Business & Economics Perspective Blogger

Perdana Leadership Foundation Last time, I wrote a post on whether Filipinos should listen to (a) Atty. Hilario G. Davide Jr., or (b) former Malaysian prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad . Both of them know the law, but we can still tell who made a significant difference to the nation. I thought about what Mahathir said, that education is a lifelong process . One can graduate with honors but fail in real life when one stops learning (read here ). It's a far cry from Davide's stubborn attitude, where he refuses to even amend the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines, to fit with the times! Mahathir's quote on entrepreneurship explores why some long-time successful businesses either fail in the present or continue to succeed. Nokia could've still remained relevant in the mobile phone market if it had taken such advice to heart . Nokia's lack of vision caused the crash and loss of dominance after decades of success. For businesses, the need to evolve is always there (read ...

Inspirational Quotes Back when I was in high school, I often felt I "never lived up" to the "legacy" of my family. It's an often bad habit by boomers to put their children under their shadow, brag about how "great" they are, and even talk and talk about the "good old days". Newsflash! An old man had something that would offend boomers. This old man is former Malaysian Prime Minister  Mahathir Mohamad . To avoid the Duterte vs. Aquino dichotomy--I often put the late Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" C. Aquino III under scrutiny. More likely, put the presidential system under scrutiny! I'll admit Noynoy had his ups, but he too had his downs.  Now, for Mahathir's words that reflect on how surprisingly updated this old man is, compared to stubborn boomers: He said education today was not only about learning history or literature, but more about learning new sciences that are revolutionising the world. “ Even business is now affected by n...

As a Filipino, I've observed the Filipino diet tends to lean on a sweet tooth. What causes this probable genetic disposition of the Filipino to crave sweets? That trait might be traced to one's ancestors. Newsweek also mentions it might be with the DNA . The Malaysians and the Filipinos have close genetics. The Britannica also cites this about Filipinos: The ethnically diverse people of the Philippines collectively are called Filipinos.  The ancestors of the vast majority of the population were of Malay descent and came from the Southeast Asian mainland as well as from what is now Indonesia . Contemporary Filipino society consists of nearly 100 culturally and linguistically distinct ethnic groups. Of these, the largest are the Tagalog of Luzon and the Cebuano of the Visayan Islands, each of which constitutes about one-fifth of the country’s total population. Other prominent groups include the Ilocano of northern Luzon and the Hiligaynon (Ilongo) of the Visayan islands of Panay...

Tealive Asia, the man in the picture is CEO and actor Fikry Ibrahim, hoping to see him in the Bangsamoro Region soon I did write a few articles about Tealive. These were about my experience at Ayala Central Bloc , how I'm currently fascinated with Tealive's palm sugar series  and the origins of Tealive in Malaysia . The current CEO is Fikry Ibrahim of Malaysia (above). Ibrahim was made Chief Expresso Officer (CEO) of Tealive . I felt that I needed to write this article because I found what might be a new business opportunity for developing Mindanao. I researched palm sugar and ended up writing about the Masarang Foundation in Indonesia . I advocated for ease concerning equity restrictions where certain industries only allow FDIs to own less than 50% (such as the 60-40 arrangement) to allow them to invest without having to look for a Filipino partner. I'm still against the sales of land to foreigners like a mall owner doesn't sell their spaces to tenants. With Masarang a...

KL Foodie I remembered having a meal at Tealive Ayala Central Bloc (read here ). What I never thought of was that Bryan Loo, the founder of Tealive and CEO of Loob Holdings, was once the CEO of Chatime Malaysia. I read through Compare Hero's article on Chatime vs. Tealive  (the article was updated last November 2021). From the ashes of a terminated contract came forth a rival for Chatime.  The Bubble Tea Disagreement The original disagreement between Chatime and Tealive started back in January when La Kaffa, the Taiwanese owner of the Chatime brand, announced they had terminated the master franchise agreement with Bryan Loo and his company Loob Holding even though the agreement still had more than 20 years to go. The reason for the termination was that Loob Holding was allegedly using raw materials that were not part of the prescribed recipe to produce its tea. During the initial press release, La Kaffa International also declared that all Chatime outlets would now fall under ...