Thursday, December 30, 2010

My 12 Months of 2010

January

I had my 36th birthday at an airport in Chongqing, China. Believe me I was so busy I almost forgot it. The work for me was a prelude of what is to come, when the boutique consulting firm I have been working for in the last 3 years, just got acquired 3 months back by a global company.
Montage of various Chongqing imagesImage via Wikipedia
I was very active in looking for our first analytics project in the Middle Kingdom and everyone had their hands full doing the rounds with various operators in several provinces. We seemed to be getting lucky with one.

The work was getting stressful though but everyone else from the erstwhile boutique firm were just too happy to notice it yet, while enjoying the cash rewards they got from the acquisition.

China was freezing cold and the cold outfits were not helping. My colleagues and I were hopping from hotel to another spending 1-2 days in each.

I made my 2nd trip to Bangalore this month, meeting colleagues from various India offices for the first time. Jo, our strategy head, was conducting Consulting 101. It was a nice time meeting them for the first time and the personal interactions with our India-based colleagues would do me well in the coming months.

I remember my colleague Bhaskar, who was supposed to be in that same workshop, had a car accident on his way from a shop, where he bought the souvenir books for the workshop. He had a terrible accident as he had to be confined in the hospital with cuts on the back. He went back to office afterwards wearing a neck brace.

February

I met and get to present to various folks engaged in the telecom sector in ASEAN especially the country sales folks who I would be interacting in the coming months on opportunities around analytics.

Bintan was the venue and Nirwana Gardens was awesome. I never really got a good look until a week after when I brought along my family for a 3 day holiday for the Chinese New Year celebrations. It was a nice and relaxing time for the kids. While it was a working holiday for me, I still had fun.

I also got to present, albeit remotely, to telco folks gathered in Belgium, from the European operations. I did not have enough time to get a Schengen visa for the trip, which I regret as I have not been to Belgium. The connections and the acquaintances I have made in that forum would do me well in the succeeding months in evangelizing my work to the telco communities in Europe and US markets.

This was also the time when my wife and I finally found the flat we so wanted in Simei. We immediately latched on to it and paid the commitment fee. We applied for a loan aftewards. We were lucky to be among the last few who qualified for the 10% DP requirement, as the Singapore government decided to hike the DP requirement to 20% to stave off speculative buying of HDB flats.

March

China opportunities were progressing fast after the massive roadshows we did in the past 3 months. My colleagues from China got a deal for the team to conduct an assessment work on analytics for an operator.

Two of my better analytics consultants were the ones who delivered the project and they did a good job. We convinced the operator with the value add of analytics to their business with our insightful recommendations and generous revenue estimates (which we would later regret that we were not conservative with our numbers).

It was a 5-week exercise and with CNY celebrations right in the middle of it. As expected, the customer was impressed with the results.

This was the start of a long and winding negotiation for a bigger analytics project that would drag on for a couple of months but would end in a big win for us. Our first taste of authentic Chinese negotiation.

I remembered this was also the time when my boss first asked me "What will it take for YOU to move to China and take on a leadership role?"

Meanwhile, the work in the office was getting a bit more stressful as Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia got added to the weekly itinerary. Add to it were increasingly demanding colleagues who seemed to think that I was pulling out SOWs and solutions from my ass! Not to mention the deluge of processes that everyone was trying to navigate in the new system.

In this month, my wife and I had our first appointment with HDB officials for the flat we were buying. We just realized that the government has to approve the sale first before it can be consummated given some rules that need to be complied with. It went well though and we did not have to attend the succeeding appointments. Our agent said that we should get the keys to the flat in no time. We were so looking forward to it. We were finally getting a flat of our own after 4 years of renting here in Singapore.

April

My family and I went to Manila for a few days. We had a good excuse as the College of Economics and Management of the University of the Philippines - Los Banos recognized me as one of its Outstanding Alumni for 2010. It was a pleasant surprise!

But more importantly, it was another fun time for the kids as they had a small reunion with their cousins from both sides of the family in a small resort in Los Banos, Laguna. It was a bit nostalgic going around the huge UPLB campus and the Old Econsoc Tambayan. My wife and I had spent 4 of our formative years in this University and its good to be back. The kids were so amazed to see such a spacious ground of greenery.

We started a 6 month project for an Indian operator this month. Never really understood the kind of outputs expected by the customer for this project. On the China front, we were still negotiating. The customer has repeatedly said that they want a long term engagement with us, but it seemed their position indicated the opposite.

