You can reach me here

My permanent email address for the next 100 years

dennis@dragonedgegroup.com

Say Hello to DRAGON EDGE GROUP!

I'm changing companies.

I'm a Marketer.  Every month I realize more and more how much I like (no... love!) being in Marketing.  This is what excites me and this is what I do best.

There are some things I notice that I can't ignore.  For three years I've been known under Naturale Labs - which is pronounced as Na-Tu-Ra-Le Labs BUT people oftentimes pronounce it as Na-Tu-Relle, or Na-Tu-Ral or sometimes Na-tsu-roll.  Believe me it gets worse when it comes to spelling.

The truth is, Naturale Labs was named after the Felina brand was born.  It represented the natural feeling women have after using the brand.  And for the purpose of my team and our vision, our current name is outdated.  I know that in this currently cluttered world, the global upside potential of a company is dependent on its name.

For four months now I was on search of a name to capture WHO we were.  I had the advantage of leading the business for several years to know our soul.  I didn't have to invent who we were, I just need to stop and look at who we already are.

Why Dragon Edge Group?

It's easy to spell and pronounce.  It has enough energy to start a conversation.  The name can survive 100 years.  I am a huge Bruce Lee fan and a practitioner of Jeet Kune Do.  Mystery.  Good ticker symbol for the stock market - DEG.  It can go beyond our current industry.  If you look closely you'd see a Dragon in Rogers Adoption/Innovation Curve.  Asia is the next global economic leader of the world.  I'd like to turn industries upside-down.

Behold... Our New Name.

Don't listen to the experts

Every once and a while (I think yearly) Fortune Mag would give out stock recommendations for the following year.  I just received the magazine issue advising me of the great buys for 2009.

These are stock picks from the US Market well researched and well thought of by leading experts in the financial world.  They not only tell you what to buy but also tell you why it deserves to be bought, like how undervalued the stock price is, or how strong is the growth of the company.

And if you follow their advice, you'd be dead... well financially dead.  Underplayed as captions in the magazine are the stock picks they gave for 2008.  If you put your savings at the start of 2008, you'll end up with around half of the money today.

You've got to have Passion

Multi-billionaire Charles Schwab, 71, was recently asked by Fortune and I think it's worth quoting.

Fortune:  You've been a tremendously successful entrepreneur.  What advice do you give to young entrepreneurs?

Charles:  No. 1, you've got to have passion about whatever it is.  Couple that with some understanding of the business.  Go spend the time and get some education around the subject.  In my case, I love finance.  I love the stock market.  I love investing.  I read a lot of biographies when I was in my teens, and I had this aspiration to get into the investing side of things because I always thought that's where people really made a lot of money.  Which is true.  I developed this passion early on, and there was no end to the fun I had reading about great people, whether it was J.P. Morgan or [another] guy by the name of Charles Schwab.

How I know it's Christmas

At the start of the month, it was almost everyday.  Last week I'm sure it was everyday.

Snappy.  Yeah, that would be an appropriate word.  Movement were swift and intentional.  Extra service is done at every turn.  Everything with smile and greetings.

It's Christmas time and the guards in malls, villages and establishments are at their best.  I usually walk fast and I find them sprinting to the door to open it for me.  They would risk exposing themselves to the street to make sure that the ongoing traffic would stop.

I'm sure their tips are a bit bigger than usual.  I find that I give them a bit more than usual.  I think they deserve it, not only because it's Christmas but because they really do a good job.

I just hope they realize that if they do it year-round, they can receive more year-round.  But people being people you know that it's not easy.

Email Etiquette

Nobody taught you how to email.  It wasn't taught in class, and there is very little or no programs just for how to email properly.

And in a world where 50-200 emails a day is becoming the norm, I want to stop people from treating email as they would instant messaging or spoken word.  I want people (especially my team) to use it with purpose.

I found this acronym that might help - SEND.

S - Subject Line, play close attention to how it is crafted.  You're competing with a hundred other subject lines.  Maximize its power, don't abuse.

E - Expectations are clear, why are you sending an email?  Why not use the phone?

N - NO graphics, animation, sound.  Don't waste other people's time.

D - Direct, a 5-word email is always better than a 5-paragraph email.

In a connected word, you don't have 15 minutes to make an impression, you have fifteen words.

My views on Planning

I'm not too much of a planning guy.  Ideas are almost always overrated.  This world is not about great ideas, instead it is about Execution of Great Ideas.  Even Jack Welch agrees.

