integrations

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Recipe:

Ingredient list

Bacon Garlic, 3 cloves, minced

Flour, maybe 2-3 tablespoons

Milk

Selection of cheeses

2-3 for flavor: parm, Sharp cheddar

One for texture - mozzarella

Macaroni

Seasoning:

Salt

Pepper

Paprika

Nutmeg, ideally freshly grated

Fresh parsley, roughly chopped

(Optional)

Method:

Make lots of crispy bacon for breakfast by laying out strips on a hot pan - something with height. No additional oil. Save about 1/2 cup cooked crumbled bacon for the Mac and Cheese.

Do not wash the pan you used to crisp the bacon. You are using this for the cheese sauce. Leave about three tablespoons of bacon drippings in the pan.

Set water.to boiling for macaroni.

On low heat, start with pan used to cook bacon. It should still have about three to four tablespoons of bacon drippings. Add minced garlic. Stir until golden.

Still low heat, add flour to make a roux. Stir until flour is cooked - it will be a light brown and smell like toasty garlic bread.

Then add milk. Stir until incorporated.

Add cheeses. Keep some cheese for topping. Season to taste.

Note: by now.your macaroni should be in water. Cook until 2 minutes before al dente.

When cheese sauce and macaroni are ready, assemble into an oven safe baking dish. Put drained macaroni into dish. It should still be very wet. Stir in cheese sauce and crumbled bacon (keep some bacon for topping) and some parsley (keep some for topping.

Top with bacon and cheese. Brown top in oven (top heat) or turbo or just with a torch.

Sprinkle parsley. Serve. With sausages or roast chicken or garlic toast.

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Focus

                                             Forward, not back

 It is the first week of April. Philippine president Duterte leads the Time100 online poll for Time’s most influential people for 2016 even as international scrutiny is drawn to the country’s drug campaign. Elsewhere in the news, Moody’s last week released its two-year forecast for the Philippines, projecting an over 6% economic growth in spite of what they called “political noise.” In social media, sniping and sometimes worse continues between critics and supporters of the current administration.

The current adversarial nature of many conversations and discussions concerning the state of the nation and national governance is a stark example of what happens when communication is derailed.

Conversations

In business as well as in personal life, this ability to keep conversations from deteriorating is an important skill. Too often, those involved in a conversation forget the real objective of the discussion and fall into unproductive behavior.  

Perhaps the most difficult discussions are those seeking to find a consensus. Too often, individuals come to these conversations having already made up their minds. In these cases, there is no real meeting of the minds as each person grasp only at the arguments supporting their point of view. The conversation becomes a battle rather than a search for commonality. When positions harden and the topic is emotionally fraught (often the case in politics or religion, for example), then no real conversation happens and words become missiles seeking to destroy rather than bricks and mortar seeking to build.

Sarah Green Carmichael, in a 2010 Harvard Business Review article concerning difficult conversations, outlined 9 common mistakes. Many of the mistakes she mentions have to do with managing mindset and reactions. They include such things as allowing others to push our buttons or falling into old patterns and scripts and hence not providing room for real conversation.

At the heart of these mistakes are two stark realities. First, for the most part, most people don’t enjoy conflict. Hence, we will try to find ways to avoid the conflict, either by shutting down or seeking to find that one single big offensive that will finish the conversation. Unfortunately, this deployment of that one single strike, much like the atomic bomb, often has the adverse effect of creating more conflict. Second, human beings tend not to like being wrong or losing or being criticized. Hence, we all develop a complex system of mechanisms for self-preservation. Some of these mechanisms are so hardwired, we lose control of them and they become automatic responses (our red buttons, for example). In the literature on emotional intelligence, we refer to these moments when we allow our self-protective reptile brain to take over our logical forebrain as amygdala attacks (Note to reader: Seriously! Look it up.).

Keeping on track

I found two of Carmichael’s comments particularly helpful.

One of them is a lesson often used in sessions on mindfulness and effective thinking: It is important not to lose sight of the goal. Everything that we do or say in a conversation must bring us closer to the goal. In fact, this is one of the methods for preventing ourselves from falling into the trap of behaving irrationally. Take a step back and ask yourself a few questions: What am I trying to accomplish here? If I do what I want to right now (say, bring up an old mistake), will that lead me closer to the goal? What other consequences might I trigger?

I remember one particularly memorable conversation I had with a close friend. We were both very young and said friend was relating stories concerning the inappropriate, often unpleasant, and sometimes very personal, comments of a co-worker.  As is often the case, the unpleasant co-worker actually had multiple skeletons in the closet and my friend was considering exposing those skeletons the next time said co-worker said something inappropriate. I took one long breath and asked: “And what would you accomplish by doing that?” The answer: “It would make me feel better.” After a few heartbeats, a second, more considered answer: “And I would potentially be making a powerful, spiteful enemy.”

And here is the crux of the matter, when conversations go the wrong way, it is often at the intersection of two situations: we react emotionally and we lose track of our goal.

The third factor

A third factor typically comes into play when we choose the wrong approach and this factor is relevant even when no conflict or emotions are at play. This third factor has to do with the logic that we bring to understanding the particular problem at hand. When we are crafting the potential solution to a problem, we are quick to ask the question: Will this allow us to accomplish the intended consequence? The other question we need to ask is this: What other unintended consequences might we trigger as a result of our planned solution?

An even deeper potential logical pitfall is this: Are we even solving the correct problem? One item in Carmichael’s list is relevant to this topic: oversimplifying the problem.  

Of course, we all know that there is a natural temptation to find ways to just get the problem over with. Unfortunately, oversimplifying the problem means we actually never manage to solve the problem. An even more complex and dangerous situation exists when we end up framing the problem in a manner that supports an internal bias. In these cases, the conversational conflict becomes even more toxic: disagreement as to what the problem even is.

In the literature concerning collaborative management of change, especially what the academic literature calls wicked decisions (complex decisions involving multiple factors, multiple stakeholders and multiple decision-makers), the first step to finding a solution is to agree on an analysis of the problem. An important part of the approach for these kinds of problems is to ensure that each key sector is not only heard from but is an actual constructive and active participant in the process, not only of finding a solution, but also in defining and understanding the problem.

In a 2013 Forbes piece, John Hall presents many tips for having meaningful conversations. In a nutshell, most of his tips can be distilled into a very few: do your homework; listen and remember key points; find ways to truly engage and appreciate the other person’s point of view; and find ways to make sure all participants receive and add value.

And that, finally, after all, is what productive conversations are about. It’s not a contest. It’s not about who is right or who is wrong. It’s about finding ways to build something that makes sense and considers everyone. There will never be perfection but there will always be a way to move forward rather than back

 Readers can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com.  Or visit her site at http://integrations.tumblr.com.  For academic publications, Maya uses her full name, Maria Elena Baltazar Herrera.    

First published 05 April 2017 by The Standard in the column Integrations by Maya Baltazar Herrera

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Zukunft 2017

It’s the first day of the year, a time for planning and anticipating. What can we expect from 2017?

Money

“Uneven and unspectacular” are the words used by economists polled by Reuters poll in December of 2016 to describe the economic outlook for 2017.  The Reuters poll says economist sentiment run counter to current investor optimism with the global forecast growth for 2017 at 3.2% as a result of expected suboptimal Asian growth.

In a 21 December article, focus-economics.com (FE) points out that eight years after the onset of the global crisis, central banks continue to use loose monetary policies (notably low interest rates) to support economic growth while risking distortion in asset markets. FE’s poll of analysts show a consensus estimate of  2.9% world economic growth in 2017, slightly higher than the estimated 2.5% in 2016.

FE’s estimate echoes a similar trend from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook (WEO) released October 2016. IMF’s WEO projected a slight rise in 2017 growth to 3.4% from its 2016 estimate of 3.1%. The FE’s lower estimate reflects the World Bank’s midyear 2016 downward revision of estimated 2016 growth to 2.4% from its January estimate of 2.9%

The Conference Board, a global business membership and research association, forecasts a continuation of what it calls the current trend of stagnation. Their base scenario reflects most published economic analyses, inputting the effect of stabilized prices in energy and commodities, and positive effects of qualitative growth factors such as advanced technology and increased productivity, tempered by weaker growth in key inputs of investment and labor. The Conference Board echoes many analysts and organizations by pointing out pressure coming from increased political and economic uncertainties, which could have the effect of delaying large investment decisions by both governments and private sector.  Across the board, the outlooks for 2017 point to the same cautions: Brexit and Europe; Trump and the US; China concerns; conflict and political uncertainty in many countries.

The World Bank (WB) growth forecasts for East Asia are much rosier, with China expected to transition to a 6.5% growth and the rest of the region to grow at 5%. Developing East Asia is expected to grow at 5.8%. The Philippine economy is expected to grow 6.2% by both WB and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Consumer Trends

Let’s focus on the thoughts of my favorite trend watcher. Trendwatching’s (TW) top five trends for 2017 begins with virtual experiences, essentially a follow-on to its forecast of the maturing of virtual reality being a strong undercurrent for 2016. This trend ups the ante on what is already a very strong real experience economy. In this strange new world, experience is valuable not just for entertainment, it accrues status. Simply think of how social media sites have become a means for sharing experiences from travel to new restaurants. More importantly, TW explains that individual choices will become “even stronger statements about who they are” as individuals. In this new world, time will become the scarcest resource of the consumer and entertainment is no longer the key source of value.

