John Gokongwei: The Market-Driving Strategist

15Nov 2019 by Josiah Go No Comments

John Gokongwei: The Market-Driving Strategist

Articles

Taipan John Gokongwei passed away last Nov. 9, 2019. I have been studying his life and following his companies, decoding a pattern where he had courageously been launching many industry's firsts — lessons many marketers and entrepreneurs can learn from. Most marketers practice market-driven strategies, i.e., satisfying customers to gain market shares. John Gokongwei, on the other hand practiced market-driving strategies— focusing on tapping noncustomers to gain market penetration, revealing his consistent pioneering spirit in driving new categories. Market-driving strategists like John Gokongwei are not ordinary marketers. I have observed the following patterns: Uncanny skills in identifying white space opportunities in the marketplace with unmet needs. Determination to take calculated risks to launch a new category. Ability to understand behaviors and tap new customers instead of relying on existing customers.…

08Nov 2019 by Josiah Go 4 Comments

Q&A with SEC Chair Emilio B. Aquino on Identifying Pyramiding and Unregistered Investment Scams

interviews, Q&A

Emilio Aquino was at one time the youngest Director of the former Prosecution and Enforcement (PED) and Non-Traditional Securities and Instruments (NTD) Departments of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He returned to SEC as Commissioner in 2016 and was appointed Chairman in 2018, serving a seven-year term. He is the first CPA - Lawyer to chair the SEC. Through this interview, he helps us understand pyramiding and catch sight of unregistered investment schemes. Q1: What have you discovered about pyramid investment scheme? Why are the scam victims vulnerable to super high interest and get-rich-quick schemes that have super high risks as well? A1: It’s because of greed as part of our human behaviour that makes us succumb to get rick quick schemes. Q2: Multi Level Marketing (MLM) is legitimate,…

02Nov 2019 by Josiah Go No Comments

Marketing and Sales Conferences You Don’t Want to Miss in 2020

Articles

I get lots of new ideas by reading, by traveling, by attending events, by observing, by conversing with others, by attending seminars and conferences, among others. I specially like to attend conferences as you get to listen to different perspectives of various speakers and network with like-minded individuals. The last training I attended was the TechLearn Conference in New Orleans and the Float Conference in Denver, both in September 2019. Here in the Philippines, the following are planned by the Mansmith Group for 2020. Don’t forget to allocate budget for you and your team. 1. 2nd COACH Leadership and Strategy Conference (February 6, 2020) Corporate Achievers Institute or COACH Institute is Mansmith and Fielders Inc.’s leadership and strategy division. Learn from top management executives and leaders in transforming and inspiring your team towards self-empowerment and team excellence.…

01Nov 2019 by Josiah Go 1 Comment

Innovating for the Dead and the Living

Articles

People who mourn for the loss of a loved one are typically not price-sensitive. They would spend more for a departed loved one than the budget they would have allocated for themselves. This is both good and bad. This is good in the sense that they pay final respects to the deceased. As author Dan Ariely pointed, the motivations that drive this behavior are "the way we want to think about the dead, their role in our lives, our role in their lives and the prospect of our own mortality" and purchase motivations that include "caring for others, helping, making amends, and finding meaning". However, it can also be bad when the social benefit and meanings that go with it can be a huge financial burden to those who do…

25Oct 2019 by Josiah Go No Comments

Auditing the 6 Anomalies in Innovation Practices

Articles

Many companies, especially multinationals, like to talk about innovation. There are even some who include innovation as part of their core values; others even have innovation managers. Innovation has two elements – novelty in the industry and commercial success. In other words, it's about creating new value that benefits your intended market. Here are six anomalies that companies may want to reflect on and from here, redirect their state of innovation practices. Innovation managers use the 'stage gate' approach but not related to innovation methodology. New products are launched but are a 'catch up' of what competition elsewhere has been doing already. They call it innovation but in reality, a catch up, a copy cat!Rewards and promotions are based on attaining sales and profit and have nothing to…

21Oct 2019 by Josiah Go No Comments

8 L&D Innovations of Mansmith and Fielders Inc.

Articles

About the same time last year, I was invited by the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) at their annual conference held at Shangri-La at The Fort to share the learning and development innovations instituted by Mansmith and Fielders Inc. I was featured in ‘Learn to Rock’, the session on education and how this has sparked innovation and creativity together with Dr. Jikyeong Kang, President and Dean of the Asian Institute of Management, and Bro. Armin Luistro, President of the De La Salle Philippines who both had impressive ideas, as well. It was my first presentation as the new Chief Innovation Strategist of Mansmith and Fielders Inc., and shared the 8 innovations where I was involved from formulation to launch. 1) From generalist to specialist Most seminar companies are…

18Oct 2019 by Josiah Go No Comments

Innovation? Do the Law of the Opposite

Articles

Innovation has two elements – novelty and commercial success. Novelty without commercial success is an invention. Commercial success without novelty is me-too. One tool in planning a novelty is applying the law of the opposite. The law of the opposite states that in order to be successful, one should go in a direction that is in contrast from most others. And there are several models that have been testament to this. The opposite of soda with lots of sugar is called Zero, hence attracting lapsed consumers. The opposite of a struggling learner is an intelligent one and Ahead Tutorial is targeting those who want to get ahead, the bigger segment of noncustomers, instead of those who are a little slow on the uptake, which is a much smaller segment. The…

11Oct 2019 by Josiah Go No Comments

Trust is the New Currency

Articles

Trust has been widely discussed by speakers of the World Business Forum, organized by World of Business Ideas (WOBI), in Sydney for the last two years. I am sharing the key points of three authors from their respective sessions. Stephen M.R. Covey, author of “The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything” shared that Trust is about character and competence. He quoted Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff when asked: “What’s the most important thing to your company? Is it trust or is it growth?” and his answer was “Trust”. In the said talk, Mr. Covey expounded on Trust with three key ideas: Trust is an economic driver, not merely a social virtue because Trust increases speed and reduces cost. Trust is the number one leadership competency needed to initiate…

05Oct 2019 by Josiah Go 2 Comments

Marketing Trust by Josiah Go

Articles

The year was 1979. I was a 17-year old working student in college. We just moved residence to Congressional Village in Project 8, Quezon City. My father was proud that finally, at age 50, he was able to buy a house and lot. He delegated the responsibility of hiring a driver to me. I accepted even if I have never hired anyone before. Two applicants applied, I value the responsibility seriously and decided to use some criteria to shortlist my choice. The two applicants were actually poles apart when compared. One was very unassuming, not very articulate, short, overweight, wearing a T-shirt and his references were not known individuals. He asked me which car he would be driving and I showed him the green Toyota Corolla, the low end of…

04Oct 2019 by Josiah Go No Comments

Marketing Lessons from Six “Sensei”

Articles, Marketing

From left: Ian Santos, Atty Alvin Alburo, Ronnie Traballo, Josiah Go, Imelda Lim, Milona Barraca and Ramon Barredo. Sensei refers to a “master” or “teacher”. I was the insight moderator of the recently concluded Sensei Marketing Conference, organized by Sensei Business Academy. And here are some lessons shared during the said conference that focused on Maximizing Returns on a Shoestring Budget. Ian Santos, the Country Manager of Mundipharma, maker of Betadine, started with his session on Channel Marketing. 1. Omni-channel can be improved by being seamless (unifying customer experience across different platforms), having a single champion and common experience metrics (the online team is not separate from the store operator’s team), proper sales attribution in an integrated manner, and real time inventory and management processes (one that follows the customer…