In Thailand, we were also able to close a small project with an operator for a 6 week engagement. It was a marketing project, interesting and provided a lot of insights into the VAS market in Thailand. It was another opportunity for a goodworking time with the erstwhile Thailand team : Kamlarp, Wichote and Kitima. I was pretty sure, I was going to get fed well.

On the health front, this was the time when I experienced heart palpitations due to stress. There was one fine night when I thought I was going to faint in the middle of a concall. I could not breathe for a few seconds and almost blacked out. That really freaked me out. The day after, when everyone heard about it (me and my big mouth), I got sent home by the boss and forcibly made to rest the day after. That week was so stressful. I remembered losing it that week sending those rare nasty mails to few colleagues in response to their gobbledygook and "taichi" attempts at passing back work.

May

We concluded the negotiations for the first ever analytics project in China and we got a contract signed for 24 months by the customer. Everyone was ecstatic! I was wondering though if we had just sold the souls of the consultants with revenue commitments we made.

My China-based colleagues committed on a June first start for the project. Everyone in our group was scrambling to find the resources to put in the project. Not only that, everyone was also clueless how to get the India-based guys to China. I was not very happy with the entire team, as I only have the PM with the most experienced required. He was himself reluctant to take on the project realizing that he might not be able to take his wife and baby. But well, I had to do with what we have.

I went to Ireland in this month, Dublin actually. It was a cold place, and I was lucky that I came when it was the least cold. It was a good experience for me. Interesting it was to meet colleagues and I felt proud being able to showcase a different brand of analytics to my Irish colleagues. Everyone seemed to enjoy Stout in that place. As for me, I couldn't take it, too bitter and a bit too dark for my drink.

I was suppose to go Dubai too, but the flight got cancelled. I was hoping to see it better this next time but somehow it was not meant to be.

I finally got my Gold status for my Krisflyer.

I remembered this was also the time when Chintan, one of the younger and arguably the among the more intelligent consultants from our group, decided to take a study leave for his master's degree in New York. I missed the guy and the intellectual conversations and the once in a while visits at home. Not to mention the regular updates I get on what's on TED for the month.

My family and I commemorated the death of my eldest brother this month, who was murdered 2 years back. He was the first of my 2 elder brothers who had passed away in the last 2 years.

June

My wife and I finally got the keys to our new flat. We were ecstatic! Finally, a place we own. We were dillydallying whether to get the place renovated and was looking at spending only Sgd30K for the renovation. But the quotations for the construction and repairs were costing us double than we budgeted. We were thinking, can we afford to borrow money from the banks again?

We kick started the China project on the 1st of June. The first few weeks were quite a stressful one, with the team yet to be completed and all sorts of challenges were just popping up every day. There were data problems, delays in the arrival of the India-based consultants, and too many conductors.

By the end of the month, we concluded the Thailand project. We concluded the project but no contract has been signed yet with the customer. The lawyers seemed more concerned with legal terminologies than actually getting paid by the customer, who was all too willing to pay already given that the project has been delivered.





July

There was a re-org in the group. Two units have been merged and what used to be a large delivery group was broken up by vertical. I got to head the Telecom Vertical and continued as the designated Delivery leader for China. Everyone thought, including me that I am set to move to China. I was waiting for the financial package for my move to be formalized and then I can pack my bags and move to Shanghai.

While everyone was congratulating me with my new designation/s in the org structure, I was not sure if I should be happy having 2 jobs - I knew that it only meant more work. True enough, the prelude of the kind of work that was to come, happened quite early. Travels went crazier and at some point I traversed 3 countries in one week - China, Thailand and Malaysia.

In Malaysia, I was involved in conducting a proof of concept for an operator. It was probably the fastest time I have seen a predictive model being built in barely 2 weeks time. But amazingly, the work went well and the customer was impressed with the work.

Meanwhile, more and more opportunities were coming up and I was struggling to quickly leverage the newly formed telecom team for solutioning while handling big egos and listening to complaints on unkept promises of discontented consultants.

August

The financial package for the China move finally came. Seeing it, I guessed I was both sad but also relieved at the same time that I had to say NO. The package was not I expected and I was not happy with the total value. I could not believe though that the company could not provide enough financial incentive to talents from whom they expect to build millions of business.

Well, its my side of the story though.