TW’s second trend echoes geopolitics and the ongoing power shifts and conflicts between those who call for increased connectedness, the emerging global citizen, and those who cry for nationalism and separateness. For managers and marketers, this echoes the challenge that has always been apparent to multinationals, that balancing of global outlook and imperatives with local realities.

TW’s third trend is something that would make many marketers quake in their boots – the return of the anonymous consumer, arising from the need to be treated equally regardless of demographic. The last two trends continue two larger trends: sustainability and the increasing pervasiveness of technology. The former is simple, the capture of underutilized capability in order to create fresh value – something I have been researching and writing about for many years now within the area of corporate social innovation. The final trend is both exciting and scary. It involves the increased technological capability to gather individualized information in order to create individualized service.

Meanwhile, the folk at Ericsson have released their list of the top 10 consumer trends for 2017, which begins with the statement that the internet is now comprised of 70% video traffic.  The report includes many interesting factoids. The number of people willing to have and AI as an advisor for work now exceeds those who are unwilling. Three fourths of smartphone users believe multiple wearables and sensors will help them better interact with other devices. Two in five believe smartphones will eventually learn their habits and perform certain functions automatically. One out of three individuals state that social networks are their prime source of news, reflecting an increased reliance on social networks which creates social silos.

The folk at Euromonitor also had some interesting statistics for those wanting to understand the new consumer. The median age of the global population in 2017 will be 30.1 (up from 27.9 in 2007). 3.5 million people will go online for the first time each week in 2017. In 2016, card payments (44.1%) outstripped cash (43%) as the largest payment source (by value) for the first time.

Forward

So that’s 2017. It will continue to be a world dominated on the one hand by local politics and on the other, by technology. Consumers will want to both be better known as well as more anonymous. It’s going to be a great ride.

Frohes Neujahr!

 Zukunft is the German word for future. It is a concatenation of the root words “zu” meaning “to” and “kunft” which comes from the German word “Kommen” meaning “to come”. Hence it literally means what is still to come.

-

First published 04 January 2017 by The Standard  in the column Integrations by Maria Elena “Maya” Baltazar Herrera.

You can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com.  Please like the Integrations Manila Facebook page or visit her archives atmanilastandardtoday.com/author/maya-baltazar-herrera/ or integrations.tumblr.com

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Zeitgeist 2016

It is the last week of 2016, time to tell the stories of the year ending.

Questions and Choices

It was a year of questions. It was a year of choices.

It was a year dominated by politics and many of the choices citizens made surprised analysts. The US chose Trump over Clinton. The Philippines chose Duterte over Roxas and Poe. Great Britain chose to leave the EU.

The elections in the US and the Philippines created rifts among friends and family. As the dust settled, emotions continued to run high and in both countries, the verbal battle continues to be waged.

As a result of a March 2016 decision of the International Olympic Committee, the Refugee Olympic Team composed of ten refugees competed as independent participants in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.  It is a sign of the magnitude of the refugee crisis that a Syrian refugee, Ibrahim Al-Hussein, was asked to carry the Olympic flame through the Eleonas refugee and migrant camp in Greece as part of the 2016 torch relay. The International Crisis Group reports that the total number of international refugees now stands at 65 million. It is a crisis of global proportions with no clear solution in sight. Technology

It was a year of technology.

On July 11, 7-11 announced its first commercial drone delivery. The delivery included a chicken sandwich, donuts, coffee, candy and Slurpees and was delivered to a residence in Reno, Nevada. But that wasn’t the exciting news. The real news is that 7-11, who partnered with start-up drone maker Flirtey, announced that, in November, it made 77 drone deliveries as part of its delivery pilot in Reno. This is the first regular drone delivery service to operate in the United States and is a slap in the face to Amazon, which announced its own drone delivery system, Prime Air, in 2014 and only made its first delivery in December to a customer in the UK countryside.

Much less technologically inspiring but certainly more popular, Niantic partnered with Nintendo to release the year’s most explosive gaming app. Pokemon Go. Arguably one of the most successful mobile game launches of all time, the game was downloaded over 100 million times in less than a month.

On the commercial front, Alibaba paid USD 1 billion for a controlling stake in Lazada, the dominant online retailer in Southeast Asia. Alibaba announced that revenues for its biggest single day sale of the year, Singles day which occurs on November 11, was USD 17.73 billion, a 32% increase over 2015. By contrast, total US consumer spending from Thanksgiving day through Cyber Monday was USD 12.8 billion. A report by Marcia Kaplan on practicalecommerce.com points out that online shoppers for the period outnumbered actual store shoppers 108.5 million to 99 million.

VR gear became more wildly available but the technology still has to find a truly commercially successful application. More companies announced interest in self-driving cars.

But perhaps the most interesting tech story for the year, is as much a surprise as the outcome of the US elections, Nokia researchers announced that it had demonstrated internet speeds of one terabit per second, approximately 1000 times faster than Google Fiber, the current fastest provider in the United States.

Loss and Redemption

This year, the world lost artists, leaders, and pioneers. The world of entertainment lost Gene Wilder, loved by entire generations for his role as Willy Wonka; Alan Rickman probably best known to the younger generation as the actor who played Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies. Florence Henderson, the mother in the long-running TV series, The Brady Bunch, and    Zsa Zsa Gabor.

We lost musical geniuses this year: David Bowie and Prince, both musical icons. In the last few weeks of the year, George Michael joined the list of those we lost.

This year, we lost astronaut John Glenn, author Harper Lee (To kill a mockingbird), legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, golfer Arnold Palmer, former Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro, former Israeli Shimon Peres, former US first lady Nancy Reagan, and Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Disasters, both natural and manmade continued to plague the world. From typhoons to earthquakes, terrorist attacks to war, the toll in property, lives and human suffering continued to mount. But across the world, men and women rose to the challenge, finding ways to survive, helping in the face of struggle.

In the business world, one of the most interesting stories is one of redemption. In 2013, Nokia announced the sale of its mobile phone business to Microsoft. It seemed a dark day for Nokia. What many people did not know at the time was that this sale was one of the steps in a long struggle to reshape Nokia. What many perhaps did not know is that Nokia parlayed its acquisition of Alcaltel Lucent to rebuild itself into one of the world’s largest telecom network service providers.

In July of 2015, Microsoft wrote off USD 7.6 billion related to the Nokia acquisition, which was its venture into the world of mobile hardware. In May of this year, Nokia announced the return of Nokia to the smartphone market via a licensing agreement to HMD Global, which has also agreed to acquire use of the Nokia brand from Microsoft. In an interview with McKinsey, published December 2016, Nokia’s chairman, RIsto Siilasmaa, pointed out how much Nokia’s fortunes have changed, from an enterprise value of USD 1.5 billion in mid-2012 to its current enterprise value of USD 30 billion.

So that was 2016, a year of surprises and challenges, a year of change but a also a year of inspiration and redemption.

Have a great 2017 everyone!

First published 28 December 2016 by The Standard  in the column Integrations by Maria Elena “Maya” Baltazar Herrera.

You can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com.  Please like the Integrations Manila Facebook page or visit her archives atmanilastandardtoday.com/author/maya-baltazar-herrera/ or integrations.tumblr.com

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Middle

Since this column began on the 24th of June in 2005, I have been writing for a Friday publication. That, then editor-in-chief Jojo Robles, explained to me meant that I could essentially bridge the work week to the weekend – hence, a much more light-hearted take on business and management. This week, things change. This column will begin to appear Wednesdays.

I have been thinking of what it means to write for a Wednesday paper. The Friday edition, as I have now begun to think about it, was essentially an integration of events and news of the past week – an attempt to make sense of the week before it ended. Wednesday, however, is very different. It is smack in the middle of the week. It is a time for evaluation. It is a time for reviewing what has been done and what still needs to be done.  It is a time for reckoning and decision-making. Wednesday is a far more serious day than Friday.

I suppose this week, the penultimate week of 2016 is a great time to think about evaluation and reckoning. I will, after all, will remember 2016 as a time of great change, and unexpected decisions.

Geopolitics

On December 8, Facebook released a list of 2016 global top 10 most discussed stories in Facebook. Pokemon Go was third and the Olympics as sixth. The remaining five of the top 7 were political stories.

It was no surprise to see the US elections topping the chart as it had in 2015. The US story, after all, had all the elements of great prime time news. The Democrats and the Liberals had both chosen newsworthy candidates. Clinton, the Democratic candidate, would have been the first female president of the United States. The Republican party, on the other hand, had Donald Trump, billionaire and reality TV personality.

What was truly surprising about the US elections was the outcome. Up until a few hours before the results became final, virtually every poll and exit poll was predicting a Clinton win with between 80% and 90% confidence. Clearly, a change had taken over the American electorate that had gone unnoticed except by only a very few.

