Not Your Father's World

The biggest change happening right now is not climate change but industrial change.

We are in the middle of an industrial revolution. The first one in your lifetime and I will argue that it is changing everything around you so please please please take note and use this time to pursue opportunities.

The last industrial revolution happened in the 40's when TV and mass distribution made it possible to create products for everyone. Before that it was Henry Ford and the assembly line. Now with the aid of the internet, and the almost-zero cost of microchips the landscape is going to permanently change and anything's possible.

Allow me to illustrate with what happened last week.

Last Wednesday at around 6pm I was doing my store checks in Bali, Indonesia when my wife calls me for an emergency. My two year old daughter might have a rare illness called Kawasaki Disease. I asked how she knows and she tells me that after getting an unsatisfying assessment from her Pedia on the 2nd visit, she Googled the symptoms: swollen hands, cracked lips, fever and you get several entries of Kawasaki.

She then saw two doctors for our child and after my wife described the situation, the doctor's first question was if she was a doctor. Of course she wasn't - she's just a Googling mother.

My wife then rightly decided to have our baby admitted in the hospital immediately. And there I was in Bali watching the sunset 2,600 Km away, stunned and wanting to go home.

I made several phone calls to dependable people in Manila and to Jakarta to find me the fastest flight to Manila. It was an emergency and I needed to be with my family. I left my luggage with my associate, got my backpack and went straight to Bali airport. I spoke to three airline counters asking for their next flight to Jakarta, got into an Air Asia plane and landed Jakarta around 10pm.

I was lucky that there was a Cebu Pacific flight Wednesday night at 1am. A flight that flies only thrice a week. I was able to secure a ticket and I was the one who woke up my baby girl Thursday morning.

Things went really fast last week and 10 years ago a lot of it wouldn't have been possible. Doctors are forced to be transparent and to be on top of their field because their patients will Google. You can talk to anyone anywhere anytime if you know their mobile number. Thousands of Kilometers is just a few hours away due to multiplication of airlines - both regular and low-cost. Doing international work doesn't mean disruption of regular work because your hotel room with internet connection is as good as your cubicle - except with better view.

Don't fight the change. Recognize that the world is shifting and that it is time to re-invent what you're doing, to re-invent who you are.

P.S. Thanks for the prayers and support of family and friends, Polly my daughter is now recovering after being treated with Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG). I don't have to explain what it is - I know you'd Google it.

Planting Seed.

Last week I was in Indonesia to get to know our partners better. PT SAI is part of the Martha Tilaar Group of Companies and I was overwhelmed by their warmth and passion. It follows solidly on the vision of their founder Ibu Martha Tilaar.

What struck me the most is how the vision and guts of one woman, Ibu Martha Tilaar can transform not just the people she works with, her country and even the world. I could see a lot of their products in the Philippines. On my way home today I again saw one of the billboards of Biokos.

Many thanks to the warm people I met Pak Bryan, Pak Han, Pauline and the rest of the top management of Martha Tilaar Group. I learned a lot about how you work after seeing your offices, the warehouse and the manufacturing facility.

While we were doing the rounds in manufacturing, the director comes up and says "We wanted to automate the machines but Martha Tilaar OBJECTED for it would mean laying off people. So we maintained the semi-automatic nature of the product lines in this plant."

I look forward to doing amazing work in the next weeks in Indonesia with PT SAI and the authentic people behind it.

WHY I WANT TO REMAIN small

Small does not mean mediocre. Small doesn't mean limited. Small doesn't mean unprofitable.

As the company we (everyone I work with owns the company as much as I do) own grows by the week I stand firm with my direction to keep it small. The why was best answered by Seth Godin back in 2005.

Small Is The New Big

Big used to matter. Big meant economies of scale. (You never hear about “economies of tiny” do you?) People, usually guys, often ex-Marines, wanted to be CEO of a big company. The Fortune 500 is where people went to make… a fortune.

There was a good reason for this. Value was added in ways that big organizations were good at. Value was added with efficient manufacturing, widespread distribution and very large R&D staffs. Value came from hundreds of operators standing by and from nine-figure TV ad budgets. Value came from a huge sales force.

Of course, it’s not just big organizations that added value. Big planes were better than small ones, because they were faster and more efficient. Big buildings were better than small ones because they facilitated communications and used downtown land quite efficiently. Bigger computers could handle more simultaneous users, as well.

Get Big Fast was the motto for startups, because big companies can go public and get more access to capital and use that capital to get even bigger. Big accounting firms were the place to go to get audited if you were a big company, because a big accounting firm could be trusted. Big law firms were the place to find the right lawyer, because big law firms were a one-stop shop.

