Recently in Pacquiao Category

By Digoy Fernandez A few months ago, my kids introduced me to Facebook, and I have taken to the social interaction medium like a fish to water. It took a while, of course, but starting with my neighbors – specifically, their kids – my list of friends gradually spread out to former classmates, old friends, and even new ones who I have been pleased to discover. One of the things that struck me is the love and care many of them show their pets, most of which are dogs. Some even have their dog’s pictures adorning their profile pages. My son, who inherited my love for pets in general, just sent me two amusing threads. One was of a puppy Retriever trying to sleep using a stair step to prop his head, to no avail. The other was of the Boston Terrier Breed, one we have grown to love ever since a bouncing bundle of Boston joy entered into our household four years ago. This little dog of ours has become truly one of the family and even sleeps between my two boys. My friend Wilson Ang of BioResearch is in the business of selling pets to people. But few know that he also has some sort of animal rescue center where he takes in battered or abandoned pets, mostly dogs, and tries to nurse them back to health. I have seen these dogs while walking through their area, and have been struck by their demeanor, wagging their tails and yelping for attention. Dogs truly are man’s best friend and crave for attention and love by instinct. Contrast this with the naturally feral nature of even ordinary household cats, that have to be won over if one is to be trusted by them. There was a time when I could not resist picking up little kittens that had probably been abandoned or appeared lost, and have tried to either raise them or give them to friends. Keeping a couple of “house cats” has certainly helped in keeping the vermin population at lower levels. Last week, my gardener found a baby python and promptly killed it. I was aghast and told him to never do that again, since I could have brought the snake over to the rescue center where it would become a nice addition to the menagerie there. Some of my Facebook friends have invited me to support their causes, many of which have to do with the care of and stopping the abuse of animals. These are easy to support, given my love for animals in general. (Without demeaning the need to stop the abuse of people too!) Many abandoned pets start off as whimsical purchases by people who think that they would just love to have an unusual pet, and then surrender to reality. But abandoning pets by literally throwing them out into the streets is a crime in itself. Not only is the animal left to fend for itself in a hostile environment, but the poor animal adds to the increasing number of strays in the metropolis. It is this thought that has kept me from buying those lovely little crocodiles or boa constrictors.

HAVING graduated from grade school in 1962, high school in 1966, and college in 1971 (all from La Salle-Taft) plus two years in graduate school (AIM in 1973), I have come to realize that my compatriots and I are part of the leading edge in the Boomer generation. Since the Boomer generation embraces those born after the great War (WWII) up until the hated war (Vietnam in the 60s), my bunch is pretty much in our early 60s and feeling the heavy hand of gravity–--falling hair and drooping stomachs on our physiques. In addition, we now have to contend with more senior moments as we tend to be more forgetful in both big and little things. My La Salle classmates continue to whoop it up every quarter or so with a class party featuring the music of the 60s and 70s. Fortunately, we have sort of an in-house band composed of many who played the music of the 60s back then, the GGBB. What does that name mean? Anything from Great Green Boogie Band to "Gago Gago Bobo Band," depending on how many bottles of wine find their way into my classmates’ constitutions. The GGBB has played in many revival concerts and its leaders are part of the online group Pinoy Classic Rockers, a group that promotes the musical genre of our generation. As a result, we have had very nice class parties with wives and lady friends from our generation who share a common love for the music and light company akin to what we used to have in our erstwhile jam sessions way back when. The other evening, My AIM classmates met--once again--in the penthouse residence of Mon Abad and Lenny de Jesus. A common love for music has resulted in many talented and accomplished artists finding their way into the equivalent of a musical atelier, one that has seen classical artists, chorales and choirs, and yes, the inevitable classic rock groups gather to entertain or to jam. The evening in question found Lenny’s prize group, the Electromaniacs, playing back up to wannabe singers from my class as they waded through a collection of Beatles songs and even a credible incarnation of a Credence Clearwater Revival piece. Many in my class who idolized the Electromaniacs for their incredibly complex and accomplished music during the 60s were struck by the irony of having one of the greatest music icons providing back up for our motley bunch of, singers. How lucky could we get? Finding solace and comfort in something like the music of our generation is not limited to a few groups alone, as we find more and more Boomers letting what is left of their hair down in order to play both the instrumental and vocal hits of our time. Lenny finds pleasure in supporting musical causes and musicians through activities like the Electromaniacs concert that saw the launch of their revival CD, the proceeds of which had been earmarked for a music foundation. That same evening, we were talking about the different perspectives of the Pacquiao fight and also the man himself. We whipped out a sample computation of what we thought would be the net earnings of Manny after at least two more good fights--assuming he wins both and gets the guaranteed amounts and share of PPV for TV--and came up with a net amount of only about P2 billion. This is less local and US taxes, managers’ and promoters’ shares, trainer’s share, and so forth, leaving only about 35% of the gross as his take home. We figured that his earnings from endorsements and other activities would be needed just to maintain his lifestyle and the upkeep of the barangay of followers who hold court with him wherever he goes. But we came to one inevitable conclusion: Manny P may have enough to run for Congress but not enough for a stab at the Presidency. So, whoever is thinking of making him run and hold on to his fame, would also have to be excellent fundraisers. Furthermore, he is not guaranteed a win because he has possible determined opponents who will not give up their seats without a fight. Some of us who are in Facebook elicited interest from those who are not. I think that enough was learned by some classmates present to get them to try this social networking medium. And this is the surprising thing about networking sites like Facebook. Among the largest increases in users now being recorded by Facebook belong to the Boomer generation. At first, many moms and dads opened Facebook accounts in order to keep track of their kids. But after finding many fellow Boomers signed up, their average usage goes up dramatically from about 30 minutes per day to an hour or two, especially since many in our generation have more time for themselves now. It is indeed rewarding to be able to hook up with old friends not seen since graduation. Internet marketing mavens have taken note of this increased usage by Boomers and have began to target them through the various media available on the web. To find out how this can be done, you may have to attend the new course offered at AIM that my son Jayvee will be handling (see my last post on the new media and how it can be harnessed for marketing and business purposes). During these, our sunset years, it is pleasant to be able to get together with old friends to talk about nothing significant in particular, and just enjoy each other’s company with the music of the 60s playing in the background.

