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Enterprises, as their beacon to the future, need to craft their visions for the next five years. Unfortunately, change is happening at a blistering pace such as shifts in economy; shifts in local and global market; emerging technologies; climate change; economic upheavals from developed countries affecting developing countries. Furthermore, the internet revolution spawning new business models and replacing obsolete models. These are rather to heady for those who are running social enterprises. Large enterprises, on the other hand can afford to have a team of highly paid and highly educated strategic planners armed with MBAs and PhDs, and probably working with think-tank partner organizations to jointly craft a large enterprise's strategic direction blueprint. Social enterprises, on the other hand, may also be crafting their own strategic direction, but most probably, without the help of highly paid and highly educated specialists on strategic planning.  Social enterprises, more

Early in my selling career, I thought that you have to do 100% of the talking until you get the customer to buy your product. I also thought that a good salesperson is a smartly dressed, glib-talking salesman with a briefcase full of elixir selling to gullible customers. I began my selling career with that idea in mind and I used it in my selling approach. But I found it too frustrating and stressful.  Most of the customers I sold to, were either not interested, not convinced, or simply not listening because I'm doing most of the talking. Some would even engage me in a heated argument when I've said too much. In the end, I won the argument but I lost the sale. I only made a sale in a few instances where the customers actually needed the product and didn't involve too much selling. My selling style suddenly changed (which was talking too much), when I attended a sales training back in the '80s.  It was called the "Professional Selling Skills " training

I will be turning 50 before the  end of this year, and what better way to usher in my golden boy status is becoming a bonafide grandfather.  I now have a grandson, his name is Samien. He was born on April 25, 2012. His parents say that the name means "to be heard".  I guess their choice was right because when Samien cries, he is really heard by everybody. I noticed remarkable things in Samien.  While just a new born, he showed to us that he has strong legs and arms.  He can push himself upwards in the crib and was tireless in raising his small arms every  now and then.  Also, he is not the quiet type because he always cries and laughs unlike other babies inside the nursery who are peacefully asleep.  At three months old, he speaks amusing although unintelligible syllables.  Also, at three months, he is rather long for babies his age and quite heavy for a three month old baby.  He weighed in at 5 kilogram during his visit to his pediatrician. Samien, quite surprisingly

Mel Fonollera, Blogger Revised August 9, 2017 Poverty has been the scourge of man since the dawn of civilization.  There has always been that great divide. It has become more pronounced today with countries living in total excessive luxury and with countries whose people worry about the next meal.  Is there a solution to this? Value Chain and Social Enterprise may be the answer. Development agencies have been promoting value chains in very poor countries as an inclusive mechanism for marginalized people to have economic opportunities.  This article offers a look into the workings of a value chain.  The contents of this article have been extracted from an actual value chains for organic rice and muscovado sugar in the Philippines. Value chain is a chain of interrelated group of players, operating within an industry, that provides specific value adding activities to a product as it moves along the chain to allowing it to gain competitive advantage as it reaches the market  (

Decades ago there was no Modern Trade channel in the Philippines to speak off.  The biggest retail channel for consumer goods was the Traditional Trade, composed of "mom and pop type" of  stores (sari-sari stores), wet market stalls and grocery stores. Modern Trade stores such as supermarket, hypermarket and convenience stores were relatively few. In the nineties,  supermarkets like SM, Robinsons and Puregold slowly opened new branches. Other modern trade retail stores like the convenience stores followed suit. In year 2000, when the Retail Trade Liberalization Act was passed as a law,  there was a sudden explosion of new branches, not only in Metro Manila but also in key cities and provinces nationwide. Today's retail giants SM, Robinsons and Puregold opened new stores in several formats in key cities and provinces in the Philippines.  The big Philippine modern grocery chains deliberately expanded as head start over the entry of global retailers - Walmart, Carrefour,

Category management  is a  retailing  and  supply management  concept in which the range of products purchased by a business organization or sold by a  retailer  is broken down into discrete groups of similar or related products; these groups are known as product categories (examples of grocery categories might be: tinned fish, washing detergent, toothpastes). It is a systematic, disciplined approach to managing a product category as a strategic business unit. The phrase "category management" was coined by  Brian F. Harris . Product Categories in retail operations are viewed as independent business unit. Each category has its own role and expected to achieve its assigned scorecards.  Category roles range from flag carrier, cash cows, transaction builders, etc. The front end of category management visible to all is the planogram. The back end of the category management goes through the 8 step cycle (see illustration).    Suppliers are expected to collaborate with ret

The year was 1975 where boys' pants were all bell-bottom and girls' skirts were a bit shorter.  It was my elementary years and I was in the sixth grade at St. Martin Technical Institute. St. Martin Technical Institute was located along Meralco Avenue and at the back of the Rizal Provincial Capital.  The school grounds was actually perched on top of hill overlooking the valley below know as Barrio Ugong.  The school was quite expansive during those days.  There were separate buildings for grade school and high school.  The grade school building is 5-storey high with two wings on the side but hardly occupied .   Inside the elementary building was a big open space that was used for field demonstrations, school dances and other school related activities. After classes in the afternoon,  the open-ground was used by elementary students to play "sipa".  A bit away from the building were lines of sweet berry trees where we used to climb up and picked on the sweet fruits.

Managing an enterprise life cycle especially the downturn is a difficult journey.  The difficulty level depends on the severity of problems plaguing the enterprise.  If the entrepreneur fails to successfully manage this particular life cycle phase, the enterprise will die a natural death and the only recourse is to file for bankruptcy to secure a reprieve from creditors and suppliers. The entrepreneur has to decide and act on two nagging questions as it goes through the downturn. First, should the entrepreneur increase business volume? Second, should the entrepreneur reduce business volume and costs?  Decision making is like a fork in the road with the entrepreneur deciding on which road to take in the fork.  Decision making also involves instinct. Humans and animals alike react in two ways when faced with danger - fight or flight. But before taking a particular road the entrepreneur should consider many things.  Regarding fight or flight, it will depend entirely on which instinct wil

Mel Fonollera, Blog Writer It was 5:30 am, July 20, 2008 at the Ninoy Aquino International airport departure area and the queue was long.  I stood and waited in line.  At the end of the line was an airport personnel checking travelling papers of people going to Doha, Qatar.  I felt excited as well as anxious.  There were a lot of questions racing through my mind, which I really don’t have answers as of the moment.  Those questions concerned my future in Doha, Qatar.   I decided to try my fortune and look for work in the Doha, Qatar.  My business didn't pan out and I had to close it.  Based on the peso to rial exchange rate, I thought it was worthwhile because of the thirteen pesos difference. I decided to give it a try.  I was fortunate enough, that my brother helped me secure a visit visa to  Qatar.  He works for a construction firm in Doha and knows how I can get there fast.  His assistance would be a big factor in helping me to get adjusted in that new country.  After

Social enterprise is slowly gaining ground in the Philippines.  It is a new business model that hopes to address poverty.  Social enterprise is a type of organization with multiple bottom-line objectives with the marginalized poor as its primary stakeholders.  It is different from a for-profit enterprise dictated by a single bottom-line and its primary stakeholders are the owners and investors of the enterprise. Social enterprise operates in a dichotomy with two opposing and different objectives.  Day to day decisions in running a social enterprise is influenced either by social good or profit.  Both are worthwhile objectives for a social enterprise but both should always be considered. To attain sustainability, a social enterprise should be able to astutely balance the two important bottom-line objectives.  If an imbalance occurs, unfavorable consequences will surface.  There might be a risk of drifting from its mission, that of failing to serve the needs of its primary stakeholder,