And then small happened.

Enron (big) got audited by Andersen (big) and failed (big.) The World Trade Center was a target. TV advertising is collapsing so fast you can hear it. American Airlines (big) is getting creamed by Jet Blue (think small). BoingBoing (four people) has a readership growing a hundred times faster than the New Yorker (hundreds of people).

Big computers are silly. They use lots of power and are not nearly as efficient as properly networked Dell boxes (at least that’s the way it works at Yahoo and Google). Big boom boxes are replaced by tiny ipod shuffles. (Yeah, I know big-screen tvs are the big thing. Can’t be right all the time).

I’m writing this on a laptop at a skateboard park… that added wifi for parents. Because they wanted to. It took them a few minutes and $50. No big meetings, corporate policies or feasibility studies. They just did it.

Today, little companies often make more money than big companies. Little churches grow faster than worldwide ones. Little jets are way faster (door to door) than big ones.

Today, Craigslist (18 employees) is the fourth most visited site according to some measures. They are partly owned by eBay (more than 4,000 employees) which hopes to stay in the same league, traffic-wise. They’re certainly not growing nearly as fast.

Small means the founder makes a far greater percentage of the customer interactions. Small means the founder is close to the decisions that matter and can make them, quickly.

Small is the new big because small gives you the flexibility to change the business model when your competition changes theirs.

Small means you can tell the truth on your blog.

Small means that you can answer email from your customers.

Small means that you will outsource the boring, low-impact stuff like manufacturing and shipping and billing and packing to others, while you keep the power because you invent the remarkable and tell stories to people who want to hear them.

A small law firm or accounting firm or ad agency is succeeding because they’re good, not because they’re big. So smart small companies are happy to hire them.

A small restaurant has an owner who greets you by name.

A small venture fund doesn’t have to fund big bad ideas in order to get capital doing work. They can make small investments in tiny companies with good (big) ideas.

A small church has a minister with the time to visit you in the hospital when you’re sick.

Is it better to be the head of Craigslist or the head of UPS?

Small is the new big only when the person running the small thinks big.

Don’t wait. Get small. Think big.


I'd like to be clear. The brands we own are going to be big (in the traditional business sense) but the team behind it will remain intentionally and superbly small. Imagine an economy as big as the United States owned and run by the population of Singapore - this is my work defined.

Beach Hut in Business Mirror Personal Fortune

An associate once asked how she can get things featured in magazines. I felt she was thinking of the brand she was carrying or a personal business she is contemplating on.

My answer: Do something remarkable, and they will come.

But it has to be remarkable from the market's point of view, and not yours. It's a lot harder than most people think because being truly remarkable means doing something different and this would result to people disagreeing with you, a few to openly criticize you, some might even call you crazy. And it's ok because this is the same reason that propels the others to love your product and what you do.

My gratitude to one of my earliest mentors and a very good friend Mr. Erick Lirios and Business World.

Business Mirror Personal Fortune May 2008

My Very First Cover Feature

Why do I blog?

One reason is that it can get you cover story. Allow me to explain.

It all started in December when I got a comment from one of my posts here. It came from Prime Sarmiento, the Editor in Chief of Masigasig. Emails were exchanged and luckily Beach Hut landed cover page.

I'd like to thank Globe Telecom for the opportunity. I've been a subsriber for around a decade (Yikes! Reveals my age) and I've been very happy with Globe's dependability especially International Roaming - never fails. I also am a big fan of Globe Visibility which I use all the time.

The wonderful people at Summit Media publishes Globe Masigasig together with Entrepreneur Philippines. Beach Hut was featured last year in Entrepreneur Magazine as well.

How does it feel to be featured? Beach Hut is all heart and soul. My wife and I started it really as a joke while strolling Boracay and that would be the only easy part about it - all the rest is unbelievable hard work and very strong gut. I'm happy that the world is taking notice and it further strengthens my desire and purpose to infect people with entrepreneurship and wealth/value creation.

Entrepreneur May 2008

Masigasig May 2008

Beach Hut - now available in five countries

The Beach Hut Surfboard

Watch out for our new brands!

Teen Negosyo 2008

Yesterday I received a fax message in the office from Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship inviting me to be a panelist for the 3rd Teen Negosyo '08 with its theme "Young Entrepreneurs Taking Charge."

The fax message was co-signed by Joey Concepcion III, the Presidential Consultant for Entrepreneurship and on a personal note one of the ninongs in my wedding... how can I say no?!?

