Articles, essays, and talks of Rey Lugtu

(Published in Business Mirror under the Mirror Image column, March 15, 2011) A few hours after the horrific tsunami in Japan, people all over the world flooded Facebook and Twitter with entries trying to communicate to loved ones affected by the catastrophe. Many postings expressed prayers and concern, along with news about friends and relatives in Japan. The social-networking sites also became an invaluable source of information among relatives of Japan migrants on immediate news and real- time updates about the situation and emergency warnings. Corollary to these, a number of Facebook causes have helped raise huge sums of money for Japan’s tsunami victims. The American National Red Cross, through Facebook Causes, has so far helped raise $75,825, donated by 1,770 people aided by 3,757 promoters. The Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Fund, on the other hand, has so far raised $21,611, through 2,104 members through Facebook Causes. In stark contrast, abject indifference and utmos...

(Published in Manila Standard Today under the Greenlight Column, January 10, 2011) I was recently invited by a Communications Arts class of De La Salle University to talk about the ill effects of Facebook among the youth. “Ill effects among the youth?”, I asked. I have studied the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of Facebook in the workplace. We always see its good side because most of us are active users. But the dark side in the work place is apparently the decline of productivity based on a number of studies. But understanding the ill effects among the youth struck me because I have two teenage daughters who spend hours in the veritable social network site; and I oftentimes ask them to stop and instead concentrate on studying. So this topic interested me as I wanted to understand its potential ill effects to my kids. Surveying Facebook users To put some credence in the talk, I asked the student organizers and my daughter to help me to conduct an exploratory study through a...

(Published in Business Mirror under the Mirror Image Column, January 5, 2011) I attended the silver reunion of Batch ’85 of the Manila Science High School on December 29. The ice-breaker the organizers ran was a rock-paper-scissors (RPS) game. This entailed pairs from the 30-plus who attended the reunion to run one round of RPS, with the loser giving P20 to the winner. The winners in the previous rounds were then pitted against each other, and the winnings were given to the victor of the succeeding rounds, until finally there was just one big winner with over P1,000 in prize money. Being a confessed ex-geek, I knew there was a strategy in this game and not pure chance. I read some studies on RPS that the most likely choice of a player was scissors. So my strategy was to always choose rock in the first round. True enough, during the game, I won several times using the rock strategy, until finally only Jude, a batchmate, and I were left. Unluckily, I succumbed to my opponent’s supe...

(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...

(Published in the Manila Standard Today under the Greenlight column, September 6, 2010) I recently attended a business meeting in Thailand where colleagues from Asia Pacific countries gathered to present and discuss business priorities. A favorite dinner staple topic among my colleagues was the hostage crisis in Manila. But more interestingly was the observation of many on the speech delivered by President Aquino to the local and international press where he smiled instead of showing grief. Having read the explanation of President Aquino, I quickly defended him. I told everyone that the president’s smile has been misunderstood – he was smiling because of the absurdity of the situation with the police using a sledge hammer and the difficulty of breaching the bus. I also told everyone that the President apologized for having offended certain people. This makes us realize the importance of understanding nonverbal communication in diplomacy and international business. According to st...

(Published in Business Mirror under the Mirror Image column,July 13, 2010) I was listening to a morning AM radio program as the commentators were discussing the latest mandate of President Aquino to stamp out jueteng, coming from a report that the small-town lottery was just a front for illegal-numbers game. Then the commentators interviewed former President Joseph Estrada, where he pointed out that all previous presidents—from the time of President Cory Aquino—wanted to stop jueteng, but all ended up in futility. It was only former President Estrada who wanted to legalize the numbers game, and legitimize the employment of more than 200,000 jueteng minions and for government to collect billions worth of taxes. After hearing the radio-program discourse, it dawned upon me how gargantuan a task President Aquino is facing to eliminate jueteng after failed attempts from past administrations. Jueteng has become so institutionalized in our society that controlling it seems impossible. H...