Juggling on the Sides

Sidelines are jobs or work we do outside of our primary line of work.  For regular or contractual workers, our primary work will be the tasks we are employed or contracted to do.

In Amici, we do have people who goes into sidelines (from the company's point of view).  People go into it mostly to augment their income.  Sometimes, people do it to satisfy their cravings and interests, or for experience.  It may even be for free.

There have been micro-businesses selling cellphone load, seasonal hawking of food or apparel, or graphics, computer, or professional services.  It maybe teaching summer classes at our Alma Mater.  It maybe stock market trading or the weekend garage sale or even a trade fair.  It may be the occasional quick double-your-money scheme that is hopefully not going to lighten your wallet instead.  It may also be the same thing we do in our primary work, just that we do it on our breaks.

Logically, nothing should be wrong with trying to earn for our needs.  It's our right to go into business and make money.  We might be able to juggle our time and efforts to get more output for our own bottom line.  However, things can get messy if we are not careful. 

We juggle different things at the same time.  Each has expectations and goals.  What happens if we mix them up?  We might start slacking off our "real" work during our "real" work time so that we can do other performances.  This is a major issue in work ethics.


What if we juggle the same kind of work, only some are for our primary work, and some are on the side?  If we do the sideline outside of work schedule, will there still be a problem?  Unless the employer gave express permission for the sideline outside of work schedule, there's a conflict of interest somewhere here.  Here we maybe competing with our own company.  Competition can go from healthy to downright ugly.  This happens when our company is left unaware of the little competitor inside being paid salary and given marketing support and leads, who may have the means and the nerve to misrepresent the company, mislead customers, or even sabotage company activities.  We must remember that we are associated with our company.  What we do reflect on our company, even if without the company's blessings.


Finally, we might decide to juggle just a little too fast, too much.  We have our limitations, and as we get near that, we strain our focus, our energies, and we sacrifice  performance for mediocrity that does not impress.  When we do sidelines beyond our means, we tend to do poorly on our primary work.  We lose sight of our intended goals, and just see the blurry motion of all the works we put into our own hands.  Soon, we will make a mistake and we are left with a mess on the floor when things just crash and fall apart.

Weathering Storms

Due to the typhoon that brought down heavy rain and strong winds in the wee hours of July 14, we lost electricity for almost 24 hours.  It wasn't as bad as Milenyo of 2006 which brought about more than 3 days of black out, but it's not the ordinary 1 to 3 hour brown outs we get every other time a storm passes by.

With our increased usage of technology for our company operations, from accounting and requisition to inventory and sales, and service tracking, our customer and product databases, as well as our everyday use of email, computers, fax, PBX, and mobile phones, we have become fearfully dependent so much on electricity that we get into a disorderly mess to put our operations back "online", if only on paper.

We have not been able to formally draft contingencies on brown out situations or other unusual circumstances for that matter.  Fortunately for us, we had a generator in our storage room, courtesy of last year's Ondoy.  We also had people who know how to use and wire them.  They just needed a little mobilization, and by late morning, just shortly after our PBX UPS gave up on our phone lines, we were running on diesel, and operating somewhat decently, albeit without email and mobile phones.

Moving forward, we should be planning ahead to prepare backup and redundant plans to keep our operations smooth and durable.  This means redundant internet services, backup servers, adequate supply stocking, and documentation.  We lasted a day without much hiccups.  Next time, we can do even better.

Uniform Colors

Today marks the first day most Amici office people get to wear uniforms to work.  The rationale on the new regulation set down a month or so ago regarding uniforms is not clear to me.  An unlikely possibility is the reason that schools used to give to enforce uniforms -- to lower the average costs of clothing of students.  More plausible is to ensure everyone's at the minimum presentable and to diminish the chances of people standing out for good or for bad, thereby instigating envy, ridicule and chaos.  Perhaps it aims to foster internal solidarity, or to present a unified front to outside folks.  Or perhaps someone saw a sales team from a competing company in some nice uniforms and thought they looked fantastic.