By Digoy Fernandez There are many compelling reasons for continuing education, and this is true for executives meant for higher positions, aging dinosaurs of the corporate world, but especially for crusty entrepreneurs who have built up businesses from scratch. When we wanted to change the mind-set of the middle and top executives of a particular organization, we would start by sending junior executives to school for either short courses or full-scale MBAs. Before long, the more progressive among the middle managers demanded some form of continuing education of their own. After a few years, different levels of management and staff were undergoing complementary management education, and our organization spawned a generation of decision makers and thinkers who could self-start or handle crises on their own. When we first proposed computerization, the immediate answer was that it would cost too much. This was in the early late 70s and early 80s, mind you. An opening occurred when we were loaned some versions of the early word processors by a client. These WPs were strategically distributed by my office to a select of group of senior executive secretaries…who became enamored with their new toys and demanded that they be kept with their offices permanently. Faced with certain rebellion from the senior secretaries’ ranks, senior management caved in to this first thrust in favor of automation. Another happy accident happened when a client decided to pay us in desktop computers. Again, we distributed these to a group of up and coming executives who began to see the benefits of using computers beyond word processing. The seeds were sown, and these allies fought for full computerization in coming budget sessions. Before long, our group and others in the organization kept the software boys and girls busy by looking into more and more applications that could be applied to make our jobs better and easier. With the advent of the Internet, moreover, even more ramifications set in since I formally retired from the 8 to 8 grind. First of all, I was able to whet the interest of my boys in what computers could do when I was tasked to set up the design parameters and the RFP for what is now the successful on-line lottery of the PCSO. The boys would accompany me to office and would tinker with the computers and the new (then) Windows OS. Pretty soon, I noticed they were fooling around with software of their computer games and doing things like giving themselves more lives, essentially defeating the computer games’ ability to do them in! Now, my two boys blog effectively and the eldest is part of a group that exploits the ability of the internet to supplant the old parameters of marketing and doing business. My elder son Jayvee and a team of other professors from AIM and other sectors, just finished conducting a week-long course on the new media and how it can be harnessed as an effective marketing and promotion tool. As one who grew up with the age-old norms that also knew only of one type of tri-media (radio, print, tv), the new media made available thru the internet boggles the mind. Good thing that I have tried to peep over the shoulders of my sons and have managed to keep up with both the jargon and the applications in the internet. Thus, I email and some blogs regularly, gobble what I can from various sites in the net, Google for factoids, watch Youtube for anything from songs to basketball, enjoy a FaceBook account, and even set up a Twitter account that I still have to learn to navigate on. The executives who still think that the new media available thru the internet will just be another fad have a rude awakening in store for them. The social networking sites are now a permanent, if shifting, phenomenon. To be ignorant of their existence and their effectiveness as marketing tools is to court disaster arising from ignorance. Where else can one get almost instantaneous results and gratification? Where else can a nobody become a big somebody overnight, with millions of adoring fans (read Susan Boyle)? Where else can a product find adherents in just an instant – compared to a marketing campaign – based on a succession of favorable blogs and commentaries? You need information, go to the internet. You want to know what movie is hot, check out the appropriate sites. Ad infinitum. Thus, Jayvee was tapped along with some others knowledgeable in the industry to conduct a short course in the use of the new media. This course will also become an elective in the coming school year at AIM. To think that the interest in the school began when a student who had been following Jayvee’s tech and other blog sites invited him to give a talk in the school. I was there one time when he was giving a talk. We were a group of alumni, professors, and others interested in charting new directions for the school. During one particularly extended exchange, I told those present that they should listen in to what my son was telling the students. That what he had to say was not even being taught in the school. It helped that Jayvee also graduarted with a Masters in Eduation, which made him desirable from the Institute’s point of view. Now, we have my young son who is in his twenties, teaching people twice his age. He laughingly told me that on the first day of the course, the participants thought he was a student. At the end of the course, they all became believers.