Mr. Kingson Sian first started to explain his title saying that it is a “play on words”. “I titled this presentation as VAX Forward because anyway it’s a play of words. VAX meaning vaccine. We need to obviously all get vaccinated to reach herd immunity so we can all move forward”

He then talked about the pandemic and that despite the current situation, that “there is a light at the end of the tunnel”.

Globally there have been almost 4 billion doses administered worldwide. And in the Philippines, we have administered 17.5 million doses.

Mr. Kingson Sian briefly discussed the potential winners and losers.Which industries are winning and which industries are losing in this pandemic. 

He added the potential losers are tourism and leisure, aviation and maritime, automotives, construction and real estate, manufacturing, financial services and education are mostly on the losing side.

On the other hand, medical supply and services, food processing and retail, personal and healthcare, KCT, e-commerce and agriculture are mostly on the winning side.

Mr. Sian, however stressed that it doesn’t matter where you are in the spectrum but whether you have a winning mindset and a winning attitude which really matters. He adds that even if you’re in the winning industry but you have a losing mindset and a losing attitude, you will not be able to maximize the potential and opportunities in the marketplace. In contrast, he said that there were companies on the “loser side” but were able to innovate, adapt, execute quickly, be able to look at new opportunities and excel.

He reiterated his point by telling everyone to “Keep a winning mindset to stay in the game” by doing so, you have a chance of identifying new opportunities and being able to win. And also to “adapt, innovate, execute quickly”. This is important in a fast changing environment. Lastly, he says to “embrace uncertainty”. “Instead of fearing uncertainty, we need to embrace it,” he says. He then shows a quote of Malcom Gladwell, a journalist, best-selling author and speaker. “The key is to stop seeing uncertainty as the problem, and to start seeing uncertainty as the solution.” He expounds on Malcolm’s quote saying that uncertainty in itself is not bad. Instead, uncertainty allows us and gives us the freedom to create and innovate. Great communities and companies have been built through innovation and by adapting to the uncertainties.

Mr Kingson stressed that despite the pandemic they did not shut down their hotels and instead embraced uncertainty. These hotels include Marriott Manila, Sheraton, Hilton Manila, Belmont and Savoy. This is what he means by embracing uncertainty and with that they were able to discover new opportunities. They did however close some areas in the hotel because of the lockdown.

These are only one of the few highlights that Mr Kingson Sian discussed but hopefully investors will take a chance on these opportunities to be on the winning side of these current times.