CECILIA M. Ordoñez grew up seeing her parents meet American buyers, procure materials for orders, and package gift baskets and other products for shipping abroad. Amo Philippines Inc. was established in 1973 by Cecilia’s parents as a typical cottage industry doing gift baskets. The business grew and the company would join trade exhibits here and abroad. Cecilia and her siblings helped out in the company in finance, production and sales.

While working for the company, though, Cecilia observed that management could have been stricter in running the company. The high level of inventory could have been controlled more. Controls could have been put in place to prevent pilferage. To make cash management more effective, cash advances to employees could have been given less freely.
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WITH THE expected slowdown in the Philippine economy this year as confirmed by the International Monetary Fund, entrepreneurs are finding ways to deal with the global financial crisis.

“When the economy is down, nobody spends,” says Karat World top man Felix Gorriceta III. The times thus call for streamlining of inventory. “Stock up on what sells. We don’t experiment much on new merchandise, which we had the luxury of doing so before,” he says.

At publishing company Adarna House, Emelina Almario, president, shares these strategies:
1. Streamline business processes. “We are auditing current business processes and looking at ways to improve them in terms of cutting costs.”
2. Manage risks. “Our various sales channels present different levels and types of risks and we are also looking into these.”
3. Practice prudence with resources. This goes for “electricity, paper and gas (even the small things count!).”
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RECENT CHATS with family and friends based abroad revealed that one of the foremost things in the minds of most people these days is how the crisis is affecting us. My friend Sean based in Australia asked me if it is true that companies based here in the Philippines are laying off people. Another friend, Cheryl based in the US, wanted to know how the Philippine economy is doing.

On the other hand, we here in the Philippines are curious to know how life is abroad. My sister based in the US reported that home stores are closing, and car dealerships are not doing well. Publishing companies abroad are discontinuing titles. On the other hand, my friend Nenette said her brother-in-law in the US is not affected by the crisis—since he is in the auto repair business, business is booming with lesser people buying cars and more people just opting to have their old cars repaired. Health care is not as hit by other industries because, well, people get sick whether or not there is a crisis.

Entrepreneurs are coping with the global financial crisis in their own ways wherever they may be. Rossana Llenado, president Ahead Learning Systems, Inc., the company behind Ahead Tutorial and Review Center in the Philippines, reveals they are very much aware of what is happening, but are not quite as frazzled about the crisis as most. “We try to remain as optimistic as possible, always searching for the silver lining behind the dark clouds. I remind my staff that we had already been in this kind of situation during the Asian financial crisis so I am very confident that we will be able to weather this storm. We recall what we learned in the past and apply those lessons in the present situation. I’ll make sure as well that we all learn more from this experience,” she says.
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SOME OF the old established art galleries in Artwalk at the fourth level of SM Megamall are leaving the mall scene. Finale Art File, Gallery Genesis, and West Gallery will be moving out soon, says artist and gallery owner Soler Santos of West Gallery.

According to Soler, Finale will be closing down its Megamall gallery this month and will concentrate on its new art space at La Fuerza Compound on Pasong Tamo Street, Makati. West Gallery, after 16 years in Artwalk, is leaving Megamall in February 2009 and will just operate its main gallery on West Avenue, Quezon City.

High rent in malls has put a dent on art galleries’ incomes over the years. West Gallery, for instance, used to have branches in Glorietta 4 and The Power Plant, but closed them down a few years ago. Galleria Duemila left Megamall earlier, and now operates from its space on Loring Street in Pasay City. The trend now seems to be to locate art galleries outside central business districts to lower overhead costs. Doing so also allows galleries to have free rein over their storefront designs, which they cannot have when doing business in a mall as tenants.
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IN OUR FAMILY, it’s the younger generation we turn to when we’re lost in the world of technology. My mother asks my 13-year-old son to find out why her mobile phone does not ring (it was on vibrate mode). My brother-in-law asks his kids why his cellphone keeps ringing (it had a virus). And my father turns to his 17-year-old apo to download kundimans into the iPod my sister gave him.

It turns out that a lot of us aged more than 20 years old are clueless about technology. I have a batchmate who knows how to check her e-mail but cannot figure out the ins and outs of our yahoogroup. Another friend confessed to not knowing how to attach photos onto her e-mail, so we’ll just have to wait for her husband to do so before I can view our pictures. And I hear about executives who are so clueless with the computer that they are dependent on their secretaries for PowerPoint presentations and reports made on Excel.

Well, the non-techie among us should decrease in number soon. That’s because Microsoft Philippines and Netopia recently partnered to offer free e-learning programs at Netopia Internet cafes (just pay for the use of the PC). Need help in figuring out Office 2007 and Microsoft Vista? No problem. Want to know how to maximize the use of the Internet? Help is here. Want to do awesome PowerPoint presentations and be an expert in using Excel files? Yes, finally, you can do them yourself.
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