Seriously, I am deeply honored to be invited in this event and I would be calling on Monday to confirm. I haven't been to Baguio for quite some time and this would be a good time to go there with my family and perhaps with the people in the office (and do some strange and troubling Extreme Saturdays! up the mountains)

I was looking at the five-day program schedule and I am pleased to see mentors and friends who are also part of the event. Another ninong, Hon. Jesli A. Lapus DepEd Secretary will be awarding the most Inspiring Student Entrepreneurs and Educators. Prof. Jay Bernardo of AIM will be teaching, Mr. Francis Kong will be doing a talk and Dean Pax Lapid of Entrepreneurs School of Asia (who was my classmate in AIM) will be handling the session on Enterprise Mastery.

The program is expecting 2,500 high school students and teachers from all over the country and it is my goal to to touch the hearts and minds of at least 1% of the attendees and make them seriously consider the choice of being the next global player.

Looking back when I was in High School, I wasn't at all into anything entrepreneurial. I didn't have the interest, I didn't have the need and I had a lot of other things in mind (Read: GIRLS). I hope that I can convince our young attendees that practicing entrepreneurship and pursuing other priorities (Read: GIRLS) are not mutually exclusive and can actually be the same North Star.

Looking forward to a fun-filled weekend in July!

Naturale Labs Thailand Turns One!

What better way to celebrate the first anniversary of Naturale Laboratories Thailand than by eating Thai food in all our offices!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone in the team who put in their heart, soul, mind and body to bring and develop our brands to our first country abroad. Thank you to our friends, partners, distributors, stores who supported us the whole year and for believing in us. I'd like to thank my family and the families of my team for the trust, patience and love.

Soms in Tomas Morato was a good bet! I'll be eating here again!

Before eating

I couldn't get them to look while eating

I'd like to end this post by pointing you to history, to the blog of one of our ninjas. Allow me to quote one of our ninjas Brian...

"Now I have a sore left foot. Its was aching too much that I cant even walk.. even just by sitting down and writing this blog, my foot really hurts so much that I nearly cried. Well, thats the pain you get, walking for 2.5 hours"

All business journeys are non-linear. If I had the chance to go back in time, I would still do the same thing, bring and rally my team and together brave the open sea.

Reference Point

I found my Energy Reference Point last night in Gary V. I watched Gary V His Love Concert last night at the Music Museum and WOW! For two and a half straight hours without any real breaks he gave his all in his singing, dancing and connecting. His all!

Gary V is beyond pure energy, I dare to say he is pure passion.

At 43 years of age he moves and sings like I saw him five years ago. He never ages! I’m thirty and I feel I’m shortchanging myself because Gary V showed my last night the definition of energy and passion.

Robin Sharma tells us that a lot of people do not reach world class because they don’t have any good reference points. They compare themselves with mediocre performance and settle. They don’t have good reference points.

I believe that’s the reason I make myself read a lot on Great people, Great companies of the world, the Great battles in history, the Great love stories of the world. They are rich sources of reference points. To this I’ll now start seeing more Great people perform and seeing Great work.

From now on, whenever I feel like tired, or low on energy all I have to do is to recall Gary V and how he lives energy, how he lives passion.

P.S. I highly recommend this concert. If you want to enjoy a good night of music and performance you still have May 29 and 30.

Chairs

It was the first time I heard of that challenge in the office. Earlier this morning, we lacked chairs. The first time it ever happened.

When I started this business I wanted to be intentionally small in size. I wanted to be like the guys at 37signals - just 10 of them and doing business with the world. I truly believe that small is the new big.

The thought came about after working as head of a manufacturing facility and having a hundred and fifty people under you. It was difficult to maintain a personal connection with each of them. I went as far as making sure that I speak to as many people as I can in my office every week. It was an uphill climb and I told myself that later on I'd work on a small team but with very big intentions.

It's not that bad that we lacked chairs in the office. It's only a temporary situation. It just happened that everyone was there this morning. Jay was back from Indonesia, the sales team had things to process together, the brands working on the tight timelines.

Instead of seeing a lot of people in a small room, I am seeing a lot more empty space we can fill up in all our offices around the region. Later this quarter I'm expecting an office to be ready north of Manila. More and more I'm seeing the regional (South East Asia) brand direction coming into play. Naturale Labs is coming up with brands for the world and so I tell my team, as always, to take their seats and fasten their seat belts. Get ready to do work that aims to change industries.

I am never late

Except for last iMondays (Intrapreneur's Mondays), I was off by four minutes.

And as promised, breakfast was on me. It would've been lunch except that a lot was happening this week.

