While many people strive for high educational attainment as a means towards gaining good-paying employment with big companies that offer salary rates higher than that of government agencies, there are those who prefer to stop schooling and become entrepreneurs instead. Still quite a few choose to become inventors, a.k.a. “inventorpreneurs”—which is self-explanatory.
Samuel M. Abrenilla is an inventorpreneur, a term he himself coined. He founded the Panaderia Bakeshop on September 28, 1989 in Toril, Davao City.
“I came from a family of entrepreneurs. We were brought up and oriented as self-sustaining business people. We don’t look forward to the day when we will work for somebody else,” said Abrenilla, who was born in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, with roots from Bohol. He was the youngest among seven siblings—all running their own businesses.
In his late-teenage years, Abrenilla helped his parents, Eustaquio Abrenilla, Sr. and Marcela Magaway, manage their modest business in Agusan del Norte, a tailoring shop.
Sometime in the 1970s, Abrenilla arrived in Davao City and went into the grains retailing business with four stores in Toril. After amassing a substantial capital, he shut down his stores and opened a bakeshop. “At the time, bakeshops had substantial profit margins. Dili gyud ko mahaluna kung dili mahalinan. My vision was to have a bakeshop nga dugukon sa mga tao,” he said.
Without any culinary background, Abrenilla discovered how to make his bakeshop popular by first asking himself what he looks for a bread that he likes to eat. “As long as the bread is fresh and hot, I crave for it,” he said.
To ensure that he would not run out of fresh, hot bread he came up with the idea of baking bread in batches. “I was not aware then that I had stumbled on something new, an ‘invention’ in itself.” he said. His idea was as brilliant as it was simple. It clicked right away.
It also meant he needed someone to do the baking—batch after batch after batch. When he found the right man to do it, Abrenilla launched Panaderia on a capital of P3,000 which he used as downpayment for flour, while the rest was along credit line, except for some equipment lent to him by his sibling.
“It’s better to start small because eventually it will grow, rather than to start big and end up small,” he said. On opening day, a steady stream of customers came to his bakeshop. At peak hours they had to fall in line, the way he had envisioned. He is so grateful to their loyal patrons for patronizing their product lines until now.
“We are improving the quality of our products by using only best ingredients, the correct processes and right technology and—of course—the quality of our service,” Abrenilla said.
Award-winning inventor
“I was compelled to invent out of the need of better facilities for Panaderia operation,” Abrenilla bared. He had been challenged to innovate on the equipment used in his bakeshops, such as the cleaning apparatus, garbage bins, oven and showcases for his baked products. His first innovation was the Coktek improved oven in 1999, and was awarded a patent on it on July 4, 2001.
Today, Abrenilla has a total of seven patents and 10 inventions, which include the Moxtrak dehydrator, fuel saving device, gasifier, and A hinge—the ones used to hold the top and bottom parts of glass doors of display cases.
Last year, with his Moxtrak dehydrator, he won the first grand prize of the Ambassador Alfredo M. Yao Intellectual Property Innovation Awards in the National IP Innovation Category based on on the criteria of originality, commerciability and impact of the invention on the economy.
“It’s my grandest award. It’s the ‘Oscar Award’ for Filipino inventors,” Abrenilla said, thrilled by the P200,000 incentive along with a trophy valued at P40,000 courtesy of national sculptor Eduardo Castrillo.
Abrenilla also won first prize in the LIKHA Award Visayas-Mindanao Regional Contest in 2001; second prize of the LIKHA Award Nationwide in 2001; and copped first place in the Outstanding Utility Model Award—MICE in 2009.
Advocating change
“Year-in and year-out the number of educated jobless keeps growing, just as the diaspora gets bloated fast at the rate of 2,000 to 3,000 Filipinos leaving abroad daily… We are all so grateful they all contribute substantially to our dollar reserves and raise our GDP/GNP to a healthier figure to weather the economic crisis.
“However, economic gurus find mismatches here: Filipino professionals are compelled to work way below their field of expertise just to survive, like a teacher working as a domestic helper; likewise the BPO industry hires nurses as call center agents…
“But how can the government sustain job generation and thereby alleviate poverty? An entrepreneur-friendly economic system will holistically solve this condition.” Abrenilla posted this as comment on the discussion page of President Aquino’s (P-Noy) Facebook account.
Calling the BPO phenomenon a “bubble industry,” he explained that this kind of industry “has no deep-sinking root; anytime, it will go away, it will burst and be gone with the wind.” He would like the country to have Filipino-owned BPO and knowledge process outsourcing industries. That’s why he posits that entrepreneurship is another option for struggling Filipinos. But, this can only be possible if the country has an entrepreneur-friendly economic system.
If the government helps would-be entrepreneurs to start their businesses, unemployed graduates will have an opportunity to be alleviated from poverty. Government support, he said, may be in the form of streamlining bureaucratic complications, making processes easy for them such as in securing business permits and in payment of taxes.
“Look at, for example, the ambiguous, outdated labor decree PD 442 with all its related amendments and jurisprudences, and the long litany of non-working holidays. These had all made business not competitive to the rest of the world,” he said.
He said wannabe entrepreneurs could not even start an enterprise for lack of financial support, even with viable business plan. “Without established track record, no one will trust them to lend a capital to start the business,” he added. He also pointed out the irony that the country has the highest number of banks, having all the money to supposedly lend these people.
Abrenilla envisioned a change in the Filipino culture which should start in the family. That is for parents to encourage children in aspiring to become an entrepreneur rather than only to be employed in big profit-making companies. Brought up that way, this humble man dreamed of a society where inventors and entrepreneurs are developed not only for individuals to attain a better disposition in life, but also for the nation’s economic growth.