It was, for me, the second global political shocker of the year.  The first was Brexit. The British vote on whether or not to exit the European Union seemed to be clearly in favor of staying until a few weeks prior to the election when the difference began to narrow. However, many analysts still seemed confident that the British electorate would choose to stay. The resulting decision to exit surprised even those who voted for exit.

The result of the Philippine election did not surprise me. Every major survey company had put Duterte, a relative political outsider, in the lead by a wide margin. This is, sadly, the second time Roxas has lost a run for a key national post. Unlike the first, which was a surprise as no one seemed to have kept track of Binay’s grass roots campaigning, this should not have been a surprise. While the Duterte campaign started late, much of it was implemented in that most public of arenas – social media.

So that is part of the story of 2016. The political arena is changing rapidly. You ignore these changes at your peril.

Family and Enterprise

Closer to home, this year represented my first full year of not being part of the operations of Solutions, the company I had helped found in 1993. I had slowly been lessening involvement since a little before the 15th anniversary of the company and had finally turned over the acting presidency to one of my partners in the middle of 2015.

For me, 2016 was to have been a year of rest and rumination. My alma mater, the UP high school is celebrating its centennial and my husband and I are celebrating our 30th year wedding anniversary. We had planned to spend more time with family, and more time with friends.

However, a rapid response to a work email led to me getting involved in the relaunch of the Master in Entrepreneurship (ME) program of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). Work for the ME, plus the myriad other things involved in transitioning new mechanisms under the new President and Dean of AIM, used up much of my available time.

Next

It is too early to tell whether the choice of national leaders in the US and the Philippines will lead to the positive changes their supporters anticipated. Actually, the more accurate statement would be that these leaders themselves, with the team they decide to work with, will help determine the fate of their nations. Even more accurately, it is what their citizens decide to do that will shape the future of these countries.

What has been clear for a long time is that governments do not hold all of the power. In the United States and many developed countries, entrepreneurs, businessmen and philanthropists have shown how much the private sector can contribute. In the Philippines, during natural catastrophes, Filipinos have shown their resilience and generosity. The challenge is to be able to harness this Filipino positive spirit for long-term growth.

In my home, my goal is to spend more time with my husband and to help my children push the boundaries of what is possible for them, to help them find their happiness.

In the AIM classroom, with the Bulawan Redemptors (ME2018) and with the MBA and EMBA students, I always say that our goal is profitable growth – but it must be founded on respect for the law and the right values. In the often contentious social media space, my response to those who ask about the job of citizenship is the same. We must start with obeying the law and paying the right taxes.

Core

The middle, after all, is really the core. When seeking to find our balance while traversing tricky paths, we are often told – find your center of gravity. So this shift from the end of the week to the middle of the week, seems appropriate for me. This individual center, that core of peace within you - that is the foundation of true knowledge and contentment.

Merry Christmas to all!

  First published 21 December 2016 by The Standard  in the column Integrations by Maria Elena “Maya” Baltazar Herrera.

You can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com.  Please like the Integrations Manila Facebook page or visit her archives atmanilastandardtoday.com/author/maya-baltazar-herrera/ or integrations.tumblr.com

[integrations]

Perespective

                                                      I hear you

The second week of November 2016 began with speculation and analysis concerning the possible results of the US elections and what the potential effects are on the rest of the world.

By the middle of Wednesday afternoon this week, late in the night of the 2016 US national elections, mere hours after most exit polls were predicting between an 80% to 90% probability of a Clinton win, Donald Trump took Wisconsin, gaining  276 electoral votes, and pulling off what many media outlets are calling a “stunning upset.”   As analysts strove to understand what had happened, media outlets referenced the similarly unexpected UK vote to exit the European Union. Local pundits drew parallels between the Trump and Duterte campaign, at least, in terms of messaging. Unlike the pollsters studying the US elections, our local pollsters actually called it correctly - our polls had Duterte winning by a comfortable margin.

Leaders

Many local pundits found an eerie similarity between the Trump rhetoric and the Duterte campaign rhetoric. The central theme of both campaigns boils down to a single word: change.

Both candidates painted themselves as outsiders, appealing to those who felt that the current system is broken. Both candidates spoke to those who felt cut off from the incumbent leadership. Their messages were simple: I hear you. I will push for the change you want. This, shared interests, is the first connection leaders need to make in order to earn that essential foundation of leadership: trust.

They articulated clear and simple goals. Traditional politicians called these goals simplistic and unrealistic. But that, unfortunately, was not what many voters wanted to hear. And, in the age of the sound bite, long-winded goals get lost in translation.

Both candidates painted themselves as strong-minded leaders, unlikely to bend to the status quo, and especially unlikely to be swayed by those currently in power or having influence over those in power. This is one of the other foundations of trust – creating the belief that the leader can bring you to the desired goal.

Analysts, both of the Trump campaign and the Duterte campaign, point out that these are not campaigns that could have been ran by the normal political candidate. They were made possible because these were candidates that had built a reputation and track record of being mavericks. They have always been outspoken and unafraid. Having painted themselves as outsiders, they are unlikely to be judged by the same stringent standards used for other candidates.

This allowed them to run radically aggressive campaigns. Mudslinging, which many campaigns end up deteriorating to once the opponent becomes too popular, is extremely difficult when all the mud you have to sling has already been proudly slung – and by the person you are trying to smear.

New world

Both candidates ran atypical campaigns and both ran aggressive social media campaigns. More importantly, both Duterte and Trump were candidates cast in a radically different mold than your usual candidate.

To gain insight into national elections, it might make sense to ask what people look for. Havas, a multinational advertising and public relations company recently released the results of an online survey of 11,976 adults in 37 markets. The question was: Which would you prefer: (a) a national leader with a clear vision and the will to execute it or (b) a national leader who is collaborative and inclusive, and who makes decisions based on the will of the people? 67% - that’s two thirds! - of Filipinos chose clarity of vision and will to execute over being collaborative and inclusive. For comparison, Singaporeans also chose strong leadership (59%). By contrast, Japanese chose inclusiveness and collaboration (57%).

This little bit of information might explain why that seemingly innocuous criticism hurled against Roxas was so successful – that he was not strong-willed and did not have his own clear agenda. Until almost the very end, the Roxas campaign essentially ran on a promise of “continuation.” For many citizens, all this meant was “more of the same.” The electorate, evidenced by the combined preference for Duterte and Poe versus Roxas, was clearly for some change. It could actually be argued that Duterte won against Poe on the basis of a very simple matter: that his track record made it believable that he would actually be strong-willed enough to execute.

In the Philippines, where political will is often whispered as a lament by both public and private sectors, it should have come as no surprise that the will to execute would resonate powerfully. The question, of course, is what does it say as a country that we would prefer that our leader choose our path for us?

As for the American pollsters, we should point out there were a few polls that actually predicted a Trump win. But of the big boys, only LA Times consistently picked Trump to lead. There are many theories about why pollsters got it wrong but here’s an interesting tidbit: On November 7, Nevo.news posted a Facebook analytics map predicting a Trump win. Who were they listening to? And how?

First published 116 September 2016 by The Standard  in the column Integrations by Maria Elena “Maya” Baltazar Herrera.

You can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com.  Please like the Integrations Manila Facebook page or visit her archives atmanilastandardtoday.com/author/maya-baltazar-herrera/ or integrations.tumblr.com

[integrations]

Flight

                           How much money do you really need?

 Do you remember when you were young and people asked you what you wanted to be when you grow up? Your answers were limited only by your imagination.

As we grow older, answering questions become more complicated. The simple question of what to do over a long weekend requires consideration of multiple things. What to do? Where to go? Who to go with? How much money is required? What other things need doing?

These are not bad questions, of course, Growing older simply means we are more responsible and hence, need to take many more things into consideration.  Unfortunately, our considerations often turn into constraints and, more often than we are willing to admit, those constraints are self-imposed.

At what point did turning into an adult become about limiting our possibilities?

Envelope

Children’s answers to their plans for the future are varied for many reasons, including what they happen to have been doing immediately before you asked them the question. This explains the extremely puzzling answer of “I want to be a rabbit” that I got from one particularly cute little girl. For the very young child, the future is one of unlimited possibility. Money is not an issue because they typically have no real understanding of it. What other people will think is not yet an issue. The young child is not yet hampered by societal expectations.

Fast forward to the young adult years and the question becomes much more complicated. Added to the practical questions of job opportunity and cost of preparation are the very real concerns about family responsibilities and societal role.

When embarking on any initiative, the considerations generally fall into a few easy categories: (a) are the outcomes desirable; and (b) are the outcomes achievable?

For the very young child, answers typically revolve solely around the first question of desirability. Furthermore, desirability tends to be very simply defined. Is it something that will make the child happy? Will it make anyone the child cares about unhappy? Since the child’s circle of people he cares about is very small, this last consideration is rarely limiting.

For the adult, even the question of desirability can be completely controversial. “What will people say?” That is a question that can be both real and tragic. For many of our life choices, especially those concerning career, the opinions of other people have a great effect on whether or not we succeed. Simply think about the term “in the closet” and what that means. How much of our life choices should be determined by the other people’s expectations versus our own preferences?

