Market Dominance in Beauty: Strategies for Long-Term Success, According to Dr. Vicki Belo, CEO of Belo Group of Companies

Dr. Vicki Belo shares how she built Belo Medical Group by following her passion, and how she remains ahead of the competition after 34 years.

Dr Vicki Belo doesn’t see herself as a businesswoman. This is, of course, a massive contradiction as the 67-year-old dermatologist sits at the very head of a veritable beauty empire. She is the founder, president and medical director of Belo Medical Group, the company she grew from one clinic in 1990. At the same time, she is the CEO of the Belo Group of Companies, which includes Belo Essentials, a fast-moving consumer goods company which makes skincare products, and Venn Intelligent Aesthetics, which distributes medical aesthetic products and devices. For Vicki Belo, it was always about pursuing her passion to be a doctor, “to make the Philippines the most beautiful country in the world, one person at a time.” In an ironic twist, what Dr. Belo says about passion echoes the words of countless successful entrepreneurs before her.

For her undeniable business acumen, The Business Manual recognized her achievements in its CEO Awards last January, to which she reacts, “Pa’no ba nangyari yon? [How did that happen?] Shocked!”

Sitting down with Dr. Vicki Belo at her clinic in Trinoma, one gets a sense that this surprise for being recognized as one of the country’s top entrepreneurs isn’t something put on; it’s genuine. Her considerable business success is a by-product of one woman’s pursuit of her many passions in life. In this conversation, The Business Manual examines a side of Dr. Belo that is often overlooked, or perhaps overshadowed by her celebrity, the facet of her personality that has propelled Belo to success and become a household name in the Philippines.

Early Days of Medical Aesthetics

Today, medical aesthetics–medical treatments focused on improving the cosmetic appearance of patients, such as liposuction, facelifts, and laser treatment–is a USD 15.4 billion market. And while the market is dominated by North America, the Asian market, including the Philippines, is expected to grow dramatically in the coming years.

And yet, when Dr. Vicki Belo opened her first clinic in 1990, the practice of dermatology in the Philippines was focused almost solely on skin illnesses. Medical aesthetics was misunderstood and its practice was largely unheard of. As a pioneer in the industry, Belo Medical Group was swiftly catapulted to success. However, this didn’t happen overnight.

The origin of Belo Medical Group began in Vicki Belo’s childhood. Her father, a lawyer by profession, was once a pre-med student, and he encouraged her to take up medicine. “It’s really been a dream to be a doctor from the very beginning,” Belo recounts. “Never had any other thing in my head.”

And yet, despite this all-consuming drive to become a doctor, Dr. Belo’s beginnings as an entrepreneur pre-dates her medical aspirations. “I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was five years old,” Belo says of her childhood. “I used to bake cupcakes when cupcakes weren’t a thing. I’d bring them to school, sell them. I was always that kind of person [who likes] to earn from what I love to do.”

She explains this dichotomy by saying that it’s “because I’m not the kind of person to do just one thing.” Like many successful entrepreneurs, Dr. Belo wears many hats. Throughout her career she has been a doctor, an aerobics instructor, a celebrity, and an entrepreneur. She has opened 15 clinics around the country and she has also built Belo Essentials, a fast-moving consumer goods company that makes skincare products that go toe to toe with the likes of Unilever and P&G. For Vicki Belo it’s about one thing: passion.

Finding Her Passion

Adversity is at the heart of how Vicki Belo found her passion in life. She explains, “So my biggest problem in life was that I was fat. And I had a lot of pimples.” As an adopted child, she also recounts how her classmates would ask why her birth parents gave her away. 

“They said, ‘Is it because you’re so fat?’” she continues. “And cry naman ako. [And I would cry.] And then somebody would say, ‘No it’s because she’s so ugly.’ So it was very imprinted at five years old... I am ugly. And I am fat… Pinamimigay lang pala yung mga pangit at mataba [They just give away children who are ugly fat].”

Later on, in her teens, she sought treatment from dermatologists for her acne, but the treatments proved to be unsuccessful. She told herself, “Sabi ko [I said], “I can make myself pretty...” I’ll be a derma so I can cure myself.”

After studying medicine at the University of Santo Tomas, Vicki Belo studied dermatology in Thailand. “And in the last month of my one-year study there,” she says, “they introduced lasers, which was brand new. Like nobody had heard of it. Nobody had seen it. I was so fascinated.”

Dr. Belo explains that with many skin conditions, such as psoriasis or atopic dermatitis, doctors can only control the symptoms but not cure. But with lasers, everything was different.

She says, “So when I saw lasers, sabi ko [I said], “Wow, I like this. You can remove birthmarks. You can remove moles. You can remove warts. So I went to Harvard, and I studied more about lasers. And then from Harvard I was exposed to a whole new world.”

Belo went to the United States to study lasers; however, while she was there, she also learned how to do liposuction. More importantly, she observed how the practice of dermatology was different in the States, compared to the Philippines. In short, she learned about the promise of beauty clinics.

First Mover Advantage

When Dr. Vicki Belo opened her first clinic in 1990, it was the first of its kind. At her clinic, she pioneered laser treatments and liposuction procedures. Marketers call this the first mover advantage, an idea that Belo learned from a book she read when she was 16, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. 

She says, “And I looked at [the book] and I was trying to figure out which of the laws I could definitely do all the time. And the easiest one to do was to always be first.

“First is so important. So I’ve always wanted to be a pioneer. And I really get bored if I do what everyone else is doing. I want to be different, so it was perfect for me to bring in lasers.”

And it was just laser treatments. Liposuction also proved to be a popular procedure among Belo’s patients, something which Belo talks about almost with affection. 

“And then liposuction also,” she says. “I mean I love sucking up fat. I get such fulfillment. A thrill. So when I see people come back when they’ve lost their puson [lower abdominal fat] and their big arms, I’m so happy…I never meant to do these things to be rich. And I always tell people when they ask my advice, I go, you know, I never thought…I just really wanted to contribute to society and do something I love.

Challenges in Business

Dr. Belo admits that even though she had found her passion and was rewarded for her passion, putting up a business always comes with challenges.

“I think people resonate with the sincerity of what I do,” she says. “But what I didn’t know how to do was how to make it a business. That was hard… I was so lost.”

Belo soon realized that she needed help because she couldn’t do it all on her own. Her first hire? An accountant. 

“It’s really a partnership,” she says. “You can’t do everything. I always find what I can do very well… I think that’s one of my talents being an only child, I’m very good at delegating. I’m also very good at making clones of myself. I knew early on that I can’t do everything.”

These “clones,” individuals who shared her values and her way of thinking, proved to be instrumental in growing the business. As one clinic grew to become 15 clinics, Belo found herself overseeing 680 employees in the Belo Medical Group, including 60 doctors.