Nonetheless a basic form of financial planning is necessary.  This is so you know how healthy your cashflow is - the most important number to look at.  Otherwise you'd end up expanding, growing, bringing to life zombies that do nothing but eat your cash to the ground.

Below are guidelines I intend to shout out before every planning session to put everyone on the same page.

GUIDELINES

1. Winning feels great! Losing stinks. We're playing to win. Are you doing work you can be proud of?
   
2. The question we will be answering the whole year is Are you better compared to yesterday? And not how close we are to approved budget.
   
3. We are discussing to find the truths, not to make each other "feel good."
   
4. We start on time, we end on time.
   
5. NO YM, texting, call/receive calls, email.
   
6. Others may sit in as long as they participate. People may go in or out of the room, preferably permanent except for important calls.
   

In another part of the world...

Earlier this week Thailand Team sat down with Zuellig call center team to introduce Naturale's brands.  It won't be complete without them using the products so we left some of the products for them to try as well.

As Philippines is generally slowing down for the Holidays, such doesn't exist a few thousands of kilometers west of us.

Welcome to the 24x7x365 world!

Vietnam is ready to sell!

Last week my very eager and hardworking team Apple, Danh and Phuong launched Cycles Baby Detergent and Halo Natural Sweetener in Vietnam.  They were met with a lot of support from our partner distributor and we are right on track in selling heavily into this new market.

Moms are the same everywhere, and Cycles will make sure our Vietnamese babies are well taken cared of.

The increasing cases of diabetics in Vietnam is one of the unescapable drawbacks of progress.  Halo to the rescue!

I still don't know how Halo can be part of their very strong coffee culture.  Vietnamese use condensed milk for their (again) very strong coffee.  But I'm sure Halo will fit right into one of the subsegments of coffee/tea drinkers.

Cycles and Halo are the start.  Watch out as m

ore brands will be coming into Vietnam.

Congratulations Team and chúc may mắn!

Startup Spirit

What struck me the most this weekend was the number of people working over the weekend.  Yes I know that Monday (Dec 1) was declared a holiday but instead of going on a long-vacation, a lot were out there doing work that mattered.

Christmas is not really a strong month for our company.  And we don't have food in our lineup of products and it is not our expertise.

Sampling was happening simultaneously in S&R Fort and another team was doing another project in Batangas.  This happened both on a Saturday and a Sunday.  Coordination with me was beautiful, we were doing constant calls.  Sleep-over needed to be done in Batangas, and I heard that the first night was scary (ghost-scary yikes!).

I had two meetings yesterday (Sunday) afternoon.  We finished with the pending business plans.  The few hours we spend exchanging, brainstorming and deciding would help in a smooth presentation tomorrow morning.

What's REMARKABLE about this is that I didn't ask any of them to work on a Sunday.  I actually got surprised that a lot of them were out, and when I was asked if I am available to meet I said yes.

My Country Maverick in Thailand celebrated his birthday away from home yesterday.  He's coming home in a few weeks pending the airport situation in Bangkok.  I haven't had a birthday myself away from family, I will not say I know how it feels like.  I am sure it is always better with family.

I salute my people.

If you want work that is predictable, if you want work that is easy, if you want work that is just that, work, then don't go for a startup.  Because that's what my team is all about.  

I remember how easy it was in the past to tell the story to the applicants... we had a very small, unsophisticated office.  We didn't have any real products in the shelves, we didn't have any offices abroad, we didn't have a lot of magazine and TV features.  When they said YES to the job I knew they understood what they were getting into.

But now, I'm not too sure.  With all the publicity, brands with following in the shelves and foreign operations people are tempted to think establishment and compare the company with Establishments.  Don't.  When an applicant starts asking me about weekend work and job description I get turned off.  There are plenty of steady, ordinary jobs out there... this is not it.

Part of the reason why people who experience working for a startup never forget is because it is work that matters.  

One of the top things I look for when hiring is figuring out if the person "gets it."  This is a startup company aiming for the world.  This is hard work.  If what you want is an ID number and a linear future, anywhere else will do.

I Ran Out

As I promised to the Markprof finalists here's my card.  I ran out of cards during the event and couldn't give everyone asking for one.  Something I learned the hard way that day.

It will not happen again.  A business card can be a token, a gift, a remembrance and definitely a marketing message.  Watch out for my next business card... it is big, scary and emits fire...