Bamboo Training for Business

The Continuing Farm Business Education of the MFI Farm Business Institute (MFI-FBI) will be conducting a bamboo training workshop on 24-25 September 2010 at the Farmers' Training Center in Jala-jala, Rizal.

Led by bamboo expert Romualdo Sta. Ana, participants will be taught the proper care and management of bamboo as a natural resource with much business potential. This will be the fourth seminar on bamboo rehabilitation organized by MFI-FBI.

MFI-FBI is an operating arm of MFI Foundation Inc. (formerly Meralco Foundation) that aims to serve as a catalyst for developing agri-entrepreneurship by filling the gap in education in the agri-business sector.

For inquiries, call MFI-FBI at trunk line 6320756 to 67 local 251 or 523, 6312444.

1 commentsselfdrivetours // September 23, 2010 7:02 PM 

Understand from a documentary that bamboo grows much faster than teak wood, and also much stronger, and is a great replacement for wood. Hope that with the grow in technology, bamboo will be used as a replacement for wood to protect our environment.

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1st Philippine Development Forum

Ayala Foundation Inc. (AFI) and Ayala Foundation USA (AF-USA) just held a press briefing at the Globe Telepresence public room in Makati City to announce the convening of the first-ever Philippine Development Forum.

The event, which will bring together Filipino and Filipino-American thought leaders to discuss solutions to the Philippine's most pressing development problems, is set to take place on 25 September 2010 at the Fairmont San Jose in San Jose, California - the second largest Asian-American population estimated at 4 million or 1.5 percent of the US population.

Globe Telepresence enables life-size "in-person" meeting experience for interaction and collaboration across multiple locations around the world in real time.

The solution allows enterprises such as Ayala Foundation to connect to colleagues and partners all over the world using high-definition screens with spatial audio.

It gives the experience of being in the same room although meeting participants could be halfway across the globe.

When the option to make use of the Globe Telepresence public room for the local media briefing was presented to AFI executive vice president Guillermo Luz, he was more than happy to give it a try.

"The Telepresence media briefing came about because we were up against time to put together a press conference for the Philippine Development Forum, which is already happening in September. There was this challenge of bringing together all the key people in Manila and San Francisco in one room, on such short notice," he said.

"Globe Business provided us with the right solution with Globe Telepresence, and fortunately, we, at Ayala Foundation as well as our colleagues in the US, were all able to find a common time to sit down and discuss the event, without having to travel," he added.

Luz said the press conference worked out well and was quite an experience. "The picture quality was top-notch, the sound was extremely sharp and nobody got disoriented because there was no time lag. The conversation was easy to follow and we felt like we were in fact facing each other right across the table. Everything was seamless — no pauses, no lags, no signal cutoffs. The participants spoke and interacted with each other like they would in an actual, in-person meeting," he said.

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SMART-SEEDFINANCE Partnership

Leading wireless services provider, Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART) has collaborated with SEEDFINANCE Corporation, a provider of wholesale credit to Filipino microfinance institutions and small enterprises, to equip island-based microfinance institutions with mobile-based financial products and technologies that will allow them to send and receive funds using SMART mobile phones.

Dubbed as the Islands Activation Program (IAP), the initiative utilizes Smart Money as a fast and secure alternative to send and receive funds in islands or areas where there is little or no access to formal financial services, and will benefit members of close to a hundred MFIs in various parts of the Philippines.

SEEDFINANCE works with 73 cooperatives with an aggregate clientele base of 1.2 million poor and low-income people.

It signed an agreement with ENCASH to install automated teller machines
(ATM) with allied cooperatives for the speedier and more secure receiving and dispensing of cash.

SEEDFINANCE chairman Carlos Ani said in a press briefing that the potential for the deployment of ATMs and starting mobile banking initiatives is immeasurable.

Ani explained that rural folk spend so much on transportation just to get to a rural bank located in a town center.