Horizon

The world of the child, of course, is actually much smaller than the world of an adult. There are many things they have not tried. In fact, one of the things I have always believed is that one of the most important jobs of a parent is to help a child expand his horizon. Parents need to help children try out new things, push their boundaries, discover what’s out there.

“How will you know until you try?” That is a question I often pose when I ask anyone to try out a new food or a new experience. Often, we decide not to try out new things because we make an assumption we won’t like it or, worse, can’t do it.

The funny thing is that many adults actually limit themselves. They assume there are things they simply will not enjoy or cannot do. And they never even try. They create a smaller world for themselves.

When we are faced with trying out something new, do we ask why or do we ask why not? Yes, certainly, the great thing about always ordering the same thing whenever you eat out is that you know you will like it. But that also means you prevent yourself from discovering something you will like even better. Of course, this means taking a risk that you won’t like the new thing you’re trying. The trick, of course, is to limit the potential damage. For example, in a big group, order one experimental dish. This means everyone gets to try something new but no one goes hungry.

Choices

The question of limits becomes even more difficult when it comes to work. It is easy to argue that personal decisions must be made based on personal desires. That is difficult enough. At work, we also have to take into account the organization’s policies, and the culture and mores of the people in the organization.

While many organizations are trying their best to build in work flexibility, most companies still require a certain level of uniformity in the work environment. While companies have many tools in their arsenal to keep employees happy, they will mostly use pay, perks and benefits. The siren call of money is so strong that many individuals stay decades at a career they don’t really enjoy.

This is a topic much in my mind in recent months as I have been speaking with young people choosing between corporate careers and going off on their own. For those who are talented, the corporate world can be very tempting. It is so easy to answer the siren call of more money and more perks and to lose sight of how much of yourself and your time you are losing to your job.

While money is important and makes many things possible, there comes a time when it becomes a liability, the desire for earning more and more of it taking time away from what is truly important.

When I was young, I used to think about flying. That was the image in my mind when I thought about the future. I think this is the image I would want my children to have when they make their life choices. What is it that will make them feel light and free?

At the point when the job begins to feel more like a prison than a path, it is time to consider making a change. Two questions are important. What is it that truly makes you happy? How much money do you really need?

First published 116 September 2016 by The Standard  in the column Integrations by Maria Elena “Maya” Baltazar Herrera.

You can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com.  Please like the Integrations Manila Facebook page or visit her archives atmanilastandardtoday.com/author/maya-baltazar-herrera/ or integrations.tumblr.com

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Moving Forward

     Over time, a founder needs to learn to become not hero but light and calm.

 Most business managers know that corporate growth is rarely linear. The journey from start-up to maturity happens in fits and starts.  

Every organization goes through different stages. Each phase brings its own challenges and requires different responses and competencies from the CEO. The CEO’s ability to transition away from methods that worked in the past to approaches that better address current realities is critical to the success of the enterprise.

It is a rare organization that does not encounter a crisis or critical challenge. One of the most important challenges for CEO’s is how to manage a company in crisis.

In their article, Managing the Dark Side of Growth, M. Julia Prats and Marc Sosna, address precisely this issue.

The Dark Side

Prats and Sosna tracked over 110 CEO’s of young, innovative companies in different countries and industries for over five years. They explain that they chose young, innovative companies because these are the ones most likely to be struggling with the challenges of growth.

In the beginning sections of their article, they say: “When attempts to grow fail, and situations turn sour, an unknown face emerges. Managing these moments correctly is what makes the difference between sudden death and long-term survival.��

So what does make the difference between failure and success?  Prats and Sosna identify four key shifts in mindset: a) a shift away from fighting non-believers towards collaborating with attackers; b) a shift in role from protagonist to enabler; c) shifting the organization towards a single mental time zone; and d) creating a steady track.

Moreover, Prats and Sosna point out that certain personal competencies and characteristics are common among CEO’s who are able to achieve the shift.

Collaborating

The first shift involves the ability to work with detractors. Entrepreneurs often have to deal with naysayers.  In the beginning, it is this passionate belief in their idea, their ability to cling to their confidence and passion in the face of the disbelief of others that allows the entrepreneur to keep the dream alive. Without this singular purpose, their enterprise would never have gotten a start.

Unfortunately, this same singular purpose and denial of naysayers can be a source of failure.  The reality is that there is no one person who sees everything, knows everything and understands everything.  The ability of a CEO to listen to criticism and to find and use the truth within it is critical for company survival.

Sometimes, success can lull a manager into a space where he believes he cannot do anything wrong.  Prats and Sosna say it is important to remain “persistent and goal-oriented” but “it is vital to be open to outside input and embrace those who attack instead of hiding in a shell.”

Some CEO’s spend their time justifying themselves and past actions instead of objectively evaluating comments and criticism and making reasoned judgments that are based on reality.  When self becomes more important than organization, then the organization falls by the wayside.

This leads directly to the second shift for the CEO, going from protagonist to enabler.  In the AIM entrepreneurship program, we used to say that, in the beginning, the enterprise draws its energy from the founder.  In the beginning, the founder is hero, leader, god.  However, over time, it becomes impossible for all decisions and knowledge to come from the founder.  It is at this point when the founder must begin to learn to enable others.

To my entrepreneur students, I used to say that the enterprise begins with one person’s dream, one person’s will, one person’s dogged persistence.  Over time, however, that dream must grow big enough to let others in.  The organization must grow into one that will let many people become heroes.

The successful CEO is one who can not only harness the strengths of others, but can inspire their spirits and unleash their dreams.

Part of this changing of the CEO’s role involves his ability to let everyone see what he sees.  In the beginning, the CEO is in a future time zone.  He sees the future and leads everyone else there.  As the firm evolves, it is important for everyone to see the future, to see the path.  Transparency and communication is critical in a crisis. Knowledge is power and should be shared and not hoarded.

Steady Track

Finally, a CEO is able to put the entire organization, including himself, on steady track.  The ability to deal with crises and challenges requires an internal balance, an anchor of stability.

Part of this is creating a touchstone for a feeling of confidence.  Some of this involves shielding certain parts of the organization from too much stress.

For the CEO, creating this calm within the organization requires being able to create that calm within himself.

Over time, a founder needs to learn to become not hero but light and calm.

First published 01 December 2011 by The Standard  in the column Integrations by Maria Elena “Maya” Baltazar Herrera.

You can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com.  Please like the Integrations Manila Facebook page or visit her archives atmanilastandardtoday.com/author/maya-baltazar-herrera/ or integrations.tumblr.com

[integrations]

Position

                      Positioning is about a clear message.

 It’s official. The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Grace Poe’s right to run for the presidency. This was always one of the contingencies for those running the campaigns of the other candidates. Who does this hurt? Who does this help? The answer, of course, lies in what the preference patterns are.

Platform

Preference is affected by many things, including voter values and interests. The easy answer to managing a campaign is that the candidate whose campaign platform best fits voter preference is the one who is selected on election day. Since election is essentially a numbers game, it is essential to ensure that the candidate’s platform appeals to a large proportion of the population.

The heart of a campaign platform is essentially a combination of promises designed to convince a voter to choose one candidate over others. The campaign communication itself is then supplemented by candidate credentials.

An easy way to understand this is to think about leadership. In leadership classes, we say that the essential definition of leader is this: A leader is someone who has followers. Except for conditions of slavery, dictatorship or formal authority (and even then, you can choose to resign), the decision to follow belongs to the follower, not the leader. Why are promises important? They are important because followers will follow you only if they desire the future you plan to lead them to. Why are credentials (including track record!) important? Because while others might desire the picture of the future you paint, they will only follow you if they believe you have the ability to actually make that future real.

For the candidate, this means many things. He must make promises that are desirable to a large proportion of voters. He must also choose promises that he actually has the ability to make good on.  In addition, the good leader must choose to make promises that are actually good for the country. Sometimes, what people want is not what they need. Very often, the job of the leader is to educate citizens concerning what they should want. The other thing this means is that a candidate must somehow ensure that he has the ability to implement all of the promises that he must make because they are good for the country. This means not only educating himself. It also means developing the ability to source and leverage resources. It also means eliciting the support and commitment of individuals and organizations whose cooperation are required for implementation.

Unfortunately, it is not enough for the candidate to ensure he can actually implement his promises. Even harder is getting the voter to believe he can and will implement those promises. And, even after all of this, sometimes the voter will still choose someone else. Why? Well, perhaps the other candidate is actually better- has a better platform or has superior credentials or track record.  Sometimes, the voter simply needs better information. Other times, and often enough that it can be frustrating, it is because your candidate simply isn’t likable enough.

Choice

Choosing a new president is very much like choosing to change.

In management of change, we always say that implementing change within an organization is often about convincing enough people to actually change. Rick Maurer says that there are at least three levels of resistance to change. The first is cognitive: I don’t get it. The second is personal and/or emotional: I don’t like it. The last one, most overlooked and seemingly illogical, can be the most difficult: I don’t like you.

