June 2008 Archives

TEN years ago, expectant moms had to make do with sailor-collared maternity tops, jeans of their husbands (as they would fit a growing belly) and blah inch-high shoes to go out. If one had a little baby, the mom would have to bring along bottles of milk (whether formula or breast milk expressed at home) since it would be such a hassle to do breast-feeding outside the home. The huge stroller would have to be brought along, since it would be too tiring to carry the baby all the time. But now there’s a whole lot of fashionable maternity clothes out there. Breast-feeding in public is a cinch with nursing bibs that allow babies to nurse discreetly. There’s even a sling moms can wear so they can carry their babies well for long periods of time. And the products for moms and infants have more than doubled over recent years: belly belts (maternity pants extenders), nappy clutches (fashionable diaper bags), breast milk trays (for freezing breast milk), massage oil for babies, parenting magazines, etc. It’s the age of hip parenting. Gen-Xers in their 30s and 40s are very much different from their own parents. They want to be more hands-on in raising their kids but at the same time retain their individuality. And they want only the best for their kids. Just ask young moms Denise Gonzales and Monica Eleazar of Indigo Baby. “We saw there was a need for young moms like us who wanted to embrace parenthood without sacrificing style, and, more importantly, our identities,” they say. Denise and Monica came up with the nappy clutch, a chic diaper bag that can be tucked into a handbag or worn on the wrist. The designs are eye-catching for the fashionista mom: zebra, camouflage, pucci, and Indigo Baby’s trademark combination. It can even be used as a real clutch bag, sans the diaper. They also sell the reversible nursing bib which makes a cool cover for mom and baby when breast-feeding in public. The bib can match one’s clothes. An organic bath and body line completes Indigo Baby’s product line. Jen CC Tan of Next 9 is a firm believer in attachment parenting, which advocates strengthening the bond between parent and child. When her sons were still babies, she used the baby sling (a product she got from abroad) which enabled her to “wear” her baby while moving about. “I had such a great experience wearing my baby. I wanted to share the feeling. Also I felt it was an important attachment parenting tool.” Jen and her partner felt that they can improve on the baby sling and make it suit the Philippine market by using lighter fabrics. They came out with the product, and developed some more, such as colorful cloth diapers and stylish maternity wear. When Janice Villanueva was breast-feeding her eldest, Coby, 11 years ago, she lamented the lack of breast-feeding blouses in the market. “There were a couple of brands of nursingwear available abroad then but it was quite expensive to order online or bring the brands in,” she says. That’s why Janice and her partner designed and produced their own line, Mommy Matters, available in department stores and also by delivery service to new moms who can’t go out yet. From nursingwear, Mommy Matters now carries other products designed to make lives easier for moms: the belly belt, diaper bag converters, nursing covers and breast milk trays. Seeing that moms need information about breast-feeding and parenting too, Mommy Matters is now also into events about these. Janice also publishes Mommy Pages, a free directory for moms for all things parenting-related. Market response, according to Janice, Jen, Denise and Monica, have been really good. But there’s room for more. “While the market we are targeting is a very niche one, moms are a passionate lot, so they love having many options for every single step, stage, task, activity of parenting. The more products and services to choose from, as long as it can help, enhance or compliment her parenting, the better,” says Janice. The McCann Intergenerational Study released last year -- a comprehensive survey which tracked 2,000 urban Filipinos aged 12 to 60 -- revealed that one of the mindsets of the Filipino is his being relationship-centered. Relationships, particularly with family, are top priority. It’s no wonder, then, that parenting products designed to strengthen the bond between parent and child have become a hit in the country.

