November 14, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — A well-defined purpose that goes beyond profits is the key for businesses to thrive amid global disruptions.
This was the message of Ayala Corp. chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala at the Asian Institute of Management’s Asian Forum on Enterprise for Society 2025 held Wednesday.
The forum focused on how businesses can navigate disruptions for a resilient future.
“When enterprises pursue a purpose beyond mere short-term profits, that is when they can most effectively navigate disruptions and possibly contribute to the most of the greater good,” Zobel said.
He said enterprises should take time to clarify their purpose, role in their communities and the goals that they want to achieve.
Earlier this year, the Ayala Group launched the results of its purpose refresh, which involved senior leaders and executives at its formulation phase and now requires the continuous engagement of all the group’s employees.
“Through this process, we established that the purpose of Ayala is to build businesses that enable people to thrive,” Zobel said.
This purpose serves as the Ayala Group’s North Star for strategies being implemented and opportunities being pursued.
“By clarifying this purpose, we gained a clearer picture of the investments we wanted to pursue and how we wanted to harness these opportunities. Such clarity is helping us zero in on our work to drive sustainability,” Zobel said.
In the push for sustainability, the Ayala Group looks at how it impacts host communities.
“Fundamentally,we remain a profit-driven business. But for us, operating with sustainability is now not just based on moral imperatives, but it’s also a pathway to long-term value creation and commercial resilience,” Zobel said.
He said the group’s purpose is to help the company navigate disruptions by focusing on what’s truly important and deciding what actions to take.
This is demonstrated in the Ayala Group’s energy arm ACEN Corp., which started in 2012 with initial investments including thermal assets, is now focused on renewable energy (RE).
“Today, with up to seven gigawatts of attributable renewable capacity, ACEN is now one of the fastest-growing RE companies in the region,” he said.
A similar story is seen in Ayala Group’s mobility solutions arm, ACMobility, which is shifting from a business focused on selling vehicles to becoming an end-to-end mobility provider.
“We believe the Philippines needed to transition to electric mobility and other new energy vehicles to reduce carbon emissions and its general dependence on foreign sourced oil,” Zobel said.
As enterprises reflect if they remain true to their purpose, he said they also need to ensure that their purpose remains responsive to the times.
“By helping communities solve pain points and realize aspirations, enterprises engender trust and confidence while providing more fuel for the economy’s expansion,” he said, noting this also supports long-term value and resilience.
As the country faces challenges in health care, with six out of 10 Filipinos dying without seeing a doctor or medical professional, the Ayala Group, through AC Health, wants to help tackle the problem.
“By growing an integrated health care platform of hospitals, pharmacies and clinics, the aim is to provide accessible, affordable and quality healthcare for Filipinos,” Zobel said.
Another challenge that the Ayala Group wants to help address is education.
“We pride ourselves in our human capital and the talent of the Filipino, but we stand to lose much if our people are barred from opportunities to thrive simply because they are sickly or poorly educated,” Zobel said.
While individual organizations can choose to face challenges alone, Zobel said working together and learning from each other is the more attractive action to take.
“While there is nothing wrong with competition, a lot more can be achieved when we all work together for common causes,” he said.