For Udenna’s Dennis Uy, building a business is about taking calculated risks and trying to disrupt
SINGAPORE (Oct 14): Dennis Uy, 46, always knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur. It was clear to him, even as a young boy, that he wanted to create something to serve consumers in any capacity. One could say it was in his blood.
“From an early age, I was exposed to the [business activities of] my parents and grandparents, who were all entrepreneurs. I decided [as a child] that I would someday manage my own business and time, and make my own decisions,” Uy tells The Edge Singapore. “I had a dream to set up my own business, to compete and stand out.”
Uy is founder, chairman and president of Udenna Corp, one of the Philippines’ largest conglomerates, with a diverse portfolio of businesses such as oil and gas, shipping, logistics, real estate, education and gaming. He also recently made his debut on Forbes’ list of the Philippines’ richest, with a net worth of US$660 million ($914.5 million). Uy has been named winner of this year’s EY Asean Entrepreneurial Excellence award. Previous winners include Tony Fernandes of AirAsia and Stephen Riady, executive chairman of OUE.
The start of Uy’s entrepreneurial journey was no bed of roses, though. “I actually did not set out to be an entrepreneur right away,” he says. “I worked for 10 years for my family before I went [out] on my own. I didn’t really have a choice. I had to pay my dues [after they supported] me in my schooling.”
Using his own funds, he started a restaurant; then, at some point, he decided to venture into the petroleum industry. “For lack of resources, I had to make a choice and decided to go all in in the petroleum business. I sold my restaurant business to my sister.” He then started Oilink Mindanao Distribution in 2002, before it was incorporated as Davao Oil Terminal Services Corp in 2004.
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“My company started as a joint venture, but it lost money, so the venture fell apart. I was eventually left with an oil depot, 12 employees and no revenue,” he recalls. “Several things were working against me. I had limited working capital, I had no access to bank financing and I was competing in an industry dominated by major players.”
By his own description, he was a “probinsyano” (someone from the provinces or sometimes unflatteringly compared with “hillbilly”) doing business in Davao City, far from the capital of Manila, which was another factorworking against him. Furthermore, his attempt to work with partners to revive his fledgling oil company were unsuccessful.
“I spoke to some new oil players and offered them the opportunity to lease the property, but to no avail. So, I decided to do the business on my own. It was a huge risk, having invested all my life savings in the oil company,” he says. It was not until 2005 that the company got its big break when then up-and-coming airline Cebu Pacific Air became its major client.
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“But still, it wasn’t smooth sailing,” Uy recalls. “We needed inter-island shipping services, but nobody or few wanted to serve us, as we had [an unproven] track record. Eventually, we were forced to buy our own tanker, with short-term financing at high rates. We had to do what we had to do to serve our supply chain. We had no choice but to persevere.”
Today, Davao Oil Terminal Services Corp is known as Phoenix Petroleum, the Philippines’ largest independent fuel retailer (and part of Udenna Corp). It is also the first inde-pendent oil company to be listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange.
Serial risk-taker
Uy sometimes gets asked about his diverse portfolio of businesses and taking on large debts to fund ventures into different businesses, such as telecommunications. He has been highly successful so far. For example, Dito Telecommunity, Udenna’s joint telecom venture with China Telecom, won a licence to offer a nationwide cellular service in the Philippines and is now the third-largest telco in the nation. But he knows the risks of his aggressive bid for success.
“Entrepreneurship is not easy. It is a lot of risk. There are a lot of sleepless nights — you can always lose it all. In fact, I consider all other business people as role models because they risk not only capital and time but take on a huge responsibility for their employees, the whole group,” he adds.
He is not about to rest on his laurels, though. “To deal with today’s business challenges, I’ve always gone by one motto: Work harder and smarter than the rest. As much as we can, we try to predict the movements in the market before they happen. Usually, those who wait for the market will find it hard to catch up.”
He jokes that he has always thought of himself as “having more balls than brains”, suggesting that he has more gumption than caution.
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“It means that we’re more risk-takers, always trying to disrupt and challenge the incumbent. But, of course, not to the point of being careless or reckless. I always tell my team that we were a success yesterday, so tomorrow is always different,” he adds.
In fact, when he was submitting his bid for Dito to be the Philippines’ third major telco, he almost did not realise the huge task that lay ahead. “The night before the submission of the bids for the third telco [Dito], I remember being asked by a team member — after all the documents for the bids had been prepared and in place, ready to be submitted: ‘Oh no, what happens if we win?’” Uy says.
“We had a laugh about it. We were so engrossed with the particular details that go into crafting a competitive bid that perhaps it was only at this moment — during a lull before the storm, so to speak — that we fully appreciated the [immensity] of the task before us if we did win.”
Goal for longevity
Even as he pursues new businesses, Uy remains focused on his plan for Udenna. “Our vision has always been clear. [We want] to be an indispensable partner in nation building, driven by passion to improve the lives of Filipinos,” he says. “The currency of the new economy is trust, and our goal is for Udenna to be indispensable, reliable, sustainable.”
He wants to maintain a strong leadership team. “I always tell our leaders that the business should be able to operate or go on without me. I aspire for our businesses to last [and] outlive me. The goal is to have a multi-generational business.”
Uy makes it a point to meet with his business unit heads regularly, no matter how busy he is. “As long as you really want to, you can always find time. But, of course, you’ll have to sleep less in the process,” he jokes.
Uy has a lot of admiration for the game-changers and disruptors of industry such as Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffet, Alibaba Group Holding’s Jack Ma and Apple’s
Steve Jobs. “Jack Ma literally created something out of nothing. These people really challenged the status quo and brought everyone out of their comfort zones.”
Still, at the heart of it all, Uy believes leadership begins with knowing how to be a follower. He realises that the fundamental principle of leadership lies in the lesson he learnt from the very beginning, from his days of working for the family business. “If you want to be a good leader, you also have to be a good soldier.”
