A Catholic Family Business from the Context of the Catholic Filipino Culture

This article will help inform readers how developing a family
business from an Asian Catholic cultural perspective can
prosper the family and help the industries in which they
operate their small business.

What does family business development from an Asian Catholic
cultural perspective involve? Before we list down some point
as regards this, let us examine in more detail what being Asian
and Catholic really mean. For purposes of our study, we
consider Asian to mean Chinese-Filipino - meaning the merging of
Chinese business influence on Filipino entrepreneural families.
And also for the purpose of our study, let us consider Catholic
to mean the use of the Roman Catholic religion, especially
popular devotions, as a means of obtaining financial favors
from God.

The economic context of this article takes into reality the
phenomenon of Chinese-Filipino tycoons and taipans who came
from mainland China and migrated to the Philippines in order
to find opportunities for livelihood. Many of these
Chinese-Filipino business tycoons and taipans started their
big corporations from virtually very little capital. It was
their style of integrating business, the Catholic religion,
and what is popularly known as the ancient Chinese science
of feng shui, that help develop their business
enterprises into the well-known corporations, that serve a
big part of the Philippine economy.

Many Filipinos became employees of these Chinese-Filipino
entrepreneurs. Those who became loyal in their service,
learned well the business practices of their employers and
eventually applied what they learned when they went on their
own in doing business. And following the pattern of their
Chinese-Filipino employers, they built their businesses on
the foundation of the Catholic Filipino family - which is
an extended family structure.

Although each particular Chinese-Filipino corporation have
their own specific styles of doing business and operating
in Catholic Philippines, there are common traits which the
Catholic Filipinos have learned to assimilate in their own
styles of doing business. Listed below are some of these
styles which have been applied in many different ways by
Catholic Filipinos who have embarked on their own family
business development.

• One very traditional way of proceeding in family
  business development is to operate the small business
  enterprise through conservative and traditional financial
  strategies: targetting to obtain income through small
  investments. The ideal in this financial strategy is to
  obtain for big financial returns on small investments by
  selling inexpensive items in bulk.
• In line with the traditional and conservative method
  of investing cited above, capitalization is therefore low,
  capital expenditures is not big, and working fund requirements
  are thus kept to a minimum. The head of the family can thus
  start with a car, a computer system, a fax machine, landline
  and mobile phones.
  As regards utilities expense of both office and store, they
  are integrated into the household's and family's expenses.
• As starters, in founding the family business, part of the
  house is converted into office space and store space, in order
  to save on rental fees.
• The prospecting of clients and customers, and the use of
  banks, are focused within the area of the house/office to save
  on gasoline expense. Also, if the family lives near the
  Catholic parish, the family business can also have business
  contacts and customers from among the Catholic population of
  the parish.
• Employees and working personnel are members of the family.
  This saves a lot on salaries and wages. Also, the clannish
  and extended family setting of Asians, most especially the
  Chinese and Filipinos, can be used to obtain more help from
  relatives. In this set-up, any member of this extended
  family business system can have his or her own small business
  and share the benefits of the connections of the extended
  family system. The Chinese call this network,
  guanx hi.
• For starters, in order to gain income and reduce income
  tax expense, the family business can be initially known as
  part of the informal business sector in order to gain the
  benefits of tax exemptions from the government.
• This family business will be developed and built well,
  and have an increase in initial growth when the working hours
  are made flexible. The extra added services gain more loyal
  customers, the stabilization of a client base, and lots of
  repeat sales and business.
• As the family business develops more its technological
  knowhow and constantly upgrades its communication systems and
  computers, operating costs in running the business are lessened
  in the long run. A good communication and computer system can
  lessen the need to make trips and thus lessen gasoline
  expenses.

What is the advantage of Catholic culture in family business
development? Although the family business enterprise can serve
not only Catholics, doing business with Catholics as a majority,
ensures that everyone involved in the family's small business
enterprise, have a basic grounding on shared values and ethics
in business, as taught by the Church. Aside from being governed
by secular ideals, this family business is also conscious of its
conscience in all its business operations. Moreover, the spirit
of family, which also is strong in the Catholic faith, is very
much supportive of anything that strengthens the institution of
the traditional family set-up.