I was late because the water pressure was weak, I had to repeat doing my knot, breakfast took longer than usual, I forgot my papers, the bus was blocking the road, blah blah blah

The reasons did not matter. I was late and it's not going to happen again... maybe until another 12 months.

Be sure not to catch this kind of fever

How much does it cost to bring home a bar girl in Thailand? How much will the bar get? the girl? What streets, what bars and what time you should go to get the very best? What are the common lies bar girls tell that Western foreigners or farangs fall into? Why you should be on the lookout and avoid Katoeys? What is Jasmine Fever?

These and more questions are answered by Jasmine Fever: Confessions of a Jaded expat in Thailand The book goes deep into the underground, adult industry of Thailand - jumping from City to City from Phuket to Bangkok to Pattaya and even to Cambodia. It goes beyond just telling stories, all the happy and all the sad episodes and actually presents answers, solutions in a sort of guidebook way.

A definite eye-opener for me, a shortcut. As you know it is my business to know these things. And Frank Visakay did quite a good job.

I had a very important question that was answered by the book. In itself pays for the book since I had the question for many years. Why do I see decent, action-hero-in-a-movie-looking white guy holding hands with a dark skinned, fat, truck-driver looking woman? I used to think it was a case of very bad taste. But now, I understand.

These men aren't looking for one-two-bang goals. Either they've through with that goal, or that they got tired of being fooled by the good looking ones. They're looking for companionship and service. Not the type of service you may expect. They are looking for someone who can cook, can clean the house, can do the groceries. Someone to take care of them, almost permanently.

The good looking, sexy girls will always leave them. They left them before (after leaving them near broke) and they'll leave them again. And at their age, they are looking for more meaning. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Wherever you are in the world.

A new way of eating Carbonara

Meet Ten.

He's our Marketer in Thailand and he taught me a new way of eating Carbonara the other day. That is, with Ketchup. I promised to try it the next time around.


For the record, he finished the plate. All the carbonara, all the ketchup.

Moms talk to moms

Some people think it's a problem, especially when there are things to hide :)

But as they say, when there's a problem, there's opportunity. Moms talk about all sort of things with other moms and they never tire. I had solid proof of this earlier today in Rockwell with Expo Mom 2008. The place was packed!

Cycles had a booth and we're happy that we spoke to more moms today.

Singapore here we come!

I just got off the phone with Apple a few hours ago. We finalized on certain points and worked on how everyone can profit from the project we are undertaking. I see to it that everyone benefits from this. My team, our customers, our partners and everyone and everything in between.

That to me is the sustainable option. Profit now on the account of others and in a few months it would boomering back to you and say goodbye to business.

Find ways on how everyone profits. For us, this meant focusing on brands that are easiest for Singapore in terms of costs and market potential.

Naturale Labs is starting Singapore this year. We intend to start with Bliss and Beach Hut and from there bring on the other brands!

I also asked Apple to close the deal with the office next week. Can't wait to have this country part of my regular visits.

Chaos and Structure

For a long time I was not a big fan of systems. I used to think that it slowed things down, that it made it made it difficult to get things done.

Well, that was before. And now, the systems is exactly what keeps my team and I sane working on several projects in several countries all at the same time. Systems and structure provide a certain level of predictability and peace of mind for people involved.

I am reminded of this after hearing Tom Peters talk here. Listen as he tells you how chaos and structure collide, and at the same time work beautifully.

At the same time that I am viewing structure as a gift, it is also a curse. I would admit that I was shooting from the hip plenty of times before and I wouldn't do it any other way. That was how we learned really really well. Learning the good stuff. And now that we know a bit more on the how, time to raise the level of play!

Naturale Laboratories (Thailand) Co. LTD. has a new Office!

Effective May 1, 2008 our Bangkok office has relocated to

Naturale Laboratories (Thailand) Co. LTD.
23/F M Thai Tower, All Seasons Place
87 Wireless Road, Lumpini
Phatumwan, Bangkok 10330

Phone: +66 (0) 2627 9303
Fax: +66 (0) 2627 9001

This is in preparation for the amazing work we are expecting the next weeks and months to come.

Why I'm not a big fan

Business Marathon

My three country, two week business trip is about to end and I have mixed feelings. I miss my family and can't wait to go home but the rush of doing International Business endures.

In the next two days I would have made 5 plane rides covering 10,225 Kilometers, 150 store checks, 4 major business deals, 6 new product ideas and 20 new friends.

This is the most I've done for any business trip ever and I hope more of my team can experience the rush. I've already booked my return flights this May. My two-week mission is just the start. Expect GREAT things from Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.