HBO Walkabout: REVISED

At first I thought I was going to do the walkabout on my own. But we were allowed to do it by pairs or by groups of 3's. So I paired up with Mr. Island Boy himself (I call him that, sort of an inside joke)--> Dindo Ofrecio

I paired up with Dindo Ofrecio and we thought of organizing a Surf Camp for first timers. We obviously wanted to make a fun-filled walkabout that we and the 'participants' will fondly remember.

this was the proposal that we made:

We will be organizing a Surf Camp in San Narciso Zambales.

We will organize and teach a group of around 10- 15 people.

Objective

We believe that the Philippines has a lot to offer and one of its

most abundant resource is the environment. We want people to

appreciate nature and experience something new. We would also

want to be able to apply managerial and leadership and entrepreneurial

skills in organizing events which appeal to our interests. We are given a

great opportunity to do this.

The Experience

An overnight stay at the beach, sleeping in tents, there will be a bonfire for the

group during the evening so that the group gets to interact with each other.

In the morning we will be heading the Surf lessons.

The Planning

We will be planning and organizing activities from conception, transportation to

group activities and safety aspect of the tour.

Using the Word COHORT

There is a change going own here at the Asian Institute of Management. The word BATCHMATE (referring to some one who belongs to your class or batch) is slowly being phased out here in the institute. They are starting to use the word Cohort to classify the batches (ex: Cohort 1, Cohort 2)

What does it mean?

A cohort (from the Latin cohors, plural cohortes) is a fairly large military unit, generally consisting of one type of soldier.

hmmm..I feel like a spartan right now. "Madness?? THIS IS AIM!" AAAHHHOOOO!!!AAAHHOO!

Development of Enterprise

Development of Enterprise is a class that I am taking up here at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). Professor Ortigas has been advocating entrepreneurship to everyone and I am glad that there is a class like this in AIM. I am already sold to the idea of creating your own business (it's like preaching to the choir) but I am glad to see the reactions of my fellow Cohorts as they try to think about ways to make money.

Total Cars

I haven't written about this project of mine with some of my High School friends where we purchase and repair damaged cars and sell them back into the market. It has been in operation for a couple of months now and we are currently on our fourth car (i think).

We have elected a board of directors who facilitate the choosing of the vehicles and analyzing the potential income and rate of return. Based on their vote we choose a vehicle and repair and prepare them for sale. Its like flipping real estate where you buy and refurbish and resell the house again.

Currently the turnover rate of the cars that we have purchased and resold fall under 2 months. Just some types of cars that we have dealt with are Innova, Fortuner, Previa, CRV, Vios.

HBO Walkabout

Last Friday, September 19 2008, one session of our HBO class was devoted to a presentation by our seniors for their walkabout project. A walkabout project, in a nutshell, is a self-discovery project within the parameters of management and risk taking. Each of us was tasked to do something that is out of our comfort zone, preferably something that we will do for the first time. The seniors presented a variety of projects ranging from group to individual projects and from fun to serious.

The projects that really struck me were the Romance in D project where they organized a showing of a play and invested almost 125,000 pesos, and the six sigma corporate consulting. Both really stimulated my mind and made me thinking of ways that I could do my walkabout.

I have something in mind which I am still trying to put on paper. As an idea it has merit but will it be applicable or suitable in the Philippine setting. The idea is having entrepreneurs come together and generate business ideas and analyze business opportunities and hopefully the group ends up materializing the concept. This is not the most novel idea but it does have merit, the goal here is to create value through the creation of new businesses or services from the ideas that were shared and gives opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs that have small capital or are still working. We lessen the risk because it becomes a shared risk by the community of entrepreneurs. Business risk is still to be determined based on the situation and the industry of the business idea.

The project would be online and it would target Filipinos here and abroad who always wanted to have their own business but never had the time or opportunity or never had enough money. Here we eliminate or lessen those obstacles. The future success and sustainability of the project will depend largely on trust. Because the activities here in the project will entail for us to share ideas and invest in the materialization of those ideas and failure in the trust department will definitely shut the project down. Transparency is very important in increasing the trust equity of the company and through the internet it will be easier to communicate the information that shareholders need.

I have always wanted to do this but it's a very daunting task for me because I can honestly say that I am not a tech person and it has never been my strong point. A lot of investment of time and money will be required to pursue this project. I will talk more about this in the succeeding entries entitled Global Pinoy Enterprise.

CEBU PACIFIC

I am currently doing a Marketing Project in AIM and our group was tasked to create a marketing project targeted to the Domestic Airline Industry in the Philippines particularly of Cebu Pacific.

Based on our preliminary research, it is really interesting to note that there have been complaints about the deteriorating services of Cebu Pacific particularly the personnel side or customer relations and yet they still manage to hold on to domestic market share. However with the consolidation of the their competitors the battle of the domestic skies has now intensified. The acquisition of Philippine Airlines of the low-cost carrier Air Philippines and the unification of Asian Spirit and Sea Air has divided the market into three major blocks.

The first part of the project is more on analysis of the industry, the market, the company, and the forces that drives the industry. Second part of the project which we currently conducting for the second term is about a particular marketing program which I will reveal later on...

Paradox of CAN Groups (HBO.3)

Can Groups, also known as learning teams, exists in the hallowed halls of this Institute. It has been a practice to put people together into teams to foster learning and friendship. It has not worked out that way so far.

I am not questioning the logic of implementing learning teams I just find it amusing that the paradox of teams is magnified 100 times more here. We are commonly taught the value of teamwork, of coordination, of communication within a team but deep in the underbelly of that well oiled machine that we call TEAMS are individuals with their own agendas, own priorities, own motives. So when is the group of individuals become a team?? A question highly debated in class... Is it when individuals let go of their personal agendas to garner team success? If yes, then there is a flaw in a system that only acknowledges individual success and rarely mentions team success. Unless the system is not fostering teams at all... It might be that we are truly fostering individualism within the team. there might be "The Individual in a Team" handbook and it teaches us how to rise on our own even though our team is failing or how to look good in front of the boss using someone else's ideas...

Of course these things are not unique to this institution. We all know it exists in any organization, and I think how we handle this now is the real lesson that we need to learn. The whole experience takes a look on what kind of person we are. How much we can tolerate members, and what we do in response to the situation. Right now it has been my observation that the class has been working independently rather than being in a team. I think this is a response in the difference of working habits and work ethic. Cultural differences plays a huge role in this especially when you find yourself as the minority. There has been no "new culture" or "team culture" that was formed from the CAN Groups or maybe individualism is the new "team culture" unique to this class...

Maybe there is actually an I in the word TEAM. (a silent i)