FOR YEARS, there was the Big Mac vs the Big Mak. Hamburger chain McDonald’s sued local mobile hamburger chain L.C. Big Mak for using a trademark similar to McDonald’s Big Mac. Three years ago, after a 15-year legal battle, McDonald’s won over L.C. Big Mak. The latter was found by the Supreme Court guilty of infringement and unfair competition as consumers can confuse the Big Mak for the real Big Mac. How safe is your trademark? How can you ensure that your products will not be cloned and passed off under a different brand name? How should you deal with counterfeiters who copy your product from its form down to its label? Admittedly, small and medium scale enterprises are very much vulnerable to counterfeiting of their products, services, and business processes. This is why the SME entrepreneur must be aware of and guard his intellectual property rights. “Failure to protect one’s intellectual property could lead to theft of ideas and diminished revenues, resulting to lesser competitive edge in the market,” shares lawyer Michael Untalan, senior partner at Bengzon Negre Untalan Intellectual Property Lawyers. Below are Atty. Untalan’s tips for SME owners on how you can protect your intellectual assets, which includes trademarks (logo or brand), copyrights, patents, and trade secrets: 1. Take stock of your possible IP assets. 2. Familiarize yourself with IP laws. Check out the website of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines. 3. Consult with IP lawyers to evaluate your intellectual properties and enforce your rights. 4. Register your intellectual property with the IPO. On the other side of the coin, make sure that the trademark you are thinking of using is not registered by another entity. Just recently, the maker of local Harvard Jeans was sued by, yes indeed, Harvard University of the US. A big headache. :(

By: Harvey S. Keh* There's a famous proverb that says, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." For many of us working towards curbing poverty in our country, this saying resonates to us as saying that our efforts towards uplifting the lives of the poor should not be centered on giving dole-outs, but our main focus should be providing them with the necessary education and training for them to find decent opportunities to earn a living. Thus, it is no wonder that while our present administration may mean well by giving a P500 electricity subsidy to the poorest Filipino families, the subsidy continues to receive flack as a band-aid solution to the growing problem of the rising prices of basic commodities in our country. Yet, despite the fact that our government, private foundations and non-government organizations have delivered effective livelihood training programs for the past 20 or so years, millions of Filipino families continue to still live with less than P150.00 a day. Does that mean that all the efforts of these well-meaning organizations were total failure? I don't think so, but I think that we need to understand why many of these families remain below the poverty line despite having the necessary skills that will allow them to access livelihood opportunities. I'd like to give as an example, a group of mothers from Payatas, Quezon City, one of the most impoverished areas in our country today. These groups of mothers have been making rugs for many years but despite the fact that their rugs are almost always sold-out, they continue to earn less than the P300 for a week's worth of work. Why, you may ask? Upon further scrutiny, we realize that they sell their rugs for a measly profit of only P1 per rug while the middleman who buys it from them sells it to department stores at a premium profit of almost P 25 per rug! In short, while the Payatas mothers receive a paltry peso for their efforts, the middlemen earn 2500% by doing practically nothing. Good thing there is a social enterprise called Rags2Riches which was founded by a group of young professionals together with the Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan. Rags2Riches or R2R enables Payatas mothers to earn more by giving them direct access to the market and removing their dependence on the middlemen. R2R also innovates by developing new products out of Rugs such as bags, purses wine holders and a yoga mat bag. Through these unique innovations, Payatas mothers increase their income by more than 300 percent! Now, these rug-makers can send their children to school and at the same time earn enough to provide for the basic needs of their families. Finally, to ensure its sustainability, R2R has also made the Payatas mothers as active partners in running this social enterprise, giving them the right to plan for the future of R2R. Now, due to the growing demand for their products both here and abroad, R2R is currently training more mothers in Payatas to be part of their social enterprise. R2R has shown, through social entrepreneurship one can not only earn profit meaningfully but more importantly help change the lives of many in a sustainable way. As Ashoka Founder Bill Drayton has said, "Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish, or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry." If you wish to know more about Rags2Riches, you can visit their website at http://www.slb.ph/r2r/index.html or you can send an email to their Executive Director, Reese Fernandez at reesefernandez (at) yahoo (dot) com . For those who wish to learn more about social entrepreneurship and how to become an effective social entrepreneur, the Ateneo de Manila University-School of Government together with Ashoka-Philippines will be running Beyond Bottomlines: An Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship this coming July 12,2008 (Saturday), 8 am to 5 pm at the Ateneo de Manila-Professional Schools campus in Rockwell, Makati City. If you are interested to attend this seminar, you can send an email to youthventureph (at) gmail (dot) com or contact Katrina Wy at (02) 683-0262 local 141. *Harvey Keh is the director for youth leadership and social entrepreneurship at the Ateneo de Manila School of Government.

By Harvey S. Keh IT’S June again and classes just opened last week for millions of Filipino students, more than 90.0 percent of which study at public elementary and high schools. To understand the plight of basic education in our country, one need not look further than to check the state of public schools and the performance of its students. Here are some startling facts:

* Out of 10 students who enter Grade 1, only six will be able to finish elementary and only four will eventually finish high school. * Class sizes still remain a problem with some public schools in highly populated areas having an average class size of 80 to 90 students. * More than 20.0 percent of our public high school students cannot understand what they are reading and worse, majority of our public schools do not have functional and adequate libraries.

