MAPping the Future

This 2023, we posted significant increase in Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) membership and inducted 161 new members, a 15-percent addition that brought the number to 1,200 by year-end. Stricter guidelines for accepting new members were also implemented as adopted in the revised guidelines on nomination.

Our continuing support for diversity and inclusion is evidenced by the 20-percent increase in our women membership, which now represents 25 percent of total. This year is also the first time in the history of MAP that four of the nine members of the MAP board are women.

Our succession planning also showed remarkable progress as MAP’s Next-Gen committee members (50 years old and below) increased by 50 percent and now comprise 17 percent of total membership.

MAP also increased its membership among regions in the country with the induction of 25 new members from Cebu.

Shared prosperity is manifested in how we take care of our employees. The board rationalized and enhanced the MAP Employees Retirement Fund to provide them with adequate financial security in their retirement years. The MAP Operations Sustainability Fund created by the 2014 board helped us finance the additional fund requirements for this.

Two important institutional events of MAP not only elevated our profile but also helped augment our coffers.

The International CEO Conference has evolved into MAP brand that has secured its place as a must-attend event to get inputs about trends and best practices useful to business leaders. We had another highly successful 21st International CEO Conference rated excellent by the delegates.

This year’s MAP Golf Cup for CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) on Nov. 21 drew a good number of players who enjoyed not only the camaraderie, but also being able to enhance our CSR programs.

Resilience and recovery

The advocacy of easing the education crisis, the comprehensive review of the tariff structure on agricultural products and the educational visits to various farms to promote urban and community farming are among the many accomplishments of our Resilience and Recovery Cluster.

MAP is now a member of the core team of the Early Grade Learning Coalition supporting the Department of Education in improving the quality of basic education.

Innovation

Recognizing the importance of protecting our respective businesses from cyberrisks, the ICT Committee conducted a forum “How to Protect Your Business from Emerging Cyber Risk.” We also supported the Philippine Blockchain Council’s international tech event.

Diversity, equity and inclusion

In celebration of Women’s month, a fireside chat featured the Ambassadors of Germany, United Kingdom and the United States in a discussion about gender and development.

To help high-performing young and future CEOs reframe the future of their companies, we continued the six-month interactive program of the “SGV -MAP NextGen CEO Transformative Leadership Program” for the third year.

Rounding up the cluster’s programs was the successful staging of the 4th MAP NextGen Conference on “Vision and Values: The Shifting Success Paradigm.”

Growth and development

We conducted the MAP— Asian Institute of Management Workshop for management educators, hosted by the West Visayas State University in Iloilo City. It was a business-academe interface that tackled the changing needs of 21st-century enterprises and how education can keep in step with the trends. A summit on “Transformational Pathways for Enterprise Success” was successfully held as part of our strategic human resource initiatives, and arts and culture lent its support to the Slow Food Movement event.

Environmental, social and corporate governance

A summit on “Shared Prosperity” was convened, with World Bank as co-presenter. It brought together stakeholders to collaborate and collectively produce a primer on how businesses can help uplift the poor out of poverty and improve quality of life for all.

We continued to keep members updated on national priorities concerning environment, natural resources and climate change. Likewise, MAP participated in the historic multi-sectoral partnership of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) with business/professional organizations to improve taxpayer service.

Support for advocacies

We revived the breakfast dialogue series, a monthly closed-door huddle between government officials and business leaders to discuss burning issues of the day, explore areas for cooperation and be enlightened on game-changing policy directions. The BDB Law–MAP Breakfast Dialogue sessions held four of these dialogues with decision-makers:

• Second Congressional Commission on Education co-chair and Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who discussed the country’s urgent needs to improve education;

• Anti-Red Tape Authority Secretary Ernesto Perez, on ease of doing business,

• Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla and Energy Regulatory Commission chair and CEO Monalisa Dimalanta on the Philippines’ energy situation; and

• Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, on fighting corruption in government.

The Business MAP

The programs we are undertaking shone the spotlight on MAP’s role as an active voice in the industry. To solidify and strengthen MAP’s role in articulating our positions and in helping shape public opinion, we have secured a partnership with CNN Philippines for a seven-minute segment aptly named “The Business MAP” airing every Wednesday from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. in “The Final Word with Rico Hizon.”

State of MAP 2023

The 2023 MAP board worked hard with the rest of the committees to bring about all these accomplishments. The better news is that even with these so many projects and the return to face-to-face meetings this year, we will still post a positive bottom line this year, with improved total assets and healthy cash position.

This will be a good starting point for the incoming 2024 board elected with the highest voters’ turnout ever in the history of MAP, where 49 percent of total membership participated.

All that was accomplished was because so many had contributed their efforts, time, funds and all-out support to the board and MAP. Together, we all enabled a strengthened MAP organization that capacitated us to pursue our mission of management excellence, be the voice in social and national development, the hub of innovative ideas and solutions, and the leadership that keeps pushing our advocacies forward.

I am personally thankful for the opportunity to serve. This responsibility became a learning experience, the lessons distilled in three takeaways: purpose, pragmatism and precedence.

 

 

This was lifted from the valedictory address delivered recently by the author as the 2023 MAP president. The author is the founding partner and CEO of Du-Baladad and Associates. Feedback at map@map.org.ph and dick.du-baladad@bdblaw.com.ph.