitive market, Yao created an entirely new route to operate flights. Not surprisingly, therefore, 68-year-old Yao is considered an inspiring and iconic personality in the Philippines.Popularly known as the ‘Juice King,’ the jet-setting businessman is not just the CEO of Zest-O-Corp. and Zest Airways but also the founder of a clutch of firms — Semexco Marketing, Inc., Harman Foods, Amchem Marketing, Inc., American Brands Philippines, Inc., SMI Development Corporation, and the Philippine Business Bank.But it is orange juice that made Yao a household name in his country. The Zest-O orange drink was introduced way back in 1981. Tasty and easy on the pocket, it was an instant hit. Today, Zest-O has an entire line of products — from juices and fruit sodas to kitchen preserves and purees. The company enjoys a nearly 80% share of the ready-to-drink market in the Philippines. Zest-O’s purees are exported to the U.S., Europe, China, Australia, and other countries.Out-of-the-box thinking is also the fuel for his most recent and ambitious venture, Zest Airways. In 2008, when Zest Airways began operations, it met stiff competition from four other local low-cost carriers on both the domestic and the international routes. Still, Yao took the route unexplored. He hit upon the idea of flying tourists from China and South Korea directly to beautiful tourist destinations in the Philippines, instead of to Manila.

MARIANO QUE
Mariano Que initially worked as an employee of a drugstore during the prewar era but like most typical successful entrepreneurs, Que found his opportunities after the war and during the advent of the American occupation. The destruction of the prewar establishments left everyone starting and rebuilding from scratch, and those who had a wider perception of the people’s needs seemed to had the greater advantage.Mariano Que saw the demand for sulfa drugs, since most of the Philippine pharmacies hardly had enough resources to go by. Using his prewar experience as a drugstore employee, Mariano invested 100 pesos worth of sulfathiazole tablets and peddled them in single doses so they could be affordable to the poverty-stricken sector. He rolled over his profits until he had enough money to build a wooden pushcart. That way, he could peddle a wider assortment of pharmaceutical products.Other peddlers imitated his marketing and selling strategy, but Que made a difference. He had a reputation for selling only quality and unexpired medical products, and soon enough he had a steady clientele. By 1945, Mariano had saved enough resources, which enabled him to set up his first store, aptly called Mercury Drug. The Roman god Mercury carried the caduceus symbol, which was largely associated with the medical profession.Despite the store’s establishment, Mariano invested in motorized vehicles in order to provide drug delivery services to his valued customers. He also expanded his store hours to 17 hours a day, 7 days a week, since he recognized that the need for medication may come unexpectedly. In 1952, the stores were open 24/7, which made the drugstore become a valuable part of the community.In 1960, the Ayala Group of Companies offered Mariano Que a space to lease in the shopping center that was about to be developed in the heart of Makati. Thus, the second Mercury Drug opened, this time as a self-service pharmacy. The rest is a history of more innovations and technological adoption of computer-guided controls and biological refrigerators. These improvements allowed the drugstore’s expansion into other life-saving medications.. Today, there are about 700 Mercury stores, some of which are under franchise. All these fulfilled Mariano Que's goal of bringing safe medication available and accessible to every Filipino community.

