By Rizal Raoul Reyes

Before joining the health and wellness industry, Belo Medical Group Inc. (BMG) chief executive officer Enrique Soriano III was making waves in marketing and was considered one of the most dynamic management executives in the country.

He was the youngest country president of the Electronic Realty Association (ERA) Philippines Inc., a company owned by Jose Pardo, Antonio Cojuangco and Menardo Jimenez Sr. that served as the Philippine arm of the US-based real estate network with over 3,000 offices worldwide. At age 33, the University of the Philippines graduate was the youngest president in the worldwide operations of ERA.

His entry into the health and wellness industry started when he was tapped as one of the organizers of the now Philippine Retirement Inc. (PRI), a brainchild of former trade undersecretary Ernesto Ordoñez. In that meeting, Ordoñez told them they have to put up a counterpart in the private sector to develop a road map to enable the Philippines to get a share in the multibillion-dollar industry.

“I thought that a retiree could start at the age of 39. Retirement, real estate and medical wellness all combined into medical tourism,” said Soriano, also an MBA graduate of De La Salle University.

“Then I became fascinated with medical tourism. I looked over what sector could I fit in. I wanted to join a sunrise industry. Wellness and beauty is the industry to be in. So that’s when the Belo Medical Group interests me. After 21 years, I thought that I have to realign my career. Then the PRA came. It is inextricably linked with real estate and health,” added the 40-year-old Soriano.

Soriano’s appreciation on medical tourism was also enhanced when he had the opportunity to teach a class in the Masters in Hospital Administration at the Ateneo.

Soriano, who joined Belo Med in October 2007, is no stranger to Dr. Victoria Belo, the founder of Belo Med and an industry celebrity famous for being the doctor to the stars.

“Dr. Belo used to sit in my MBA class in Ateneo once in a while. She is a nonconformist and a maverick. She wants to learn a lot of things about marketing,” recalled Soriano.

Since he was teaching strategic marketing and global marketing, Soriano would ask Belo if she wanted to sit in because there’s an interesting topic for the class.

Despite her successes, Belo did not hesitate to go to his class because she believed that there were new things to learn. She would also bring some of the doctors in the Belo group to join her.

And then Belo asked Soriano to help her company in launching the Belo Essentials line. She told Soriano that the company did not have a marketing plan.

“I offered my assistance through drawing out marketing plan and strategy. I also organized a marketing kit for the group. I assumed her dream and put it into reality and laying the groundwork,” said Soriano.

Upon assuming the CEO position, Soriano put up the basic fundamental systems such as accountability systems, internal development programs, supply-chain management, customer relations management, among others.

In other words, Soriano embarked on giving Belo Med a corporate image.

“My role as a CEO was more of addressing the internal systems, trying to oil squeaky joints and making sure that our people can absorb globalization,” he said.

Soriano is also leading the expansion of Belo Med in other parts of the Philippines. Recently, Belo Med opened its Subic branch, its first outside Metro Manila. The Subic branch is a joint venture with a medical group called Total Med. The opening of the Subic branch, Soriano said, is in response to the expected influx of tourists from the northern corridor.

Soriano said BMG plans to open a total of five more branches in the country—three in Metro Manila and two in the Visayas and Mindanao areas. The group plans to have 14 branches nationwide.

Belo Med also plans to tap the growing Korean market in the Philippines. At present, the company is conducting a search for Korean managers who will promote the products and services to the Philippine-based Koreans.

As far as Forever Flawless is concerned, Soriano said there are plans to double the current 20 branches in the next 12 months.

“We’re looking forward to franchising, too. We have engaged consultants to develop a franchising manual. Once the plans are finalized, we are going forward,” said Soriano, also the CEO of Forever Flawless.

Belo Med is also going international as Soriano is leading the campaign to export Belo Essentials because many overseas based-Filipinos already know the product.

“Belo is a powerful brand here. We feel that we are a big fish in a small pond. We have to go international,” said Soriano.

Soriano, who is also the CEO of Intelligent Skin Care Inc., said the beauty of Belo Essentials is that it can be a mass product because of the popularity of the celebrity doctor.

To enter the US market, Soriano will look for a site to serve as the office for Belo Essentials. He pointed out that they are making a big push in the US market because Filipino-Americans buy in bulk in retail stores in the Philippines and sell it in the US. “It’s a happy problem for us but I have to regulate the price points,” said Soriano.

Next year Belo Med also plans to enter the European market and the Gulf area, mainly Dubai.

And the expansion doesn’t stop there. Part of the five-year game plan of Belo Med is the possible listing in the Singapore Stock Exchange. Soriano said the company chose Singapore because it’s a more mature market and recognizes health care as a solid business.

“Aside from equities, health care was also a lucrative business in Singapore. Growth of health care has taken over some asset-based business in that country,” he said.

Soriano said the potential partners have expressed interest in forming a business relationship because they see the organizational capacity as excellent. In fact, huge hospital groups approached him last year to explore partnerships.

However, it was shelved temporarily because of the fluctuation of the dollar.

Although there is no doubt that celebrities played a major role in popularizing Belo Med, Soriano said this was just incidental. He prefers to enhance the medical customer orientation to achieve a good balance, and make people aware that the clinic is not just a celebrity facility.

Soriano also wants to stress that Belo Med caters to various market segments and is affordable. Being the market leader, Soriano said Belo Med has achieved a high degree of economies of scale.

“We have so many patients a year and we can pick up the price points with many branches. We can leverage on the volume on the number of patients. With the big number of patients, we can ask our suppliers to lower their prices because we buy in bulk. When you buy in bulk, it becomes cheaper. That’s the thing people don’t know,” Soriano pointed out.

Aside from building BMG into a global brand, Soriano’s personal advocacy is to make the Philippines the beauty capital of Asia. He said the Philippines has everything to achieve the goal. “Even if we have listings abroad, the bottom line is to make the country a major destination in medical tourism,” said Soriano.

Furthermore, the vision is to enable Belo Med to sustain its world-class treatment. For Forever Flawless, the goal is to create more channels à la Jollibee. Ultimately, Soriano said the long-term goal of Belo Med is to develop its own counterpart of the Bumrungrad International Hospital, dubbed as the Ritz Carlton of cosmetic surgery in the world.

Bumrungrad, located in Bangkok, is currently the largest private hospital in Southeast Asia, with 554 beds and over 30 specialty centers. It offers state-of-the-art diagnostic, therapeutic and intensive-care facilities in a one-stop medical center.

According to its web site, Bumrungrad provides services to over a million patients annually, of which over 400,000 are from overseas. The hospital has a medical coordination office staffed by doctors, nurses and interpreters who serve the special needs of international patients.

Soriano, who works 14 hours a day, thinks his current job is tough but has lots of fun because it’s a sunrise industry.

But the good thing, according to Soriano, is that Dr. Belo is very supportive of his campaign. Soriano said that it is an advantage that the popular doctor is an out-of-the-box thinker who can easily understand that company needs to have a spirited campaign to become competitive in the global market.

“I guess I put in the science the way Belo is managed. I take care of the matrix and Dr. Belo is our beacon,” said Soriano.

In his spare time and part of his personal advocacy, Soriano, as an executive officer of the PRI, enjoys giving lectures on strategic marketing and total quality services here and abroad.

At the end of the day, Soriano said it is the power of the brand that will make the difference. At the same time, he said the company must deliver the promise and customer service.

“We walk our talk. It’s not just pure branding,” he said.

The business of Belo

Before joining the health and wellness industry, Belo Medical Group Inc. (BMG) chief executive officer Enrique Soriano III was making waves in marketing and was considered one of the most dynamic management executives in the country.

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