Washington Sycip quotes Lao Tzu: "The Way to do is to be."
The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said, “The way to do is to be.”
Mr. Sycip writes: "Lifelong learning is a value that has been ingrained in SGV’s corporate culture. Besides the training one receives on the job, it was the first professional services firm to institutionalize its training program. In addition, as early as the 1950s, staff members were already being sent abroad as scholars to the best graduate schools. Since the Asian Institute of Management was established in the late 1960s, generations of SGV professionals have graduated from the school. To this day, there remains a very close association between the two institutions."
Born in Manila on June 30, 1921 to Albino and Helen SyCip, Washington SyCip would go on to become one of the foremost practitioners of accounting in the Philippines and Asia, as well as a prime advocate of closer cooperation between the Philippines, the United States, Europe and Asia.
He passed the examination for Certified Public Accountants at age 18, but was too young to receive a professional license to practice. He decided instead to take his PhD in the United States at Columbia University. SyCip was working on his doctoral dissertation when Pearl Harbor and Clark Air Base were bombed. He returned to Manila at the war’s end to be reunited with his family. Seeing great opportunities in the country’s postwar reconstruction, he set up his own accounting firm, W. SyCip & Co., in Binondo. As the business grew, SyCip with his longtime friend Alfredo M. Velayo, renamed the firm SyCip, Gorres, Velayo & Co. (SGV).
After retiring from SGV in 1996, he continues to be active in business and civic endeavors, and sits on the board of many Philippine and international companies and foundations. His advocacies include the improvement of public education, micro finance and entrepreneurship, and public health. He is relentless in his pursuit to help alleviate poverty. A staunch believer in Filipino talent, SyCip is also an avatar of economic freedom.
Sources and Photo Credits: http://www.washingtonsycip.org/wash-biography/ http://www.washingtonsycip.org/reflections-at-90-part-one/
History of Business School Education in the Philippines:
When World War II ended, the Philippines was a devastated republic struggling toward rehabilitation and recovery. The business industry was seeing the emergence of young entrepreneurs and professionals. With schools rebuilding themselves, graduate programs wanting in qualified faculty, and family firms growing, Filipino professionals who could run corporations and provide direction to the country’s economic development were a valuable but scarce resource. Against this backdrop, SGV Group founder Washington SyCip and other businessmen brought together top educational and business organizations to establish a full-time MBA program designed to meet the demands of a rising and integrating Asian region. What started out as an idea evolved into what we now know as the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).
More than 40 years later, AIM’s W. SyCip Graduate School of Business continues to train the next generation of leaders and managers for Asia’s emerging markets. Since 1968, more than 5,000 graduates from 27 countries have used AIM’s MBA as their passport to a lifelong career.
The WSGSB's mission statement flows from Mr. SyCip's advocacy for the professionalization of management- to develop competent socially responsible managers for global enterprise.