![\"\"](\"http://www.bworldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/hl-VERTICAL-PJ3.jpg\")
Follow us on Spotify 大象传媒 B-Side
\nMoney Talks is a series on personal finance sponsored by Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank).\u00a0
\nMoney is on the mind of many people, particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent study titled \u201cState of Banking and Financial Wellness\u201d by US-headquartered research firm Forrester, commissioned by fintech company Backbase, found that more than half (58%) of Filipinos identified building savings (58%) and planning for retirement (52%) among their concerns in personal finance. Debt is a top concern, with 70% of Filipinos citing it as a challenge in financial management.
\nIn this B-Side episode, Chorie Chan, first vice-president and head of the Financial Markets – Investment Distribution Division for Countryside at Metrobank, talks money with 大象传媒, and how the pandemic has changed how we view and think about it.
\nTAKEAWAYS\u00a0
\nWhat has changed, and what hasn\u2019t
\n\u201cI have been in banking for over 27 years now and what the pandemic taught me is this: the basic tenets of saving, budgeting and investing are still there. Am I saving enough? Am I spending too much? How should I budget my finances?\u201d Ms. Chan said.
\n\u201cNo matter how you think about it, no matter if you compute for unforeseen expenses, if you still have an extra amount that you couldn\u2019t possibly need, then we talk about investing. That\u2019s still a universal truth that has not changed over the years, pandemic or not. A universal truth that has probably evolved over the years and more so in the pandemic, would be the need to have better returns, and the need for diversity in what you can possibly invest in.\u201d \u00a0
\nWe must be able to assess our own financial wellness
\nPeople need to reassess how they view money in an environment of uncertainty.
\n\u201cBefore we seemed to have that confidence in stability. Stability of where we are if we have businesses, if we are employed. We kind of were able to project that \u2018I\u2019m still going to have this income stream in the next couple of years.\u2019 But lo and behold, the pandemic happened, and none of us are as certain as before that this could persist in the years or months to come,\u201d Ms. Chan said.
\n\u201cThis has become too pressing for all of us that we might want to consider expanding or deepening that amount of savings that we might need anytime soon to beyond the six-month requirement for expenses.\u201d
\nSaving is not investing
\n\u201cI don\u2019t equate saving with investing. A lot of us get confused that when we have extra from our inflows minus the outflow, we automatically consider that as an investable fund,\u201d Ms. Chan said.
\n\u201cLiquidity. The ability for anyone to convert savings into cash. Liquidity means that you are able to access your money in whatever form it is in and be able to use it for an unforeseen expense. So if there is any doubt in your mind that if say, a family member would need help or your car need maintenance in a few months, then there is an amount that you should always keep liquid, so you can spend for that unforeseen need.\u201d
\nExplore various ways to manage portfolio
\nAt the end of the day, what you need to do about saving and investing will have to depend on what you need and what you hope to accomplish. \u201cThere\u2019s a whole wide world of ways… to discuss how and why and in what manner you can construct your portfolio. At the end of it all, it will have to be about your investment objectives, your tolerance for risk, and your requirement for liquidity,\u201d Ms. Chan said.
\n\u201cThe critical point that an investor has to be mindful about is the access to these financial investments, securities, or assets is so free that you can actually approach any financial institution that you\u2019re comfortable dealing with and be led to talk to specialists within that institution. Ask them, feel free to explore, talk to people who are in touch with financial markets so they can sit down with you. Advice is free, I\u2019m sure. And they can profile your suitability and your preferences and match these with your needs and objectives.\u201d \u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0
\nRecorded remotely Nov. 4. Interview by Santiago J. Arnaiz,\u00a0大象传媒 contributor and chief operating officer of health startup Day3 Innovations. Research by Bjorn Biel \u201cJB\u201d M. Beltran. Produced by Paolo L. Lopez\u00a0and Sam L. Marcelo.
