President Cavender gives students business talk

Media

Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: President Cavender gives students business talk
Language: English
Source: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume XIII (No. 10) October 1933
Year: 1933
Rights
Fulltext: : October, 1933 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 7 President Cavender Gives Students Business Talk His address of September 28 to Students of the College of Business Administration, University of the Philippines The Philippines is a young nation, a nation that in the future will play an important part in the history of the Far East. Your country stands at the cross roads of the trade routes of the Far East, but, so long as you are economically unprepared, just so long will you lose the benefits of your geographical position. It is the appreciation of this fact that renders your training in business impor tant, not only to yourselves as individuals but to your country as a whole. Towards this end, you have govern ment agencies whose major projects and objectives are to encourage and assist the young Filipino of today to appre ciate the unlimited opportunities and resources these islands offer to a deter mined and ambitious young people. To wards this end, you have your educa tional system, including this higher col lege of business administration, which —through its efficient Faculty and ade quate curriculum—is to train you in those basic principles and functions that are the foundation of sound and prog ressive commercial achievement. We all want to progress. Every busi ness man and woman wants to progress. Let me mention three attributes of prog ress and their relation to the indivi dual and to business enterprise. Sincerity. There is no such thing as progress unless there is sincerity of pur pose. Unless you are sincere, your whole effort, your whole life, all your training in this College of Business Administra tion goes for naught. Courage. Progress in business requires courage. Few individuals, few enterprises escape stress and storm. Obstacles arise. Plans go awry. Fate often seems de termined to crush us, and we are as often tempted to say “What’s the use!” That is where courage comes to the rescue of progress. True courage springs from the consciousness that one is striving worthily—from an innate conviction that one deserves to succeed. Patience. Hand in hand with sincerity and courage, progress in business de mands patience. Patience alone can make us keep carrying on. . Now then, what is your goal? To succeed in life. To strive to contribute something to your country, its work and its people. To be an asset to your country rather than a liability. To seek progress as an individual and as a citizen. Today the ultimate goal of most Filipino boys and girls seems to be Manila—in other words, the big city. That is all very well, but, the wide-awake ambitious young Filipino of today should see that the greatest—and practically un touched by him—opportunities for progress in'business are not altogether in the big city. The big untouched oppor tunities to build and strengthen the economic structure of your country seem to lie not in Manila, the big city, but in the provinces. ■ No doubt many of you have come from the provinces to Manila to study in this advanced College of Business Admin A Pat Example Jos6C. Jacinto of 433 Muelle de Binondo is a business man 47 years old. Twentyfive years ago he was a young school teacher on pay of about I*2d a month, in various towns of Nueva Ecija. When he married he could not pay the priest until he got his pay at the close of the school month. But he had it in his mind, even then, to work hard and suc ceed. He is now an importer and whole sale merchant. He buys for cash, sells for cash. He has a wholesale-retail store at Quezon, Nueva Ecija, where he also has a rice farm of 162 hectares of land with 42 families farming it. His rice crop is 6,000 or 7,000 cavans a year. He has a retail store at Licab, Nueva Ecija. He supplies provincial merchants in 4 central-Luzon provinces from trucks of his that make regular rounds, a truck to each province. These trucks rep resent a costly experience to him, but he says the experience was worth all it cost. He ventured in the land-transport business, competing with a wealthy company, tried for years and finally closed out the venture with a loss of 1*25,000. But in that business he learned about trucks and how to keep them in repair and keep operating costs down. He has a home in Manila as well as at his farm. Ten children have been born to him. They are all getting good educa tions. His oldest son is an undergraduate at the University of the Philippines. Jacinto pdre had hardly more than a primary-school education. Business has made him able to do far better than that for his own children. His career exemplifies the business counsel Mr. Cavender's address to the students of the college of business contains. istration. Now, take your knowledge back to your province and enter upon your business career there—give your town and your townmates the benefit of your t raining. There is your opportunity to expand and to en large the participation of Filipinos in the domestic trade system of your coun try. There are today some successful young Filipino businessmen in the prov inces—young men who started very humbly and now occupy respectable positions in the business life of their respective communities. 1 say tnere are some, but I also say there could and should be more Filipino business men and women throughout the provinces—starting from the bottom and building up the small businesses to sizable businesses—building up and strengthening the economic structure of the whole country. It is something you students today should not overlook when you enter upon your business career. I have said you have government agencies working to help you to recog nize your unlimited opportunities in your own country. Director Coniesor of the bureau of commerce, in a recent address before the Rotary Club, pointed out that one of the major projects of the bureau is to enlarge the participation of Filipinos in the domestic trade system of the country— that his bureau is making its strongest appeal to the young people in the schools and colleges. The bureau stands ready to help its country men, is urging more young men and women to go into business, and is making the appeal that any legitimate business, however humble and small, is a public service; that there is open today to young men and young women a more unlimited field in business than in any other line of pro fessional undertaking. In carrying out this project—to encourage and accomplish the participation of Filipinos in the domestic trade of the country—the bureau is inspired toward the end that the young men and young women of the Philippines take full advantage of the opportunities that they have at hand, thereby contributing to their own welfare and to the progress of their native land. The bureau strives to imbue in these young people a spirit of self-respect, self-reliance, and self-confidence. Now you know better than I do what your College of Business Administration is doing for you, how it is training you in the theories of marketing, advertising, merchandising and adapting products for the market, choice of marketing channels—sales, sales force, sales quota, sales promotion—the various phases of management, financial, production, personnel. Your college is equipping you with those perquisites that when sensibly applied will enable you to pursue your chosen career along the road and up the ladder to success. And mind you, that road has many mile posts. That ladder has many rungs. This training that you are receiving in this university, the encouragement and assistance your government is so willingly offering, will go a long way to wards helping you around the turning points and obstacles in your business career, and progress. What more does a young man or young woman of today need! I know that you college students do not like to listen to the old story that you must start from the bottom. I recall that when I was in school a businessman came—just as I come before you today—to speak on the opportunities awaiting us upon the completion of our studies and training, to tell us that the ladder to success started from the bottom and not from the top. That hurt our pride. If we had to start from the bottom, why were we spending all these months and years in training to be executives in business? Nevertheless, we were soon to find out that the lower rung in the ladder was the starting point and that the young man with the advantages of training was more often the man to climb all the rungs to the top. My observations, during a little over 12 years residence in the Philippine Islands, have led me to one conclusion, that the biggest possible progress of the Filipino youth is to be made in the field of business, small businesses that start from the bottom, thrive and grow to sizable businesses. We have already seen, in the short space of only a few years, Filipinos accomplish this very objective. Why not follow in those footsteps? Realize upon the ever present possibilities for success in business! Success—the result of pioneer ing in some particular field of business and carrying it on to that success! New history is waiting to be written. Your resolve, your earnestness coupled with your advantages in training will determine vour place in the progressive business life of this country. You young people are to be congra tulated upon your selection of a business career as your profession in life.