April Summer is next month, and sports fest fever is catching on. At least for the boys. With this year's basketball league coming in a few weeks, the guys have been busy with building teams, practicing, and making uniforms. Meanwhile some of the women have started plotting some crazy parlor games to add some spice to the games.
Games expected to be held include badminton, basketball, billiards, bowling, chess, darts, table tennis, and volleyball.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Reflections on Trust
Last February 23, a few of us attended a forum entitled "Leading at the Speed of Trust" by Stephen M.R. Covey in Makati Shangri-la. (Stephen M.R. Covey is the eldest son of Stephen R. Covey, author of the immensely popular Seven Habits book.) It was a sort of synopsis to his book "The Speed of Trust". We were seated in a table right before the big projector screen at the right side of the Rizal Ballroom. While our seats left much to desire, everyone of us had something to take home from the forum, not just a bag, a book, and a deck of cards, but also insights, new ideas, and blooming plans. And breakfast was good.
Trust is normally thought an intangible relation between parties. It's in the spectrum of abstract values like love, care, faith, etc. It is so basic to life that we don't actually delve on it often or deeply.
One key realization that is at the core of Covey's book and forum is that when we really think about it, trust is an economic metric. As an economic metric, trust is given a very visible importance to businesses and leaders.
Lack of trust creates layers upon layers of bureaucracy and paperwork. It often leads to unnecessary checks, replication of work or even throwing work out. With loss of trust, decisions stall, business is hampered, and the world slows down. It's a tax.
When we build a good trust relation, we are able to streamline processes. We can work based on the spirit of good will and laws rather than follow everything to the letter and trust nobody. With trust, we are able to do our work much faster, build on the trusted works of others, and elevate our combined effectiveness.
There are apparently two aspects of trust: trust as an integrity concern, and trust as a competency concern. Gaining the speed of trust needs both.
When we say we trust a friend, we mean that we believe our friend to know and act in accordance to our common interest.
When we say we trust a report, we believe that the report is accurate or good enough for our needs. We trust that the output of the person who made the report was competently made.
Somewhat ironically, checks and balances are integral in creating high trust. Checks and balances work to build a baseline level of assurance, that either removes doubts or guaranties particular assumptions.
The value of trust is present perhaps in all relations a company may hold over its lifetime. Even a comprehensive system of checks and balances require trust in the system, for it to to work.
As a company determined to excel in and out, Amici must find a good balance in its evolving system of checks and balances, that can foster greater trust, and eventually accelerated growth. We look to improve relationships with customers and with vendors, as well as between employees.
Trust is normally thought an intangible relation between parties. It's in the spectrum of abstract values like love, care, faith, etc. It is so basic to life that we don't actually delve on it often or deeply.
One key realization that is at the core of Covey's book and forum is that when we really think about it, trust is an economic metric. As an economic metric, trust is given a very visible importance to businesses and leaders.
Lack of trust creates layers upon layers of bureaucracy and paperwork. It often leads to unnecessary checks, replication of work or even throwing work out. With loss of trust, decisions stall, business is hampered, and the world slows down. It's a tax.
When we build a good trust relation, we are able to streamline processes. We can work based on the spirit of good will and laws rather than follow everything to the letter and trust nobody. With trust, we are able to do our work much faster, build on the trusted works of others, and elevate our combined effectiveness.
There are apparently two aspects of trust: trust as an integrity concern, and trust as a competency concern. Gaining the speed of trust needs both.
When we say we trust a friend, we mean that we believe our friend to know and act in accordance to our common interest.
When we say we trust a report, we believe that the report is accurate or good enough for our needs. We trust that the output of the person who made the report was competently made.
Somewhat ironically, checks and balances are integral in creating high trust. Checks and balances work to build a baseline level of assurance, that either removes doubts or guaranties particular assumptions.
The value of trust is present perhaps in all relations a company may hold over its lifetime. Even a comprehensive system of checks and balances require trust in the system, for it to to work.
As a company determined to excel in and out, Amici must find a good balance in its evolving system of checks and balances, that can foster greater trust, and eventually accelerated growth. We look to improve relationships with customers and with vendors, as well as between employees.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
FB et al in the Office
It's more than a month now since we blocked facebook and youtube from our office network from 8:30 - 12 and 1:30 - 5:30. I wonder how people here have reacted over it.