\nFollow us on Spotify 大象传媒 B-Side
\n", "content_text": "Follow us on Spotify 大象传媒 B-Side\nMoney Talks is a series on personal finance sponsored by Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank).\u00a0\nMoney is on the mind of many people, particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent study titled \u201cState of Banking and Financial Wellness\u201d by US-headquartered research firm Forrester, commissioned by fintech company Backbase, found that more than half (58%) of Filipinos identified building savings (58%) and planning for retirement (52%) among their concerns in personal finance. Debt is a top concern, with 70% of Filipinos citing it as a challenge in financial management.\nIn this B-Side episode, Chorie Chan, first vice-president and head of the Financial Markets – Investment Distribution Division for Countryside at Metrobank, talks money with 大象传媒, and how the pandemic has changed how we view and think about it.\nTAKEAWAYS\u00a0\nWhat has changed, and what hasn\u2019t\n\u201cI have been in banking for over 27 years now and what the pandemic taught me is this: the basic tenets of saving, budgeting and investing are still there. Am I saving enough? Am I spending too much? How should I budget my finances?\u201d Ms. Chan said.\n\u201cNo matter how you think about it, no matter if you compute for unforeseen expenses, if you still have an extra amount that you couldn\u2019t possibly need, then we talk about investing. That\u2019s still a universal truth that has not changed over the years, pandemic or not. A universal truth that has probably evolved over the years and more so in the pandemic, would be the need to have better returns, and the need for diversity in what you can possibly invest in.\u201d \u00a0\nWe must be able to assess our own financial wellness\nPeople need to reassess how they view money in an environment of uncertainty.\n\u201cBefore we seemed to have that confidence in stability. Stability of where we are if we have businesses, if we are employed. We kind of were able to project that \u2018I\u2019m still going to have this income stream in the next couple of years.\u2019 But lo and behold, the pandemic happened, and none of us are as certain as before that this could persist in the years or months to come,\u201d Ms. Chan said.\n\u201cThis has become too pressing for all of us that we might want to consider expanding or deepening that amount of savings that we might need anytime soon to beyond the six-month requirement for expenses.\u201d\nSaving is not investing\n\u201cI don\u2019t equate saving with investing. A lot of us get confused that when we have extra from our inflows minus the outflow, we automatically consider that as an investable fund,\u201d Ms. Chan said.\n\u201cLiquidity. The ability for anyone to convert savings into cash. Liquidity means that you are able to access your money in whatever form it is in and be able to use it for an unforeseen expense. So if there is any doubt in your mind that if say, a family member would need help or your car need maintenance in a few months, then there is an amount that you should always keep liquid, so you can spend for that unforeseen need.\u201d\nExplore various ways to manage portfolio\nAt the end of the day, what you need to do about saving and investing will have to depend on what you need and what you hope to accomplish. \u201cThere\u2019s a whole wide world of ways… to discuss how and why and in what manner you can construct your portfolio. At the end of it all, it will have to be about your investment objectives, your tolerance for risk, and your requirement for liquidity,\u201d Ms. Chan said.\n\u201cThe critical point that an investor has to be mindful about is the access to these financial investments, securities, or assets is so free that you can actually approach any financial institution that you\u2019re comfortable dealing with and be led to talk to specialists within that institution. Ask them, feel free to explore, talk to people who are in touch with financial markets so they can sit down with you. Advice is free, I\u2019m sure. And they can profile your suitability and your preferences and match these with your needs and objectives.\u201d \u00a0\n\u00a0\u00a0\nRecorded remotely Nov. 4. Interview by Santiago J. Arnaiz,\u00a0大象传媒 contributor and chief operating officer of health startup Day3 Innovations. Research by Bjorn Biel \u201cJB\u201d M. Beltran. Produced by Paolo L. Lopez\u00a0and Sam L. Marcelo.\nFollow us on Spotify 大象传媒 B-Side", "date_published": "2021-12-06T10:14:22+08:00", "date_modified": "2021-12-07T13:33:33+08:00", "authors": [ { "name": "大象传媒", "url": "/author/winseciontainkes/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5aebc87a76b327f90fc9671dea4220c74092c328c9b13ee03e93a20601e350d3?s=512&d=mm&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "大象传媒", "url": "/author/winseciontainkes/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5aebc87a76b327f90fc9671dea4220c74092c328c9b13ee03e93a20601e350d3?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11.08.21-Bside_Metrobank_4-scaled.jpg", "tags": [ "B-Side", "Bjorn Biel Beltran", "Chorie R. Chan", "financial wellness", "Metrobank", "Paolo L. Lopez", "personal finance", "Podcast", "Sam L. Marcelo", "Santiago J. Arnaiz", "Spotlight" ] }, { "id": "/?p=367164", "url": "/podcast/2021/05/10/367164/b-side-podcast-the-private-sectors-role-in-public-health/", "title": "[B-SIDE Podcast] The private sector\u2019s role in public health\u00a0", "content_html": "\nFollow us on Spotify 大象传媒 B-Side