My boss seemed to think that it was such a generous package. Well, maybe. But it was still not enough to support my 2 kids going to an international school in Shanghai and still leave me with my savings intact.

I was relieved that I said NO because I knew deep in my heart my wife was having misgivings of moving to a country like China. She knew that it will be a big adjustment for her and most especially the kids. Knowing that there will be a huge language difficulty when we move there, our concern was for our son, who requires understanding and tolerance in the formal school system given his learning delays. We were unsure of how he can cope up with the change and the new environment.

My decision did not make my boss happy. Over many lunches with select colleagues in the office, he had made it sure that I felt his disappointment. I did feel that in the succeeding interactions with him in the coming months. For him, I made a big big big mistake passing up the opportunity to head the China delivery.

No regrets.

September

September is the happiest and oftentimes the luckiest month for me and my family. It is the month when my wife and I celebrate our wedding anniversary, her birthday, my daughter's and my dad's , and yes, RedPill's acquisition.

It is also the month of festivities for my favorite image of Mother Mary, Our Lady of Penafrancia of Bicolandia, who I have not missed visiting since 10 years ago, except for this year. I made that promise to visit Ina (Mother) every year some 10 years ago, when somehow a miracle happened, which I believed was due to Her Grace, that I got to save my dad from a heart attack. Call it coincidence, but I knew it was because of Her that I was there at the right time.

In this month, we finally got a go ahead for the construction in our new flat to commence. My wife and I took another loan for the renovation. The construction went on full swing and we liked what was being recreated with our new flat. Glad to have a home that you want considering that this is our first real home here in Singapore.

My wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary and managed to get a reunion trip to HK with the rest of her family from Manila as a gift to ourselves. We went to Disneyland and the kids and us had a grand time.

Coming back to office after the vacation, stress seemed to abate a bit. The frequency of travels also went down. However, some problems in the China project was brewing as quality of delivery outputs were being put to a test. Revenues too don't seem to improve and the team could not get to launch campaigns as projected. Our Chinese customer was beginning to get unhappy, and so were our China-based colleagues from the account team.

Not only that, the project in India was also having problems. The project sponsors were also not happy with my team's outputs.

Everyone was looking at me. Oh you mean, its my fault?

So much for so called Lucky Month. May be September is not a lucky month for work, only for my family.

October

I spent 3 successive weeks in China, working with the project team and working furiously to salvage whatever campaign we can launch and improve whatever revenues we can generate to justify our existence to the customer. Relations improved a bit though, with impressive account management from the newly designated China Delivery leader. The customer suddenly does not seem to mind that we have not reached even half of the revenue targets. My boss did, however. Quite a few nasty mails and sermons I got for the state we were in the project.

The new China delivery head is a capable person. In fact, he should be the only choice in the first place, being the one who has helped a lot in selling projects in China and is experienced enough to manage a Chinese customer. He himself is a local Chinese.

We were suppose to start another project in Indonesia this month, but the project got delayed due to some changes in the scope in the project.

Meanwhile, I was happy with the way things were shaping up in my team. I was beginning to see capabilities I have tried so hard to build in the past few months finally helping in easing up the volume of work. I could breathe a bit now as there are more shoulders to the wheel now.

There were still challenges with new recruits. For some, adjustments take time and there were big gaps in their skill sets when it comes to business analysis and project management - both had nothing to do with telecom experience. Nonetheless, at least things were progressing. The team was also gelling well and I can sense that they were appreciative of the personal touch and teamwork that they see around them.

A lot of other projects have not happened. Although there were few bright spots in the vertical with a few projects that may happen in the next 2 months. If things happen as expected.

Our new home was finally completed. My family moved in to new flat and we were very happy with the way it turned out. It was exactly the way we imagined it and the furnitures and appliances we purchased were exactly the right match for the space and color. More importantly, my wife and the kids liked the place so much.

My wife and I managed a weekend trip to Manila to attend our alma mater's Loyalty Day celebrations. by the way, I got another recognition from my university as one of its Outstanding Alumni for 2010 for Enterprise Development. Thank you UPLB!

November

We closed the India project in this month. I was so glad that project finally got over . We started a new one in Malaysia. It was probably the project where preparations took longer than the actual project duration. At least, we have a project which means the team has some revenues they were working for - a reason for existence.

The new project was not without issues though. Like the experience in the past 10 months, we were scrambling for resources when we kicked it off. I even had to kick start it myself because my PM was on vacation due to Deepavali Celebrations in India.

