What you do to the least of your brethren..

As a young top honcho of a medium sized firm, I had the chance of becoming friends with a very powerful officer of a huge conglomerate. He had the authority to grant huge contracts to a lot of companies so people naturally drifted towards him all the time.

I never asked him for any contract but in the few years that we regularly met, he referred me to a couple of clients and got my firm a few decent projects. But before I met with his referrals, he told me not to allot any "commission" for him and instead, just give the client the best discounts.

Now, he's dead and all that remains are fond memories about a good man. His family is financially not doing very well because all his kids are in college. Now that he's gone, we can see for a fact that he earned nothing beyond his regular salary. Now, it's fully confirmed that he personally got nothing in exchange for the millions and billions worth of contracts that he awarded to people.

I frequently think of his family and try to figure out what I can do for them. If only I have more, I can perhaps pass on more to them.

Only Filipinos Would Understand The Humor in This...

Ok, for my foreign readership base of one or two. ...

SOGO is the name of a motel in the Philippines. In Korea and I think, Japan, a motel is call a "Love Hotel".

Strongest banks in the Philippines

Before I go into my travel posts, I would like to share the list of Philippine’s strongest banks as rated by Theasianbanker, according to an article at yahoo. Metrobank is adjudged as the strongest Philippine bank and BDO is rated to be the largest.

In terms of profitability, Security Bank leads the pack with its strong profit performance in terms of percentage of assets. Other Philippine Banks in the list of Asia’s 500 banks include: BPI Savings, BPI, Land Bank, East West Bank, RCBC, PNB, Unionbank, UCPB, PS Bank. I went to the source of the article at Theasianbanker.com and tried to download the list which has the basis of the ranking but my internet connection is bad. If I have time later, I’ll port the list and write a bit more about this topic.

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/16-phl-banks-asias-500-list-160000912.html

My Travels and the NAIA

After reading about the world’s worst airport brouhaha, I decided to write a few articles related to my use of our airport terminals. This will make this blog look a bit like a travel blog but I intend to write a few things that I hope the readers will find useful.

Please stay tuned.

A Lesson from Solar Impulse: The Solar Powered Plane

In Switzerland, two visionaries are implementing a project so massive that it can almost be elevated in status to the heights attained by the Wright brothers. They have successfully flown a plane running on solar power for 24 hours, night and day. The pilot observed that their solar plane had absorbed so much of the sun’s energy that they could have fed it to the power grid if they had enough battery in the plane. Named the Solar Impulse, the plane has a small cockpit and runs on small power. It has a long wingspan fitted with solar cells that is fitted with a lot of solar cells.

If solar cells can lift people (Solar Impulse), what more can it do for the household? All we have to do is install solar cells, use low consumption light bulbs and appliances and we won't be paying for electric power at all.

Take the solar plane model as an inspiration and improve your lives. Let us realize that one need not work harder to fully enjoy his labor. Start by becoming more efficient and before you know it, you would and up with more disposable income, better quality of life and a lot healthier.

Are you a part of the problem?

When you spot something that you dont like, how do you react to it?

Do you solve the situation or do you worsen it?

As the saying goes; "

"If you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem."

I have just seen two young managers create problems and make matters worse for their subordinates and suppliers. They spend a good deal of time looking for loopholes in what their subordinates and suppliers do and make a big deal out of it by shooting down the concerned parties.

Being managers, they are supposed to correct this problems to the benefit of their employers and everybody else. What they do is simply make their projects run more slowly and make life difficult for everybody.

I have seen this happen a few times. I can also see the possible career paths of those two. It's not rosy, I am telling you.

Wow!

It's almost a month since my last post. Gotta do something about it.

My internet connection at work is not so good these days. A lot of people also come to talk to me about work the whole time so I hardly have the moment to think of a topic to blog about.

Anyway, i'll try to write something later.