Our uniforms wouldn't be lowering the average costs of clothing for employees.  One, we've been wearing clothes for the past number of years and everyone seems fine with it.  In fact, that a lot of people have invested on so many inexpensive Amici polo shirts over the last two years actually may mean a net loss of investment for them.  Two, there's actually an instituted penalty slash fund raising program for not wearing uniforms.  (I'm not very fond of monetary penalties for personal ethical reasons ).  But at least funds raised out of uniform penalty will go towards bonding moments.

Our uniforms are supposed to make everyone presentable.  It's a given however that the style of our uniforms will not win a fashion contest.  Moreso, the colors have the misfortune of being bland and, well, quite similar to a lot of uniforms everywhere.  No single person needs to be a point of an ugly joke anymore. Now, it's us making fun of ourselves.  We may have traded our freedom of expression for a united colors of dubious blue.  Say goodbye to the Fashionista award. 

Uniforms have their purpose.  Judicious use of uniforms go a long way towards improving our appearance as a company.  Uniforms convey discipline.  Practically, they make the role of their wearers easily identifiable.  When uniforms convey roles, it adds to the professionalism of a company and gives a close knit sense of belonging in and out of each team.  Creative designs lend creativity to our company asset.  Nevertheless, too much reliance however may indicate a disease in bureaucracy, inflexibility and martinet leadership.  A bad looking uniform says a lack of creativity, or worse a half-baked approach to getting things done.

A graceful execution of this uniform project will have a lot of benefits to our company.  Supposing our underlying aim is presentation, we should actually be satisfied with the appearance of our uniforms.  Perhaps a dress code maybe better in the long run as it balances unity and individual expression.  Uniforms then will have distinct roles to play, used to maximize their benefits.  And when we wear them, it is with pride that we show where we belong.

Shoes To Fill, Hats To Wear

Our young, resident graphic designer and marketing manager, Ms. Lorraine Cheung, has now officially left Amici Land for pastures a bit less blue.  With her departure, she has left a large void in our midst, not just because of her multidimensional duties and versatility but also her unforgettable and inspiring presence.

Through her short but significant career in Amici, M'am Lorr has shown excellent multitasking talent, versatility and discipline, and a much desired OC predilection sorely lacking in our otherwise chaotic office.  These are valuable traits in a small business as we are that we will surely miss.  Her leaving has left extra-large shoes to fill and a colorful array of hats to wear.  She has held her own managing company events, retail sales, office sales, accounts receivable, doing HR and SEC stuff, while doubling as backup to invoicing and collection.  She was also responsible for our graphic and print designs including our catalogs, brochures and other paraphernalia, exhibit and store booths, signage and modules, for making IDs and calling cards, posting cute birthday lists, and even ordering and distributing company shirts.

Despite her already tremendous help in our operations, she may be most missed because of her sunny personality and character.  She has brought color, warmth, and lots of cuteness in Amici Land, the little things she bring with her that inspire in others smiles and optimism.  She has also played the guidance counselor to a number of people here.  It is with our sense of pride and love in her that we cooked up a surprise farewell party especially customized for her last week.  It's our way of saying "Thank You" to her.


We thank her for her much valued contributions to our company.  We believe in her exemplary abilities and wish her the best of luck as she pursue her promising designing career.  We look forward to working again with her in the future for design requirements.

Purchasing

As a business making daily purchasing decisions, we are sometimes overwhelmed with the systemic complexity of the products we acquire and the schedules we abide to provide good service to our customers.

Ill-planned project schedules as well as highly technical products we have no idea about but are tasked to purchase lead overall to more expensive or subpar purchases.  In those cases, we only have so little time to canvass for well-priced items, or we are unable to make good judgment about product specifications because we do not know what are defined good or even good enough.

To obtain better results at purchasing, we first must cover the basics, an honest pro-company Purchasing Unit.  Such would have a sense of ownership to the company and be accountable to purchasing decisions, so that choices are made to minimize cost and maximize value, while serving the company's requirements promptly and adequately, and all the while promoting a company's mission and values.

