Friday, June 23, 2006

EVER NA MAY NINGNING PART 1

Part 1 of the cameo role of Ever in Bituing Walang Ningning.It's got the most views so far among my videos

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

EVER NA MAY NINGNING PART 1

This was the first part of the "Bituing Walang Ningning" episode showing Sarah Geronimo winning a singing competition and being awarded by Ever Espanol as Jollibee Marketing Executive(kuno) the 1M check prize
EVER NA MAY NINGNING PART 2

This is a video of the TV novela "Bituin Walang Ningning" which featured a good friend of mine Ever Espanol as the Jollibee executive signing the contract of Sarah Geronimo as a Jollibee celebrity endorser.

Monday, June 19, 2006

LESSONS FROM JAMES' APPENDICITIS

My second son James Benedict had a case of acute appendicitis last Friday so he had to have an appendectomy that same day.

It was completely unexpected. He was fine Thursday evening when he went to bed. Twelve midnight he started having stomach pains which he tried to bear until 1 AM when he couldn't take it anymore. When TJ,my eldest son, woke us up and told us about James' predicament,he was breaking out in cold sweat so I rushed him to the nearest hospital.

There were "lessons" I learned over the weekend when I had to deal with James undergoing his appendectomy and recovering from the operation.

1. It pays to trust your instinct and to be decisive: Although James wasn't feverish I knew there was something terribly wrong with him already because he was breaking out into cold sweat. I made a decision immediately to rush him to the nearest hospital where at least he was given temporary relief via antibiotics.

2. It helps to have contingencies ready: When the doctor in the emergency room diagnosed James as possibly having appendicitis I had to check on the cost of the operation in case they needed to do the procedure. The estimate given to me was 50K which would include both the hospital and doctors fees. Although I knew it would be a drain on my finances it helped that I knew I had money to cover the expenses. If I hadn't saved money I would be in a terrible bind.

3. Call for help---if you have other options use them: I texted my eldest sister, a doctor,informing her of the emergency. Since it was 3 AM,I didn't expect she would answer back at once. When she finally called me back in the morning she suggested I call one of her classmates who had done the procedure on her son, Johann last year. I'm glad that option was open to me because her friend didn't charge any professional fees which saved me a considerable amount of money.

4. Prayers definitely help and so does assurance from friends: I sent a text message to one of my former classmates about James' condition. I found out later on that he had emailed members of my egroup about it because I started getting text messages saying that they were praying for James and telling me things would be just fine. One message came all the way from Canada! The fact that James recovered quickly from the operation must have been the power of prayer at work.


5. Good things can come out of unfortunate incidents ---It all depends on your perspective or outlook: In all appearances the whole thing looked like one big hassle and one which any parent would not want to experience. Funny though,I didn't feel abit stressed by the situation. For one,I had a whole weekend of bonding with my son. It made me feel like a real father again! I was amazed at James' attitude towards the whole thing. He even seemed excited about going under the knife! He wanted to see how his appendix looked like and wanted to get the specimen after the operation (unfortunately they didn't give it to him.) We watched several shows on TV (like Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and the World cup match between England and Trinidad-Tobago) and we enjoyed it. When his barkada and cousins visited him he was grinning from ear to ear and loving the attention.

Friday, June 02, 2006

SOME HEAVY THOUGHTS ON A HOT,SUNNY AFTERNOON

It's supposed to be raining 'round about this time in June but surprisingly the day's been hot! Some ideas crossed my mind as to things I could do to make a contribution to the organization.

1. Note to myself: Develop a series of 10 minute Lectures on my readings from John Seely Brown/Innovation and Impossible Thinking and share these during the Area Managers' monthly meetings.

2. While reading on JSB's discussions on 2 schools of thought for gaining competitive advantage namely: the core competency model and collaboration model, I realized that we've got to have both in Chowking.

For example, we have the competence in developing new, delicious products. However, these tend to be very costly because the raw materials are expensive or it will be costly for us if we carry the SKUs required to produce the new products. Following the thinking of collaboration perhaps it will be to everyone's advantage if our suppliers find a way to improve their processes so they can give their raw materials to us at a lower price so we can offer these new items in the market cheaper.

Because surely our sales will increase then demand for their supplies will also increase. Everyone wins in the end. Also, in the exchange of ideas on how we can keep improving our products we can learn together with our suppliers and they can improve themselves in the process too.

More and more I'm beginning to see the wisdom of sharing more in order to gain more!