closed until further notice...

drive...

the west wing was one of my favorite tv shows. paraphrasing toby zeigler, who was talking about what it takes to be president, "we are not handed anything. we have to rise and grab the opportunities. it takes a little more drive, a little more hubris, a little more self confidence and an inkling that the gods has conspired in our favor for us to get to that. "

and thats what makes the president lead all the other men.

Classes II

today at class, i found myself sitting silently while my groupmates were animatedly discussing the merits of our "essentials of effective management" case study. granted that i do think that "management" is something that is soft and that anyone of us could wing his way by, i was in a situation where the group case studies where what has to be done.

and i did not rise to the occasion. personal realization: i am an introvert.

======================

the ease of the preparatory classes was very misleading. the classes were way intense. for example, in our economics classes, there were a couple with MS in economics and i suspect, there was a PhD also. and of course, as is always pointed out, economics in University of Chicago is something else - what with 9 of the last 11 nobel prize winners (or something like that) coming from the school.

as one of my classmates drunkenly said after a couple of beers, "i am not as smart as you guys here". and i replied, "yes, that is exactly how i feel".

Outsourcing Fair - Manila

Went to the outsourcing fair in last Thursday and Friday. Wow! I never imagined myself to be excited by something like a fair but this was something..

There was a palpable buzz in the area, of energy and of promise.

Among the speakers were the founder of GoogleTalk, the head of McKinsey Phils and an Indian CEO of an outsourcing firm.

Our company being a vendor of outsourcing services, we were on the lookout for outsourcing customers. Several companies and institutions were there offering services in matching vendors like ourselves to customers in mostly US/Japan/UK/Netherlands.

Among the claims that kept being pronounced by different speakers was the statistics that several independent studies/surveys showed that Philippines was ahead of India/China/EasternEurope in terms of cost and quality of service. And that several firms (Skype, Dell, IBM, etc.) relocated their outsourcing headquarters from India to the Philippines.

Very inspiring.

imbitado kayong lahat

Its quite official already.

My gf and I are getting hitched on December 30, 2006.

my christmas and new year

I just spent the most of my 6 week holiday in the UK doing nothing. Spent some time just wandering around in Edinburgh, it was a pretty city. Spent most of my walking around in Leeds. I went to the library for internet access (max of 2 hours daily). I went to Borders regulary to read, and I finished some books but did not buy any (thirld world thinking, i guess). Had walks in the several parks, armed with bread/nuts to feed the ducks, the pigeons and in Hyde Park, a friendly pack of squirells. Watched a pantomime show expecting no-words-just-action only to find that for the English, pantomime more or less refers to a kids show. I watched football games as it seems it was the only subject of their sports pages and sport shows, and I think I was able to like it and became a fan :). Their farmers market were cool and had all sorts of fresh goodies for about the price of a decent newspaper - I learned to properly roast pork and fowl and was also able to make the accompanying wine/apple sauce from scratch.

One result of this is the nagging thought that I might be slacking, what with doing nothing for about two months. Friends were working, raising families and doing important things while I was there, well, doing nothing. My consolation is the thought that 'going slow' can sometimes be healthy; to take stock of things before proceeding anew.

Outsource World New York

from The Philippine Star:

American companies looking for outsourcing partners in OutsourceWorld New York cited the Philippines’ strong affinity with the Western culture as the country’s distinct advantage in business process outsourcing.

"The Philippines‚ unique selling proposition is it is the closest to American in Asia. Americans in general find the Filipinos easy to work with compared to other countries in Asia," according to American outsourcing expert Richard Mills, chairman of Chaire Associates Executive Search.

As a previous US colony, much of the Philippines’ social, political, and educational system was patterned after the US. American English was taught to young Filipino students and even the basic form of government was patterned after the American model.

The Philippines’ track record and roster of major international companies with operations in the country likewise left a positive impression to American firms participating in OutsourceWorld New York.

According to Senior Trade Undersecretary Thomas G. Aquino, head of delegation of the US trade mission, "many American companies were surprised to know that a number of Fortune 500 companies are already using the Philippines as outsourcing destination of their non-core functions such as financial and accounting services, human resources, logistics, content management and publisher services."

Some of the well-known American brands with outsourcing projects in the Philippines are American Express, FedEx, Intel, Microsoft, Dell, Kodak, General Motors, MCI, Procter & Gamble, and Verizon among others.

Firms outsource in the Philippines because of the English language capability and competitive IT skills of its people, government support to IT services, and reliable telecom infrastructure.

As more and more US firms focus on core competencies, opportunities abound for niche back office services.

"We saw opportunities in outsourcing application support and maintenance, technical support, business analysis, accounting, HR, insurance processing, bank processing, medical transcription, legal services, animation and other non-core back office processes," added Aquino.

Programa Technologias Informacion of the Fundacion Chile said that the solid English speaking contact center industry presents partnership opportunities with Chile for the Spanish-speaking requirements of Philippine US clients.

The Philippines was represented by 17 BPO companies in OutsourceWorld New York, namely ADEC Solutions, Inc., Advanced Contact Solutions, Inc., Ambergris Solutions, Inc., Berthaphil Business Park, Business Process Outsourcing International, Inc. (BPOi), Comfac Global Group, Diversified Technology Solutions International, Inc. (DTSI), Eximius BPO Services Inc., Exist Software, Pointwest Technologies Corporation, Quisumbing Torres, SENCOR, Teledata Philippines, Inc., Transprocure Corporation and Virtual Assistants. Telco giants Innove Communications and the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) are supporting the project as sponsors.