\nCompanies might be spending on the wrong things when it comes to employee health. \u201cWe found that businesses were losing P100 billion annually due to poor employee health. That\u2019s in spite of companies already spending roughly P150 billion taking care of their employees,\u201d said Santiago J. Arnaiz, co-founder and chief operating officer of\u00a0Project Fort, a health data consultancy.\u00a0
\nIn this B-Side episode, Mr. Arnaiz (formerly of\u00a0大象传媒) and Project Fort co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Erika M. Modina tell\u00a0大象传媒\u00a0reporter Patricia B. Mirasol how the private sector can contribute to public health with the help of data.\u00a0\u201cIf [companies] are given the right tools to collect data, then they can make evidence-based health strategies that save money and engage employees,\u201d\u00a0said Ms. Modina.\u00a0\u201cThis is the perfect time to rebuild the health system because people understand its importance.\u201d\u00a0
\nTAKEAWAYS\u00a0
\nA data-driven culture situates a company for success.\u00a0
\nHaving the infrastructure to analyze health data \u2014 and how it affects the\u00a0bottomline\u00a0\u2014 serves a firm well as it digitally transforms its other areas of business.\u00a0
\n\u201cThere is a clear incentive to invest in data infrastructure for employee health,\u201d said Mr. Arnaiz. A data-driven community, he said, is one where the data infrastructure penetrates all levels of the corporation and everyone is unified in the mission of health.\u00a0
\n\u201cThis infrastructure becomes your jumping point for creating a data-driven culture,\u201d he added, \u201cand that\u2019s priceless when it comes to situating yourself for success as a company.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0
\nCompanies\u00a0spend money on the wrong things.\u00a0\u00a0
\nFrom\u00a0the policies they enact\u00a0to the resources they\u00a0provide,\u00a0companies control many factors in the day-to-day lives of their staff.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\u201cThe social networks that people belong to affect their health,\u201d said Ms. Modina. \u201cOne of those social networks is a person\u2019s working conditions.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0
\nThe workplace\u00a0presents a prime opportunity to create\u00a0a healthier Philippines, and yet employers do not spend their money right when it comes to employee health.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u201cIn our research in Project Fort, we found that businesses were losing P100 billion annually due to poor employee health,\u201d said Mr. Arnaiz. \u201cThat\u2019s in spite of companies already spending roughly P150 billion taking care of their employees.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0
\n\u00a0Proper insights into employee care, Mr. Arnaiz\u00a0added,\u00a0are available through\u00a0health-tech\u00a0solutions. MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) with limited resources can likewise build a robust data infrastructure by prioritizing their needs first, and then finding a firm that understands their desired outcome.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\u00a0There are roadblocks\u00a0in\u00a0translating\u00a0data insights into meaningful policies.\u00a0
\n\u201cOne problem is that people aren\u2019t collecting data,\u201d said Ms. Modina, who is also president of\u00a0EpiMetrics, a research institution advancing health equity through the conception, translation, and communication of health systems and policy research. \u201cAnother problem is that they may be collecting data, but don\u2019t know how to make sense of it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0
\nMaking sense of, and collecting insights from, data means that\u00a0data collection\u00a0should have an aim from the very start. For companies, this means knowing their employees, having a baseline on their health, and realizing there are so many factors that come into play beyond a person\u2019s individual choice.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\u201cIf companies have health champions, and if they\u2019re given the right tools to collect data, then they could make evidence-based health strategies that save money and engage employees,\u201d she said.\u00a0
\nThe\u00a0pandemic\u00a0is\u00a0an opportunity to rebuild the health system.\u00a0
\n\u201cWe have to do an analysis of what we already have and where we\u2019re situated,\u201d said Ms. Modina, adding that this covers human resources, medical supplies, technologies, information systems, service delivery networks, finance, and governance.\u00a0
\n\u201cWe can\u2019t solve what we don\u2019t know.\u201d The data that is now being collected on COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths, she said, can be expanded in the future to determine free bed space in a hospital, or that\u00a0quantity\u00a0of\u00a0available medicines in a pharmacy.\u00a0\u00a0
\nDetermining all the factors that make up these building blocks gives a clearer picture on how partnerships between the public and private sectors can happen.\u00a0
\n\u201cThis is the perfect time to rebuild the health system because people understand its importance,\u201d\u00a0said Ms. Modina.\u00a0
\nRecorded remotely on May 5. Produced by Paolo L. Lopez, and Sam L. Marcelo.
