Question 1: Is franchising a better option than starting your own business from scratch? PFA Chair Emeritus & BLIMS President Samie Lim: While it is true that starting a business creates jobs and may even open more opportunities for other businesses, the sad reality – not only in the Philippines but throughout the world – is that many start-ups end […]
interviews
Q5: You have launched the BDJ Beauty Box. Is this your response to seasonality in your planner business A: We launched BDJ Box, our online beauty discovery service for women, in our desire to help our 30,000 plus members to explore their own definitions of beauty. Feeling beautiful and relating it to confidence has been an increasing concern of our […]
Q1: You created a new category – the first planner for women. What inspired you to launch the Belle de Jour planner in 2006? A: When we introduced the first Belle de Jour Power Planner in November 2006 (2007 BDJ Planner), my motivation was as simple as – there was no planner in the market that I felt could really help […]
Q1: You are an industrial engineer and you started as a methods officer in the finance function in 1977 for Unilever (then PRC). How did this influence your thinking process in your long career in Customer Development? A: Industrial engineering, in my view, is the application of science in business. The professional advance of Customer Development (previously called Sales) from […]
Q1: East West Seeds is the dominant market leader in vegetable seeds in the Philippines controlling majority of the market. How was this made possible in your industry? A: This was made possible by a strong research and development, being close to the market (localized breeding and variety development), understanding the needs of our customers (farmers), excellent technology transfer services and […]
Q1: You were in consumer advertising before marketing political campaigns. How do you influence decision making of specific voters? Do you use the same framework as marketing products or services? A: The same principles are involved: a good narrative, authenticity, and a compelling reason to buy or vote, in the case of politicians. Q2: Say some politicians have approached you. What do you […]
Q1 Question to Max VP for Asia Joey Sarmiento: Using layman’s terms, what is pyramiding and what’s the main difference between legitimate multilevel marketing (MLM) and pyramiding? Answer: Network marketing or MLM is a legitimate mode of business wherein products are sold via person to person selling instead of the traditional way of selling from a fixed retail location; the objective is to sell products […]
We ran a quick survey with some of the marketing management winners of Mansmith Young Market Masters Awards (YMMA) on the ‘hirability’ of fresh graduates in their respective companies. We thank the ff. for answering our questions — 1) Lester Estrada, country marketing manager for total hair care of P&G (fresh from his stint in P&G Japan), 2) Candice Iyog, […]
Q1: Cisco is number one in 14 out of 17 product categories and a close second in the remaining 3 worldwide in the IT industry. What directions or factors have you identified to attain this remarkable performance? Cisco is the only company with market share leadership across all industry segments that we are engaged in. That is the result of […]
Q1: Why is Private Equity (PE) better than getting bank loans, crowd sourcing or getting friends/relatives as partners? A: PE has its strengths and draw backs and ultimately it is up to the Sponsors/ owners of the business to assess whether they see a fit with an outside party investor and their overall strategy and funding requirement. If the Sponsor is simply looking for low cost credit […]