In the Philippines, the term fast food is just about associated with the Jollibee brand. It took more than only one man for it to become that way, but all it took to start was a person name Tony Tan Caktiong. The standard beginning for Tony was working with his pa to operate a kitchen in Fujian, China. In 1975, Tony began his entreprenuerial journey with simply 2 two ice cream parlors in Cubao, Quezon Town . In spite of his success with the ice cream parlors, Tony did not stop there.

He looked around the planet and saw the sort of success chains like McDonalds were having. Rather than opening a franchise for an existing junk food chain like Burger King or Wendy's, he made a decision to grow with the opening of his very own chain of hamburger-serving junk food eateries named Jollibee in 1978. Since McDonald's had not yet entered into the Philippines, Tony capitalized on this fact by creating his brand among the Filipino people. Rather than attempting to find out all from nothing, Tony journeyed to the US to learn the tricks of the trade from the already established chains like McDonalds.

By implementing these tried and tested business practices back in the Phlippines, Tony's difficult work commenced to repay when his business started to quickly expand. The division of Jollibee Philippines truly makes an attempt to serve the categorical wishes of the Filipino people and its culture by focusing its product development as well as its promoting and advertsing to target the unique and normal Filipino family. Today Tony Tan Caktiong serves as a success story and an idol for entreprenuers around the globe. This was solified in 2004 when Tony was voted the Businessman of the Year by Ernst & Young. Tony's story is a very uplifing one, on both these counts. We are delighted he's been selected to get this year's award.