Jose ‘Jomag’ Magsaysay, co-founder of Potato Corner, is best known for helping turn flavored fries into a global franchise success. But in 1997, he made a bold move: he stepped away from the business to enter politics.
It didn’t go as planned.
“I left Potato Corner to run for office,” Magsaysay recalls. “Unfortunately, I lost in the elections — and I decided not to come back right away.”
Instead, he took a corporate job as general manager for a donut company. That role gave him a chance to take graduate courses and sharpen the business skills he admits he didn’t have when he first co-founded Potato Corner. “I felt like we just got lucky when we did the franchising,” he says. “It was all lakas ng loob. I didn’t have real experience running a business. Because of my schooling, I gained more confidence.”
In 2001, during an economic crisis, Potato Corner was struggling. The number of outlets had dropped to just 40. Magsaysay saw the writing on the wall. “I thought to myself, this is the only company I have — I might as well help it recover,” he says. “I needed to do something before the company went bankrupt.”
Armed with his new perspective, he created a recovery plan and presented it to his partners. That plan helped stabilize the business and eventually led to the massive growth Potato Corner experienced in the years that followed — expanding internationally and becoming one of the Philippines’ most recognizable franchise brands.
In 2021, Potato Corner was acquired by Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures, but Magsaysay’s legacy remains deeply embedded in the brand’s DNA.
The takeaway:
Sometimes stepping away brings the clarity needed to grow. For Jose Magsaysay, failure in one arena led to transformation in another — and a comeback that turned a struggling food stall into a global success story.
This article includes quotes from an interview originally published by Esquire Philippines, authored by Henry Ong.
