Cycles in 17th Mommy Academy

Cycles was part of the much-awaited, and huge gathering of moms in Mommy Academy's 17th Pregnancy & Baby Series last week held in the Grand Ballroom of Dusit Thani Manila.

Wherever two or three moms gather, Cycles is there!

Attendance was HUGE!

A lot of moms are already using Cycles for their baby's clothes

Each mom received a special Cycles gift

The event lasted the whole morning

Special thanks to Playtex for partnering with us and for Rose for being the brand!

small Changes

small changes become BIG when you put them together.

Banner outside Ho Chi Minh Nutrition Center now has HALO printed on it. This and many small things are happening... leading to BIG things.

Entrance to Ho Chi Minh Nutrition Center

Check out the previous banner on my previous post.

Thanks to Phuong for the photo.

Bliss in Lab Drug Care Pharmacy Thailand

Sharing with the world the Good News that you can now Extreme Pleasure with Bliss Pleasure Enhancing Lubricants now available in branches of Lab Drug Care Thailand located in premium malls like Siam Paragon, Emporium and others.

Good work Team Thailand!

Bliss now available in more stores in Thailand

Cycles in Expo Mom 2009 Rockwell

Cycles had the best booth in the three years we've been in Expo Mom Rockwell. One thing about mommy communities is that they are getting stronger every year.

The event happened last weekend and it was great to reconnect with our customers, friends and partners in the industry.

Best booth location!

Cycles booth ready for our dearest moms

Samples were given, including our new upcoming Cycles product

Leave your baby's laundry to us

Cycles partners with Drypers

Cycles partnered with Drypers diapers last Sunday in Market Market to be part of their huge event. There were a lot of people and the event was a big success!

Get your Cycles here!

The place was packed!

Let's talk taking care of your baby's sensitive skin†

Global Business

Business people want to do Global Business. I know this because the place was packed! Late last week I went to a business seminar discussing doing business in Singapore and Malaysia.

I am grateful for the talk, and I learned valuable things but the hard truth is that the real lessons - the lessons that would make you money are outside of the conference room, and in an ugly undesirable event most people call mistakes.

You will make mistakes as you expand your company abroad. This is for sure. Ask those who started things.

The most you can do is to do it fast, and do it cheap.

Going Global!

Cycles partners with Davao Lamaze Class

Cycles recently partnered with the leading Lamaze instructor in Davao Ms. Alex Hao. Several couples came to Brokenshire Women Center for a month-long training on childbirth.

To those without kids, Lamaze Childbirth Method is recognized worldwide as the best preparation for a natural painless childbirth. I took the classes myself a few years back, I don't remember the lessons but I do remember the confidence it gave me in preparation for our first child.

A couple waiting to try out the exercise

A lot of questions come up when pregnant

Cycles goodies for our moms

Special thanks to Ms. Alex for welcoming us and Sheehan for covering the event.

A Marketer's take on Mother's Day

It was mother's day yesterday and the heavy traffic, long queues in restaurants and flowers left and right made me stop and think. Mother's Day is not going to go away anytime soon. It's the norm. People expect you to celebrate, to respect it and you're a fool not to.

In fact, people don't know why we have such a day but the pressure is so strong that you might lose a mother if you didn't do anything (even a text message) yesterday. Are you an ungrateful child/husband not to honor your mother on such an occasion?

I have a suggestion, go for compliance.

Don't do anything special on mother's day. Buy simple flowers if you feel like it (prices are ridiculous), eat somewhere not fancy (how can you enjoy dining in a place with lots of people, lots of distractions), or better yet send her a text message (compose. don't forward).

BUT DO SPECIAL THINGS ANY OTHER DAY. Surprise her. Make your mom feel truly special, that you really mean it and not because of social pressures. Use the quieter times to converse. Get really special flowers (off peak prices) and allow her to show them off by being the ONLY ONE with flowers that day. Buy her her favorite drink for no special reason.

The paradox is that your text message telling your mom you love her means 100x more special, more authentic on any day except mother's day.

Why do you want to work?

I had the chance to ask this question to fresh graduate applicants and several of them answered they're finished with school, they're bored and have nothing else to do at home.

I cannot imagine a more valid reason not to hire them.

I'm looking for people who want to change the world. Those who want to make a difference. Those who are looking to trouble themselves daily to serve our customers.

Beach Hut in RX 93.1

www.lotionsucks.com

How many can you launch?

According to Fortune magazine Coca-Cola launched 700 new beverages in 2008.

That's almost 2 new products every day!!!

Partial listing here.

Problem Solving = Money

Tom Peters was right all along, soft is hard and hard is soft. That there is a lot more to be made in services than in pushing boxes (selling stuff).

I've often wondered why IBM sold their laptop line to Lenovo when you can see more and more people shifting to laptops like it's the new cell phone. This month's Fortune article on IBM simplifies the mystery.

If IBM's former CEO Lou Gerstner moved the giant from hardware to software and services, current CEO Sam Palmisano is pushing on to tackle bigger problems of global proportions. IBM's consultancy business led them to creating better power-grid management in Texas, fixing Stockholm's rush hour traffic and tagging the entire food chain of Norway (triggered by an E. coli scare).

IBM is not a mainframe computer anymore, but a big problem solver. Big problems = Big Solutions = Big Margins.

I can see the same pattern with J&J and their stellar performance. They have three main businesses - consumer products (J&J Baby, Tylenol, LIsterine, Neutrogena and others), medical devices & diagnostics group supplies and the pharmaceutical busineses that sells prescription drugs. And thou the consumer products is best known, it is the smallest of the three.

So the next time I see mountain-full of data, and giant problems you might just see me rushing in. That's where people don't want to be and where the margins are at.

MBO

Management by Objective

This is probably the only take away I got from an otherwise dead boring book I recently read. As an organization gets more complicated due to its size and reach, clearly communicating the objective/s gets more critical.

I guess I'm working on that stage now, where it's doing ok is never enough. Show me the numbers. Show me exactly what you mean. Give me the alternatives (together with the numbers) and get back to me with what happened (and please quantify).

Cycles and Guess Kids at Robinsons Manila Today

Kids had fun performing on stage and playing in Cycles Playhouse earlier today at Robinson's Place Manila.

Cycles Hypoallergenic Detergent would like to thank Guess Kids for inviting making the event possible.

The Guess Kids event at Robinson's Place Manila

Kids fall in line for the slide

Wahoo!