What Grace Poe has, which Roxas struggles with, is that last factor. Poe is immensely likable. Roxas is bland.

This is a tremendous challenge because a presidential campaign is at heart a marketing campaign. It is about convincing voters to choose. This requires that the candidate have a clear and differentiated identity – what we would refer to in marketing as a brand. This is how voters will remember the candidate. It is the short cut they will use to compare him with others. It is the statement they will use to explain their choice to others – and even more importantly, to themselves.

Binay’s campaign focuses on referencing the Makati government’s track record of providing generally desirable benefits for residents. Duterte does the same by referencing Davao’s record on law and order. There are, however, very clear arguments against each of these candidates.

In fact, for many voters, without Grace Poe, Roxas would have risen to the top simply by a process of elimination. If that is to continue to be the calculus of voting for Roxas, then his campaign managers will need to find arguments against Poe.

Poe’s voice is unclear thus far. For those desiring change, any change, her very lack of a track record is an argument in her favor. She can be the face of change, her sheer likability providing an immediate anchor.

On the other hand, those who are managing the Roxas campaign seem to believe that Roxas is nothing but a variant of the liberal brand. If you pass by the Farmer’s Market in Cubao, you will find Roxas’ face plastered on yellow posters with the ribbon and the slogan “Daang Matuwid.” Is there nothing that Roxas can claim for himself?

The Roxas campaign has a good, solid candidate but throwing his CV at the voters will not work. He needs to have a clear and succinct message. He needs to build a clear identity.

This is every marketing person’s conundrum, of course. You have a good, solid but bland product. It can do many things. How do you choose the few statements that will create a good solid identity? How will you make it memorable?

Positioning is about a clear message.

First published 11 March 2016 by The Standard  in the column Integrations by Maria Elena “Maya” Baltazar Herrera.

You can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com.  Please like the Integrations Manila Facebook page or visit her archives atmanilastandardtoday.com/author/maya-baltazar-herrera/ or integrations.tumblr.com

[integrations]

Paths

                             What is it that you really want to do?

  We were born in the same year, a scant day apart. We met before we hit our teenage years. She was the quiet one, an odd combination of intense and lyrical. She had long, black hair and opted for the uniform skirt and black patent shoes. I was the girl from Catholic school, happily opting for denim jeans and the wooden Happy Feet sandals, my nose in a book. Somehow, we became friends, the pianist and the writer, the quiet girl and the rebel.

She opted for accounting and music, and I pursued a degree in mathematics, intent on becoming an actuary. Even then, she had already laid out two paths.

Paths

Perhaps it had to do with our parents. Her parents were educators. They believed in professions, and honing skills.

My father was an entrepreneur, my mother ran enterprises out of the household. Some years, we produced cakes and cookies, some years, we produced bags. Summers, we made halo-halo (a Filipino iced dessert) to sell to the neighborhood children. As soon as I learned how to bake cookies, my father had me calculating the cost to produce and churning them out by the hundreds. Before I was out of school, I had organized a system of pre-mixing dry, wet, and fruit and nut ingredients for my mom’s annual Christmas fruitcake production.

Practicality was our number one virtue, efficiency a close second. When it came time to choose a major for college, there was, of course, some consideration of what I wanted to do. But, the decision really boiled down to two questions: Do you have the aptitude for this? Will you make money doing this?

My father quickly turned down my first few choices. They were either impractical or too common. This early, my father taught me the value of differentiation. When I suggested mathematics as a major, he pulled out the impractical argument he had pulled out when I suggested physics. This time, however, I had an answer. Math was only the first step towards a specialization – one that paid well, and one I could do well in given my natural aptitude with numbers, and one few individuals chose. I had hit the jackpot.

In corporate strategy, you would say I had found that happy intersection between my competence and a clear market need, one especially attractive because there were few players.

Choices

After graduation, I was invited to join an information technology firm. I declined. I was focused on the path I had chosen. I gravitated naturally to the life insurance industry, the natural home of the actuarial profession in the Philippines. I was fortunate to work for a medium-sized firm positioning to break into the top five in the industry, giving me front side seats – and opportunities to contribute – to a successful repositioning and gearing up.

My friend finished her double degree and spent a few days agitating about doing her music recital and taking the CPA exams in the same year. She eventually did both with flying colors and then accepted a job in an audit firm, shifting very early on into information technology.

When I joined a company that was decentralizing core operations from regional to the Philippines, I had occasion to ask her to interview for the position of IT head in our firm. We worked together for a few short months. She stayed in the firm. I pursued other interests, juggling consulting, running a business, and teaching.

In those latter years of our career, she was the focused one and I was the juggler. We kept in touch somehow, the pianist and the writer, the executive and the rebel consultant.

Changes

As the children grew, we hit the point in our lives when we didn’t need to work. We could, but we didn’t have to. She retired from her executive position and enrolled in a music therapy program. She had come full circle, back almost full time to the music she loved, preparing for a new path in a field related to the one I was in – education.

It is an enormously joyful thing to watch her talk about her new path, all the things she is doing, all the things she plans to do.  She is as busy now as she was when she was just starting out. Not surprising as she is, in a very real sense, starting out again.

This second starting out is very different, though. It is a beginning fraught with hope and no fear. It is the beginning of one who has already finished the difficult climb. It is, also, a beginning composed almost entirely of passions and preferences.

She reminds me of my friend who left a legal career to become a writer. They have taken very different approaches to their change, but they are both now doing what they really want to do. They inspire me.

Forward

The real challenge in these changes, in fact is that one matter. What is it that you really want to do?

In business, the most important guidance we give to managers lie in the corporate vision and mission. They explain what we really want to do. The how is important, of course. The formulation and implementation of strategy determine whether or not a company succeeds. Understanding the environment and continually monitoring the situation is critical – as Nokia realized too late.

Sadly, in life, many people focus on only one thing – the practicalities, the how. There is an old Chinese saying – it does not matter how fast you go up a ladder if the ladder is placed against the wrong wall.

Money is important. Professional success, fame, notoriety – they don’t necessarily have value. For the most part, they are really just means. They are a way to get other things, things that are meaningful. The real tragedy would be to wake up at the end of a successful career, only to find that nothing you have achieved is important.

So here is our question for this week, the week when we have that extra day in February to try and figure out some things. For those like me, who have already put in the time.  Now is the moment to address the one really important question. What is it that you really want to do?

   First published 04 March 2016 by The Standard  in the column Integrations by Maria Elena “Maya” Baltazar Herrera.

You can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com.  Please like the Integrations Manila Facebook page or visit her archives atmanilastandardtoday.com/author/maya-baltazar-herrera/ or integrations.tumblr.com

[integrations]

Roulez

                    Laissez les bon temps roulez

  This year, Valentine’s Day falls on the Sunday after Ash Wednesday. In the store fronts of New Orleans bakeries, the gold, green, violet of Mardi Gras are giving way to red and pink.

Mardi Gras, of course, is simply French for Fat Tuesday. On this last day before Lent, this historically Catholic city breaks out into party mode. Our tour guide explains, only semi-jokingly, that Mardi Gras is the city’s way of getting all of the sinning out of the way before Lent.

In a way, it is like a bachelor’s party before the wedding day. The real question, of course, is why there is a need for that last hurrah at all.

Laissez

As our guide readily admits, even though the day after Mardi Gras is meant to mark a more solemn time, the reality is that Mardi Gras is inevitably followed by other celebrations, including Saint Patrick’s day, Saint Joseph’s day and the Jazz festival which happens at the end of April. There is a part of New Orleans that is, quite simply, party central.

New Orleans, the birth place of Jazz, the Crescent city, the Big Easy, has a unique vibe.

Like the music it gave birth to, New Orleans can be plaintive or joyful, most predictable in its very unpredictability. The old French Quarter is a happy mish mash of old, historical landmarks. It includes the loud and colorful bars and restaurants of Bourbon street and the artsy nooks of Royal street, the entire place liberally sprinkled with artists, street performers, and Jazz musicians. Food, art and history jostle each other on every street. It is a city of beautiful architecture. Beautiful structures include the Roosevelt hotel, Hotel Monteleone and the Cathedral of Saint Louis.

The city has other faces, of course. It is a city of water. The city hugs a curve of the Mississippi River very near the Gulf of Mexico. Our guide explains that the locals don’t really go by compass points when they give directions. Instead, they will tell you to go towards the river, or towards the Lake (Lake Pontchartrain). The river, of course, was and is a major commercial artery and continues to define the city’s economy. Near the City Park, visitors can laze around Bayou Saint John, a peaceful body of water with pelicans, ducks and great big anahaw plants.   In the park itself, stately oaks laden with the silvery lace of Spanish moss guard dark waters.

The bayous and oaks reflect the other part of the city, the one probably best experienced with a walking tour in the city’s garden district. The garden district is a predominantly residential area, dominated by stately homes. Here, the slim iron posts of the galleries in the French quarter are replaced by great white columns. Walking through these streets is like stepping back in time.

The Big Easy, the city’s most common nickname, probably reflects the heart of the city. It is not, though, what some people think it is. It is not about laziness or irresponsibility. Rather, it is about letting go and letting be.

