Hans Sy's personal journey in risk, resilience, responsibility

MAP 2025 Management Person of the Year

- 

Armed with the simple, guiding principle: "Whatever decision we make, we should be able to eat and sleep well," Hans Sy found the moral certainty to endure public fury over a construction project.

For decades, the SM Group, founded by his late father, retail tycoon Henry Sy Sr., has been defined by its scale, cementing its place as one of Asia's largest conglomerates.

But for Sy, SM Prime Holdings Inc. chairman of the executive committee, the true measure of leadership lies not in the size of the profit, but in defending an unpopular, high-stakes decision that severely tested the company's public image.

Speaking as the honoree at the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) Person of the Year awarding ceremony, Hans Sy was candid. He opened his acceptance speech not with a celebration of his firm's success, but with the recollection of a crisis that tested the Sy family's core values.

"SM was once condemned for cutting down trees in Baguio City," he told an audience composed largely of the country's top industry leaders. "Today, I want to tell you why that was the right decision, and what it taught me about leadership."

The incident in question is the infamous 2012 controversy surrounding SM City Baguio, the mall perched atop the country's mountain city. The company had begun a project that required the removal and relocation of several trees on its property.

The backlash was immediate and fierce. Environmental groups accused the retail giant of betrayal, prioritizing concrete and profit over ecological stewardship in a city defined by its pine forests. The condemnation was so widespread that even a foreign artist canceled a planned concert at an SM venue in protest.