* In recent years, less than 10.0 percent of our 1st year public high school students manage to pass the High School Readiness Test (HRET) even if the passing score has already been pegged at 50.0 percent. * International Surveys in Mathematics and Science have consistently placed our country at the bottom of the rankings with poor African countries like Ghana and Botswana. On the other hand, our Asian neighbors such as Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan are found at the top of the rankings.

What can be done to reverse this alarming trend? According to Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, S.J., President of the Ateneo de Manila University and a well-known education reform advocate, studies have shown that there are many factors that can contribute to the success of a public school but there are two main factors that usually stand out which is, the leadership of the principal and the support of the community. These two main factors are what the Acts of Hope for the Nation (AHON) Foundation, the corporate foundation of Filway Marketing, Inc., the exclusive Philippine distributor of Time Life Books, aims to tap towards helping public elementary schools build adequate and functional libraries. How can one expect our public school students to learn how to read if they do not have books to read in the first place? AHON Foundation uses social entrepreneurship to develop innovative and sustainable solutions towards solving the education divide in our public schools. AHON Foundation does not just give books to public elementary schools. It helps mobilize the community under the leadership of the school principal towards working together to set up a good library that students can use. I have never been a believer of dole-outs thus, when we started AHON Foundation, our chairman, Mr. Hector Tagaysay and I decided that we would only help communities who are willing to help themselves. In a typical AHON Library build which is done in a month's time, parents work together to repaint the library, teachers raise funds to buy new shelves, the barangay pitches in by providing new tables and chairs and the local government unit donates computers for the students to use. When the library is finished, AHON Foundation through the support of Filway Marketing, Inc. and some donors come in and donate more than P 500,000.00 worth of brand new books and reference materials such as encyclopedias, almanacs and atlases. After AHON inaugurates a library, the students usually seem hesitant to use the books. Most of them have never seen brand new and up to date books in their libraries. But upon telling them that the books are for them to use, their eyes light up and they start devouring every bit of knowledge found in these books. In some of these library builds, college student volunteers from the University of the Philippines conduct story-telling sessions with the students. Through this "bayanihan" way of putting up a new library, everyone becomes a stakeholder and an owner of the project thus, it will become everyone's responsibility to ensure that the library is used properly. Hopefully, through AHON builds, communities learn to work together for education and realize that they can achieve great things by sharing the responsibility of providing quality education for their children with each other. It reminds me of the old African proverb that indeed, it takes a whole village to raise a child. Since its inception in 2006, AHON Foundation has already helped build 14 public elementary school libraries in Marikina, Quezon City, Nueva Ecija and Pampanga. Here is a photo of the AHON library in Quezon City. Here is Mayor Sonia Lorenzo of San Isidro, Nueva Ecija during the turnover of books. To know more about AHON Foundation, you can visit their website at http://ahonfoundation.blogspot.com or you can contact them at (02) 683-0262 local 109. If you are interested to know more about Social Entrepreneurship or would like to learn to become a Social Entrepreneur, please feel free to contact the Ateneo de Manila University-School of Government by sending an email to ateneoylse (at) gmail (dot) com or calling us at (02) 426-5657. Editor's note: Harvey Keh is the director for youth leadership and social entrepreneurship at the Ateneo de Manila School of Government. First photo shows children reading the AHON-donated books.