Laissez, let go. That is the first word in a sentence on the wall of the Southwest Louisiana visitor’s bureau, on the shore of Lake Charles: Laissez les bon temp roulez. A Cajun phrase meaning Let the good times roll, It is a phrase most associated with the city of New Orleans. It is the first step in change, letting go of the old in order to welcome something new.

Bon temps, bon saveur

New Orleans is the sort of place that requires a retracing of steps; there are so many places to savor, in some cases, literally. New Orleans is not just a treat for the eyes and ears, it is a city that celebrates food.

The modern city offers two unique cuisines: Creole, the flavors of the early settlers of historical New Orleans, and Cajun, the flavors of the settlements around the city. These co-exist, with the city’s version of French, Spanish, and Italian classics. I hit New Orleans with a list of dishes I had to try in the few days of our visit. So focused was I on food that I would have completely missed seeing the grand old Cathedral of Saint Louis had it not been pointed out to me. This was because I was concentrating completely on my first encounter with Café du Monde beignets, essentially a French donut.

A quick look at the city’s history explains why its food is a melting pot of many different traditions. This history, as well as the continuing variety of local cuisine, however, is best explained by its geography. Nearby states give the city access to great beef and the gulf of Mexico gives it access to seafood. Here is a place that can truly boast access to the bounty of surf and turf.

Unlike other cities, however, where there are almost too many new things being done with food, New Orleans seems to be concentrating more on deepening roots. This ability to concentrate on its own unique identity makes visiting this city a joy. It is unlike anywhere else.

Roulez

Moving forward, as opposed to just moving, is, of course, not just about letting go. It is also not strictly about good times. It is about being clear about what is important and good.

In organization development, one of the tools we use is appreciative inquiry (AI). Essentially, AI is about clearly defining what is desirable, based on what has been found to create peak moments in the past. In this way, we let past evidence guide us in discovering what is truly important. This then guides our future goals.

Moving forward and making a commitment towards a bright future. It includes letting go of unnecessary strictures. It involves clarity about what is desired. And finally it is about moving forward, with courage and with joy.

Laissez les bon temps roulez. Let the good times roll. Because the future should be about embracing joy. I am in the right place for it this week.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

First published 12 February 2016 by The Standard  in the column Integrations by Maria Elena “Maya” Baltazar Herrera.

You can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com.  Please like the Integrations Manila Facebook page or visit her archives atmanilastandardtoday.com/author/maya-baltazar-herrera/ or integrations.tumblr.com

[integrations]

CRUSH

                 Sometimes the solution is far away from the problem.

I’m on the road this week. Taking time out with family and friends who live far away. Work intervenes but, for the most part, it is time for relaxing and recharging.

Since I am on vacation, I thought it would be a great time to finally write about the topic I have always told friends I would write someday. Now, before you move forward, I warn you it will sound funny and seem trivial. But give it a chance.

After all, so many of us spend so much time with this game, we might as well get a little something out of it.

So here we go. Life lessons from all the different varieties of Candy Crush.

Focus

Focus on the goal. Each stage of candy crush has a particular goal with a particular constraint. The goal could be finding hidden objects, or clearing space, or achieving a particular objective such as popping a set amount of bottles. Methods that work for one goal do not necessarily work on other goals. Not keeping the end in mind means losing a valuable life point. While life points, like energy, replenish, they are always in short supply and take time to replenish.

One of the most common mistakes in the game is to focus too much on eliminating challenges leaving no more resources available for the actual goal. This happens in real life. We often focus on side issues and fritter away our most valuable resources: time, attention, energy.

Keep track of your resources. Each stage of the game is played with a stated constraint, and, often, a secondary objective. The method that works for a time-constrained stage is very different from the method necessary for a stage that is limited by number of moves. One requires speed and allows for errors. The other requires analysis and careful planning. This is true in life. Most of our goals must be accomplished within certain constraints and under certain conditions. We have very few projects that have unlimited budgets or time.

Don’t let yourself get distracted away from the goal. In the game, much like in life, there are two kinds of distractions. There are the sparkly, tempting distractions of being able to make special items. Unfortunately, these cool items don’t necessarily contribute to achieving the goal, much like the latest cool gadget or cutting edge software isn’t necessarily part of the most effective solution. The other distraction is the negative elements, those elements that attack and grow over time and threaten to overcome game play. In life, we often have to choose between battling criticism, loss of faith, or other negative elements. Ignoring negative elements could, of course, lead to our losing the entire project. However, any resource utilized towards containing a negative element is a resource that cannot be used to further the goal. It is important to be able to isolate the negative elements that are trivial and don’t affect the outcome of a project from those that truly threaten project success.

Method

Sometimes the solution is far away from the problem. In candy crush, one of the most common stages often boils down to clearing a particularly tough spot on the board. A common mistake is to look only at that spot of the board. While it is extremely important to not be seduced by moves that create rewards that do not further the goal, occasionally, a special tool in an area of the game away from the key area can create a truly powerful combination, powerful enough to change the entire field of play. In business, it is very important to focus on the business and not get distracted by matters that don’t help the business. However, occasionally, there are developments that change the entire industry. Just think of the internet and its effects on computing and communication. Imagine what would have happened to Microsoft had it insisted on its initial opinion that the internet was simply a fringe phenomenon, and nothing to get too excited about.

Keep track of opportunities. In candy crush, much like other games, there are special items. Each special item will do different things. Of course, the most powerful items are most difficult to gain. Being able to detect when a special item might be feasible is important because there are many stages that can only be conquered with the use of special items. Being too quick to move, not first examining other alternative moves is an easy way to lose an opportunity to create a special item. Being on the lookout for opportunities is important - in candy crush and in life.

Know your tools. While there are some special items that seem all powerful, combinations can be even more powerful. Depending on the goal, certain items and combinations are preferred. For example, a fish is often a good way to target a particularly difficult square in the game. However, in many stages, including when the goal is to find something hidden, the fish will not always go directly to the hidden object. It is important to establish early on how the fish will behave. In life, there are many occasions when we have occasion to work with conditions or individuals whose reactions are different depending on the circumstances. Homework is essential.

Some things are just bad for you. My sister says she stopped playing candy crush when it started using chocolate as the negative thing that spreads and makes game play difficult. The thing is, in real life, there are many things that are seductive and enjoyable but are actually truly bad for us. Identifying them and learning to conquer them is an important skill.

So there you go. Seven life lessons from candy crush. From my spare time to yours. Put a little sweet in your life.

First published 05 February 2016 by The Standard  in the column Integrations by Maria Elena “Maya” Baltazar Herrera.

You can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com.  Please like the Integrations Manila Facebook page or visit her archives atmanilastandardtoday.com/author/maya-baltazar-herrera/ or integrations.tumblr.com

[integrations]

Off

     We are all evolving how we are going to live in this ultra-connected world

  So this was me talking to my niece who works in the entertainment industry. What do you call it when bands play music without electricity? Acoustic? No! Acapella? No! Are you sure? Maybe electricity isn’t the word you mean? I’m sure! It begins with un. Un-something? I don’t know! I am so disappointed in you! Why? Why should I know? Is there a special word? Yes! It begins with un, like unwired but different. Oh! Unplugged!

That was the word I was looking for. Unplugged.

I was looking for the term because that is my word for this week. After multiple false starts on taking a break from a busy schedule, I gave myself the mental experiment of imagining going completely off the grid for a month, just unplugging.

Unplugged

Unplugged is not acapella. Acapella is simply singing without accompaniment. Unplugged is not the same as acoustic, even though it is played with acoustic instruments. In the world of music, unplugged means playing a song without electric instruments. More specifically, unplugged typically means playing a song originally meant to be played with fully amplified instruments in a stripped down version, using acoustic instruments.

In a 2011 piece, KBarber talks about the show MTV Unplugged. The show focused on asking the biggest names in music, usually pop or rock, to play without power in intimate settings. Barber reports the show first aired in November 1989. Wikipedia reports that the direct catalyst for MTV unplugged was a series of highly publicized “unplugged” performances in the preceding decade, coinciding with the resurgence of acoustic and folk music, and that MTV officially revived the franchise in 2009 and the show in 2010.

In music history, the performance that is credited for the inspiration for “unplugged” music (although the term was not in use at the time) is the June 1979 performance of Pete Townsend at a concert called The Secret Policeman’s Ball. This performance was remarkable precisely because Townsend sang some of his most popular songs in essentially bare bones version. This was followed by acoustic performances by Phil Collins and Sting at a follow-up concert called The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball.

In a piece for imusiciandigital.com, Brandon Miller provides tips for musicians planning an unplugged and explains how difficult it can be. There are, in fact, many reports of challenges before and during unplugged conferences, including the reported difficulty between Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain and drummer Dave Grohl before Nirvana’s now legendary unplugged set for MTV in 1993.

As simple as unplugging seems to those like me us who just listen, it is clearly much more difficult for those who have to do it. That they continue to do so means that there is a very powerful reason for doing it; also, that there is a very real audience for this alternative version of the music.

