Social Entrepreneurship

A new lesson for me yesterday. In their flesh and bones, behold Social Entrepreneurs.

I had a brief and energetic meeting with three visionary people Bam Aquino (my batchmate Validictorian in Ateneo), Mark Ruiz (global expertise in trade), AJ (who worked for the most successful convenience store chain of Phil). People from Hapinoy - the first and largest chain of sari-sari stores in the Philippines.

First off the bat, Mark tells me they are not charity. In fact they are anti-charity. Yes, they want to help the poorest of poor but no to charity.

I've never felt in me the desire to be in social entrepreneurship. You see, I'm quite late in entrepreneurship. I've always wanted to be Corporate (with a capital C). It's only after having a family and seeing the realities of family business dynamics that I realized I need to work on my entrepreneruial spirit. This was in 2002.

I am sure of this because I had classmates in AIM who were social entrepereneurs but I never really interacted with them. I had no interest. But yesterday was different.

Seeing the level of passion that they had. Seeing them take a break from their high-flying, very successful corporate jobs to do something worthwile struck a cord in me. I guess I'm beginning to open up. There's so much more than just making tons of money.

Why not make tons of money and do good at the same time.

IDEAS are Overrated!

One of the things I hate the most during job interviews is when applicants tell me that they are Creative, and that they are capable of producing Great Ideas. I think that is totally useless.

Ideas are worth nothing, without Execution.

My team and I have come up with a lot of Great Ideas over the last three years BUT what kept us alive were not the ideas but Making Things Happen. Just ask any successful individual or team and they'll tell you the same thing. It was not the idea, it was the execution. Most of the time the successful ones work on basic ideas, but execute superbly.

I am reminded by two great people on this topic. My dad told me several years back that he has met a lot people with good ideas , but very few go beyond that great idea.

Carlos Ghosn, the great turn-around artist that resurrected Nissan used to tell his top people to focus their energies 5% on Planning, 95% in Execution!

Lea Salonga lands # 15 for Top Endorsers in the Philippines

Yes! the Philippines' leading magazine on the entertainment industry of the Philippines ranks Lea Salonga at number 15 on their list of top endorsers in their October issue.

This makes me proud to see that the very first endorser of Naturale Labs belongs to such a list.

It's been three months since the contract signing between Lea Salonga and Cycles and my team has been busy. We're happy so far with the result of our hard work and of course Lea (wink wink). We've been able to access more stores and the offtake has been very encouraging.

Moms are the same anywhere in the Philippines and I've been receiving reports of very strong movement of Cycles in the Pampanga area. A location quite far from the center of the Lea campaign (Manila).

Lea came in at a very good point for Cycles. It was a point when the innovator moms and the early adapter moms were already buying and a push was needed to get the early majority into the picture. This is an important part in buildling the credibility (Laura Ries calls it PR), something advertising lacks.

If day 1 of Cycles started with a major campaign with an endorser, I would need deeper pockets. Turnout would have been slower. I learned this the hard way in the past, so now I think my team is better.

Congratulations again to Cycles Mom Lea Salonga for landing the list!

Business Relationships

Got this from Scott Rockfeld of The New York Times:

"Nobody meets, falls in love and celebrates their 50th anniversary all at once. Success...depends on solid relationships over time."

I am reminded of the relationships I have and how stronger I can make them. It's not uncommon to see best of friends who used to be big time enemies.

Don't go for simple relationship... go for SOLID ones.

Be Incompetent

"In the face of change, the competent are helpless." ~ Seth Godin

Read the amazing article here.

Accidental Branding

Hello Kitty designer Yuko Yamaguchi
Jun Takagi for TIME

Did you ever imagine that Hello Kitty would be big worldwide?
Maya Castro, Miami
No, not at all. When I started I didn't even know whether she would sell in Japan. I was told that Hello Kitty was only for children and that Westerners wouldn't carry her around.

---

I got the piece from TIME magazine. A lot of the great brands people are passionate about started as an accident. Tony Tan Caktiong had a simple mission of coming up with good-tasting snacks (it was even ice cream at first). Anita Roddick wanted to do something out of her spare time.

And who would have thought a mouth-less cat can live commercially for more than 30 years and generate more than US$ 1 Billion in sales.


Takeaway:

1. Work first on being GREAT NOW, rather than spend your time worrying on how to be BIG tomorrow.
2. Never underestimate the power of passion and persistence.
3. The world is thirsty for great and remarkable things in an ocean of mediocre products.

Unlearn

"Good artists copy. Great artists steal." - Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

buyology

buy.ology
The Truth and Lies About Why We Buy

I think the combination of marketing and modern brain science will either break or strengthen previously held beliefs in branding.

Got excited with the research that I've decided to pre-order.

Learn more here.

For mutual productivity PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB

I found a very disturbing but very true information in a book I'm currently reading,

"A recent work efficiency study conducted inside one of America's largest banks revealed an unsettling number. The constant communications enabled through email, instant messaging, Web-based tools, conference calling, and video conferences left senior managers with an average of only four minutes to spend on any given task before being interrupted."

And this is only slightly better than executive vice presidents, presidents and directors. When the highest paid people in a company spend an average of only four minutes before being interrupted, how can we expect them to come up with good decisions?


Takeaway:

1. Unless your primary function is sales, or you're expecting an important message choose to ignore text messages or calls to finish more important tasks.
2. Go out. When people I work with ask permission to go out of the office to work or to think, I let them. Interruption is cut by more than half by removing yourself from your usual environment, it is cut by another half when you turn off/put on silent-no-vibrate your electronic devices.
   
3. Push email in mobile phones and in the Blackberry, contrary to popular belief can hurt your productivity.
   

The Masters

I recently got an email as nomination for the 4th Young Market Masters Awards. Thanks for the honor and the responsibility.