Acquisitions, synergy and technology are the main topics of the Aboitiz Group

The Aboitiz Group reinforced its transformation goals for 2024 and beyond by putting its partnerships, acquisitions and cross-business opportunities in the spotlight at the 8th annual Leadership Conference (LeadCon) held this month. Over 500 Aboitiz leaders gathered for the conference at the Solaire Grand Ballroom, where the Group not only showcased its growth strategies, but also showcased its cutting-edge innovations, including its first pair of artificial intelligence-powered virtual team members.

Under the LeadCon theme of “Unlocking the Potential of the Techglomerate,” the Group summarized the steps it has taken in recent years to become the first techglomerate in the Philippines. As the Group has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, it is poised to create a sustainable business ecosystem among many diverse companies that will become the core of its strategy in the coming years.

The Aboitiz Group is in the third year of its Great Transformation initiative, where everything from culture to processes to technology is evolving at a rapid pace. Aboitiz Group President and CEO, Sabin M. Aboitiz, emphasized the need for team leaders to internalize the value of transformation and be an example to their team members.

“Our people will never change unless our leaders do, and our leaders will never change unless they know why they do it and why it is important. It is our responsibility as leaders to ensure everyone is supported. When we truly care about our teams, we create leadership that inspires rather than motivates,” said Sabin Aboitiz.

Sabin Aboitiz added that LeadCon is an opportunity for the Group’s team leaders to learn the key factors unlocking the techglomerate’s potential for their teams – namely strategy, synergies and transformation – directly from Aboitiz’s top management team. Each of the event’s key speakers presented the Aboitiz Group’s vision for transformation and the opportunities that lie ahead.

Chris Beshouri, chief strategy officer at Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV), outlined the rapid transformation of the Aboitiz Group over the past decade following the divestment of its shipping and transportation businesses. In such a short period of time, the Group has grown to become a major conglomerate, diversifying its business interests through major acquisitions such as Citibank’s Philippine consumer banking business, operating and managing the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, and purchasing a 40% stake in Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines Inc., among others.

The group has also entered into major partnerships. One of them is a collaboration with Japan’s largest energy company JERA and a separate partnership with Meralco PowerGen and San Miguel Global Power Holdings for the country’s first and most expansive integrated LNG facility in a deal valued at $3.3 billion. In just three and a half years, the Aboitiz Group has closed deals worth £255 billion. According to Beshouri, this is the clearest signal of the Group’s transformation so far.

“The goal of transformation is to make an impact. This Group’s potential for economic impact is enormous. If we add the market value of the Group (Aboitiz), we get an estimated 4-5% of the total capitalization of the PH exchange for 2023,” Beshouri said.

Meanwhile, Eduardo Aboitiz, AEV’s Director of Synergies, discussed the important role that synergies will play in achieving the Group’s goals. Eduardo contextualized synergies as activities in which Aboitiz companies work together, improving value creation and making the entire Group more than the sum of its parts.

He said the group is not starting from scratch. The history of Aboitiz began with the production of manila. From Manila, the Group began producing ropes and selling them mainly to the maritime industry, which eventually became the Group’s flagship business for over 80 years.

Today, the Aboitiz ecosystem is broader, providing more opportunities for synergies. A simple example is AboitizPower (AP), which reliably supplies 100 MW of power at competitive prices to its sister companies such as Republic Cement, Pilmico, UnionBank, Aboitiz Infracapital and Coca-Cola. The group also uses synergies to strengthen its economic assets. The group combines its various assets such as energy, water, construction and banking to create a stronger offering for property locators, increasing value for all parties involved.

Other initiatives are also being implemented. Nevertheless, Eduardo emphasized that enormous opportunities remain untapped. He challenged everyone to maximize synergy and integrate the thinking of every member of the Group’s team.

“Synergy doesn’t start and end with the people in this room. Everyone can contribute. As we embark on this journey, we will begin to see more and more connections. When we maximize these connections, we can become a fully integrated ecosystem and undergo a complete transformation,” he said.

Not only the Group’s companies but also individual team leaders are called upon to transform. AEV’s Chief Transformation Officer, Dea Franko-Csuba, urged leaders to be adaptive and open to technologies, processes and behaviors that can improve themselves, their teams and the company. She emphasized the need to use new technologies that will help teams automate and optimize work processes, such as artificial intelligence (AI).

“A transformed Aboitiz Group is not the end goal. The future of our industry is unfolding before our eyes, and we must constantly reimagine ourselves on the fly. To build an adaptive, intelligent organization, we must shift from command-and-control leadership to an agile, empowering leadership style in which leaders define where we are and where we are going, but the team figures out how to get there through a collaborative effort,” said Franko- Csuba.

As a highlight of her discussion, she introduced the Aboitiz Group’s first-ever virtual team members, Elsie and Albert. AI avatars were presented on stage and provided useful summaries of presentations throughout the conference. They were also available to answer questions before attending the event, demonstrating how AI can help leaders and their teams.

LeadCon also welcomed guest speaker Michael JT Steep, founder of Stanford University’s Disruptive Technology Program, who mentioned the need for innovation to facilitate transformation. He advocated the use of artificial intelligence to support business growth and encouraged leaders to not only focus on being efficient employees, but also on empowering people and networking skills to find the experts their companies need.

The Aboitiz Group Leadership Conference brings together team leaders from the various business units of the Group to establish direction and strategy, as well as exchange best practices and achievements within the Group. This year’s conference returns to the status of a major live event, after several years of being held virtually or in a hybrid format.