Category: Lala’s Notes

• LALA’s BOOK NOTES: ‘Liem Sioe Liong’s Salim Group: The Business Pillar of Suharto’s Indonesia’

  This biography explores how the Salim Group mastered Indonesia’s political economy under Suharto to build a massive conglomerate. When Suharto fell, the empire nearly collapsed. Offshore, Filipino banker Manny Pangilinan fiercely protected their Philippine assets, famously blocking a desperate sale of PLDT to rival tycoon John Gokongwei.

• LALA’s BOOK NOTES: Escaño – A Family Portrait

  Chronicled in the book, the Escaño family built a historic Philippine shipping and power monopoly. Today, they remain highly relevant through strategic dynastic alliances and diversified modern enterprises. They co-manage the Visayan Electric Company alongside the Aboitiz family, while their Lhuillier branch operates the massive Cebuana Lhuillier network.

• LALA’s BOOK NOTES: ‘Aboitiz – Family & Firm in the Philippines’

  This book is more than a standard corporate history. It is a strategic post-mortem of a family’s survival against total erasure. Tracing the Aboitiz empire from a 19th-century Basque trading post to a massive Philippine conglomerate, it asks a defining question: Can your business survive a century of storms?