Everything Happens For A Reason

ALBERTO BACANI WAS HIRED TO BECOME CEO OF UNIFRUTTI TROPICAL PHILIPPINES EIGHT YEARS BEFORE HE TOOK ON THE ROLE. EACH DAY CONTINUES TO HAVE GREATER MEANING.

- Ashton Kobler

Hired for a purpose, Alberto Bacani knew from the start that he would eventually take on the role of President and CEO. Unifrutti Tropical Philippines’ Chairman at the time, who Alberto knew from a previous job, offered Alberto a management role with the intention of succession. “He said all the key executives were getting older and would retire in the next five years,” Alberto recalls. “He wanted to hire me to replace him eventually.”

Alberto was hesitant to take the role since the head office was in a province far from his extended family in Manila. “We had lived overseas for years and only just moved back to the Philippines to be close to our families when he approached me, so at the time I wasn’t interested,” he says.

He began applying to other companies in Manila and received two job offers. It was by chance that on the day he was going to accept one, he ran into the Chairman of Unifrutti at the mall. “He asked me if I was still interested in the offer,” he recalls.

“Given the remoteness of bumping into the Chairman, who spent most of his time in Bukidnon, in a mall in Manila, I took running into him as a sign that I should reconsider his standing offer. So, I told the other company I couldn’t accept the offer just yet and my wife and I decided to visit Davao to see if we liked it, and we did.”