Meanwhile, the partnership between SMART and SEEDFINANCE come at the heels of the successful launch of the Smart Money Center in Polillo Island in 2008.

In October that year, the Polillo Group of Islands found its financial channels to the mainland cut off. The only rural bank went bankrupt, while the National Telecommunications Center mercilessly ceased its telegraphic transfer operations in the area. The nearest bank was three hours away by boat.

SMART partnered with the island's leading cooperative, Rhudarda Multipurpose Cooperative, to unveil the first Polillo Smart Money Center, which allowed residents to send and receive cash in an instant through the fast and secure mobile-initiated fund transfers in Polillo at the speed of a text message. This same remittance model will be rolled out in key provinces of Visayas and Mindanao under the IAP.

Since 2000, SMART has been actively promoting the use of mobile-based financial services and microfinance solutions, through the revolutionary Smart Money-the world’s first electronic cash card linked to a mobile phone.

Through Smart Money, SMART subscribers are able to conduct mobile banking, electronic money transfers, micro-purchases and micro-payments with just a few clicks on a cellular phone with a SMART Sim.

Two years ago, SMART received a World Business and Development Award given by the International Chamber of Commerce, Prince of Whales International Business Leaders Forum, and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

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New Breed of Pinoy Entrepreneurs

Despite fierce competition from global entrepreneurs, making a Pinoy brand stand out globally is definitely a lot easier now, thanks to the power of dynamic technologies like the new media. New ways of communicating to people prove to be even more effective if the business itself caters to the specific needs of Filipinos living abroad, or for any Filipino looking for a way to connect to the country.

A "dot com" entrepreneur

According to Jovel Cipriano, a web entrepreneur and founder of the highly-successful Filipino delicacy online store, www.PinoyDelikasi.com, using the Internet as a marketing tool is cost-efficient, and it delivers results at the shortest time possible.

Because of new media, anyone who knows how to use the computer and the internet can already market their business. "Therefore, if you decide to do internet marketing , you have to have a good website with the right content, a good marketing strategy to use the right platform, a good payment process, and good logistics. To be noticed, you have to be first, fast, and focused," said Cipriano.

It all began by his observation in 1999 that many Filipinos abroad have been asking to have packages of Filipino delicacies such as dried mangoes, dried fish shipped to the country where they are residing.

He realized that bringing Filipinos abroad closer to home by "delivering" food can be a profitable business. Back then, Cipriano was an exec at an IT firm, so being the techie that he was, he launched his e-store website with the name, "PinoyDelikasi," which stands for Pinoy delicacy in vernacular spelling, and at the same time a gist for "Lutong Pinoy, Delicious Kasi."

The catchy domain name caught the attention of many overseas Filpinos, which equated to an overwhelming number of orders. Since then, the business thrived with the growing network of countries served, a wide assortment of products it offers through many factory-fresh suppliers, as it continues to be the first website in mind when it comes to buying Pinoy delicacy items.

Living the awesome life, starting with a blog

On the other hand, Anton Diaz, internet marketer and avid blogger of Our Awesome Planet, encouraged marketing and business students to practice blogging, as it is not just a way of publishing one’s thoughts, but also an avenue to advance his advocacy.

Symposium on Empowering Farmers

The Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) will hold the 22nd National Research Symposium (NRS) next month.

The opening program and the paper presentations will be held 7 October 2010 at the 4/F BAR RDMIC building while the awarding ceremony is scheduled for 8 October 2010 at the Fernando Lopez Hall, BSWM, Visayas Ave., Quezon City.

With the theme, "Empowering Farmers and Fisherfolk in a Changing Environment: Improving Agriculture and Fisheries through R&D", this year's NRS underscores the importance of R&D vis-à-vis the various challenges of our time and how significant results and technologies generated from R&D can empower farmers and fisherfolk in reducing production cost and enhancing their capacities to compete locally and globally.