\nFollow us on Spotify 大象传媒 B-Side
\n", "content_text": "Follow us on Spotify 大象传媒 B-Side\nCompanies might be spending on the wrong things when it comes to employee health. \u201cWe found that businesses were losing P100 billion annually due to poor employee health. That\u2019s in spite of companies already spending roughly P150 billion taking care of their employees,\u201d said Santiago J. Arnaiz, co-founder and chief operating officer of\u00a0Project Fort, a health data consultancy.\u00a0\nIn this B-Side episode, Mr. Arnaiz (formerly of\u00a0大象传媒) and Project Fort co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Erika M. Modina tell\u00a0大象传媒\u00a0reporter Patricia B. Mirasol how the private sector can contribute to public health with the help of data.\u00a0\u201cIf [companies] are given the right tools to collect data, then they can make evidence-based health strategies that save money and engage employees,\u201d\u00a0said Ms. Modina.\u00a0\u201cThis is the perfect time to rebuild the health system because people understand its importance.\u201d\u00a0\nTAKEAWAYS\u00a0\nA data-driven culture situates a company for success.\u00a0\nHaving the infrastructure to analyze health data \u2014 and how it affects the\u00a0bottomline\u00a0\u2014 serves a firm well as it digitally transforms its other areas of business.\u00a0\n\u201cThere is a clear incentive to invest in data infrastructure for employee health,\u201d said Mr. Arnaiz. A data-driven community, he said, is one where the data infrastructure penetrates all levels of the corporation and everyone is unified in the mission of health.\u00a0\n\u201cThis infrastructure becomes your jumping point for creating a data-driven culture,\u201d he added, \u201cand that\u2019s priceless when it comes to situating yourself for success as a company.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\nCompanies\u00a0spend money on the wrong things.\u00a0\u00a0\nFrom\u00a0the policies they enact\u00a0to the resources they\u00a0provide,\u00a0companies control many factors in the day-to-day lives of their staff.\u00a0\u00a0\n\u201cThe social networks that people belong to affect their health,\u201d said Ms. Modina. \u201cOne of those social networks is a person\u2019s working conditions.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\nThe workplace\u00a0presents a prime opportunity to create\u00a0a healthier Philippines, and yet employers do not spend their money right when it comes to employee health.\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0\u201cIn our research in Project Fort, we found that businesses were losing P100 billion annually due to poor employee health,\u201d said Mr. Arnaiz. \u201cThat\u2019s in spite of companies already spending roughly P150 billion taking care of their employees.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0Proper insights into employee care, Mr. Arnaiz\u00a0added,\u00a0are available through\u00a0health-tech\u00a0solutions. MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) with limited resources can likewise build a robust data infrastructure by prioritizing their needs first, and then finding a firm that understands their desired outcome.\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0There are roadblocks\u00a0in\u00a0translating\u00a0data insights into meaningful policies.\u00a0\n\u201cOne problem is that people aren\u2019t collecting data,\u201d said Ms. Modina, who is also president of\u00a0EpiMetrics, a research institution advancing health equity through the conception, translation, and communication of health systems and policy research. \u201cAnother problem is that they may be collecting data, but don\u2019t know how to make sense of it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\nMaking sense of, and collecting insights from, data means that\u00a0data collection\u00a0should have an aim from the very start. For companies, this means knowing their employees, having a baseline on their health, and realizing there are so many factors that come into play beyond a person\u2019s individual choice.\u00a0\u00a0\n\u201cIf companies have health champions, and if they\u2019re given the right tools to collect data, then they could make evidence-based health strategies that save money and engage employees,\u201d she said.\u00a0\nThe\u00a0pandemic\u00a0is\u00a0an opportunity to rebuild the health system.\u00a0\n\u201cWe have to do an analysis of what we already have and where we\u2019re situated,\u201d said Ms. Modina, adding that this covers human resources, medical supplies, technologies, information systems, service delivery networks, finance, and governance.\u00a0\n\u201cWe can\u2019t solve what we don\u2019t know.\u201d The data that is now being collected on COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths, she said, can be expanded in the future to determine free bed space in a hospital, or that\u00a0quantity\u00a0of\u00a0available medicines in a pharmacy.\u00a0\u00a0\nDetermining all the factors that make up these building blocks gives a clearer picture on how partnerships between the public and private sectors can happen.\u00a0\n\u201cThis is the perfect time to rebuild the health system because people understand its importance,\u201d\u00a0said Ms. Modina.\u00a0\nRecorded remotely on May 5. Produced by Paolo L. Lopez, and Sam L. Marcelo.\nFollow us on Spotify 大象传媒 B-Side", "date_published": "2021-05-10T11:47:48+08:00", "date_modified": "2021-05-10T12:24:51+08:00", "authors": [ { "name": "大象传媒", "url": "/author/winseciontainkes/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5aebc87a76b327f90fc9671dea4220c74092c328c9b13ee03e93a20601e350d3?s=512&d=mm&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "大象传媒", "url": "/author/winseciontainkes/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5aebc87a76b327f90fc9671dea4220c74092c328c9b13ee03e93a20601e350d3?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/05.10.21-B_Side_Modina_1400x1400.jpg", "tags": [ "B-Side", "Erika M. Modina", "Patricia B. Mirasol", "Podcast", "Project Fort", "public health", "Santiago J. Arnaiz" ] }, { "id": "/?p=305876", "url": "/special-reports/2020/07/20/305876/imagining-a-better-normal-for-phl-innovation/", "title": "Imagining a \u2018better normal\u2019 for PHL innovation", "content_html": "By Santiago J. Arnaiz, Mariel Alison L. Aguinaldo,
\nand Patricia B. Mirasol
THE FIRST CALLS for volunteers went out in early March. As local government units scrambled to respond to the spread of COVID-19 in their municipalities, nonprofit Developers Connect (DevCon) decided to mine its nearly 40,000 Facebook followers for tech developers willing to help it \u201chack the pandemic.\u201d
\nMarch 15 saw President Rodrigo R. Duterte formalizing a partial lockdown for Metro Manila. Classes were suspended. Non-essential businesses were asked to close shop. Checkpoints quickly became chokepoints, throttling the government\u2019s ability to mobilize resources through the capital. On March 16, DevCon announced that its thousand-strong global army of volunteers was hacking together four initiatives. The flagship project was RapidPass, a QR code-based mobile system for quickly processing frontliners moving through Metro Manila\u2019s checkpoints, enabling the distribution of vital goods to those who need it.
