:: MIS Insights ::

I think that’s all I need right now.
A moment of silence.

Serve in Silence.

I had no idea that being an MIS panelist could be so fun. A lot of things change once you’re on the other side of the fence.

Dynamic. Unlike rehearsed speeches that we prepared a year or so ago, being a panelist is more free-flowing than water falling from the Pagsanjan Falls. You get to think more - anticipating the unknown and reacting to whatever the presenting group has said or written down in their report.

Creative. Since it is a project defense, panelists are ordered to attack. However, it’s not about attacks that will cripple the group and send them crying on the way out, its about attacks that will make the group and the project better in the long run. For example, Jonathan had me ask a question to the presenting groups that he got from Sir Gan and Sir Olpoc:

Who are you going to remove from your group [of five], so that the remaining four can still finish the project?

It might not mean much to you right now, but you can just imagine how red the people turned when they were asked the question during the presentation.

One of the presentors told me, “Sir, that’s such a mean question.”

Hehe. I am asking this not to point out the weakest link nor to incite insurrection, but because I want to know how else the group can improve in terms of the internal relationships. It’s not about what’s bad, it’s about what else can be improved.

Learning. I also learned a lot from the experience. My fellow panelists, hailing from different industries, gave business-relevant questions that outlined the fundamentals of project management. For most projects, most concerns are about making sure that the project meets its objectives while working within its constraints (time, quality or cost).

If ever another paneling opportunity comes up in the future, I’ll do anything to be in one again.

I like corn flakes. Do you like corn flakes? I like corn flakes. Corn flakes in the morning, lunchtime, merienda, dinner and even for midnight snacks. It’s something I can keep eating for ten days straight without having internal hemorrhage!

Keep reading to learn more on How to Prepare Pipboy’s Chocolate Cornflake Combo

(Read on …)

The opportunity cost of physically being in one place is the most expensive of them all. An article from BusinessWeek writes:

When you’re out talking to customers and giving speeches, you’re not in meetings talking about nasty little problems

This is the motivation that got me ping-pong-ed back-and-forth from Tandang Sora to Makati twice yesterday. As I mentioned yesterday, my friends and I are on the process of wrapping up on our SEC incorporation - which mainly involved autographs and notaries from the incorporators.

0800 [makati-philair]: Got Ryan to sign his part in the articles of incorporation
1000 [cubao-horseshoe]: Got Franz and his sister, Nikki, to sign their parts of the articles of incorporation
1030 [cubao-horseshoe]: Notarized the forms
1200 [cubao-horseshoe]: Had a diet-wrecking lunch
1330 [t. sora-commonwealth]: Arrived at my MetroBank branch to create corporation’s bank account
1345 [t. sora-commonwealth]: Found out that MetroBank had its prescribed treasurer’s affidavit. It required notarization and signatures from all the incorporators. They said that the generic affidavit generated by SEC’s online registration was incomaptible and therefore, cannot be used.
1350 [t. sora-commonwealth]: Left MetroBank without a bank account after asking why do other branches don’t need such prescribed treasurer’s affidavit and why this wasn’t SAID when I inquired about the requirements two weeks ago from the SAME branch
1400 [t. sora-evelina]: Brainstormed on possible schedule for the next 24 hours of my life.

The original plan was for Franz to have the new document autographed by the signatories living in Makati early next morning. However, that would prevent us from meeting with one of our clients. Therefore we improvised.

1430 [t. sora-evelina]: Coordinated with the schedules of the signatories based in Makati
1500 [t. sora-evelina]: Went to Makati
1600 [makati-pililia]: Picked up Leo
1630 [makati-philair]: Met Ryan
1700 [makati-philair]: Acquired autographs of all subjects from Makati
1800 [manila-binondo]: Wai-Ying. Unlimited dimsum and one rice meal each for four hungry people for a total bil of P765.
1930 [manila-binondo]: Business meeting and one Hot Chocolate Grande at iStarBaksss
2145 [makati-pililia]: Dropped off Leo
2235 [cubao-horseshoe]: Dropped off Franz
2345 [t. sora-evelina]: Dropped myself to bed

While I will do everything to get our company up and running, I will not allow it to get in the way of previous commitments. Doing so would be very detrimental to my reputation, professional code of conduct and of course, conscience.

This is part of a series on the 10 D skills an Entrepreneur should have. I got this from an entrepreneurship book back when I was in college. Yes, college was a long time ago for me - something like twelve months ago. I’ve found it very useful so I’d like to share it with the world.

Dreams

Entrepreneurs have a vision of what the future could be like for them and their businesses. And, more importantly, they have the ability to implement their dreams.

Formulas
When I was in High School, I had a pretty good formula on how to achieve what I wanted in life:

However, sometime during College, my parents asked me, “What do you want to do after college?” This question got me into thinking. A lot of things have already happened to the Philippines since I last devised my formula.