The China project was due for a checkpoint meeting in this month too. The project team was preparing for a big negotiation with the customer. I knew that with the dismal revenues we had compared to what has been committed, it will be a difficult negotiation to crack with the customer. Luckily, the meeting got postponed and the customer elected for the next month to discuss the checkpoint on the project.

In the home front, kid's school just got over and they went to Philippines for a vacation. My kids were accompanied by my mother in law and my wife's cousin from Canada on the way to Manila. Both of them were in Singapore for a few days vacation.

For the remainder of the month, my wife and I and our house help were alone in the house, and we were looking forward to an an easy and less stressful weeks to come, now that the kids were on vacation....

So my wife and I thought.

One fine night, my wife and I got the shock of our life. At 2 am in the morning after hearing some noise in the living room, I went out of our bedroom and found a man inside the house! He was standing by our main door. I was not sure whether he was on his way in or out. I screamed and ran after him, but he escaped. I immediately looked for my maid in her room and my initial gutfeel was confirmed when I did not see her in the room...

I knew my wife and I had locked the main door that night before going to our room and the only way it could be opened if somebody went out. And our maid was out in her sleeping clothes without her keys to the flat.

My wife and I could not confirm whether the man I saw in the flat had anything to do with her but we knew that somehow he had. My wife believed that it was the same man we saw with her a year back in the elevator a year back in our old flat at the other block.
>
My maid never admitted to anything, then and even that night. So to cut the long story short, we sent her back to the Philippines. We changed the door lock that day and spent the rest of the month thinking, we had been harboring a stranger for a company these past years that she had been with us - especially when we were not around or probably when we were already asleep. I cringed, imagining my wife and kids in the room, when I was overseas....

December

It's Christmas time. This is the month my family (and most Christian families) always look forward to, being reunited with loved ones and friends back in Manila. This time, we spent our Christmas day here in Singapore and we will also be welcoming the New Year together here.

The kids are back. My mother-in-law took them back. They had an excellent Christmas fun time with their cousins and my family back in the Philippines.

Meantime, work continues for most in the office, a few RFPs were being responded to and while most colleagues were on vacation, there were still a few activities happening.

Evaluation time is over and I have submitted my recommended ratings for my team. I hope I have fairly given most of them the rightful assessments they deserved.

I was in Thailand for a few days at the start of the month, on the account of Kiti's insistence that the team wanted me to handle the presentations with the customers myself. I obliged, actually I enjoy going Bangkok any day. It is always a joy to be with the Thai friends. I finally met the rest of Kamlarp's family. I was invited to a family dinner and there I finally met his parents and his youngest sister. I got a tour of the much talked-about house, which took 4 years in the making and wow, it was indeed worth the wait for the family. Awesome 5-storey house, with elevator and rooms complete with office desk and there was one which i thought has a conference room area. Larp's dad certainly made sure that all the logistical requirements of his children both for work and play are provided for, and with style!

On the China front, the checkpoint meeting with the customer did not happen this month as scheduled. The team though has managed to salvage the remainder of the 24 month contract and the project team shall be continuing into 2011 with their work in China.

My wife resigned from her job, finally deciding that instead of replacing our househelp, she herself will focus on the kids. Now that they are a bit older and more independent, we hope that somehow we can manage without househelp. Hopefully.

Happy New Year!

Enhanced by Zemanta

Monday, October 18, 2010

Philippines is my country, Singapore is my hometown

Sentiments i identify with, expressed in an Open Letter of an Expatriate to Filipinos in reference to a viral video of esteemed economics professor Winnie Monsod's lecture. Read on.

No Winnie, Filipinos who go overseas are not traitors
By JOY ANTONELLE DE MARCAIDA M.D.
10/17/2010 | 07:16 AM

I am a Filipino. I live and work in the United States. I have established myself as a physician of some stature in my community. American physicians acknowledge me as an esteemed colleague, students look up to me as their mentor, patients respect me as their doctor. They do not question the color of my skin. They do not treat me any differently from any other respected member of their community. I have been integrated into their lifestyle and have adapted to their culture. I speak as they speak. But I am Filipino. And I am proud of it.