\nRapidPass was formally launched on April 3, backed by the Department of Science and Technology (DoST), as well as by the Inter- Agency Task Force Against Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF). \u201cHundreds of DevCon volunteers made this possible just three weeks after the quarantine,\u201d said Information and Communications Technology Secretary Gregorio B. Honasan during the platform\u2019s launch. \u201cThis proves to the world the triumph of the indomitable Filipino spirit.\u201d
\nThe system had over 300,000 users in less than a month, streamlining movement through Metro Manila\u2019s 48 quarantine control points so effectively that Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana said he expects the security forces to deploy the system even beyond the pandemic.
\nRapidPass is one of the tech solutions that cropped up across the country these last few months. Another IATF-backed system, StaySafe.ph, was developed by software engineering solutions firm Multisys as the nation\u2019s official app-based contact tracing platform. Futuristic Aviation and Maritime Entreprise, or FAME, received funding from the DoST to fabricate specimen collection booths, producing and distributing 132 units in Department of Health (DoH)-designated facilities. Thinking Machines, a data science consultancy firm, was similarly tapped by both the DoH and DoST to \u201cdeliver quality insights to government agencies and the public to best respond to the pandemic.\u201d
\nThese collaborations don\u2019t stop at the national level. Medical imaging firm Lifetrack Medical Systems has begun working with local government units, offering its CT scan analysis services for free, promising to expedite the process of identifying potential COVID cases. As pressure mounts on the education sector to digitize, startups like DCLA, a gamified e-learning platform, have begun offering their digital solutions for struggling schools \u2014 allowing them to manage enrollment and payment systems online, digitize their curricula, and even access comprehensive training and certification programs on online teaching for their staff.
\nAcross industries, startups and tech firms have taken the initiative to address the nation\u2019s most pressing issues. The glaring gaps that COVID-19 has exposed span not only our healthcare systems, but also our infrastructure, logistics, and financial systems. In response, the innovation community has mobilized, partnering with the public sector to plug the gaps and reconnect a socially distanced nation. While the long-term impact of these initiatives remains to be seen, some experts believe that, should the embracing of these tech community-led efforts be sustained, it may trigger an innovation renaissance.
\nINNOVATING THROUGH CRISIS
\nIn its Global Ecosystem Report 2020, research center StartupBlink analyzed the startup ecosystems of 1,000 cities across 100 countries, and found that in the efforts to develop innovative solutions around COVID-19, Manila ranked 64th. Among the hundred countries analyzed, the Philippines ranked 29th. While cross-sectoral projects like RapidPass, StaySafe.ph, and the like contributed greatly to those rankings, the study highlights a number of factors that make the Philippines such a hotbed for innovation \u2014 many of which predate the pandemic.
Whether it\u2019s embracing fintechs like PearlPay or UnionBank to raise financial inclusivity, or looking to digital platforms like PayMaya to streamline LGU operations, the Philippines has a long track record of turning to the innovation community for tech-driven solutions. But it isn\u2019t only partnership opportunities being extended to these startups. Over the years, government agencies have built a robust support system to help them grow.
\n\u201cThe first thing is just the formal recognition that startups need to be nurtured, prioritized, and separated from the traditional MSME,\u201d said Katrina Chan, executive director of QBO Innovation Hub. \u201cThey\u2019ve put in resources, funding, mentorship \u2014 all of these activities are very much supported by the government.\u201d
\nQBO itself was one of the first examples of collaboration between the government and the private sector, being one among a number of groups supported by the DoST\u2019s Technology Business Incubation (TBI) program. Since 2009, 30 of these industry-based TBIs have been established all over the country. Through collaborations with higher learning institutions and global startup incubators, the DoST has directly invested over P413 million in the innovation community, helping the 556 startups it has incubated create a total of 1,960 jobs, secure P506 million in private investment, and generate P423 million in revenue.