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Tupperware Phils. Eyes Strong Presence

Tupperware Brands Philippines, a direct selling company, recently reiterated its commitment to strengthening its position as one of the biggest direct selling companies in the country with the launch of its new line of fragrances, food storage solutions, and baby care products and the introduction of its latest roster of celebrity endorsers.

According to Tupperware Brands Philippines president Perry Mogar, the launch is part of the company's directive to adopt a more aggressive marketing strategy by leveraging on the strength of the company’s top-of-the-line brands.

"We want to strengthen our position in the industry as one of the best and largest companies, and so we're putting more emphasis on our star brands such as the fragrance and baby care lines. Of course, the food storage line, which remains our flagship product, has been given a wider range of product offerings for the enjoyment of our customers and to provide more income opportunities for dealers," revealed Mogar.

The use of high-profile celebrities has also been given more highlight this year to build the company’s brands and communicate the superior quality of their products. This following the recent successful launch of Bea Alonzo as the company’s new endorser for its premier cosmetics brand, Colour Collection.

Communicating Tupperware Brands' goal of becoming a direct selling company with unmatched star power are the new celebrity endorsers: one of today’s most-sought-after actors Sam Milby, talented young actress Maja Salvador, and versatile actor-turned-chef Marvin Agustin.

Milby and Salvador are the new faces of Tupperware Brands’ men’s and women’s fragrance lines. The two have also launched their own signature scents that promise to translate to more positive digits in the fragrance category.

Agustin, meanwhile, adds credibility to the Tupperware food container line as he shares his passion for food and health and his own inspiring Tupperware story to the growing number of Tupperware dealers across the country.

With the introduction of new products, Tupperware Brands aims to continue its winning streak in the local direct selling arena. The company continues to post positive gains in the local market, thanks to the continuous increase in sales of its bestselling beauty and baby products.

With the local Tupperware company's continued success, the Philippines has become one of the biggest markets in the Asia Pacific region for the global Tupperware company. Despite the global recession, the continuous soar of revenues generated from Tupperware franchises all over the world, including the Philippines, has contributed to the global company’s positive revenues last year of US$ 2.1 billion.

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'World's Biggest Book' Launched

The world's biggest book fair in Frankfurt is used to seeing some big book launches, but none came larger than a six-by-nine-foot (two-by-three-meter) Atlas unveiled on 6 October 2010.

Yours for a cool 100,000 dollars, Australian publisher Gordon Cheers said that the last book even close in size to his 128-page volume was the Klencke Atlas, produced in 1660 as a gift for Charles II of England.

"But that was about one foot smaller than this," Cheers proudly told AFP. "This is the first time a book this size has ever been seen."

Just to turn a page takes all his strength and the book took people three hours to get into position for visitors to the Frankfurt Book Fair, which runs until Sunday.

This makes his Atlas the antithesis of this year's book fair, which is devoted to smart, mobile content.

"It's all about creating a legacy," the Sydney-based publisher said. "Today, everything is digital and it's gone in a second. This will still be around in 500 years."

The book took around a month to produce and Cheers is limiting the print run of his monster Atlas to 31. He has already sold two volumes to museums in the United Arab Emirates and is confident he will sell the whole lot.

Cheers worked for British publishing giants Penguin and then Random House, but neither firm was interested in his project, so he left to found his own company, he said.

The book contains maps of whole continents, as well as sharp images of famous sites collaged together from 1,000 individual pictures.

As far as he knows, no one else is producing books on this scale.

"I think we're the only ones crazy enough," quipped Cheers.

3commentsVickie Heully // October 13, 2010 12:53 PM 

Finally, a book with large enough print that my mother-in-law would be able to read it! Jk

That IS a very big book though.

Bruneian Dollar // October 23, 2010 10:32 AM 

Imagine a lot of trees sacrificed for that big book. Though then again, it is pretty sweet.

ereferer // October 31, 2010 9:02 PM 

Thank god !! that is not my text book :p

and... could you please make the text bigger in post. Its very hard to read.

kind regards, jeny JOSE

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