The Lost Generation of Americans from the 1920s includes some of the most easily recognizable names in American literature: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, E.E. Cummings, and T.S. Eliot. Why are they the lost generation? Because they chose to live the life of expatriates in Europe, Central America, and other places in the world at that time. They expressed the thoughts and feelings of young Americans from that period when there was a general exodus of the intellectual elite, recent graduates, artists, war veterans and the independently wealthy. They spoke American in those foreign lands, and yes, they became fluent in French or Spanish as well. But they remained American, and to this day, America loves them.

Gertrude Stein characterized the expatriates’ sentiment in these words, “America is my country, and Paris is my home town." This is the essence of every expatriate’s attitude towards their country of origin, whatever it may be; there is a place that we consider home, but this is not our homeland. And the country we have adopted acknowledges in no small measure that whatever beauty or knowledge or skill we have brought in to their soil remains rooted in the land from whence we first came.

Whenever I receive the occasional compliment for a medical paper I write or a patient I make better, and the person who speaks my praise describes me to another, invariably the narrative would include, “that Filipino doctor from Connecticut". I have never denied my ethnicity, but it does not define me in my career. I stand successful and respected for who I am and what I do, regardless of race, color or accent. Americans delight in the success of a well-established immigrant. They celebrate the courage and tenacity and sacrifice it took for someone to succeed in self-exile. They accept them as fellow Americans, yet appreciate too the ethnic background that makes them different.

But in my country of origin, in my homeland, they apparently speak of me and think of me as a traitor. Professor Solita Monsod of the University of the Philippines, in a video of a lecture to her students currently being circulated by unquestionably well-meaning Filipinos to expatriates they know and love, expressed her anger towards those who have chosen to leave their home and their people to find work, sustenance and success in another land. How is this different from a Manileño who chooses to re-establish himself and his family in Cagayan de Oro because the business opportunities there turned out to be more conducive to his success? How is it a betrayal of the Filipino people for a Filipino in another country to be recognized and applauded for the good that he does on a global scale?

How am I a traitor when the dollars I earn here translate into businesses and consumer confidence and local spending by the family and people I still support back home? How is it that I am a fool when I have wrought only respect and admiration and love in this country for a Filipino? Professor Monsod suggested that Filipinos abroad “pay back" what is owed to the country. In my lifetime, I hope I have done a lot of good, and have paid forward.

PEP - Philippine Expat PhotographersImage by www.jhongdizon.com via Flickr

Filipinos overseas are self-exiles. We chose to leave our homeland when this became intellectually, politically, financially, artistically or philosophically limiting or oppressive. We are drawn to another country because of the vitality of its intellectual, scientific or artistic scene, its support and tolerance for innovation, progress and intellectual energy, and by its high regard for the immigrant who brings in new talent and skill, allowing him or her the freedom to achieve success, find his or her identity and express his or her ideas. Self-actualization in another land is not a crime. And Filipinos back home, who seek their own success, would be well-served to rejoice in ours. We are no different. We are just far from home. - HS, GMANews.TV
Enhanced by Zemanta

Monday, September 27, 2010

Back Pains

spineImage by estherase via FlickrThese past months i have endured severe back pains which at some point have left me almost immobile for brief moments. It's one of those pains you will willingly trade a one full day of muscle pain from playing ball or a tooth ache which you can remedy by having the tooth pulled out. These pains, you know, are something that is temporary and can somehow be addressed permanently.

Not my back pain though. The doctor says its sort of permanent and comes with the age and of course from my good old scoliosis, hitting me back with the stress i have made by spine endure these past months.



The pain is sometimes unbearable that at times there are nights when i cannot make myself sleep without the aid of a mix of medications, from those that you take orally to the topical ones.

In fact, i have taken every medication that anyone has recommended, from the doctors i have seen to the loved ones who have tried something similar and thinking it might work with my back.

Now I am still taking a few of these pain killers but am down to the most basic remedy, albeit palliative, i have had tried so far in so many years - Back Brace!

Though it really looks ridiculous on you with the bulging and protruding sections of your chest and back as well as the discomfort it brings to your skin, not to mention the curious and nervous stares you get from fellow passengers in the plane whenever I loosen the Velcro straps clasping my chest all the way to my back, this back brace is by far the most sustaining pain reliever for the lingering pains.

These past 2 weeks I have traveled straight to 3 countries and while the back pain recurs whenever I remove the brace at night time, so far i have survived 3-5 hours of sitting down in planes without the need for pain killers.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

RESPOND TO CHANGE, a message to the newly minted alumni of UP College of Economics and Management (Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines)



Good morning. First of all I would like to extend my gratitude to this hallowed institution and the noble professors who have made this place an important part of every alumnus from UP (Los Banos), including me.