It's actually been debated since early 2009, whether to do just that or not. The primary problem then was loss of productivity. Restaurant City and Farmville (along with Plants vs Zombies) were grave dangers to work time. Even before, non-stop chatting in YM was already an issue. It seems staying largely unseen by the boss was enough temptation for quite a few.
By large, I resisted having a permanent ban on FB along with some other sites. We want our people to choose the right thing, and be smart about stuff like this. FB and other sites can be good stress relievers after all.
2009 Team building helped some with that regard. After that, clear and blatant abuse were less common, although it was still much of a problem with people stationed in unwatched, far away places.
2010 however brought even more important reasons to do something about it. High bandwidth streaming sites like Youtube was hurting our VPN and email. Then sometimes, we find people fighting because of some status update commonly read wrong or hitting too close to the heart, or below the belt. People here are getting their fun in FB at the expense of others, methinks.
(There's something ironic when people fight because of something said in Facebook. It was supposed to help connect people. But on those times, it was virtually helping connect punches between otherwise good friends. People stopped talking straight. FB was replacing normal human interaction. Scary.)
One interim step I took was to temporarily disable web access to certain sites to specific computers that were found exceeding their "breaktime" quota. But that's unnecessarily Big Brother for me.
So we're now where we are. In the mean time, they're off-limits during work hours. Hello to shorter lunch time.
It's actually been debated since early 2009, whether to do just that or not. The primary problem then was loss of productivity. Restaurant City and Farmville (along with Plants vs Zombies) were grave dangers to work time. Even before, non-stop chatting in YM was already an issue. It seems staying largely unseen by the boss was enough temptation for quite a few.
By large, I resisted having a permanent ban on FB along with some other sites. We want our people to choose the right thing, and be smart about stuff like this. FB and other sites can be good stress relievers after all.
2009 Team building helped some with that regard. After that, clear and blatant abuse were less common, although it was still much of a problem with people stationed in unwatched, far away places.
2010 however brought even more important reasons to do something about it. High bandwidth streaming sites like Youtube was hurting our VPN and email. Then sometimes, we find people fighting because of some status update commonly read wrong or hitting too close to the heart, or below the belt. People here are getting their fun in FB at the expense of others, methinks.
(There's something ironic when people fight because of something said in Facebook. It was supposed to help connect people. But on those times, it was virtually helping connect punches between otherwise good friends. People stopped talking straight. FB was replacing normal human interaction. Scary.)
One interim step I took was to temporarily disable web access to certain sites to specific computers that were found exceeding their "breaktime" quota. But that's unnecessarily Big Brother for me.
So we're now where we are. In the mean time, they're off-limits during work hours. Hello to shorter lunch time.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Letterhead Through the Years
Our company letterhead has gone through several iterations over the the last decade. I still remember the first one with the red A over the M logo. That was maybe 1997. If I find a copy of that one, I'll post it here.
2000 - 2005 Letterhead
2008 - 2009 Letterhead
A designer's rendition of our letterhead. Minimalistic design. Symmetry.
2010 Letterhead
This is really just a minor revision. A line of brand logos was added to put some connection to water products.
2011 Letterhead Revisions
This year's letterhead is a major revamp. Why another change? The 2010's line of logo felt tacked in. The 2008 design is elegant, but sometimes we need the company name somewhere there.
In the header are the company logo and specific company details. To adapt the letterhead to our other branches, only the header needs to be modified.
I have had mixed reactions to the logo placement on the upper right corner. It's definitely not common. Nevertheless, I felt a right aligned header magnifies reader focus to the content of the letter.
In previous iterations of this design, all the letterhead text are grayed instead of solid black to further emphasize the document content. But printing issues have made the text too dithered and illegible. So we settled with solid black.
The lower left box of brand logos balances the weight of the upper right header placement. The logos are small but recognizable. It might be an issue if you read things with a magnifying glass. But again, I didn't want the all-too-many logos to detract reader focus. When the reader, out of curiosity, gives attention to the small logos, she will hopefully not find it hard to distinguish the brands we represent.
The lower center box are tag lines of our products and markets, centered for the persons unfamiliar in our industry. Our website is also put here at the bottom, to act as a portal for the recipient to get more company information.