\nAccording to Ms. Chan, even through the current crisis, the government has continued to bank on this community. \u201cAcross-the-board, in order to be able to fund the coronavirus (response), the government has had to cut its budget on literally everything,\u201d she said. \u201cBut even in IATF meetings, it\u2019s been recognized\u2026 that supporting startups and our innovative technology companies are going to be a priority, and so the funding for these programs wasn\u2019t touched.\u201d
\nRowena L. Guevara, Science and Technology undersecretary for research and development, affirmed this policy, saying, \u201cthe startup community will be the main movers in the new normal since they are agile and fast. Startups may provide solutions to problems in logistics, supply chains, work-from-home challenges, etc. and they are assured of government support through the implementation of the Innovative Startup Act where the DoST, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) were tasked to provide programs, benefits, and incentives for startups.\u201d
\nSigned on Nov. 22, the implementing rules and regulations of the Innovative Startup Act promise to incentivize and empower the proliferation of innovative tech firms across the country, with a goal of generating 1,000 startups by 2022.
\nAs with most developing nations, the Philippines suffers from a wealth of interlocking problems. But these present opportunities for innovative companies to enter the fray.
\nIn Rwanda, a lack of infrastructure (e.g. power lines, airspace control, commercial flights) has made the nation a hotspot for the global drone industry. A Red Cross study published by Cambridge University Press in 2017 described African airspace as \u201cless cluttered with flights that have slowed the adoption of commercial drones in North America and Europe.\u201d There, drones are deployed not only as a means for monitoring and data collection, but also as the primary logistics channels for humanitarian efforts, bridging the last mile to bring blood and other medical supplies to remote communities.
\nBy leveraging this relationship between humanitarian crises and solution-driven innovation, Rwanda has managed to establish itself as Africa\u2019s drone capital, incentivizing the adoption of these technologies through legislation and tech-friendly regulations.
\nKeller Rinaudo, CEO and founder of Zipline, one of the firms spearheading drone-based logistics to solve Rwanda\u2019s health gaps, told 大象传媒 that \u201cit is precisely the countries that embrace innovation that will end up leapfrogging even developed nations.\u201d Looking to find new applications for its innovations, Zipline has recently expanded into the Philippines, recognizing its potential as a base of operations for Southeast Asia.
\nCO-CREATING A \u2018BETTER NORMAL\u2019
\nBut adopting new technologies simply for the sake of innovation poses its own set of risks as well. The \u201cfail fast, fail early, and fail often\u201d mentality that drives much of the global tech community stands in direct contrast to the slow, deliberate pace of governance. Where failure might present opportunities to learn for a lean startup, it takes on a different weight when it comes to government projects.
In a lengthy post shared on his personal Facebook page, former DICT undersecretary for operations Eliseo M. Rio, Jr. warned of the wasted resources and potential harm the IATF\u2019s adoption of StaySafe.ph might cause. Echoing IT experts wary of the data privacy concerns surrounding the contact tracing platform, he said that in their haste to put out and endorse a tech solution to the pandemic, the task force failed to allot enough time to complete the comprehensive tests needed to ensure its security and compliance with data-privacy regulations.
\nMr. Rio said it was this stance on the StaySafe.ph project that ultimately lost him his post at DICT, though these allegations have been denied.
\nFor all the traction and support structures already in place, the innovation community is still young by global standards. Just as COVID-19 has revealed the glaring gaps in our nation\u2019s infrastructure, so has it revealed the gaps in its ability to support the firms innovating at the grassroots.
\nAccording to James Lette, executive director of the Manila Angel Investors Network (MAIN), these gaps are most evident in the funding opportunities currently available to our nation\u2019s startups. On the long list of priorities the government needs to address in its COVID-19 response, Mr. Lette says that startups rightfully trail behind the health and livelihoods of the Filipino people. But that doesn\u2019t mean that startups are going to keel over and die.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been told of one startup that had an annualized revenue of over $1 million per year, but following lockdown, it saw revenue collapse to almost zero overnight,\u201d Mr. Lette said. \u201cThis global health crisis that this pandemic has wrought is now not simply a health crisis, it\u2019s become this economic calamity.\u201d
\nMr. Lette said these kinds of dramatic crashes not only lead to staff layoffs, but also flow-on effects throughout the ecosystem, such as other companies reliant on them no longer being able to use their services. While the IATF has outlined at least 19 public-sector programs tailored towards assisting MSMEs through COVID-19, Mr. Lette believes that they just don\u2019t meet the needs of startups.
\n\u201cStartups take large risks with new and experimental business models,\u201d he said, pointing out that there simply is no way for programs designed for traditional MSMEs to properly service them. \u201cThese 19 programs provide fantastic and much-needed assistance to the backbone of the Philippine economy, but through their targeting, they exclude the majority of startups.\u201d
\nWhile the government has recognized this and begun taking strides towards plugging these gaps through legislation like the Innovative Startup Act, the clock is ticking for grassroots innovators. Immediate action is needed, and the slow, deliberate pace of the public sector may not get the job done in time.
\nAs the executive director of MAIN, Mr. Lette has proposed establishing a government-partnered facility to issue bridge financing for tech startups. In these high-risk times, he argues that the government can do a lot to help mitigate those risks and allow private investors to step in where they can\u2019t towards supporting the nation\u2019s fledgling startups.