I distinctly remember when I first got a mail from the Economics Department Chair, Ms. Amai Bello about having to speak to you for this occasion. I was traveling and I was checking out mails at midnight and I was quite taken aback by her invitation.

First, I am neither an economist nor an academician, who I believe are the better professionals produced by our university. Second, I am no billionaire. I am neither a Manny Pangilinan nor a John Gokongwei,Jr. who has an empire to show or an inspiring entrepreneurial story to inspire you.

But she said I am fine. She wants someone who can inspire you to think out of the box. Well, I said to myself that’s my job in my profession. I make CXOs of companies think out of the box and provide ideas on how to make more money for their companies.

When I started thinking of what to say to you today a week back, I had quite a challenge. I am neither young nor old, and I cannot tell you what to do with your life as you are adults already. In fact, you may already have an idea of what you want to be.

So I said to myself, let me just tell you about the world I have seen, and tell you what is out there and what could be in store for you.

Charles Darwin once said that, it is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.

Similarly, when you leave UP, the world out there will be a place of survival from the constant change that will happen. Scholastic records are good but they will not be sufficient for you get ahead. You need to be aware and responsive to the changes around you.

How many of you have used Google or Skype? I am sure almost all of you. But how many of us have known about them in 1999.

Let us a have local example. How many of us have known LBC from our childhood? Then, we know LBC to be a courier, symbolized by the man in the motorcycle who picks up and delivers packages door to door.

A decade past, LBC has become a remittance center, no longer transporting just packages for people but also monies from across the world. A more recent past, LBC is now a bank.

You can have many examples around you. Take for example San Miguel, you may know that it has a property arm, a packaging and food manufacturing business, aside from being the manufacturer of the famous San Miguel Beer, you all mostly have had a taste of in your 4 years in this University. But did you also know that San Miguel has also become a telecom operator in the last 2 years? You may have heard about Wi-Tribe Philippines or Liberty Telecoms?

The one thing that will be constant around you is change. Change is not just in a few industries, it’s across all walks of life.

It is in media. Before, we read newspapers and magazines, now we have the ubiquitous web for everything that we want to have access on. There are podcasts, vodcasts. There is Facebook and its 400 million members we can get updates from. Live. There are 62 million blogs apart from the numerous news agencies online of the likes of CNN, BBC, or even our own ones like GMA, ABS-CBN, or Philippine Daily Inquirer.

It is in Music. Most of you may have heard about cassette tapes, or even long playing vinyl records. But I am sure that most of you if not all does not own one. Most of the formats and even gadgets in which the music or movies you listen to and watch today were unheard of 10 years ago.

It is in travel. Even in the Philippines, travel has evolved so much from airlines to railways. For air travel, the transformation has not only been limited to infrastructure, new business models have also evolved. You may have heard about buzz word promotions like 'Fly Budget, No Frills Fly. Two to Go. Zero Fares, etc.'

In Banking, amazing business models have evolved in the last 5 years and the purpose and nature of transactions have dramatically extended beyond the traditional banking transactions that we know. A small business from Vietnam or Philippines can now get a micro loan from Kiva by connecting with Kiva lenders from the US or UK. Kiva volunteers facilitate the transactions online and ensure that the transaction is legitimate.

Prosper (www.prosper.com) is a peer-to-peer lending operation in US connecting willing lenders with eager borrowers. Participants are individuals who mutually agree on an amount to lend and borrow, respectively, including the rates at which the borrower is willing to pay as interest.

According to former US Education Secretary Richard Riley, '…the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.' Believe me in my time, when I left UP in the early 1990s, internet was just starting in the US. Neither any job nor any business model that you know now that is tied to the online world was in existence.

'We are currently preparing for jobs that don’t yet exist…' When I finished my MBA in 2004, jobs like Search Engine Optimization Expert or User Experience Specialist were unheard of. Even the concepts these job titles stand for have not been articulated yet.

'…using technologies that haven’t been invented.'

When have you heard about open source technologies or what you call Web 2.0? Most of the new technologies today are a product of collaborative ingenuity of individuals and communities (not just companies) who decided to participate in the innovation of technologies using free and open source tools now found everywhere.