CORAZON D. ONG
Corazon D. Ong is a dietitian by profession who used her knowledge to create affordable processed meat products that could compete with the already well known and established processed meat brands. Initially, it was only a hobby where she could put to good use her creativity and skill in culinary arts. She came up with corned beef, hotdogs, meatloaf, hamburger patties and ham, an entity that she later sold as a home business.
She founded CDO Foodsphere in 1975; as the product’s reputation for affordable quality became widespread, the demand for CDO products likewise increased. The creative homemaker understood every mother’s need for quick lunch fixes for their children but convenience should also come in affordable packages. Corazon likewise understood the taste preferences of Filipino children but her knowledge of ingredients and their nutritional values gave her product the advantage.
Today, CDO Foodsphere is a highly-recognized supplier of meat toppings for Yum! Restaurant International, a known operator of global Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) , which includes Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell and Long John Silver . Locally, CDO supplies the meat toppings to nine out of ten QSRs operating in the Philippines. The clamor for CDO products stems from numerous awards and recognitions that the processed meat products have received, owing to their quality and excellence. Engineer Gregorio G. Sanchez
Gregorio G. Sanchez, Jr. is a civil engineer by profession formerly engaged in civil construction works. He served as a Provincial Board Member in Cebu City, where one of his concerns was the malnutrition among the pigs being raised. On his own, he went into research and performed experiments using only pots and pans and a small tank as his equipment. His persistence finally led to the development of a food supplement that would smother the bad bacteria in livestock, which he called “LactoPAFI Probiotic Bacteria.
The success of the probiotic bacteria developed by Engineer Sanchez later on gained global recognition as a superior bacterial strain for its ability to restore good bacteria to the body. This gave the engineer greater confidence for developing a health drink (LactoVitale) and personal care products like soaps, shampoos and toothpastes with LactoPAFI as an important ingredient. As a result, his LactoPAFI products are now being exported to Norway, France, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan and the U.S. The US FDA issued its approval of the product in 2005 while locally garnering recognition for product excellence from different award giving bodies.

Ernest L. Cu
Ernest L. Cu transformed a simple data entry service company into becoming one of the country’s largest outsourcing service providers. His company’s core business sources are mostly contracts for generating projects, which involve customer service relationships and IT services. The CRM services became quite successful, which spurred the growth of telemarketing services.
The demand led to the establishment of the first call center in the Philippines in 1999, which was initially called as “e Telecare International". The center is largely focused on providing U.S.companies' outsourcing needs. The call center company later changed its name to eTelecare Global Soltions in 2004.
Cu’s company greatly values the services of the human resources behind his company; hence he acknowledges that his most immediate social responsibility is to provide a lucrative source of livelihood to its more than 6,000 employees and their respective families.

DIOSDADO BANTAO

Diosdado Banatao was born to a rice farmer in an upland faming barrio in Cagayan Valley and to a plain housewife; hence, one would have hardly envisioned him as a Filipino version of Bill Gates,. As a child, he used to walk barefoot just so he could acquire an elementary and high school education. Determined to pursue a college education, he went to Manila, took up electrical engineering and eventually graduated cum laude.
Due to his excellent academic performance, he was able to land a job as a pilot trainee of Philippine Airlines. This paved the way for a job offer as a design engineer coming from Boeing Co., which brought him to the U.S. Thereafter, he pursued and completed a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University.
It was while working with some of the leading-edge technology companies that Diosdado Banatao had the opportunity to design the first single-chip 16-bit microprocessor-based calculator. In 1981, the inventorEthernet was looking for a more efficient method of linking computers and Diosdado was assigned by Seeq Technology to do the task. This was how Diosdado Banatao came to develop the single-chip controller that provided the data-link control and the transreceiver in the first 10-Mbit Ethernet CMOS.
Diosdado saw the opportunity of setting-up his own company by designing chip sets; in no time, he was able to raise $500,000 as seed capital to put up Monstroni 1985. His company’s determination paid off after they successfully developed the first system logic chip set that lowered the cost of building personal computers that were more powerful. He then went on to build another company called Chips and Technologies, which created another chips set for enhancing the so-called graphic adapter.
In less than a year, Diosdado’s company realized sales of $12 million in the first quarter alone, thus creating a tremendous response from investors when the company went public. In 1996, Diosdado sold the Chips and Technologies Co. to Intel for $430 million.
Diosdao Banatao went on to invest, oversee and sell companies by assuming the role of master investor and master capitalist. In all these successes, Diosdado never forgot his roots and Filipino heritage. His “Banatao Filipino American Fund” provides assistance to Northern California students who are of Filipino heritage, to help them build a future by pursuing a college degree in engineering. The elementary school he attended in Cagayan Valley is the only public school in the region with the most modern computer system.
These ten great Filipino entrepreneurs worked their way through different challenges in order to succeed. They succeeded by keeping their sights focused on goals that are governed by the values of business ethics and social responsibility.