For instance, cut-throat capitalism and the consumerist orientation of society have become more pronounced in our economic society. Just think of how much effort the big Telcos in the country are expending just to get to that one peso in your pocket. Or the offering of high-speed yet sometimes erratic broadband internet connections. Such high-paced quality of life has brought about increased costs of living and job tenure insecurity which no longer fits my trusty formula.

Fragments
That’s when I started to dream about what could lie for me in the future. That’s when I started to see the countless opportunities out there waiting to be taken advantage of. That’s when I saw the potential of the SME market in the Philippines. However, before realizing such opportunities, I first needed a company that would house such business ventures for me. While having a company is not necessary to keep projects from coming in, it is a required first step if we want to start taking in seven-figure projects. This is the first fragment of my dream to be realized.

Ladies and gentlemen, the fun starts within ten days, after our registration with SEC, big projects queued and all.

It’s only Tuesday and my working schedule (6 A.M. to 7 P.M.) is already filled until Saturday! What a load!

However, no amount of work will ever be enough (or well-paying enough) to keep me from indulging myself on the things that I like. For instance, since the arrival of my camera (a Nikon D70 from my father) almost two weeks ago, it’s only now that I’ve really begun playing with it.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Cyclops. While I might not know much about her or photography in general, I’ll do my best to get informed on such topics over time. The D70 manual and three issues of Popular Photography has gotten me to a good start with photography jargon and technical know-how out there.

That aside, let me share with the world the one picture that I liked from the first hundred shots that I took (click image to enlarge):

From one of my photography teachers:

nix: You worked with diagonal lines.
nix: very good.
nix: and the lighting.
rj: harigato
rj: i like diagonals
nix: kaso masiyadong maraming gamit. nag-aagawan sila ng focal point

Alas! There is much to learn for a n00b like me. To motivate myself to learn more about this unknown realm, I’m developing an online gallery that will showcase the sight-seeing adventures of Cyclops. Hopefully, a soft-launch of the gallery will be in order before October ends.

Until then, Smile!

After two long weeks without a phone line at home, I am now back in business!

HP - went in for a third interview today. I don’t know what will happen next, but I hope it turns out well. After hearing about the working perks from Punzki, I was more than eager and excited to learn and get it on with whatever task they might have in store for me.

Geodetic Engineers of the Philippines - I got my Notice to Proceed yesterday for a portal that I was proposing for their organization. This is a very exciting project - involving collaboration with top engineering heads all over the country, integration of countless information sources and deployment of online services that I haven’t done before. Yahoo!!!!

Chemical Inventory System - progress is proceeding as expected. The System Development Life Cycle taught in college works wonderful magic for our deadlines and deliverables! I recommend it as a must-know to anyone wanting to do System Development.

TF - after six weeks of preparing the prerequisite documents for incorporation, it seems that the last few articles will be completed by early next week. Hopefully, we’ll get to formally incorporate by the end of next week and start rolling out our services by the end of the year.

D70 - my father gave me his digital camera. Something to allow me to express my creative side. Harigato!

Mueslix - my mother came back from Hong Kong to check up on us a week or two ago. She introduced me to Mueslix and flavored oats - alternatives to my Oatmeal+Milo diet. Harigato!

Nihongo - I’m currently learning Japanese through self-study and occassional conversations with a friend of mine. I bought several books on the language earlier this year and they’re proving to be very helpful. By learning how to speak, read and write Japanese, I hope to increase my productivity by ten-fold. No longer will I have to read subtitles while programming late at night.

Dungeon Siege 2 - In between bouts of anime marathons, I kept myself busy with this hack-and-slash role-playing game. A breed between Diablo’s hack and slash and NeverWinter Night’s quest system, this game has succeeded in killing my time where other recent games have failed.

Gym - After getting sidelined for two weeks because of improper stretching, I am now back at Moro, pumping iron and burning excess baggage.

Now, without much further ado, I still have a date with BusinessWeek, Fortune, Slashdot and CNN.

Google recently acquired YouTube for 1.65 billion US Dollars! What an effect 12 days without internet (and counting) can do to a person! Usually, I’d hear about such things from Slashdot, BusinessWeek, CNN, etc at the early rumor stages of such deals. However, when I watched CNN today, the ticker said that it’s already a done deal!

While the $10 increase in Google stock has gotten investors happy, this deal has sparked a lot of nay-sayers from the online community. In summary, there’s the camp telling Google now becoming more vulnerable to copyright infringement lawsuits and there’s the YouTube camp saying that it will lose its audience because of moderated content.

However, I don’t think Google got into this expensive deal only to get their company Toilet-Papered by opportunistic lawyers out there. Nor do I think will YouTube have drastic changes with its user exeperience.

If I guess right, Google will only use YouTube to gather more internet usage behavior and to increase the exposure of people to their services. The more that people are exposed to their services, the more chances of profitable advertising. Just like what they did with News Searching a few weeks ago.

it’s been 11 days and PLDT still hasn’t fixed the telephone post outside our house.

we’ve been calling them every day and they keep saying that they’ll fix it the next day.

it’s been 11 days.

i hate monopolies.

no.

hate would be an understatement.

“detest, abhor, pissed at”

i think those are better terms.