'…in order to solve problems that we don’t even know are problems yet.'

Think about the green solutions that you see around you advertised in construction designs, in urban planning, even in the way Google has stored their servers several thousand feet below sea level to minimize emission of harmful gases. The problems they are trying to solve are things we don’t even know exist, much less consider as a problem.

Times are changing and fast. The explosion of information, of the digital world, and the technologies that pervade our lives, virtual or real continues every day.

We live in exponential times. Did you know that there are about 76 billion searches performed in Google monthly? Where do you think these questions were addressed to before? 1 week of information from the Philippine Star is greater than the entire history of information from the 19th century.

Let me give you a context.


'...3rd generation of fiber optics today have the capacity to carry 10 trillion bits per second in a single strand of fiber. In other metrics, such is the equivalent of 1,900 CDs worth of data or 150 million phone calls per second.'


Imagine the capacity for data.


There is an explosion in the digital world.
In Facebook, there are 400 million members, 100 million of whom access the community from their mobile devices. These members post 60 million updates daily and upload 5 billion items of content weekly. If it was a country it will be more than 4 times the size of our population and the 3rd largest country next to China and Ind
Laptops continue to sell briskly around the world clearly denoting the increasing need for accessing information on the go.

And there is much more. 'The 100$ laptop project expects to distribute from 50 to 100M of laptops a year to children in underdeveloped countries.'

Eventually, we will see a virtual world available to everyone, young and old, from developed to emerging economies, from rich to poor countries.

Consider this, young graduates. You are at the forefront of the changes around you, and with the unprecedented explosion of information and technology, the world is literally at your fingertips.

New companies today are being created by Filipinos who dared to dream. There are plenty of examples, and I can only show a few stellar names of Filipinos who dared to respond to change.

Like the visionaries ahead of them who actually made the change. You know their faces. Henry Sy, Lucio Tan, Jaime Zobel de Ayala, and John Gokongwei.

Testimony to their vision are the Filipino brands now known around the globe, and you might not know it, these are brands making inroads in markets across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and even the US and European markets.

Did you know that our economy is driven by entrepreneurs, especially small and medium businesses that employ 55% of our labor force?

We have a large and teeming consumer market. Did you know that 70% of our economy is created through consumption? In Metro Manila, there are 40 shopping malls and in every major city we have a mall to boast of.

How are we sustaining it? We have 17.1B of US dollars that gets pumped in the economy by our beloved OFWs annually.

All these positive changes are happening around you and across the world. The country is growing, expanding and changing. Our country has strong fundamentals to support a generation of graduates like you who want to ride the changing times.



The question for you is - Are you ready to respond to change?

1.Our economy is growing.
2.Literacy rates among Filipinos continue to be among the highest across developing countries.
3.We have a sizable middle class and it will only continue to grow in size.
4.A knowledge-based economy is emerging and quite healthily driving up other areas such as construction, as demand for office space increases.

Your future is in your hands. You know more about the world now than all the past generations combined. All you need to do is to start thinking... of what you want to be.


Create a personal vision for yourself. Imagine what you want to be in these changing times.

See and capture the opportunity.
Be aware, take part.
Create a willingness to learn & develop.
Your education does not stop here; in fact the real education for you is just beginning.

Learn to love ambiguity.
What you ought to be is something you need to visualize, but embrace the possibilities no matter how ambiguous these may seem at the moment.

Focus on what you can do ……. and not what you can’t do.
And most importantly, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP. UPLB alumni have never been quitters, much less Alumni from CEM, don’t be the first one.

Let me finally inspire you with a quote from John Gokongwei, Jr., who truly has a story to inspire you with.

"...As a boy, I sold peanuts from my backyard. Today, I sell snacks to the world. I want to see other Filipinos do the same... " - An excerpt from John Gokongwei, Jr.'s speech at the Ad Congress in November 2007.




Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Friday, April 16, 2010

Sent Home

Last night, I was sent home by my boss. I was forbidden to open or respond to mails. I was asked to turn over pending work for the remainder of the week. Basically I was ordered to shut up and shut down.

I tried sneaking a few mails about midnight last night, but my boss was like a fox he called me soonest i sent the mails (i was wondering how he knew it because he was not copied) and virtually ordered me to shut down my laptop right at that moment. He knew too that I was on the phone with a colleague from Bangalore, discussing some proposal that had to go out the day after.