TABLE OF CONTENT

1. HENRY SY SM SHOEMART
2. JOHN GOKONGWEI ROBINSONS MALL
3. TONY TAN CAKTIONG JOLIBEE FOODS CORP
4. BRYAN TIU TERIYAKI BOY
5. SOCORRO RAMOS NATIONAL BOOKSTORE
6. LOLITA HIZON PAMPANGAS BEST
7. CECILIO PEDRO LAMOIYAN CORP
8. ALFREDO YAO ZEST-O CORP
9. MARIANO QUE MERCURY DRUG
10. CORAZON D. ONG CDO FOOD CORP
11. GREGORIO SANCHEZ LACTO PAFI
12. ERNEST CU SPI-TECHNOLOGIES INC.
13. DIOSDADO BANTAO COMPUTER CHIPS
14. TENNYSON G. CHEN BOUNTY FRESH FOOD
15. WILFRED STEVEN UYTENGSU ALASKA MILK CORP

TENNYSON G. CHEN
Chen initially ventured into general construction upon graduation, but when the market turned bad in the 80s, Chen decided to invest in food production. Together with his siblings, Chen started an egg layer farm. Some years later Chen thought that the business was not growing at a rate he wanted, so he turned to breeding and growing livestock.According to Chen, he was not very knowledgable about the business he started—he had to live in a broiler farm for six months just to get a feel of the business. Soon enough, Chen put up the company, which would later be renamed “Bounty Fresh Food, Inc.,” and registered it with the Board of Investments.From its beginning in 1993 until 2005, the company went from producing 1,000 chicken dressings in 16 hours, to 6,000 an hour. Chen’s company was producing 70 to 80 million chickens a year, equivalent to PHP 9-11 billion sales. It is now the country's second largest broiler integration.Bounty Fresh was the first large-scale broiler farm to use environmentally controlled houses in the country. Two additional farms with a capacity for 720,000 broilers were also added for more produce.Believing that the industry needed to upgrade its practices to compete with its Asian neighbors, Chen pioneered some of the most modern systems for producing livestock including temperature and climate control and single-stage hatcheries. Bounty Fresh received an ISO Certification for Quality Management Systems, Food Safety Management Systems, Environmental Management Systems, and Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems. The company also won national and regional awards such as the Philippine Grand Slam Award for Best Meat Establishment from 2006 to 2009. The company is also a three-time winner of the Best Poultry Processing Plant in the Philippines.
In 2008, Chen put up Chooks to Go, a roast chicken chain. In two years, Chooks to Go has more than 1,000 stores nationwide, making it the number one rotisserie chicken chain in the country.
In 2011, Chen ventured into honey production upon entering a joint-venture agreement with Ielgat V.O.F. to put up Miel Internacional, Inc. The project was sponsored by the Dutch government through their private sector investment (PSI) program.
Chen is also the managing director of Hypig Genetics, Inc.

WILFRED STEVEN UYTENGSU
Wilfred Steven Uytengsu, Sr. was the founder of the Alaska Milk Corporation which is the leading publicly listed consumer foods company in the Philippines. It is the brand leader in the liquid category and a "strong second" in the powdered division. In 2009, he was ranked by Forbes as the 31st richest Filipino with a net worth of USD65 million. Uytengsu joined his father in managing the family business after he had his second degree. He first founded General Milling Corporation in the late 50s, which would become one of the largest food companies in the Philippines. In the early 70s, Uytengsu established Holland Milk Products, Inc., the manufacturer of Alaska Milk. The company was a partnership between the General Milling Corporation and dutch-based Holland Canned Milk International.
He later on merged Holland Milk and food group of General Milling and became Alaska Milk Corporation. The company went public in 1995 and has a market capitalization of P11.4 billion. Uytengsu also held key positions in other companies. He was a Director of Mandarin Oriental and the Winsconsin-based Universal Food Corporation. He was also an Independent Director of listed Kuok Philippines Properties, Inc.