We have heard too often the stories of the dishonest purchasing officer who insists that the company they work for, the company that provides his salary, be overcharged to compensate for commissions.  Philippines is rife with such.  It may be for this matter that we do not strongly engage the government as a customer.  But it may come as a surprise that the graft and corruption we gripe about in our government are just as unavoidable in the private business industry.  So when we are designing our Purchasing Unit, we must take special care to foster honesty in our personnel, implement checks and balances, and do frequent attentive reviews.

Our purchaser must also be pro-company.  She has a sense of ownership of the company in that her choices must have the company's best interests at heart.  Purchases are qualified based on their contribution to the company's performance.  We do not shop impulsively for unnecessary toys or expensive gadgets that have marginal benefits.  This, even if the items considered are actually good values to companies with the right requirements.  If we are not qualified to make sound judgment on need purchases, we must consult with trustworthy people who are.

Resourcefulness is trait we cannot overlook, especially during canvassing.  For obscure or highly niche products, it takes more effort to find the best deals.  We might have to go through tens of entries from the yellow pages or do a lot of googling to get to the top of the chain.  And we shouldn't forget that, sometimes, we just need to ask our more knowledgeable colleagues.

Finding good purchasers is necessarily difficult.  This is true for most any jobs.  Resumes and tests are not indicators of the values we espouse.  But we start with the basics -- capable people working in a competitive company that values, practices, and trains integrity and professionalism.

A.O. Smith's Renewable Energy Water Heaters

A.O. Smith, the world's largest residential and commercial water heater manufacturer, is off to a rather late if welcome start with heat pump water heaters and solar water heaters.

Since 2005, we've been promoting Fireflux heat pump water heaters and SolarActive solar water heaters coupled with A.O. Smith's hot water storage tanks to elevate energy efficiency in the hotel and resort industry in the Philippines.  We've since lead the energy efficient water heating industry with  perhaps more than 200 heat pump installations to various hotel chains and three to five star hotels.

The past two years, however, brought the giant that is A.O. Smith into the forefront of renewable energy water heating solutions.  A.O. Smith Netherlands started with the development of solar direct and indirect tanks.  Meanwhile, A.O. Smith China introduced an award-winning solar heater design for high-rise condominiums.  A.O. Smith's purchase of Applied Energy Recovery Systems Inc. (AERS) last year finally brought heat pump technology to the table.

Among A.O. Smith's newest water heaters include the Voltex Hybrid Electric Water Heater, an integral heat pump water heater that makes installing heat pump easy and works as a drop-in replacement to traditional water heaters.  A.O. Smith China is also introducing even smaller heat pump water heaters with only 15 to 20 gallon storage capacity, suitable for residential or low volume use.  The push to make heat pump technology available with smaller capacities helps in making this environmentally friendly technology more affordable and ubiquitous.

As the distributor of A.O. Smith, we are very excited to see innovations and development of this fast maturing alternative technologies.  We've learned a lot the past five years in this complex water heating systems serving the most demanding high profile clients.  Now, we hope to leverage as well the technological and manufacturing prowess of A.O. Smith to further spur the country's move towards renewable energy.

Congratulations Admin Team!

It was the obviously inevitable match up, between Admin and Service whose games between were consistently close over the regular season.  Both teams got 5-1 cards at the end of the tournament, and both played their strengths throughout.

Just an hour ago, however, ended Game 2 and the championship tournament.  It was a best of three tournament, but Admin managed to eke out wins against the Service team in both closely contested games 1 and 2.  Both games ended with too close scores near the dying seconds to give spectators bits of excitement and uncertainty. 

In Game 1's final possession of the Service team, they could have overcome an arguably easy two-point lead of the Admin team, but alas, an inbound interception sealed the victory to the champion. 

In Game 2, Service could have tied the game with two free throws with 3 seconds left.   The first free throw miss lead to the difficult scenario of requiring an offensive rebound that did not materialize.  Service was given an accidental final chance when they intercepted the last inbound pass.  Nevertheless, time and distance proved insurmountable.

In the end, both teams gave their all, but only one can win in this competitive game of skills, luck, effort and most of all, teamwork.  Congratulations to the Admin Team for winning 2010's Amici Basketball Tournament!