Ask Go Negosyo - Column by Joey Concepcion (Philippine Star Business Section)
If you are not careful in the negosyo world, a smaller player, who is hungrier and more passionate with an improved business model and better product or service, can change the game. Before you know it, you have just lost the market.
There are stories of underdogs beating market leaders. We mentioned in earlier columns the story of Mang Inasal eating into the market of Jollibee, forcing them to buy Mang Inasal. Our very own Cosmos and Selecta brands are clear examples of underdogs who beat market leaders in the soft drinks and ice cream industry. Similarly, brands like Mekeni and CDO hotdogs, Champion detergent and so many others tell the same story.
Competition does bring out the best in people. It helps us strive to always find ways to reinvent ourselves. Keeping the fire and passion is the key.
Even in the entertainment world, the story of Willie Revillame is quite interesting. It has been about a year now since we met. He invested in a venture I started with my friend Boy Reyno. It was initially challenging to introduce him to groups that come from different social backgrounds. In the end, it turned out quite well. In fact, his introduction to Boy Reyno, who is also a top lawyer who provides legal guidance, eventually came in handy. I remember mentioning to Willie, as I invited him to the group, that you will never know when one of your partners will come to your rescue. At that time, he still had a perfect relationship with ABS-CBN.
Months after, his relationship with ABS started to deteriorate. I just read in the papers that Boy Reyno became Willie’s lawyer and successfully negotiated a deal with TV5. I personally thought that it was a risky move. But, I guess he had no choice, as his future was at stake. The longer he was out of TV, the faster people will forget about him.
From the short time that I got to know Willie, I can say that he is a survivor. Coming from a difficult background, he has a high adversity quotient who knows how to bounce back. He knows his business. Willie clearly has the passion, perseverance and persistence to succeed. He understands his market quite well.
Willie’s show challenges the high-rating shows of ABS-CBN and GMA7. The news programs during primetime are one of the highest rating shows on television. Placing a game show up against news programs is definitely a game changer. Atty. Gozon, who is a trustee and a good friend of Go Negosyo and who propelled the growth of GMA7 when he took over, will definitely not just sit down and watch.
But, I have to say -- Willie knows and understands his market well. He has the passion to be the best in his skills. He also has the strength in building his own brand, which is his name. These are the factors that determine the success and failure of many entrepreneurs. Yes, Willie is an entrepreneur. He also negotiated to be a co-producer of his own show in TV5.
Another game changer is the entry of his new co-host Shalani Soledad, who is of course the former girlfriend of PNoy. What a marketing coup! From nowhere, that “Aha!” idea comes at the best timing. It draws national attention, because everyone wants to know who she is as she has been a mystery to many. For that alone, the ratings will hit the roof. I congratulated Willie for an excellent choice.
I share this story, as the advocacy of Go Negosyo has shown me how many entrepreneurs in this country succeed. Sheer passion, determination and hard work are critical. But, then again, it is always important to strive to be the best in what you do. Always want to do better. This is what we call “reinvention and improvement of business model”. Keep having those “Aha!” moments. Think of new ideas to improve your business model.
The underdog Willie reminds me of other countless entrepreneurs who share the same triumphant experience. The next weeks will be interesting, as the battle of the networks keeps on getting more exciting.
* * * * * * *
Congratulations to our Go Negosyo trustee Myla Villanueva for being recognized as one of “The Outstanding Women in Nation’s Service”. Myla, who is also the Managing Director of MDI Group of Holdings, represented the information and communications technology industry. Congratulations Myla and your Go Negosyo family is proud of you.
We would also like to congratulate Cathy and Mike Turvill. Their Nurture Spa Village in Tagaytay was recently nominated at the Asia Spa Baccarat Awards as Destination Spa of the Year and Spa Retreat of the Year. Your Go Negosyo family wishes you luck. The Turvills would also like to invite everyone to vote for the Philippine Entry to the BBC World Challenge 2010. Our country’s entry is AIDFO – a social enterprise based in Bacolod that shares a technology that brings water to communities. Let us show our support by voting online and sharing this link to our family and friends (http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/2010-finalists-project08.php).
The rest of the year is also a very busy time for more of our Go Negosyo entrepreneurs. Tintin Babao will be opening “The Grand Global Exporters and Importers Advanced Christmas Bazaar” on Nov. 17-21 in the World Trade Center. On Nov. 20 at 2-6pm, Go Negosyo will be presenting a live talk show on how to find the right negosyo opportunity. Other Go Negosyo entreps will be there to share their stories and tips.
