Maniolas

The world’s biggest e-commerce tycoon: Alibaba’s Jack Ma with former US President Bill Clinton in the former’s hometown, Hangzhou City. BEIJING — I believe that as an entrepreneur and writer, travel is one of the most important sources of continuous education and mind expansion, so I never refuse any invitation to travel anywhere because all places are interesting to me and every trip can teach new things. Thanks to a recent media invitation to visit Beijing during the Oct. 1 National Day holiday, I had the opportunity to again observe China’s entrepreneurs, from the persevering sidewalk food vendors toiling all night to the loquacious small shopkeepers to the bold, swashbuckling self-made billionaires dreaming of taking on the world’s biggest multinationals. The people’s capitalism: Intense competition & nonstop innovation Ironically, despite the traditional Western media depiction of China as a somber socialist monolith under the straitjacket of authoritarian rule, it is actually one of the most vibrant places for entrepreneurial dynamism and intense competition, thanks to the late “capitalist roader” Deng Xiaoping and his successors, now under President Xi Jinping. At the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit late this year in Beijing, I hope Xi gets to finally meet our Philippine President Noynoy C. Aquino since both of them share the same anti-corruption zeal. In contrast to our oft-archaic notion of China as “communist” and dour, in fact, I see it as a place where people’s capitalism is flourishing as never before. Examples of entrepreneurial ventures that showcase what I Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said the number of listed companies considered compliant with Islamic principles has increased. As of end-September, 53 out of the 265 listed firms adhere to the Shariah standard, up from the 51 out of 260 firms as of end-June. Five firms made its way into the latest Shariah-compliant list while three were kicked out. The new companies that entered the list were Dizon Copper Silver Mines Inc., Keppel Philippines Properties Inc., Liberty Telecoms Holdings Inc., The Philodrill Corp and Roxas and Co. Inc., while EEI Corp., Far Eastern University Inc. and Globalport 900 Inc. were the companies that were removed. Companies retained from the Shariah-compliant list are ATN Holdings, Inc. A and B shares, Abra Mining & Industrial Corp., Bogo-Medellin Milling Co. Inc., Concepcion Industrial Corp., Da Vinci Capital Holdings Inc.,, Forum Pacific Inc., IRC Properties Inc., Island Information & Technology Inc., Now Corp., SPC Power Corp., Swift Foods Inc., United Paragon Mining Corp. and Wellex Industries Inc. Other companies that made the list are Apex Mining Inc., Araneta Properties Inc., Asian Terminals Inc., Calapan Ventures Inc., Centro Escolar University, Chemrez Technologies Inc., Cirtek Holdings Philippines Inc., D&L Industries Inc., DMCI Holdings Inc., Holcim Philippines Inc., iPeople Inc., Jollibee Foods Corp., Lafarge Republic Inc., Liberty Flour Mills Inc., Mabuhay Vinyl Corp., Manila Bulletin Publishing Corp., Manila Electric Co., Marcventures Holdings Inc., Nickel Asia Corp., Oriental Peninsula Resources Group Inc., Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines Inc., Philex Mining Corp., Philex Petroleum Corp., Philippine Long Distance Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The growth of cash remittances is seen easing to 4.5 percent in August from six percent in July, UK-based investment bank Barclays said. In its Emerging Markets Weekly, the bank said “remittances are expected to dip given a high base,” of $1.9 billion in August last year. Latest Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data showed money sent home by Filipinos living and working abroad reached $2.06 billion in July, up six percent from the $1.9 billion reported in the same month a year ago. This brought the seven-month total to $13.48 billion, or 5.8 percent higher than the $12.7 billion in the same period in 2013. Personal remittances – cash and non-cash items – also grew 7.1 percent to $2.28 billion in July, bringing the seven-month figure to $14.9 billion. The robust inflows of remittances have been driven by the sustained demand for skilled Filipinos abroad, the central bank said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Citing data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the BSP said job orders reached 540,037 in the seven months to July. Four-fifths of these jobs are for service, production, and professional, technical and related employment in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Taiwan and Qatar. Moreover, the continuous efforts of domestic banks to expand their remittance services abroad through tie-ups and establishment of offices have supported the growth in remittances. Remittances play a big role in supporting domestic consumption, which remains to be the largest driver of the Read More …

Do you know that many top business corporations carry “Malasakit” in their corporate core values list? This is beautiful and I am all for it. “Malasakit” doesn’t even have an appropriate English word equivalent that can give it justice for its full meaning. I have done so many corporate trainings on corporate values for the executives and front liners. Malasakit and Bayanihan are virtues that are distinctively Filipino and in my opinion, really beautiful. A company’s vision and mission statements speak a lot about its corporate core values. The vision statement is simply a story written in advance. It is a picture of what the leaders of the company want to see happen one day. This is movable. This can be changed. A client of mine from many years ago made a vision statement of being in the top three in their industry within the next 3 years. A couple of years later, he invited me to speak and told me he had to change and alter their vision statement because it was fairly obvious that the goal could not be achieved. Another client of mine achieved their goal early and had to change their vision statement. They had to raise the bar and hit higher goals. And so a vision statement can be changed, and it should. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The mission statement tells the reason as to why you wake up in the morning and go to work. This should not change, Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – Joint Ventures (JVs) are increasingly becoming popular as a faster and easier approach to implement infrastructure, development and social service-related projects at the national and local government levels. To accelerate more economic growth tbrough Public-Private Partnerships, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) released the 2013 revised JV guidelines applicable for government-owned and -controlled corporations, government instrumentalities, government financial institutions, and state universities and colleges. For local government units (LGUs), they are governed by their own JV ordinances. The authority of LGUs to enter into JVs and provide their own guidelines has been affirmed by the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Department of Justice. Center for Global Best Practices, in collaboration with Forensic Solutions, with the aim of walking you through the NEDA guidelines that took effect on May 26, 2013 and JV ordinances, will hold a pioneering seminar entitled, “Business And Public Officials’ Guide on How to Joint Venture Legally with LGUs and GOCCs” on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2014 at the 2/F Laguna Garden Café, Ayala Center, Cebu City, Philippines. For details and all other best practices seminars including Best Practices and Remedies to Avoid COA Disallowances, Cebu MCLE for Lawyers, you may check www.cgbp.org or call Manila lines at (02) 842-7148/ 59; 556-8968/ 69; Cebu lines at (032) 512-3106 to 07 and Baguio at (074) 423-5148. This one-day special seminar will deal on the definition of a JV, requirements, cash and non-cash contributions of parties, procedures for selecting partners, bundling or unbundling Read More …