MANELS Leathergoods Corporation Chairman Manuel M. Siggaoat encouraged MMSU’s Class of 2007 to give more attention to looking for opportunities to create jobs and recommended two areas which they can explore as future business.

This he did as he addressed the latest batch of 1,287 MMSU graduates during their commencement exercises last April 12 at the Sunken Garden.

Siggaoat, also chairman of Manels Leather Asia, which manufactures and exports bags and other leathergoods, told the graduates to give less attention to looking for jobs and be entrepreneurs instead.

“We need young people who will find the idea, grab the opportunity, take risk, and set aside comfort to set up businesses that will provide jobs,” he said.  He added that it is the young entrepreneurs of Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore that created dynamic businesses that have propelled their countries to the top.  He advised the graduates not to be lulled into complacent and comfortable life by high-paying jobs; instead these should “propel you toward entrepreneurship”. 

Siggaoat recommended the production of high-value fruits and vegetables and fish and livestock products for export to Northeast Asian neighbors as a potential business venture.  He said that Northeast Asian economies will be highly dependent on Southeast Asia for food imports. For instance, Taiwan, he said, is rapidly losing its agricultural lands to urbanization and industrialization, thus, it will not be able to feed its population without imports.  “Northern Luzon will play a key role in this.  You can make your millions by feeding our countrymen and our Asian neighbors,” he said.

He also told the graduates to invest in tourism specifically in areas that have something to do with arrival, accommodation, and attraction as this part of the country, he said, has rich natural and man-made spots.

“You can live the spirit of entrepreneurship beyond the walls of business.  Entrepreneurship is taking on a whole new attitude.  It is a matter of perspective.  It is a matter of becoming open to new ways of doing things.  It is about your willingness to take risks – stepping outside your comfort zone for the hope of something better,” he explained.

This big-time Ilocano entrepreneur related to the graduates how Manels started as a small drug store bought from the couple’s P2,000 savings and a salary loan of another P2,000 in 1964.  It was later converted into a grocery and pharmacy store – typical of many convenience stores today – which the couple called Manels Grocery and Pharmacy.  After two years, a gift shop was added to the store.  In four years, the coupled added a beauty parlor, a canteen, and a shoe store.

Today, Manels has 40 retail outlets for the leathergoods lines, another 15 stores of new concepts, and eight outlets of department stores. The family also has interests in food, service, and management consultancy.

Siggaoat told the graduates he left a high-paying and prestigious job even if the risks of growing their business were high.  “Instead,” he said, “I saw the vast opportunity to contribute to economic development by helping the country create jobs and generate foreign exchange which the country needed from our factory that started from our garage with three workers.”

Finally, he congratulated the teachers “WHO SACRIFICED MORE LUCRATIVE CAREERS TO HELP MOLD THE MINDS OF THE YOUTH.”