The husband-and-wife teams of RJ & Vanessa Ledesma, Anton & Rache Diaz, and Gary & Janice Villanueva will also be launching “Mercato Centrale” on Nov. 21. It will be an ongoing weekend lifestyle market at Bonifacio Global City that will provide unique food and an extensive selection of healthy and organic options. It will also serve as an “Entrepreneurship Incubator” for food entrepreneurs, culinary students and student entrepreneurs. The incubator program will include a lecture series, group and/or one-on-one mentorship programs and similar mentor-related activities. Student groups who apply with the approval of their school will get stalls at a discounted rate. For those who are interested to reserve a stall at MERCATO CENTRALE, contact Rache at 09175318949 or rachediaz@gmail.com.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Can You Find the Key to Success and Personal Peace in Your Favorite Starbucks Drink?
By Rich Schefren
They're everywhere.
You come into contact with them from the minute you wake up to the minute you go to sleep.
* Your alarm clock, for instance.
* The gas pumps at your local service station.
* Your order at your neighborhood Starbucks.
* Even the clothes you wear, the shopping you do, and the communication tools you use.
All of these - and many more - are systems. Some - like your alarm clock - are very simple. Others - like the gas pumps and your clothing - are complex systems.
Just take a look around, and you'll see that systems and the subsystems they're made of are really all around you.
Take, for example, a simple coffee order. Walk into a Starbucks and you'll see well-designed systems in action. The lattes, espressos, and frappuccinos are made exactly the same every time, from store to store. This is the result of many complex systems, from the laboratories that create the drink mixes... to the trucks that deliver the milk and coffee to the stores... to the cashiers who take your orders... to the baristas who make your drink exactly the way you want .
Those systems result in a practically identical experience - from walking in the door to placing your order to sipping your drink - whether you're in Seattle, Washington or Delray Beach, Florida.
Systems make it easy to produce the same results every time. They're responsible for efficiency... Consistency... And reliability. They exist to achieve a goal: to wake up a sleeping person at 6:00 AM on the dot; to produce the perfect latte every time; to manufacture thousands of identical sweatshirts.
But systems are useful in other ways.
Systems Aren't Just for Starbucks
In fact, adopting a systems perspective can radically improve your personal life!
You see, our lives are composed of countless systems. Taken together, your personal systems add up to you. These systems are the invisible threads that keep the fabric of our lives together. And if there's an outcome we don't want, we can change it by making an adjustment to the system responsible for that outcome.
Imagine for a moment that you could distinctly see each of these personal systems. Then, if you weren't happy with the results an individual system was creating for you, you could pull it out, perfect it, and then place it back where it belongs. Now, imagine you did this for each and every system that comprises your life.
Think about how different your day-to-day experiences would be.
Right now, how would you describe your typical day? Is it a complex mess of events or is it a relaxed sequence of well-planned activities? Are your days chaotic or under control? Do you have enough money? Do you get to spend the time you'd like with friends and family? Does your life seem like an endless race around a circular track, or are you steadily improving - getting better results with each passing day?
Since your life is made up of simple systems, getting what you want out of life is simply a matter of improving your personal systems.
Stated more simply: The essence of your work, health, relationships, and results lies within systems that compose your everyday existence. And your goal is to see life for what it is, a collection of individual systems. With this clarity, you'll be able to extract and perfect each of these systems one by one before reinserting each back into your life.
There are many systems in your life that you've already got down pat. The odds are high that they're efficient and quick because you've already honed them to perfection. You've probably systemized driving a car, checking your email, fixing breakfast, etc.
But there are also many important systems that you probably haven't perfected and you don't have down pat. Systems to stay in shape, systems to keep in touch with friends and family, systems to invest your money, systems that keep you organized, etc.
Personal Systems Put You in Control of Your Life
I believe that if we are to be truly happy, if we're going to experience success and personal peace, we must have control. There's a direct relationship between the happiness we experience and the control we have. And I'm not talking about control over others. I'm talking about the control we have over the trajectory of our lives - where we are headed, and what we experience on our journey.
And you'll have all the control you need when you take control of the systems that make up your life.
Your job is to avoid becoming caught up in the "drama" of your personal life. Instead, you step outside, look down, and isolate individual systems. After deciding what you want the systems to accomplish, you can identify defects. Then you go about improving the dysfunctional systems, before backing off and occasionally (but routinely) monitoring the results and making any necessary adjustments.
What I'm recommending is that you start approaching your personal life the way an engineer approaches systems.
If right now you (or the people around you) would describe yourself as "flaky," then think through what sort of system you would need to return calls promptly, to pay your bills on time, to remember important birthdays and anniversaries, and to make sure you do whatever you promised.
