As 2012 ended, I looked at the performance of our leading tycoons and business moguls. The one who stood out is Ramon S. Ang, the vice chair, president and chief operating officer of San Miguel Corp. He is the chair and CEO of Petron Corp. and the president and COO of Philippine Airlines.

Of course, there are other outstanding CEOs. Like Andrew Tan whose first-mover foray into casinos has paid off handsomely. His Resorts World casinos and hotels in Pasay near NAIA 3 have become must-visit places and now make more money than Pagcor itself.

There is Aurelio Montinola III who made Bank of the Philippine Islands the country’s most valuable and most profitable bank without making the once snooty lender greedy and finding profit at every turn. In fact, BPI is today one of the friendliest banks.

I would have wanted to congratulate Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, the chair and CEO of Ayala Corp. which controls BPI. But the service of Ayala’s telco subsidiary just sucks. Just read Solita Monsod’s column on the horror story of her daughter with Globe last December (Google ‘Solita Monsod’s horror story’) to see how bad Globe Telecom has become.

I blame JAZA for Globe’s deterioration and decadence, not Ernest Cu, on the principle of command responsibility. My Globe broadband is still in slow mode three months after I complained. I get text messages a day late. I make many lost calls. Thanks to Globe.

By the way, Ayala Corp. is now going into businesses defined six years ago by SMC as growth areas—roads and highways, power, utilities, airports. Ayala is bidding to build and operate Cebu’s Mactan International Airport and somebody in government had the foresight to disqualify SMC from bidding by stating that anybody who operates an air transport business is not qualified. Isn’t that neat?

Back to Ramon Ang. He has defined the strategic businesses of the future and by so doing he has defined the direction of the economy and the country.

Those businesses are where nearly all the largest conglomerates (including latecomer Ayala) are going today—power, infrastructure, utilities, roads and highways, mining, tourism and airports.

Of late, RSA has added the airline business with San Miguel’s acquisition of erratic Philippine Airlines, paying $500 million for 49 percent ownership and management control. Ramon has discovered the secret of making an airline profitable (it is a very difficult business)—build your own airport.

Accordingly, Ramon has finalized plans to build a two-runway gateway airport some 15 minutes driving distance to Makati. That could mean Parañaque, Cavite or even Bulacan if he can build an expressway fast. Ramon promises to deliver the airport in three years time.

Today, San Miguel makes P700 billion in annual revenues or $17 billion. Operating profits could hit P53 billion for 2012. This 2013, revenues will likely climb to P860 billion or $20.9 billion. The bulk of the P700 billion 2012 revenues came from Petron Corp., with about P430 billion.

In effect, in just a dozen years, RSA increased SMC’s revenues nearly nine-fold—from $2.5 billion to $22 billion.

Six years ago, Ang declared San Miguel must go into other businesses in addition to its then core businesses—beer and beverages, food, and packaging.

The visioning came from a sense of purpose and a sense of ambition. He and Chairman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. believe business is not just about making money. It must serve a social purpose—which is to improve the lot of the Filipino.

In 2005 and 2006, San Miguel was doing just $2.5 billion in revenues. Ang felt SMC could do better, rake up $10 billion in revenues—in five years. That would make SMC the biggest in revenues, bar none, and the biggest in profits, bar none.

San Miguel is a natural leader. It has more than 120 years of business experience. It has the biggest retail network—the more than 600,000 sari-sari stores nationwide. It knows its consumers better than anybody else.

In the decade from 2001 to 2011, the Filipino consumer tripled his per capita income, from $1,146 to $3,167. With a population of 100 million, that also meant the Philippine economy has become one of the largest in the world—with a GDP of $316 billion.

RSA is the first executive to seize on San Miguel’s core competency, which is bigness and managing a wide array of products and services in a seemingly seamless fashion, and employ it to grow the company tremendously.

As president and chief operating officer of SMC, he displays the remarkable hands-on attitude of a manager and the strategic and mathematical savvy of an entrepreneur.

On June 29, 2012, RSA became San Miguel’s single biggest individual stockholder, fortifying his hold on the conglomerate that he has single-handedly brought to unprecedented growth, revenues, profitability, scale and diversified operations.

His 11percent in SMC is worth P27.6 billion or $673 million. Together with personal holdings like Diamond Hotel, cement companies, properties and mines, RSA is a veritable dollar billionaire.

RSA is currently focused on turning around flag carrier Philippine Airlines by modernizing its fleet (with the purchase of up to 100 fuel-efficient aircraft in the next three to five years), expanding its network and improving passenger service.

He also plans to build a $6-billion airport near Manila, initially with two runways to handle 1,500 flights a day, which will be expanded to four runways later. The airport will have a 600-hectare Central Business District, a new Makati. RSA will sell chunks of the CBD, make money and finance PAL’s modernization.

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