Agora Awards

Nasubukan nyo bang kumain sa Mang Inasal? To date, it has now 170 branches all over the Philippines and is expecting to have 200 stores by the end of this year.

How about eating pizza from Lot's A Pizza? The company claims to have a total of 129 branches, 84 franchised and 45 company-owned outlets.

The two companies above have one thing in common - their respective founders are a recepient of this year's Agora Awards. Edgar Sia III, president of Mang Inasal, is the awardee for Large Scale Entrepreneurship while Teresita ngan Tian, president of Lot's A Pizza, is the awardee for Small Scale Entrepreneurship.

Other awardees are Sari V. Yap, president of Mega Publishing, for Medium Scale Entrepreneurship; Ma. Belen M. Fernando, vice-president for marketing, Alaska Milk Corp. for Marketing Management; Jonathan Yang Dee, president of Alliance Tuna International, for Export Marketing; Fama Francisco, General Manager for Baby Care Innovation, Procter & Gamble, for Overseas Marketing.

ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc. and Sun Cellular received the award for Advocacy Marketing and Marketing Company of the Year, respectively.

The Agora Awards is an annual project of the Philippine Marketing Association (PMA) which is given to men and women who have shown excellence in their respective category. By the way Agora is a Greek word which means "an open place of assembly" either for military, political or commercial purpose.

This year's awards is now the 30th having its inception in 1979.

Congratulations to all the awardees. May they strive for expansion so that they will continue to provide jobs and contribute to the development of the country. Hopefully, the awards will also inspire other businessmen to go for better management in order to garner an award in the years to come.