With the right personal systems in place, you'll become consistent and reliable. People will trust you. They'll call you dependable instead of flaky. You'll be seen as someone to have complete confidence in.
Or, if right now you're not as healthy as you'd like to be, think through the systems you'd need to get and stay healthy.
Look, I fully realize when you change a current system or develop a new one you'll often come up against old habits, simple laziness, and procrastination. But by paying attention, great results often come quickly. And with those successes it becomes easier and easier to stay on course and reap the ever-compounding rewards.
A Personal System in Action
For example, awhile back I was disappointed with my personal productivity. When I analyzed the root cause, I became aware that my sleep routine was responsible.
So I went about modifying my sleeping system. The positive effects of this one change spilled over into almost every aspect of my personal life, improving my health subsystem, my family subsystem, and my productivity subsystem.
Before the change, I used to stay up late (sometimes really late) and wake up at a different time each morning. But I realized that my personal productivity plummeted after 9 PM. So I decided to change my sleep schedule (my sleeping subsystem).
Now, I go to bed at 10 PM. And since I only need 6.5 hours of sleep, I wake up every morning (naturally, without an alarm clock) full of energy at 4:30 AM. I'm on the stair machine by 5 - and do an hour on the machine. My two daughters wake up at 6 AM and we play games for an hour, till 7 AM, when my wife Debi wakes up. From that point on, Debi takes over - getting the girls ready for school, making them breakfast, etc...
By 7:15 AM I'm out the door headed for the beach. I arrive at the beach by 7:30 AM. There, I write in my journal for an hour till 8:30 AM. Then I swim in the ocean for 30 minutes, relax for another half hour, and then proceed to the office for our daily 10 AM meeting.
The Life-Changing Power of the System Approach
The reason I'm sharing this with you is this: Ever since I modified my sleep subsystem to this new format I've been sleeping better, feeling better, spending more quality time with my daughters, getting more done, losing weight, and feeling a lot better about myself.
That's the power of the system approach: One small tweak to a single subsystem can radically improve the performance of the entire primary system.
Truth be told, I could write dozens of pages just on personal systems. If I did, I would have a lot more space to share my personal systems and suggestions for how you can immediately dissect your own personal systems and the best approaches to improve them. I may in fact do that in an upcoming report. But for now, realize I've just laid at your feet a real secret of success. Your overall level of happiness can be positively impacted by heeding the advice I just shared with you.
So why not take a moment right now and identify a new or modified personal system that would positively impact your life? For me it was changing the time I went to bed every night, coupled with changes in my morning routine. Now it's your turn...
Identify a systematic change you could make in your life. Implement that change. And watch as it makes a huge positive impact on your personal life.
They're everywhere.
You come into contact with them from the minute you wake up to the minute you go to sleep.
* Your alarm clock, for instance.
* The gas pumps at your local service station.
* Your order at your neighborhood Starbucks.
* Even the clothes you wear, the shopping you do, and the communication tools you use.
All of these - and many more - are systems. Some - like your alarm clock - are very simple. Others - like the gas pumps and your clothing - are complex systems.
Just take a look around, and you'll see that systems and the subsystems they're made of are really all around you.
Take, for example, a simple coffee order. Walk into a Starbucks and you'll see well-designed systems in action. The lattes, espressos, and frappuccinos are made exactly the same every time, from store to store. This is the result of many complex systems, from the laboratories that create the drink mixes... to the trucks that deliver the milk and coffee to the stores... to the cashiers who take your orders... to the baristas who make your drink exactly the way you want .
Those systems result in a practically identical experience - from walking in the door to placing your order to sipping your drink - whether you're in Seattle, Washington or Delray Beach, Florida.
Systems make it easy to produce the same results every time. They're responsible for efficiency... Consistency... And reliability. They exist to achieve a goal: to wake up a sleeping person at 6:00 AM on the dot; to produce the perfect latte every time; to manufacture thousands of identical sweatshirts.
But systems are useful in other ways.
Systems Aren't Just for Starbucks
In fact, adopting a systems perspective can radically improve your personal life!
You see, our lives are composed of countless systems. Taken together, your personal systems add up to you. These systems are the invisible threads that keep the fabric of our lives together. And if there's an outcome we don't want, we can change it by making an adjustment to the system responsible for that outcome.
Imagine for a moment that you could distinctly see each of these personal systems. Then, if you weren't happy with the results an individual system was creating for you, you could pull it out, perfect it, and then place it back where it belongs. Now, imagine you did this for each and every system that comprises your life.
Think about how different your day-to-day experiences would be.