Nope, i wasn't fired nor did i do anything worth kicking my professional ass. I was made to rest. Sounds nice huh? Your boss asking you to rest.

I did not like the feeling of being singled out initially, when others are equally stressed out with work. But what the heck, how many times do these things happen.

Now that I have been forced to it (not to touch mails and do work when home), i seem to feel a little bit relaxed. Little intermittent chest pains are still here and there from the intense stress of the last 2 weeks, but in general the feeling is good, and breathing is not labored and especially enjoyable, knowing no one is chasing you today.

In reflection, i felt it was also necessary that someone has to pull me out from the day-to-day work, even just for a day, because I seem to be actually incapable of extricating myself from the everyday work these past 4 months.


While i seriously hate having to work on weekends and late nights and curse (a hell lot now, i believe) from the bottom of my ass every time i hear the word 'urgent' from people who use it as a standard adjective for every thing they want, i am also unable to prevent myself from saying no to work and on these requests on weekends.

Someone from Change Management actually told me that I need to say No to Work when it is not time for work (i.e. weekends, weeknights, holidays). Sound simple, but not when you think there is no one else who can do the work but you.


Which I know is not true at all! But that is what you and people around you unconsciously think when you have been doing it for quite some time and your colleagues have been pretty much dependent on your brain on anything that has to do with telecom. Which I wonder whether it is good or bad?

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Ranting



Wikipedia has this definition of Rant :

"A rant is a speech or text that does not present a well-researched and calm argument; rather, it is typically an attack on an idea, a person or an institution. Very often rants lack proven claims. Such attacks are usually personal attacks...."

Rant is the word that has characterized week after week of stressful work. Believe me, i have done every possible interpretation of this word in the last 2 months, and all in the context of work. More than guilty for the emotional scar i have caused people and myself, I am scared as i feel that my dark side is slowly taking over my persona.

I have gone and crossed the line and made irrational and sometimes personal attacks on colleagues, either in their face or behind their backs, all because of stress from work.

I fear of this dark side (re)emerging and i think i have been in this kind of state before several years back, and believe me it took me years of great emotional pain to mend the emotional impact and negative character that was the consequence of those dark years.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Aging

You will not realize how much you have aged by just looking at yourself in the mirror.

Apart from white hairs and balding spots which will fleetingly make you feel insecure, you can certainly feel like your old young self trying to earn your spot in a dog-eat-dog world, just like when you first had work ages ago.

Apart from a different spending patterns on school books and tuition session fees as oppose to toy purchases, you can almost always feel that you are a new Dad trying to adjust to being a family man for the first time.

Apart from slightly changing destinations of where to spend more in malls such as visiting areas for PSPs, Wiis and other adolescent accessories and apparels as oppose to Toy Kingdom and ToysRUs, you can still feel the first time you took your kids in a mall to buy their stuffs as if it was yesterday.

Everything seems the same...

But stop and look around....see the people around you especially those you have not consistently seen over the years...and realize how much they have changed.

I have seen my parents recently and realized they have indeed aged far beyond i imagined them to be as old.

I have seen my sisters and my brother and realized how many of them are growing white hairs and are physically maturing fast. I have seen their teenage kids and realized how they have grown from whence i carried them in my arms when they were infants.

I have remembered friends and reminisced memories from my childhood years, and realized that a lot of them indeed are no longer playmates and schoolmates you call 'Padi' (Bicol dialect term literally means 'Pal' or 'Buddy' in the English vernacular) or 'Pare' or 'Tol' ('Pare' and 'Tol' are Tagalog dialect terms which are equivalent to 'Padi')but are 'Daddy','Father','Attorney', 'Doctor', 'Professor' or 'Congressman' to many people.

As these thoughts dawned on me, I realized too that in the last 2 years i have in fact lost 2 of my brothers to murder and heart attack and that we are no longer a brood of 4 brothers and 3 sisters but there are only 5 of us remaining.

As I looked at the mirror in this day beginning 2010, and looked at my kids and my wife, my life in the last 2 decades since i left my parents' home for the University, flashed before me like a documentary in NatGeo.

Indeed, i have aged enough and it has been quite a while since i was a kid and trying to believe that i am about to start a journey. In fact i just realized, it has been quite a journey for a while.

I feel strong and ready for more though, and i don't think I am old. But yes, i am halfway to where i wanted to be maybe.

But life i think has a lot more to offer in the next half of my life than anything it has given me in the first half.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]