Euromoney’s publishing executives have always gone that extra mile for the cause, and the company’s Asia publishing director, Marcus Langston, lived up to that reputation when he presented our award for best-managed consumer goods company in Asia to the Philippines’ Jollibee Foods Corporation.
Expecting the usual certificate presentation ceremony to a grateful executive and a few quick snapshots, Marcus was startled to discover that the company’s eager recipient was in fact a rather portly red and yellow striped bee in the shape of Jollibee himself.
Accompanied by the company’s vice-president of marketing, Inez S Reyes, Jollibee was clearly delighted with his certificate and soon got stuck into the poll details in December’s Euromoney. Apparently Jollibee was delighted to have won the coveted award in the face of stiff competition from such companies as Li & Fung, LG and British American Tobacco.
Marcus took it all in his stride, although he felt the company was perhaps taking its corporate mascot a little too seriously. “I think it’s one of those Disney things where you have a mascot that you have to really believe in,” he says. “I’m sure they think the bee is a real person: they certainly talk to him as though he is.”