'We The Serve The Underserved'

Much less concerned with profit maximisation, the mantra of many retail chains, Prince Retail President and CEO Robert Go lifts up the poorest, most remote communities.

- Adrian Flores

Morality-wise, most, if not all, Filipinos are driven by two things – their family and their religious faith (mostly Catholic but sometimes Muslim). When Robert Go was a young boy, he always wanted to grow up and become a big businessman. Like many high-flying C-suite professionals, his idea of success was being able to substantially grow a business and make an impact in the business community.

But some time after Robert’s education at college, his Catholic faith and upbringing had infiltrated his business philosophy. Not long after Prince Retail opened its first retail store in Cebu City in 1990, he involved himself with charity organisations. He became a leader within his Catholic community in the Visayas region, something he says has moulded his leadership of Prince Retail. “I worked on a lot of feeding programs, helping the poor in the countryside. I grew so much as a person,” says Robert.

“Whichever community we go to expand in, it’s always a small country town where we are usually the only retailers around. We don’t mind if a town is small and not heavily populated. We can still make decent money. For me, it’s all about helping towns grow through employment.” »

It is for this reason that Prince Retail doesn’t charge customers much, choosing to keep a very low price point. For Robert, it is about always serving the 85 per cent of the Filipino population who are poor and less well of for, in his words, “the base of the pyramid”.