Name: Acal, Karina M.

Section: BSHM 3A

B. Individual Activity 30 POINTS

O Name of the Entrepreneur
- Maria Socorro Cancio Ramos ( Nanay Coring)
O Brief Profile of the Entrepreneur
- Born in a poverty-stricken family on 23rd September 1923, She went through a real-life
struggle. Her family used to run a small shop through which they used to manage their daily
needs. Despite such a situation, she continued her education and graduated from Arellano
High School– Manilla in humanities. In 2006, she was given the honor of Doctor of
Humanities by Ateneo de Manila University. While she was working with her brother-in-law,
Socorro C. Ramos met the love of her life as well as her future husband, Jose Ramos. Slowly
they came close to each other and tied knots. Needless to say that Jose Ramos was the right
hand of Socorro Ramos and the greatest support throughout the journey of taking the
National Book Store to its present day.
O Owners/Manage Business/Businesses
- She is the co-founder of National Book Store, the largest bookstore chain in the Philippines.
O Stories of Success – how they achieve the success
- Back in 1940, she and Jose Ramos, her husband, established a small stall in Escolta where
they sold supplies. They, however, did not have a steady road towards success. In fact, they
endured many trials together that would have discouraged most entrepreneurs. During
World War II, the Japanese soldiers occupying the country considered many of the books
sold in their store to be objectionable. What the couple did was to hide the books and then
sell candies, slippers, soaps and other goods instead. The books they managed to save were
later sold in their store after the end of the war. Also, they had to relocate to Avenida
because their first building was badly damaged by the war. Three years after that, their
bookstore was struck by a heavy typhoon, blowing the roof and damaging many of their
merchandise. This, however, did not deter Coring. Like the mythical phoenix, she rose from
the ashes and built the business back up once more. In the 1970s, National Book Store
became popular by selling reprinted versions of foreign textbooks for 75% lesser than the
actual price. Parents and students loved the idea of being able to purchase such books for
lower costs. These days, National Book Store already has 230 branches throughout the
Philippines along with some mini outlets (National Book Store-Book Express) and specialty
bookstores (Powerbooks). As if that wasn’t enough, the Ramos family also operates three
publishing imprints, a department store, a music store, plus several convenience and gift
shops. All three of Coring’s children are employed in high-level jobs along with several
grandchildren and relatives. After 82 years of running the business, Coring can really say that
persistence is one of the most important keys of achieving great things.
O Qualities he/she characterized that you got inspired.
- The quality that she characterized that I got inspired is her persistence. Through this, she
managed to established the National Bookstore, no matter what problems arise she still
manage to continue to achieve her goals and be successful in life. In life, we need to be like
her, we need to be persistent in order to move forward, even though we face many
challenges in life, no matter how hard it is we must encourage ourselves to take a step little
by little in order for us to arrive in the destination we called “success”.