Besides injuries and fatalities, properties and businesses also fall victims to calamities such as earthquakes and flood.

As the middle or second child who hails from the fourth generation of owners of famous Filipino-Chinese pastry brand Eng Bee Tin, Gerald Chua has inherited from his family not only the recipes of their internationally-famous hopia, but also some strategies for staying resilient amid crises.

Gerald, who handles the logistics, research and development, and production aspects of their family business, shared to DAILY TRIBUNE that among their family’s techniques to keep their business and brand afloat all these decades has been to be immersed in hard work since they were young. 

Second is to keep one’s integrity and trustworthiness by not taking advantage of people especially during times of crises. He proudly shared that even during the pandemic, they did not retrench even one employee.

According to him, patenting their flavors and products is irrelevant because at the end of the day, it is the customers that would decide to buy from their brand or from the competition — so trust is very important.  

“You don’t have to put a high markup in a product,” he recalled an important business lesson passed on by his dad, Gerry. “The more important is that the customer returns. That’s our dad’s principle. Every business person has a principle on how to run a business, but that’s what our dad tells us. Also in our relationship with our colleagues, it should also be good. It does not mean that just because you are the boss, you’re always right. You should also care,” he added partly in Filipino.

He claimed that they were the first to introduce the chilled custard hopia and some tikoy variants in the market — which their competitors reportedly copy. Competition, for him, is good “so that you are always compelled to innovate not only with new flavors, but with capacity-building.” 

Capacity-building, he said, would also propel their company’s growth in terms of number of stores not only in terms of adding new food products and flavors. There are also plans for franchising, but this is not yet concrete. The company exports to 17 countries, most of these have many Filipinos.

The third advice is to work smart. For him, the best education comes from being hands-on and not just from continuous studies. There should be a balance between intellectual and actual know-how.

But when it comes to work-life balance: “Walang ganyan-ganyan (there’s no such thing!),” he laughed.

“Working smart means effective delegation and enjoying work because work takes time, especially in the food industry where you have to follow many strict safety measures and guidelines. You cannot rush things. These things really take time,” explained the company executive, who apart from business, keeps himself fit and active by regularly hitting the gym and trying new sports like Pickleball.