Last but not the least, the lower right box emphasizes to the reader the national level of our business.
2000 - 2005 Letterhead
Our early 200x logo just slightly evolved over 5 years as we added brand logos in the footer. We used A.O. Smith's electrical motor logo rather the Water Heaters logo, even though we were much bigger into water heaters than motors.
2006 - 2008 Letterhead
This revision was due to a change in logo. As part of a marketing strategy, we wanted "Water Systems" in our logo. "Amici" as a word is obviously rather generic. The Amici pizza shop wasn't commercialized then. Nowadays, we get confused reactions from callers mistaking us for the pizza parlor.
2010 Letterhead
2011 Letterhead Revisions
This year's letterhead is a major revamp. Why another change? The 2010's line of logo felt tacked in. The 2008 design is elegant, but sometimes we need the company name somewhere there.
In the header are the company logo and specific company details. To adapt the letterhead to our other branches, only the header needs to be modified.
I have had mixed reactions to the logo placement on the upper right corner. It's definitely not common. Nevertheless, I felt a right aligned header magnifies reader focus to the content of the letter.
In previous iterations of this design, all the letterhead text are grayed instead of solid black to further emphasize the document content. But printing issues have made the text too dithered and illegible. So we settled with solid black.
The lower left box of brand logos balances the weight of the upper right header placement. The logos are small but recognizable. It might be an issue if you read things with a magnifying glass. But again, I didn't want the all-too-many logos to detract reader focus. When the reader, out of curiosity, gives attention to the small logos, she will hopefully not find it hard to distinguish the brands we represent.
The lower center box are tag lines of our products and markets, centered for the persons unfamiliar in our industry. Our website is also put here at the bottom, to act as a portal for the recipient to get more company information.
Last but not the least, the lower right box emphasizes to the reader the national level of our business.
Store Front
With another new year, I thought it unforgivable that our store front hasn't changed much over the years. Our original store name from 1997 had been effectively erased by a bus accident. Now, it's even covered by the guard house. Some effort had been put in 1999, although virtually only "Water Systems" is visible from the street.
Last year, I put a Sta-Rite tarp on the left of the store. I was elated to get an inquiry on pool products a few weeks after. (These things have effects after all.) Towards October I also added an Aermotor poster. And then we temporarily moved office as we started renovations. Unfortunately, after the renovations finished, I couldn't find the Sta-Rite tarp anymore.
2010 ended and a new year began. We stopped a bit to focus on our primary work. And pretty much no effort was being made any more on our store front.
While a good store front might be a secondary priority for a company like us, since we are primarily a wholesaler, not taking advantage of our front might be remiss of marketing savvy.
We are located at Mayon St. (or Avenue, according to PLDT), and it's not a small street at all. It's a commercial street, though new developments have only started the past few years. We are two blocks away from Suki Market, we're near the local church and baranggay hall, and SM's Sun Residences is rising at the South end of Mayon.
So, to me, that we would not do even simple steps to increase our marketing presence is a loss of opportunity. So what did I do? I brought an unused plastic holder back to life and filled it with excess fliers and brochures. I hung a big A.O. Smith tarp by our window -- it still needs ironing though. I rummaged a "farmland" beside our store, and found a ready-to-be-thrown Atmor sign from our retail days. I taped it at the window in a not-so-nice way. I saw the Aermotor banner hanging by the guard house, but it looked too drab now so I decided against it. Instead, I'd been eyeing two more tarps from our exhibits. They looked nice and green and could work effectively to accentuate our sky blue office. All these hacks weren't so hard.
Next one should be a nicer store sign. Hmmm, we could even use our underwater lights to put on a colorful show. Not. Well, at least a store sign with big nice letters. And then, afterwards? Perhaps our service vans and motor bikes...
Last year, I put a Sta-Rite tarp on the left of the store. I was elated to get an inquiry on pool products a few weeks after. (These things have effects after all.) Towards October I also added an Aermotor poster. And then we temporarily moved office as we started renovations. Unfortunately, after the renovations finished, I couldn't find the Sta-Rite tarp anymore.
2010 ended and a new year began. We stopped a bit to focus on our primary work. And pretty much no effort was being made any more on our store front.
While a good store front might be a secondary priority for a company like us, since we are primarily a wholesaler, not taking advantage of our front might be remiss of marketing savvy.