Right now, how would you describe your typical day? Is it a complex mess of events or is it a relaxed sequence of well-planned activities? Are your days chaotic or under control? Do you have enough money? Do you get to spend the time you'd like with friends and family? Does your life seem like an endless race around a circular track, or are you steadily improving - getting better results with each passing day?
Since your life is made up of simple systems, getting what you want out of life is simply a matter of improving your personal systems.
Stated more simply: The essence of your work, health, relationships, and results lies within systems that compose your everyday existence. And your goal is to see life for what it is, a collection of individual systems. With this clarity, you'll be able to extract and perfect each of these systems one by one before reinserting each back into your life.
There are many systems in your life that you've already got down pat. The odds are high that they're efficient and quick because you've already honed them to perfection. You've probably systemized driving a car, checking your email, fixing breakfast, etc.
But there are also many important systems that you probably haven't perfected and you don't have down pat. Systems to stay in shape, systems to keep in touch with friends and family, systems to invest your money, systems that keep you organized, etc.
Personal Systems Put You in Control of Your Life
I believe that if we are to be truly happy, if we're going to experience success and personal peace, we must have control. There's a direct relationship between the happiness we experience and the control we have. And I'm not talking about control over others. I'm talking about the control we have over the trajectory of our lives - where we are headed, and what we experience on our journey.
And you'll have all the control you need when you take control of the systems that make up your life.
Your job is to avoid becoming caught up in the "drama" of your personal life. Instead, you step outside, look down, and isolate individual systems. After deciding what you want the systems to accomplish, you can identify defects. Then you go about improving the dysfunctional systems, before backing off and occasionally (but routinely) monitoring the results and making any necessary adjustments.
What I'm recommending is that you start approaching your personal life the way an engineer approaches systems.
If right now you (or the people around you) would describe yourself as "flaky," then think through what sort of system you would need to return calls promptly, to pay your bills on time, to remember important birthdays and anniversaries, and to make sure you do whatever you promised.
With the right personal systems in place, you'll become consistent and reliable. People will trust you. They'll call you dependable instead of flaky. You'll be seen as someone to have complete confidence in.
Or, if right now you're not as healthy as you'd like to be, think through the systems you'd need to get and stay healthy.
Look, I fully realize when you change a current system or develop a new one you'll often come up against old habits, simple laziness, and procrastination. But by paying attention, great results often come quickly. And with those successes it becomes easier and easier to stay on course and reap the ever-compounding rewards.
A Personal System in Action
For example, awhile back I was disappointed with my personal productivity. When I analyzed the root cause, I became aware that my sleep routine was responsible.
So I went about modifying my sleeping system. The positive effects of this one change spilled over into almost every aspect of my personal life, improving my health subsystem, my family subsystem, and my productivity subsystem.
Before the change, I used to stay up late (sometimes really late) and wake up at a different time each morning. But I realized that my personal productivity plummeted after 9 PM. So I decided to change my sleep schedule (my sleeping subsystem).
Now, I go to bed at 10 PM. And since I only need 6.5 hours of sleep, I wake up every morning (naturally, without an alarm clock) full of energy at 4:30 AM. I'm on the stair machine by 5 - and do an hour on the machine. My two daughters wake up at 6 AM and we play games for an hour, till 7 AM, when my wife Debi wakes up. From that point on, Debi takes over - getting the girls ready for school, making them breakfast, etc...
By 7:15 AM I'm out the door headed for the beach. I arrive at the beach by 7:30 AM. There, I write in my journal for an hour till 8:30 AM. Then I swim in the ocean for 30 minutes, relax for another half hour, and then proceed to the office for our daily 10 AM meeting.
The Life-Changing Power of the System Approach
The reason I'm sharing this with you is this: Ever since I modified my sleep subsystem to this new format I've been sleeping better, feeling better, spending more quality time with my daughters, getting more done, losing weight, and feeling a lot better about myself.
That's the power of the system approach: One small tweak to a single subsystem can radically improve the performance of the entire primary system.
Truth be told, I could write dozens of pages just on personal systems. If I did, I would have a lot more space to share my personal systems and suggestions for how you can immediately dissect your own personal systems and the best approaches to improve them. I may in fact do that in an upcoming report. But for now, realize I've just laid at your feet a real secret of success. Your overall level of happiness can be positively impacted by heeding the advice I just shared with you.
So why not take a moment right now and identify a new or modified personal system that would positively impact your life? For me it was changing the time I went to bed every night, coupled with changes in my morning routine. Now it's your turn...
Identify a systematic change you could make in your life. Implement that change. And watch as it makes a huge positive impact on your personal life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)