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Big man in pharma industry named Tiny(Philippine Daily Inquirer Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) CALAMBA CITYPEOPLE have been calling him Tiny since his childhood because his elder brother, Bigboy, is taller than him. But they had no hint that someday he would be pioneering a company manufacturing growth-promoting vitamins, now popularly known as Cherifer. Standing 5 feet, 11 inches, Tomas Victorino Tiny Meneses, 56, is now a giant local entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical industry. Awarded by the Ernst and Young as the Master Emerging Entrepreneur in 2004, Meneses is the founding chair of the growing Meneses Group of Companies. The independent but interdependent companies within the group are Gruppo Medica Inc., which manufactures pharmaceuticals, food supplements, skin care products and veterinary products; and the distributing and marketing companies such as Time Machine Cosmetiques Inc., PMB Salon Specialties Inc., InterMed Marketing Philippines Inc. and Tynor Agrovet Division Inc. Meneses says this year marks the companies highest sales. Despite the difficulties experienced by other enterprises because of the economic downtrend, his group of companies has been growing since 2000. He says the companies aim to expand outside the countryAsian countries and the United States. In fact, the first shipment of their products to the US occurred just last month and he will leave the country this Friday to arrange the business marketing. Small capital After graduating from Ateneo de Manila with a humanities degree, Meneses immediately worked as a sales representative for Swiss pharmaceutical company Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis). I was a product of the First Quarter Storm during martial law and working with the pharmaceuticals was the most apolitical job at that time, Meneses says. He says that after working with Ciba-Geigy for four years and a half, he learned the Swiss work values. He recounts that the Swiss were strict. They never compromised quality and there were no short-cutting in manufacturing. The Swiss have made me learn that the right way is the only way to do it right, he says. Meneses resigned and immediately established his own company, the Tynor Drughouse Inc. here in 1978. I only had P300 cash in my pocket, a dream to be big, and a singular focus to achieve that dream, he says. Back then, they were trading me-too or common products. We found out that it is a venture with little value. But we can do well unless we lower the price, he says. Meneses realized that in order to succeed in business, he had to innovate. Constant innovation defines the difference between market leadership and just following the market. This principle led them to a new product line named Cherifer. He says the name is derived from their original product, Cherrys ferrous sulfate, an iron supplement. Cherry is the name of her sister. Cherifer, a food supplement, has vitamins with taurine, zinc and Chlorella Growth Factor (CGF), a growth and weight-promoting and cell-nourishing substance. He says their company then designed the products that they thought would capture the imagination of the market. Cherifer is a product that addresses a need that the Filipinos always havethe desire to be tall, he claims. He says that at first they were apprehensive that Filipino doctors would not patronize a product with components from a Japanese technology. However, they were surprised that Cherifer had been one of the most prescribed by pediatricians up to present. Some experts say that it is the CGF that makes the product work, others say it is the zinc, Meneses says. However, our company says it is the whole component of Cherifer that makes it work. Quality Meneses says he and his wife, Cynthia, had been practicing Total Quality Management (TQM) since the late 70s before it became popular as a business concept. It is Cynthia who is in charge of production quality. I have a very good housekeeper, a woman who knows how to run a business with production and supply chain efficiency, Meneses describes his wife. Their machine has been producing at 97 to 99 percent efficiency. He says when production costs go down, profits always go up. This results in price stability. He says it takes five years before they raise product prices. Apart from this, Meneses makes sure that their business is meeting the international standards that consists of good manufacture practice and water quality. He says their laboratories have been inspected by big multinational companies and they were commissioned to conduct studies on product development. We have studied on the manufacturing and designing of some of the products of MNCs and in order to do this, one must comply with the strict international standard, he adds. Big boss Another secret of the Meneses Group of Companies, the chair says, is the delegation of companys executives. My asset is my managers and pharmacists who graduated from the best schools and topped their respective board exams, he says. He adds that this is why they take good care of their employeesfrom the security guard and personnel to the top managers. We often treat the employees with tenure outside the country like Hongkong and Singapore, he says. Meneses says he always believes in the dignity of labor. A manager must know well the management of people. Currently, his group of companies employs around 300 persons in its four factories and main office. Meneses Group of Companies main office is located at Alabang while the four factories are in Calamba City. Copyright 2006 Philippine Daily Inquirer. Source : Financial Times Information Limited (Trademark) |