Wired

Way before smartphones became ubiquitous, one of my best friends used to say: “I’m not just wired, I’m wireless.” What it really means is that he is always available.

And that, right there, is the problem with this new world of omni-connectedness. Our phones are with us 24 hours a day. It is one of the last things we look at before we go to sleep and is one of the first things we see when we wake up. Our work day starts even before we have a chance to go to the bathroom to wash the sleep out of our eyes, and is still going even after we have dressed down for the night.

The tools that were supposed to make life easier have in fact extended the amount of work that we do. The ubiquity of the mobile phone means there is really no more separation between work hours and non-work hours. While few people will say it, the expectation of many of those we work with is that we read email even on weekends and even when we are on vacations.

To make it worse, part of this problem is us. Hoping to decrease some of the work we need to face the next time we go to office, we attempt to manage the work that comes in through email or SMS during off-hours. This just creates the expectation that we actually will work even when we are not officially at work. Essentially, many of us have lost our fully off hours. Our off hours are now on call hours – time that can be called upon.

Of course, much of this is transitioning. We are all evolving how to live in this newly connected world.

Unwired

In management, one of the things we know is that innovations require space; they require down time. Creating the new requires the setting aside of the day-to-day. This is so clear that many companies going through major change efforts clearly delineate the change task force and make sure that they are not bogged down by operational details. The unlucky few who need be involved in both are cautioned to carve out time for “change the firm�� activities, so they do not end up using all of their time on “run the firm” activities.

Musicians play unplugged because it gives them an opportunity to connect in a much more intimate way with their audience. It is a rawer, more emotional experience. That gritty, almost tactile connection is at the heart of musical performance, and provides an opportunity for renewal.  

Fans listen to unplugged performances because it is a way to focus on the essentials, just the music, no tricks, no lights, just the singer, the song, the music.

For the musicians, the unplugged performance is raw. There is no production magic to hide behind. There is no loud, thrumming beat. There is only melody, and the connection that they hope to make.

I think this is part of what I need, what many of us need. We need to be able to take a step back from our busy, ultra-connected lives. We need to give ourselves time to explore, time to just be, time to remember what is essential.

  The piece, Rock History 101: MTV Unplugged by KBarber, can be read online at consequenceofsound.net

First published 29 January 2016 by The Standard  in the column Integrations by Maria Elena “Maya” Baltazar Herrera.

You can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com.  Please like the Integrations Manila Facebook page or visit her archives atmanilastandardtoday.com/author/maya-baltazar-herrera/ or integrations.tumblr.com

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Questions

                          We need to ask the correct questions.

 It is a story many of us have heard, about the fellow who finds a young boy fishing on a Pacific island and attempts to convince him to get a formal education. We all probably already know how this story ends: “So I go to school to get a job so I can retire and fish all day?”

The reality is that any decision, any choice, addresses the question of why. Still in the news this week is one of those questions: Why was the 2000 peso hike in SSS pensions vetoed? There is, of course, the easy answer: There’s not enough money for it.

Of course, all of us know that that’s not enough of an answer. For the young boy fishing, the reality of a changing world and a vaster horizon is not considered. Vastly larger issues remain unmentioned in the easy government explanation to the pension increase veto.

Why?

The official government explanation is this: The increase would cost 56 billion pesos in the first year. This amount will increase as the number of SSS pensioners increase. They further explain that the current pensioners are about 2.15 million, a very small number compared to the 33 million active members, who, the government argues, would lose out if the system shuts down. And that, of course, is the government’s final salvo. The increase would result in shortening the fund lifetime to 11 years (ending in 2027), from the current 26 years (ending in 2042). At this point, what nobody seems to be willing to admit is that, not too long ago, the SSS actually had a fund lifetime of only about 15 years.

The facile answer of not enough money presumes that there are no ways to raise the funds for an increase. The real question is to those who proposed the increase in benefit. Clearly, it is irresponsible to propose an expense without taking into account funding.

As for funding, taking into account the fact that there are vastly fewer pensioners than active employees, one could argue that the 2000 per month for each pensioner actually translates to a cost of 130 a month for each active member. To the extent that that increase is palatable and the relative size of active members to retired members holds, then the pension increase could be deemed acceptable.

Funding

The facile answer of not enough money also sidesteps the question of what the system can afford. The truth, as the actuarial profession knows, is that most pension schemes are managed assuming that there will be future cost of living adjustments in the pension benefit.

What can the system afford? There are reports that the SSS itself reported that the system can sustain a 500 peso monthly increase. If so, why was the presidential action just a veto and not a recommendation for a downward adjustment?

The other question is this: In recommending contributions, and managing investments, what does the SSS assume concerning increases in pension benefits?  Let’s take this into account. The average SSS member retires at age 60. The system guarantees 60 months or five years of pension. In 2007, Gracie Cruz, Director of the UP Population Institute, estimated that Filipinos aged 60 expected to live another 17 to 19 years. Clearly, assuming no increase in pension benefit for over 15 years would point to a system that either had no empathy for its members or had no understanding of real life.

The reality, of course, is that, historically, the SSS pension does increase. Another really interesting question is this: what is the process for increasing pensions?

Pension benefits are long-term. Since reality dictates that there be increases in benefits, management of the fund must already build in assumed increases in benefits. Any increases beyond that originally anticipated have repercussions beyond the current year. Hence, these unanticipated increases must consider the need for an increase in contributions.

We need to stop decoupling the benefit decision from the funding decision. Managers who propose spending without taking into account how to pay for the spending are always taken to task. The same rule should apply to politicians. The same holds true for managers and policy makers who knowingly withhold benefit increases, possibly in order to hold them for opportune moments.

Responsibility

Now the tricky question. The government wishes us to worry about the SSS fund running out in 2027 if the 2000 peso increase is approved. However, the government seems completely comfortable with the current estimate of the fund running out in 2042, a 26 year lifetime. Let’s put this into perspective. For the moment, let’s assume that the average member retires at age 60, and lives an extra 18 years after age 60. If you are now 52, you will retire 8 years from now, year 2024. At that point, your life expectancy will be exactly the same as the funding lifetime of the SSS fund. What this means is that, if nothing changes, everybody below age 52 should be worrying.

So should we worry? The reality is that no government would knowingly plan for a pension system to actually run out of funds. Any actuary will explain that a system can either be fully funded, partially funded, or pay as you go. A pay as you go system means that, each year, pension payments are dependent on budget availability. That, clearly, is a very uncertain method. Full funding is the other extreme. It is, however, what most private pension systems aim for. It is also what I understand the GSIS board hopes to aim for. Partial funding is what the Philippine social security system uses. The funding lifetime, essentially, is the time that the system can use to amend contribution schedules and other non-pension benefits in order to ensure that benefits can continue to be paid.

Should the increase have been approved, disapproved or amended? This is a question that sets us up for disagreement.

What we really need to know is what the system aims to provide and what it can afford. What we could ask is what do the other systems provide? What benefits are provided to GSIS members? What benefits are provided to uniformed personnel? How are those funded? How are they adjusted?

We need to ask the correct questions.

First published 22 January 2016 by The Standard  in the column Integrations by Maria Elena “Maya” Baltazar Herrera.

You can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com.  Please like the Integrations Manila Facebook page or visit her archives at manilastandardtoday.com/author/maya-baltazar-herrera/ or integrations.tumblr.com

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Choices

Elections are won by sound bites but nation building requires real work and a long horizon.

 It is the first week of work for 2016. In corporate Philippines, this week is about picking up project overhangs from the previous year and beginning the initiatives for the new year. In more general news, the question of Grace Poe’s disqualification as presidential candidate remains up in the air and the race for the presidency seems to be a dead heat among the top four candidates. While the formal campaign season does not begin until February, the battle for positioning began much earlier.

Much like the battle for brand positioning for products, election campaigns are about positioning and identity. Because the Philippine president is determined by national vote, a good understanding of voter turn-out and concerns is important. Barring election fraud, winning an election is primarily about attracting enough voters to select you.

Choices

In business, the key purpose of marketing is to drive sales. Obviously, sales are a function of customer choice. As all marketing managers know, customer choice is essentially a function of two key factors: what customers prefer, and what the market offers. The product that best responds to customer preferences is the brand that is preferred.

The reality, however, is less simple and is complicated by many things. The first most obvious challenge is that customers rarely have the time or resources to actually understand all products that are on offer. In the area of consumer goods, this becomes even more difficult since alternatives exist for every product type. In fact, the entire discipline of market positioning stemmed from early research that showed that the average consumer generally remembers only one or two brands within each product category. This explains why every marketer aims to be first or second choice for a particular segment of the market. This is why the mantra for marketing is: (a) segmentation, essentially understanding the different categories of buyers and their preferences; (b) targeting, choosing the target market segment, and (c) positioning, developing a strategy that positions the product as first or second choice for the target market.

At the heart of the positioning exercise is brand identity, the promised features or characteristics that make the brand the preferred choice for the target market. Successful brands create an identity that is distinctive, valuable, and credible.

Strong branding creates a predisposition for brand selection.  This question of identity or core promise is the challenge for each of the presidential candidates.

