The Entrepreneur as Change Agent
By Roxanne V. Lu
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| Illac Diaz makes difference by doing what he does best |
We see different faces of poverty on the streets everyday. While many are moved by what they see, few are moved to act and take concrete steps to address the miserable reality before them. Entrepreneur Illac Diaz is one of the few who have had the courage and conviction to cross the line and take action, and he has wisely decided to tackle the problem by doing what he does best—entrepreneurship.
Diaz is a social entrepreneur, incorporating social action in every business he ventures in. He believes that one can change people’s lives by tapping the spirit of enterprise, which is all about “finding new ways of attacking the problem.”
Serendipity
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| Job notices from shipping agencies are posted on bulletin boards, giving dormitory tenants advance information on job opportunities |
Diaz was working on getting a Master in Entrepreneurship degree at the Asian Institute of Management when the inspiration for his biggest project to date came to him. While out on one of those “serendipity walks” that AIM students are encouraged to take to kindle business ideas, Diaz crossed paths with a group of sun-drained and exhausted men in Ermita. He found out that they were transient Filipino seafarers, mostly from the provinces, who were processing their application papers and waiting for job placements.
During the waiting period, which can last for days, or even weeks, these men had no choice but to live in dismal conditions, with some squatting in shanties. The more unfortunate ones slept in open parks in Luneta or Quiapo, vulnerable to thieves and muggers. Most spent their waiting time unproductively, living off and draining their limited savings. The pitiful plight of these “urban refugees” and the absence of any form of government support motivated Diaz to design a business project that would address the housing and employment concerns of seamen. Less than a year later, in 2000, Diaz established the Pier One Seafarers’ Dormitory.
Home away from Home
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| Pier One Seafarers’ Dormitory offers clean, secure, and affordable accommodations for transient seamen |
Pier One Seafarers’ Dormitory offers clean, secure, and affordable accommodations for transient seamen. For just around US$2, seafarers can bunk in for the night. Air-conditioned quarters are also affordable, with prices ranging from P1,400 for a two-week stay to P1,900 for a one-month stay. Pier One started with only 40 beds, but has since expanded to accommodate as much as 920 tenants in two branches, in Ermita and Intramuros, both just a short distance from the seaports of Manila. Since opening their doors, the dormitories have hosted more than 80,000 seafarers. Not only does Pier One provide low-cost shelter to seamen, it offers a variety of opportunities for temporary employment, even an option to work and earn a few days of free stay. “We like it here because the place is clean and peaceful. We also get to work in the meantime while waiting for the next schedule of our work trip,” said Joseph Obaob, a long-time seaman from Cebu who stayed at Pier One while waiting for his next work destination.
Those who opt to spend their idle time working for Pier One get assigned to the dormitory’s water bottling business or to the setting up of a soon-to-open Internet station. “Our bottled-water business operates with the help of the tenants,” explains Diaz. “Our clients are shipping companies and partner placement agencies. These are offices that help our seafarers get jobs aboard ships.”
The dormitories have become convergence points for the local seafaring industry. Placement agencies partner with Pier One in disseminating information about job openings and in providing pre-work training. Pier One maintains updated bulletin boards where job notices from different shipping agencies are posted. Agencies in constant search of seafarers have easier access to manpower, while the dormitory tenants benefit from advance information on job opportunities.
Beyond providing seamen safe refuge and access to employment information, Pier One also has a health center where tenants can be checked for diseases, especially after arriving from work abroad. Diaz has also set up a counseling center and such auxiliary services as recreation facilities, a canteen, and a barbershop.
Beyond profit
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| Diaz’s MyShelter Foundation has constructed a fireproof, waterproof, and earthquake-proof earthbag shelter in Negros Occidental |
“Social enterprise is all about net impact and empowerment,” Diaz professes. “It’s about making people and their skills part of the solution instead of adopting the usual charity system.” Employing this philosophy, Diaz has successfully merged business and civic duty, all the while ensuring that the venture will be self-sufficient even if it does not rake in the highest of profits. “You engage in this kind of business because you expect to go beyond profit. Wealth is not all about money.”
Aside from Pier One, Diaz has been spreading his message of social entrepreneurship through other projects, such as his pioneering effort to build low-cost shelters made of bags of earth through the MyShelter Foundation, of which he is founder and executive director. In November 2005, he finished constructing an earthbag shelter in Escalante, Negros Occidental, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia. Originally conceived by the California-based Cal-Earth Foundation, the dome-shaped structure is fireproof, waterproof, and earthquake-proof, and can be easily built by residents in a community.
Bannered as the “house of the future,” the dome-shaped shelter is built of rice sacks filled with soil (around 86%) mixed with stabilizers like cement, sand, and bagas, a by-product of sugar production. The sacks are stacked on top of each other, held together by barbed wire laid between the layers of earthbags. Since it only requires P70,000 to build an earthen home using this technology, various social organizations and local government units have already sought the help of Diaz in creating these dome structures in their areas to serve as schools, community health centers, and community housing. Diaz also contributed to the development of a peanut sheller, a low-cost device that mechanizes the shelling of peanuts. The shelling process is largely still done manually, which has kept peanut farmers’ output low and led to a shortage of about 59,000 metric tons. The sheller that Diaz helped develop can be built by the farmers themselves and be used to boost production. He is currently working with cement company Holcim Philippines and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in teaching peanut farming communities how to build the simple device for their use.
The power of new ideas
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| Pier One’s bottled-water business operates with the help of the tenants |
Having successfully translated his innovative ideas into action, Illac Diaz has been recognized by both local and international organizations. He has been featured on CNN and in Reader’s Digest Asia. He has received prestigious awards—the AIM’s Honor and Prestige Award in 2003; the first Johnny Walker Social Entrepreneur Award for the Philippines in 2004; the first Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) Social Entrepreneur Award in 2005; and recently, a citation by the Junior Chamber International as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World. This year, he will take on a new challenge as he heads to Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government as a Mason Fellow.
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| Diaz: “Somehow by giving, you get so much more.” |
For Diaz, the money, time, and effort that he has invested in his projects have been coming back to him tenfold. In a past interview, Diaz shared that although his years as an advertising executive for a telecommunications company may have brought him a lot of money, it was only when he left that life and got involved in philanthropic works that he felt rewarded in more meaningful ways. “People started offering advice, consultancy, and I got a scholarship. I have made more friends now and I have traveled more,” he says. “Somehow by giving, you get so much more.”
Diaz reveals that the he derives the most fulfillment from the act of helping itself and initiating the process of change. “There’s power to new ideas. I might not be able to make a big impact, but what is important is to begin. I might not be able to affect millions of people, but the importance is to begin.”
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