Q1: What is one word you want your cakes to be known for and why? A: Bespoke…because it’s customized and personalized. Q2: You have been successful in the super premium cakes category. What have you been doing right all these years to create a niche leadership in the cake industry? A: Wow! Doing it right? It’s the first time I […]
Search Results for: Innovation
There are many ways to create innovation – product, process and business model are the three main types. Product innovation like new Samsung phone models can help bring in revenues. Process innovation like BPI computerized branches, which require customers to encode data of their deposit and withdrawal while waiting, can help bring down cost via efficiency. Then many times when […]
Q: The worldwide advocacy group, Government Trafficking In Person (GTIP), has ranked the Philippines no. 1 in Asia on compliance of anti-human trafficking since 2010, how was the Immigration Bureau able to do that? A: TEAM EFFORT. Our country’s anti trafficking campaign requires the participation of several agencies. BI only gets involved when the victims or the traffickers are found […]
There are so many little things that corporate leaders ignore. Just take a look at the following industries and you can see many blind spots. Some examples of old truths that are still unchallenged to date are: In the retail banking industry, there is no fun and enjoyable experience while inside a retail bank. For the supermarket industry, shoppers have no choice […]
Q1: What is IdeaSpace? Why was it set up? What is its vision? A: IdeaSpace is aimed to help grow a Philippine economy through science and technology. We were set-up by the First Pacific Group of Companies to foster a spirit of technopreneurship in the country and encourage more young people to consider becoming entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists. The goal […]
Q1: The unserved market of non-motel (or drive-in hotel) goers is much, much bigger than the motel goers. You have since expanded your target group to include the party market. What was the insight that led you to this new market segment? Party segment has evolved from guests’ requests. It started from guests asking for rooms they can use for […]
Early this month, while vacationing in the US, my family and I watched Absinthe at Caesars Palace Hotel and O at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. It does seem like an odd choice of combination of shows but it was interesting for the comparisons and contrast of themes we experienced. We watched Absinthe because it was recommended by people […]
Q1: Not many people know your history, but you actually took over FERN Inc. as a turnaround operation. Please tell us about your early days. We Bring Prosperity to Every Home by Tapping the Entrepreneur in Every Filipino. This is the vision, which the pioneers of FERN Inc. had when they first started in 2003. We envisioned uplifting the lives […]
I never really planned to be a teacher. I was an accidental one. The late Prof. Manny Fernandez, one of the great minds of Philippine marketing, saw me giving a talk (I can’t even remember where), and he told me I should consider teaching. That moment quietly changed the course of my life. Teaching became a calling I didn’t see […]
During two visits to Taipei in 2025, I noticed a seemingly small, everyday action: handing over a credit card to a server that reflected something much larger: how trust shapes both business and society. With decades of studying market trends and consumer behavior, I’ve seen firsthand how trust influences business interactions. This article reflects those insights, particularly in Taipei and […]