Maniolas

A person with a passion to excel will always outperform the 99 others who merely have interest to do the same. I have been in the leadership training business for so long. And while many people who went through the training would rate the session as high and describe it as: • Life-changing seminar • It drives me to improve • Can’t wait to go back to work and apply the lessons • Challenges me to become better Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Many of them do not actually build up the passion to do what they have learned even if they have the tools to do it. But there are very rare people who would take the learning investments seriously, put the principles they learned into practice and then one or two years later, they would send me Facebook messages happily telling me how they have been promoted and how well their performance have improved and their family relationships restored. What could possibly be the difference between the two groups of participants who attended the same program that was facilitated by the same person and yet produced two different results? Here’s how I see it. While one group of participants simply expressed the interest to improve, it is the other group who will carry the passion to make it happen. And when their efforts finally paid off, when they finally reached their success goals, those who merely expressed interest were left wondering why they never Read More …

Every Christmas, it has been a tradition with us to prepare raisin-walnut Christmas jars for friends.  It’s been like that for years now, but this year, with all the jars and ribbons prepared by my wife Babes and laid out on the dining table ready for packing, there wasn’t a bag of walnuts to be had, even as we searched all over Metro Manila for this precious bag of nuts. We couldn’t believe it because there was always a glut of walnuts in past years, along with other goodies associated with Christmas that could be purchased from S&R, Binondo, Cash & Carry and other big supermarkets. We braved the traffic to China Town, believe me, and checked out the stores weekly, patiently waiting for the shipment “that was coming”.  The port congestion Ordinary citizens like us do not feel that this mammoth problem can impact our simple lives, but the cascading effect on our economy has been nothing less than brutal.  It started in February of 2014 as importers waited for their cargo to be released and exporters had to endure the delay of the vessels’ departure.  From both ends, many had to resort to air shipping, which was more than double or triple the price.  Some car manufacturers had to ship whole engines by air! The shippers could hardly move the empty containers from the ECD (Empty Containers Depot) to the vessels, and nine months later, things were just starting to ease up with the lifting of the truck Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is looking at replicating the bus system reform in Seoul, South Korea and initially implementing it in C-5 and Ortigas as part of efforts to address heavy traffic along major thoroughfares particularly along EDSA. Transportation secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said the agency is getting inputs from Dr. Gyengchul Kim who conducted the Seoul Bus Reform Program. “Dr. Kim, father of bus reform program in Seoul, is now with us and we are carefully listening to his advice on the bus system,” he said. According to Abaya, the agency is initially looking at implementing the reform at C-5 and the Ortigas area. “In C-5, we’ll do a high capacity bus system as a pilot to see how that develops. We’ll also do an experiment in Ortigas,” Abaya said. Under the planned reform, the government would pay bus companies in the route wherein the bus would have to leave on time whether or not there are passengers.  “This will change the bus service because in this way the government will pay the bus company. The bus has a schedule and the driver will get paid a uniform rate so there is no incentive to drive recklessly. That’s the same program Seoul undertook,” Abaya said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The DOTC is looking at implementing the project in tandem with the bus rapid transit (BRT) system being undertaken in Cebu City. The DOTC is in the process of Read More …