The second challenge in driving choice in consumer markets is availability. It is pointless to create preference if the product is not available for sale. This, of course, is Grace Poe’s key challenge today. If she is disqualified, voter preference for her will be meaningless for her, and will benefit the candidate most comparable to her. 

The third and final challenge for commercial brands ties to brand credibility and goes to delivery of the product promise. For the candidates in the Philippine elections, this goes to track record. Of course, both in the area of commercial products as well as elections, we occasionally must make a choice with little information – either because the information is unavailable or hard to come by, or we are too lazy to find that information.

The Candidates

There are five key candidates for the Philippine presidency: Binay, Duterte, Poe, Roxas, and Santiago.

Of the five, two point to a track record of accomplishments in executive positions in local government – Binay and Duterte. Those who support these candidates point to results. Those who oppose them allege less than desirable methods – corruption allegations in the case of Binay, and allegations of human rights violations in the case of Duterte.

Two of the candidates point to a track record in both legislation and national administration – Roxas and Santiago. These two, however, are radically different. Santiago is fiery and Roxas is stodgy. Santiago promises change and Roxas promises continuity. Santiago fares well in campus polls but is a far fifth in nationwide polls – reflecting the reality that the presidential campaigns require a much wider reach.

There are those who oppose Roxas because they believe he is slow or indecisive, or simply because they have been disappointed by the current administration and his promise of more of the same is anathema to them. But there are also those who simply do not prefer him because to them, he is the personification of all that is wrong in Philippine politics – the leader who is born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and has not tried nor ever will understand the plight of the man in the street. Many political pundits say that the challenge of the Roxas campaign is simply that their candidate lacks charisma.

Poe is the candidate with the weakest track record. Her supporters include those who support her because they loved her father, and those who are looking for change – any change. Poe’s great advantage is precisely what Roxas lacks – an easy like-ability.

The Challenge

For Filipino citizens, there are at least two challenges. The first challenge is who to vote for. That is clearly a matter of developing a better understanding of what kind of leader the country needs, carefully analyzing the candidates, and making a reasoned choice. The second challenge is less obvious, but perhaps more important. What should we do to ensure that as many voters as possible get the information required in order to make a reasoned choice?

Many political analysts have said this and it is true. Elections tend to be decided on the basis of sound bites. During the 1998 US presidential elections, Michael Dukakis pointed out that, “If you couldn’t say it in less than 10 seconds, it wasn’t heard because it wasn’t aired.” As every marketer will tell you, even if it is aired, it won’t necessarily be remembered. The business of positioning and branding is ultimately about creating something unique, attractive and memorable.  

The ultimate challenge of politics and election choices is that the wrong choice means six years of pain. The candidate who delivers the best sound bite is not necessarily the candidate who can best lead. Leading a nation is about discipline and competence and the ability to understand and manage complex matters over a long horizon.

Elections are won by sound bites but nation building requires real work and a long horizon. It requires competence, character, dedication and discipline. Determining this on the basis of just sound bites, that is the real challenge

First published 08 January 2016 by The Standard  in the column Integrations by Maria Elena “Maya” Baltazar Herrera.

You can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com.  Please like the Integrations Manila Facebook page or visit her archives atmanilastandardtoday.com/author/maya-baltazar-herrera/ or integrations.tumblr.com

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Zukunft 2016

         sideways, shaky, faster, brighter and increasingly connected

 It’s the first day of the year, a time for planning and anticipating. What can we expect from 2016?

Sideways, and shaky

There is little bright news on the economic front.

In the October update their World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) generally downgraded their growth forecasts from their July update. Projected growth for 2015 is 3.1%, slightly lower than the 3.4% of 2014, but growth for 2016 is expected to go back up to 3.6%. Advanced economies are expected to grow 2.2% in 2016, and emerging markets and developing economies by 4.5%.

The IMF points to a slowdown in China, continued weakness in commodity prices, geopolitical tensions and domestic strife as worrisome factors and was careful to point out that the projected improvement from 2015 to 2016 is not reflective of an expected general recovery but rather “a less deep recession and “a partial normalization of conditions” in distressed economies. The IMF also expects continued financial volatility.

In September of 2015, Willem Butler, chief global economist of Citigroup, predicted a moderate global recession with a 55% probability. Butler’s scenario would have global growth at 2.5% or less beginning second half of 2016 and remaining at these levels for at least a year. Like many analysts, Butler points to the slowdown in China as a key driver for this potential global slowdown.

Just two days before Christmas 2015, Stan Choe of The Associated Press had this to say about investing in 2016: Expect less and buy antacid. His summary of the consensus among analysts and mutual fund managers? Lower returns. Higher volatility. Choe quotes investment bank Barclays’ title for its 2016 outlook: Curb your expectations. This echoes the August 2015 declaration from Goldman Sachs on the future of US stocks in 2015: “Flat is the new up.” Goldman’s 2016 outlook predicts more of the same. Goldman favors strong balance sheets, high domestic sales and companies with the ability to boost margins.

A Reuters poll in mid-December of 2015 showed that optimism among market strategists had faded. The years-long global stock rally which has been fueled by low interest rates and stimulus money by some of the world’s largest central banks, is seen to be losing steam. Key European indices are expected to inch up 10% by mid-2016, still below peaks reached in April 2015. If this still leaves you feeling hopeful, Reuters is quick to point out that strategists as a group generally overestimated market gains for 2015.

The website tradingeconomics.com similarly forecasts an essentially flat year for the Philippine stock index in 2016, with a predicted Q4 2015 PSE level of 6850 and Q3 2016 level of 6650.

Consumer Trends

In the arena of consumer trends, Mary Meehan, Forbes contributor, pinpoints, among others, increasing expectations for consumer control, the movement of social media towards communities, and increased expectations for applications of artificial intelligence.    

Trendwatching.com highlights five consumer trends based on 16 underlying megatrends. The five trends include three that involve consumer interactions: interactive campaigns that require customers to exert effort to show that they are part of a chosen few; a nuanced use of omnipresence in order to be present to the right customer at the right place and at the right time, and new ways of communicating value.

In the area of managing omnipresence, trendwatching points out a new app called Attention, which can use your mobile phone activities to pinpoint boredom with 85% accuracy. Once boredom is detected, the app from Barcelona’s Telefonica recommends content from Buzzfeed. Trendwatching also extolls the collaboration between Antwerp’s Hotel Banks and French fashion brand Pimkie, providing a mini fashion bar in hotel rooms. The clothes are tailored to the activities and weather in the area and the hotel provides a dedicated fashion concierge.

Trendwatching’s two other featured trends are the relevance of corporate culture to brand building, and the increasing importance of artificial intelligence in improving the customer experience. Cognitoys, powered by IBM Watson, a learning system made famous by its win on the US game show Jeopardy powers, promises a toy that will evolve with its child owner. For the adults, email plug in Paribus will automatically scan email purchase receipts and email the retailer when it detects that a price match claim can be made. Paribus takes a 25% commission and the buyer receives a refund he would likely otherwise not have even know he qualified for.

Social and lifestyle trends, increased concern for social responsibility and technological breakthroughs seem to be the key factors driving consumer trends.

Consumer Tech

In the world of consumer tech, Dave Johnson shares his forecasts for 2016 on CBS Moneywatch. He names 2015 as the year of peak phone screen size and points to battery life and charging as the next area of improvement in smart phones. Qualcomm’s quick charge already offers 30 minute charging while Storedot announced plans to have a slim battery offering a full charge in 30 seconds before the end of 2016.

Johnson also predicts that virtual reality (VR) will go mainstream when the gold standard in VR, Oculus Rift finally hits the market in the first quarter of 2016. Other choices will include HTC Vive (a gaming headset), Samsung Gear VR and Microsoft’s Hololens. He predicts laptops and desktops will be increasingly marginalized, smartwatches will continue to flounder, passwords will become obsolete, and mobile payment will proliferate.

In fact, UK-based market research firm Juniper Research also believes 2016 will be the year for VR and predicts that see on watching a flat TV screen will feel like typing on a type writer. Juniper Research also sees increased use of wearable Tach on the job, but they pinpoint smart glasses, which reportedly helped DHL increase productivity by 25%, as the type of wearable tech most likely to be adopted for business use.

In other news, be prepared to move from wi-fi to li-fi. Two startups, Velmenni and Bytelight are actually already working on transmitting data via LED light.

Forward

So there we are, sideways, shaky, faster, brighter and increasingly connected. Those are the themes for 2016. As science forges onward, uncertainty, inequity, conflict, and increasingly more devastating natural disasters continue to pose challenges.

Frohes Neujahr!

 Zukunft is the German word for future. It is a concatenation of the root words “zu” meaning “to” and “kunft” which comes from the German word “Kommen” meaning “to come”. Hence it literally means what is still to come.

First published 01 January 2016 by The Standard  in the column Integrations by Maria Elena “Maya” Baltazar Herrera.

You can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com.  Please like the Integrations Manila Facebook page or visit her archives at manilastandardtoday.com/author/maya-baltazar-herrera/ or integrations.tumblr.com