Page 6 - WashingtonSyCip_Bio_Excerpt_2nd_Edition

INTRODUCTION

It has been almost four years since that fateful October weekend when we, in SGV,
all woke up to the saddest news that our beloved Founder, Washington SyCip (or WS
as he was known in the Firm) had passed away on board a Philippine Airlines flight
en route to New York. His heart just stopped while he was in the clouds somewhere
over Canadian territory.

It was Sunday morning in Manila when the news broke out. By that afternoon, we
had mobilized our teams in SGV to make all the necessary preparations for WS’
homecoming. While it would take two weeks for his remains to be repatriated,
there was no time for us to grieve. True to the SGV discipline that WS himself had
ingrained in all of us, we all knew that there was work to be done.

While one is never ready when something tragic occurs, as a Firm we had taken steps
to anticipate the eventuality of WS’ passing. We had undergone an institutional
exercise of articulating our Purpose. We called it our Purpose Journey and it
inevitably led us to WS’ original vision when he founded SGV in 1946. He had
always believed that SGV cannot prosper if the Philippines, our nation, does not
prosper first. His deep love for the country was evident in everything he did – from
helping professionalize the accounting profession to sending Filipino managers to
other Asian countries to run the member firms of The SGV Group; from promoting
Filipino talent to donning the Barong Tagalog as often as possible.

From the very beginning, WS had practiced what he preached. He lived SGV’s core
values of meritocracy, fairness, integrity, and steadfast support for lifelong learning.
Because of his example, generations of partners and staff have been driven to carry a
torch of excellence in the past 75 years. These values are embedded in many aspects
of their personal and professional lives, long after their tenure in SGV because they
have become part of our DNA. These constitute the blueprint of SGV’s reason for
being — the Firm’s Purpose.

SGV’s Purpose is captured in the statement: “In everything we do, we nurture leaders
and enable businesses for a better Philippines.”

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