Articles, essays, and talks of Rey Lugtu

(Published in Business Mirror under the Mirror Imgae Column, October 19, 2010) After four gruelling years in high school, my eldest daughter is, at last, graduating and entering college. I’ve been trying to prod her to take up entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial management because of her knack for selling things and making money since she was four years old. But, surprisingly, she wants to take up fashion design or interior design. It’s not too bad because she said she wants to put up her own business designing clothes or homes. What is more surprising is that she said the majority of her classmates are taking up arts and hospitality courses—from culinary arts to hotel and restaurant management. This struck my incurable curiosity, and I did my own surveys. After talking to friends and colleagues, they confirmed that, indeed, kids these days are taking up arts and hospitality courses in college apart, of course, from medical technology and nursing courses. The latter courses are u...

(Published in Business World under the View from Taft columng, October 13, 2010) On October 9, I attended the Manila Science High School Grand Alumni Homecoming, where my batch mates and I (Batch ’85) were the Silver Jubilarians. The mood was festive as batch mates, classmates, and friends mingled the whole afternoon until a night of singing and dancing. Our batch had the most attendees, with 50 of the 270 who attended. This high attendance can be attributed to the tight network that our batch had established. From the simple beginnings of an e-mail group in the early 2000s, our network has evolved into a more sophisticated Facebook account. Our network has cultivated not only personal relationships but also business and professional connections. The benefits of social networking to professional life or to the workplace may not be clear to many companies, but they are many. Social networks allow organizations to reach out to and target select groups and individuals. Many sales an...