THERE comes a time in any organization when change needs to happen fast for the company to progress. A good effective leader can bring about change well. “One man’s or woman’s idea can bring about change,” said Maria Ressa, head of news and current affairs of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation, and managing director of ANC. For instance, Lee Kuan Yew, she said, took a backwater nation and turned it into the first world country we now know as Singapore. At the Women to Women Mentoring Conference at the Philippine Trade Training Center held last April, Ressa revealed that she had to catalyze change in ABS-CBN upon joining the broadcast company in 2005. Their news programs were overtaken by those of GMA in the ratings game. And she felt the company had to emphasize its core values of transparency, accountability and consistency for it to come out on top. We have all heard of the reorganization that happened when she came on board. Veteran journalists and even vice presidents were given the pink slips as the company streamlined its operations to cut costs. She was one unpopular figure back then, to say the least. Looking back now, Ressa, who was with CNN for a long time as bureau chief, revealed the steps she took in bringing change to ABS-CBN. She said these eight steps are not original, as she learned it from Harvard Review, but I must say, they could work in any organization. Here they are: 1. Establish a sense of urgency. People will be more willing to change if they understand the need for it. Identify your crisis points. Crisis can mean danger or opportunity. Determine what you must address. 2. Form a guiding powerful organization. You’ll need lieutenants to ensure the job is done. In Ressa’s case, her “lieutenants” are veteran journalists Marites Vitug, now head of the online operations, and Glenda Gloria, now COO of ANC. 3. Create a vision. You can’t lead if you don’t know where you’re headed. At ABS-CBN News where there are 1,000 people, it was imperative that they make a standard and ethics manual. “Our vision is summarized as follows: Excellent journalism to make the world a better place,” said Ressa. 4. Communicate the vision. Ressa had to go where the people went, even drank with them to talk to them (in Filipino even). 5. Empower others to create the vision. She got rid of hierarchies and titles at the broadcasting company, saying TV is a team effort. 6. Plan for and create short-term wins. Celebrate wins with the guys. In her case, they celebrated ANC’s brand new look and ABS-CBN’s improving ratings. 7. Consolidate improvements. Produce still more change. 8. Institutionalize the new approaches. Articulate connections between new individual behavior and the corporate results it brings. Start creating a succession plan. Instituting change is a real challenge, but the effective and capable leader can handle it well.

NINE point six percent. That’s the inflation rate for the month of May, as announced by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). It’s the highest since January 1999 when the inflation rate then was 10.5 percent. Already, we have been feeling the effects of this: the prices of gas, food, and other basic items have gone up steeply. Blame it on supply problems: With lesser rice supply available, its price has increased. With the price of oil running away at more than $130 per barrel, the prices of gasoline and other oil products have likewise hiked up. And as we know from experience, when gas goes up, everything else follows. Consumers are expected to lower their spending to cope with the high prices of basic commodities. That may mean bad news to businessmen especially those whose products are considered nonessential. Here are five things you can do to cope with tough times and help keep your business afloat: 1. Do some serious cost cutting. If you’ve been entertaining clients a lot lately, cut down on it or find less expensive ways to do so. If a product line is not viable anymore, cut it off. 2. Rethink your company’s organization chart. If some positions are redundant, or if some duties can be performed by one person, then do what you have to do. 3. Downsize and focus on your core competency. That’s what Malabon-based Victor Gan of Empire Printing Company Inc. and Laser Scanner Center Inc. is thinking of doing. He says they’re at the mercy of their suppliers as well -- if suppliers raise their prices, they won’t be able to do much. At the same time, they can’t raise their prices as doing so may drive away customers and make them less competitive in the market. And they can’t afford that right now given their collection problems. Right now Victor is studying where exactly they are strong in, so they’ll just concentrate on that service for the market. 4. Find other suppliers who can give you a better price with the same quality. 5. Hold off expansion plans. The cost of credit is higher now and will be an added burden to you. The good news is: High inflation is not forever. In time, things will get better.

THE BIG buzz in business circles remains the Meralco crisis. Everyone wants to know what will happen -- will the Lopezes keep the power company or will Winston Garcia and the GSIS succeed in heading it? What’s with all the sweetheart deals, system losses, highway robbery charges, power struggle and squabble about proxies? Every day brings with it a new development to this boardroom battle. Stockbroker Monique Lecaros of SB Equities Inc. says, “On a long-term standpoint, the possibility of the Lopezes losing control of Meralco really is disturbing for shareholders as it raises doubts over whether any group out there would be competent enough to run the company. The public, on the other hand, seems to welcome government’s purported move and claims of ‘protecting public interest.’” Indeed, from the looks of it, the man on the street just wants electricity charges to be lowered given the skyrocketing prices of everything else, from rice to gasoline. That’s why, given the opportunity, Winston Garcia will be perceived a hero if he gets to fulfill his vow of bringing down electricity charges within two months of assuming the helm of Meralco. But there’s something about the government making moves to take over private business that makes me uneasy. Winston Garcia said on TV that Manolo Lopez will give up Meralco “whether he likes it or not.” Amando Doronila calls it a "seizure of assets without guns and soldiers." A chilling thought.