We are located at Mayon St. (or Avenue, according to PLDT), and it's not a small street at all. It's a commercial street, though new developments have only started the past few years. We are two blocks away from Suki Market, we're near the local church and baranggay hall, and SM's Sun Residences is rising at the South end of Mayon.
So, to me, that we would not do even simple steps to increase our marketing presence is a loss of opportunity. So what did I do? I brought an unused plastic holder back to life and filled it with excess fliers and brochures. I hung a big A.O. Smith tarp by our window -- it still needs ironing though. I rummaged a "farmland" beside our store, and found a ready-to-be-thrown Atmor sign from our retail days. I taped it at the window in a not-so-nice way. I saw the Aermotor banner hanging by the guard house, but it looked too drab now so I decided against it. Instead, I'd been eyeing two more tarps from our exhibits. They looked nice and green and could work effectively to accentuate our sky blue office. All these hacks weren't so hard.
Next one should be a nicer store sign. Hmmm, we could even use our underwater lights to put on a colorful show. Not. Well, at least a store sign with big nice letters. And then, afterwards? Perhaps our service vans and motor bikes...
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Christmas Around The Corner
It's December. I almost forgot that this blog has turned one year old already! I just read the original post, entitled "December", and it was amusing to read that back then, I was writing about renovations.
Much changed since then. A major renovation actually happened (although it's not quite finished). The vibrant blue of our office gave way to a lighter shade of pale. The garage is now actually empty, and almost setup for residence.
And then again, there are the people. We've experience the highest rate of employee turnover over this year, due in part to improvements in our processes and better checks and balances. Some key personnel have left to chase their dreams or to look for peace. They will be sorely missed. More have moved on to other work where they have found their new homes. To them, we wish luck and a better life.
Meanwhile, with Christmas around the corner, everyone has turned busy bee for the Christmas preps. Perhaps with all the changes that have happened, the Christmas party is one more comfort for our restless minds. After all, we managed to miss the Team Building event this year. At least the year-end party is a vestige of the days merry past.
It's been a difficult year. But we have higher hopes still.
Much changed since then. A major renovation actually happened (although it's not quite finished). The vibrant blue of our office gave way to a lighter shade of pale. The garage is now actually empty, and almost setup for residence.
And then again, there are the people. We've experience the highest rate of employee turnover over this year, due in part to improvements in our processes and better checks and balances. Some key personnel have left to chase their dreams or to look for peace. They will be sorely missed. More have moved on to other work where they have found their new homes. To them, we wish luck and a better life.
Meanwhile, with Christmas around the corner, everyone has turned busy bee for the Christmas preps. Perhaps with all the changes that have happened, the Christmas party is one more comfort for our restless minds. After all, we managed to miss the Team Building event this year. At least the year-end party is a vestige of the days merry past.
It's been a difficult year. But we have higher hopes still.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Moved In!
Finally, for what felt like a long time, we've moved in to our new office! It's still the same location, right by the precarious intersection of Mayon and M. Cuenco, where a Florida bus once hit the corner of our humble store, by the border between Quezon City and Manila. But with a new paint, wiring and cables, new tables and chairs and partitions, and a much more sensible arrangement for employees, our office felt imbued with a breath of new life.
Right now, it's not yet a 100% done, mission accomplish project. There are still the oddities from our office's previous iterations like the uncovered section of the aircon's vent as well as the out-of-place legacy PBX hopelessly visible and the unchanged long haul cabling up and about the office and nearby departments. There are still undefined or temporary locations for telecom and printing equipments. And people places will still be changing with time. We still have lots of ideas to improve. This may be a relatively short term fix for capacity stress. But fixing we will do. For us right now, we can accept and embrace the changes moving forward. And we like it like that.
Right now, it's not yet a 100% done, mission accomplish project. There are still the oddities from our office's previous iterations like the uncovered section of the aircon's vent as well as the out-of-place legacy PBX hopelessly visible and the unchanged long haul cabling up and about the office and nearby departments. There are still undefined or temporary locations for telecom and printing equipments. And people places will still be changing with time. We still have lots of ideas to improve. This may be a relatively short term fix for capacity stress. But fixing we will do. For us right now, we can accept and embrace the changes moving forward. And we like it like that.
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