\n\u201cPeople know that startups have a high chance of failure under normal conditions, so it\u2019s a fair question to ask why we should save them, and why we shouldn\u2019t just let them fail,\u201d he said. \u201cBut startups are more than just businesses. They are a driver of economic innovation. If nothing is done and the startups are left to fend themselves, our greatest concern is that the startup economy of the Philippines will be severely weakened. The number of years and the level of investment that has gone into building the community to the point where it is now is going to be lost.\u201d
\nTimes of crisis are a powerful motivator for innovation, and these last few months have seen the local community rising to meet the pandemic head-on.
\n\u201cYou can look back at the last global financial crisis and see that there\u2019s opportunity in this moment,\u201d Mr. Lette said. \u201cIt was during the last recession that some of the world\u2019s unicorns (companies valued at over $1 billion) were founded. What survives through this process proves the grit of its founders.\u201d
\nWhile the government has shown a clear interest in embracing these initiatives, only time will tell if these firms will live long enough to see the fruit of their efforts. Today, the innovation community stands at a crossroads. Will COVID-19 be the final curtain call on a generation of startup enterprises, or will it be the dawn of a new era for innovative entrepreneurship?
\n", "content_text": "By Santiago J. Arnaiz, Mariel Alison L. Aguinaldo,\nand Patricia B. Mirasol\nTHE FIRST CALLS for volunteers went out in early March. As local government units scrambled to respond to the spread of COVID-19 in their municipalities, nonprofit Developers Connect (DevCon) decided to mine its nearly 40,000 Facebook followers for tech developers willing to help it \u201chack the pandemic.\u201d\nMarch 15 saw President Rodrigo R. Duterte formalizing a partial lockdown for Metro Manila. Classes were suspended. Non-essential businesses were asked to close shop. Checkpoints quickly became chokepoints, throttling the government\u2019s ability to mobilize resources through the capital. On March 16, DevCon announced that its thousand-strong global army of volunteers was hacking together four initiatives. The flagship project was RapidPass, a QR code-based mobile system for quickly processing frontliners moving through Metro Manila\u2019s checkpoints, enabling the distribution of vital goods to those who need it.\nRapidPass was formally launched on April 3, backed by the Department of Science and Technology (DoST), as well as by the Inter- Agency Task Force Against Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF). \u201cHundreds of DevCon volunteers made this possible just three weeks after the quarantine,\u201d said Information and Communications Technology Secretary Gregorio B. Honasan during the platform\u2019s launch. \u201cThis proves to the world the triumph of the indomitable Filipino spirit.\u201d\nThe system had over 300,000 users in less than a month, streamlining movement through Metro Manila\u2019s 48 quarantine control points so effectively that Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana said he expects the security forces to deploy the system even beyond the pandemic.\nRapidPass is one of the tech solutions that cropped up across the country these last few months. Another IATF-backed system, StaySafe.ph, was developed by software engineering solutions firm Multisys as the nation\u2019s official app-based contact tracing platform. Futuristic Aviation and Maritime Entreprise, or FAME, received funding from the DoST to fabricate specimen collection booths, producing and distributing 132 units in Department of Health (DoH)-designated facilities. Thinking Machines, a data science consultancy firm, was similarly tapped by both the DoH and DoST to \u201cdeliver quality insights to government agencies and the public to best respond to the pandemic.\u201d\nThese collaborations don\u2019t stop at the national level. Medical imaging firm Lifetrack Medical Systems has begun working with local government units, offering its CT scan analysis services for free, promising to expedite the process of identifying potential COVID cases. As pressure mounts on the education sector to digitize, startups like DCLA, a gamified e-learning platform, have begun offering their digital solutions for struggling schools \u2014 allowing them to manage enrollment and payment systems online, digitize their curricula, and even access comprehensive training and certification programs on online teaching for their staff.\nAcross industries, startups and tech firms have taken the initiative to address the nation\u2019s most pressing issues. The glaring gaps that COVID-19 has exposed span not only our healthcare systems, but also our infrastructure, logistics, and financial systems. In response, the innovation community has mobilized, partnering with the public sector to plug the gaps and reconnect a socially distanced nation. While the long-term impact of these initiatives remains to be seen, some experts believe that, should the embracing of these tech community-led efforts be sustained, it may trigger an innovation renaissance.\nINNOVATING THROUGH CRISIS\nIn its Global Ecosystem Report 2020, research center StartupBlink analyzed the startup ecosystems of 1,000 cities across 100 countries, and found that in the efforts to develop innovative solutions around COVID-19, Manila ranked 64th. Among the hundred countries analyzed, the Philippines ranked 29th. While cross-sectoral projects like RapidPass, StaySafe.ph, and the like contributed greatly to those rankings, the study highlights a number of factors that make the Philippines such a hotbed for innovation \u2014 many of which predate the pandemic.