Articles, essays, and talks of Rey Lugtu

(Published in Business Mirror under Free Enterprise column, March 2, 2012) NEXT week, I will be attending a week-long executive education on business, management, and leadership in Singapore. As an adult learner, I am one of those business executives who are sent by their companies to business school and training camps to learn new skills and knowledge, with the objective of applying these on the job, ultimately resulting to enhanced business results. Companies spend tons of money in running training programs. But are companies getting their money’s worth? Are management training programs effective? What if two competing companies used the same training program with the same approach and content? Who will eventually have the advantage? Trainings and executive education are not as effective due to a number of factors: inadequate training materials, lack of qualified trainers, deficiencies in program design and evaluation, excessive reliance on conventional techniques, and others. ...

(Published in Manila Standard Today under the Greenlight Column, February 6, 2012) On January 18, more than 150 million of Wikipedia’s daily users were caught by surprise when they were met with a message: “Imagine a world without free knowledge.” For 24 hours on that day, the site was on a ‘blackout’ in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act, which are being taken through the US Congress. No to censorship Other popular sites did not follow suit but posted protest messages on their sites. Google hosted a black patch on its US site and a message urging US lawmakers not to “censor the Internet.” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook wall that his company was against the censorship law and urged Americans to further lobby congressmen about the issue. About 7,000 smaller Web sites either joined in the blackout for the day or posted some kind of protest. At 5 a.m. of January 19, Wikipedia service was back and claimed victory, spo...

(Published in Focus, newsletter of Financial Executives of the Philippines, January, 12 2012) Philippine business in 2011 was rife with gains, as well as losses. Some are outright disruptive in business, others are simply entertaining. What matter is that companies and business executives learn from the challenges of last year, and do better this New Year ahead. I have listed top five newsmakers in 2011 that, in one way or another, touched our professional lives and personal lives. Top of my list of newsmakers in 2011 is the real estate boom which the country has been experiencing these past few years and will continue through 2012, according to real estate advisory firm CB Richard Ellis Philippines. The surge in the industry is brought forth by expansions in business process outsourcing business, and rise in condominium developments. Interestingly, the CBRE data and forecasts somehow contradict the CNBC list of the 10 most difficult countries to do business in from 50 of the w...

(Published in Business Mirror under the Free Enterprise column, January 11, 2012) IN 2008, I wrote an article in BusinessMirror titled “Can outsourcing be stopped?” where I mentioned Barack Obama’s repeated spiel in his campaigns that, if elected, he would discourage companies from “shipping jobs overseas” by taking away tax breaks, or by giving benefit to those corporations that keep jobs domestically. From then on, the US government did not have a clear policy on outsourcing; thus, the business process outsourcing industry in the Philippines and elsewhere like India still experienced spectacular double-digit growth, helping spur the economies of the two countries. But just last week, President Obama jumpstarted an effort to urge US business leaders to keep jobs at home instead of outsourcing them overseas as he rolled out a new election-year theme aimed at courting middle-class voters. This has been the long-standing campaign of the US government against outsourcing, which was...

(Published in BusinessWorld under the View from Taft Column, October 26, 2011) My 16-year-old daughter, Frances, eagerly attended the Young Entrepreneurs Summit held at the World Trade Center last September. Thousands, including students, converged in this laudable undertaking aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship among the youth. Interestingly, she along with friends also attended the Franchising Expo in SMX Convention Center during the same period. She was one of the few kids who attended that exhibition which was intended for prospective franchisees. Studies have shown that entrepreneurial qualities, such as initiative, autonomy, risk taking, creative problem solving, and high internal motivation to succeed, emerge in children at a young age. I first discovered these qualities in my daughter when she was five years old, when she wanted to buy food in school and she didn’t have money. She got a Vick’s Vaporub ointment accidentally stashed inside her schoolbag by her yaya, and p...

(Published in Manila Standard Today under the Greenlight Column, August 1, 2011) Every time I drive through MdDonald’s or Jollibee to buy my 5-year old son a burger meal, it’s always heartwarming to see the use of paper bags instead of the lowly plastic bag. In Pasig City alone, more than 320 “quick service restaurants” (QSR) including fast food chains such as have started using paper bags for takeout. The new symbol The paper bag has become the symbol of a new environmental revolution that’s sweeping the country and the world over. Conversely, the plastic bag has become the symbol of environmental scourge. In January this year, the city council of Muntinlupa passed an ordinance prohibiting commercial establishments from using plastic bags and styrofoam. Los Banos likewise followed and other municipalities might follow. Several malls owners have implemented a “no plastic bags’ day” once a week to lessens the use of plastic bags, which Malacanang expressedly supported. The De...