\nWhether it\u2019s embracing fintechs like PearlPay or UnionBank to raise financial inclusivity, or looking to digital platforms like PayMaya to streamline LGU operations, the Philippines has a long track record of turning to the innovation community for tech-driven solutions. But it isn\u2019t only partnership opportunities being extended to these startups. Over the years, government agencies have built a robust support system to help them grow.\n\u201cThe first thing is just the formal recognition that startups need to be nurtured, prioritized, and separated from the traditional MSME,\u201d said Katrina Chan, executive director of QBO Innovation Hub. \u201cThey\u2019ve put in resources, funding, mentorship \u2014 all of these activities are very much supported by the government.\u201d\nQBO itself was one of the first examples of collaboration between the government and the private sector, being one among a number of groups supported by the DoST\u2019s Technology Business Incubation (TBI) program. Since 2009, 30 of these industry-based TBIs have been established all over the country. Through collaborations with higher learning institutions and global startup incubators, the DoST has directly invested over P413 million in the innovation community, helping the 556 startups it has incubated create a total of 1,960 jobs, secure P506 million in private investment, and generate P423 million in revenue.\nAccording to Ms. Chan, even through the current crisis, the government has continued to bank on this community. \u201cAcross-the-board, in order to be able to fund the coronavirus (response), the government has had to cut its budget on literally everything,\u201d she said. \u201cBut even in IATF meetings, it\u2019s been recognized\u2026 that supporting startups and our innovative technology companies are going to be a priority, and so the funding for these programs wasn\u2019t touched.\u201d\nRowena L. Guevara, Science and Technology undersecretary for research and development, affirmed this policy, saying, \u201cthe startup community will be the main movers in the new normal since they are agile and fast. Startups may provide solutions to problems in logistics, supply chains, work-from-home challenges, etc. and they are assured of government support through the implementation of the Innovative Startup Act where the DoST, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) were tasked to provide programs, benefits, and incentives for startups.\u201d\nSigned on Nov. 22, the implementing rules and regulations of the Innovative Startup Act promise to incentivize and empower the proliferation of innovative tech firms across the country, with a goal of generating 1,000 startups by 2022.\nAs with most developing nations, the Philippines suffers from a wealth of interlocking problems. But these present opportunities for innovative companies to enter the fray.\nIn Rwanda, a lack of infrastructure (e.g. power lines, airspace control, commercial flights) has made the nation a hotspot for the global drone industry. A Red Cross study published by Cambridge University Press in 2017 described African airspace as \u201cless cluttered with flights that have slowed the adoption of commercial drones in North America and Europe.\u201d There, drones are deployed not only as a means for monitoring and data collection, but also as the primary logistics channels for humanitarian efforts, bridging the last mile to bring blood and other medical supplies to remote communities.\nBy leveraging this relationship between humanitarian crises and solution-driven innovation, Rwanda has managed to establish itself as Africa\u2019s drone capital, incentivizing the adoption of these technologies through legislation and tech-friendly regulations.\nKeller Rinaudo, CEO and founder of Zipline, one of the firms spearheading drone-based logistics to solve Rwanda\u2019s health gaps, told 大象传媒 that \u201cit is precisely the countries that embrace innovation that will end up leapfrogging even developed nations.\u201d Looking to find new applications for its innovations, Zipline has recently expanded into the Philippines, recognizing its potential as a base of operations for Southeast Asia.\nCO-CREATING A \u2018BETTER NORMAL\u2019\nBut adopting new technologies simply for the sake of innovation poses its own set of risks as well. The \u201cfail fast, fail early, and fail often\u201d mentality that drives much of the global tech community stands in direct contrast to the slow, deliberate pace of governance. Where failure might present opportunities to learn for a lean startup, it takes on a different weight when it comes to government projects.\nIn a lengthy post shared on his personal Facebook page, former DICT undersecretary for operations Eliseo M. Rio, Jr. warned of the wasted resources and potential harm the IATF\u2019s adoption of StaySafe.ph might cause. Echoing IT experts wary of the data privacy concerns surrounding the contact tracing platform, he said that in their haste to put out and endorse a tech solution to the pandemic, the task force failed to allot enough time to complete the comprehensive tests needed to ensure its security and compliance with data-privacy regulations.\nMr. Rio said it was this stance on the StaySafe.ph project that ultimately lost him his post at DICT, though these allegations have been denied.\nFor all the traction and support structures already in place, the innovation community is still young by global standards. Just as COVID-19 has revealed the glaring gaps in our nation\u2019s infrastructure, so has it revealed the gaps in its ability to support the firms innovating at the grassroots.\nAccording to James Lette, executive director of the Manila Angel Investors Network (MAIN), these gaps are most evident in the funding opportunities currently available to our nation\u2019s startups. On the long list of priorities the government needs to address in its COVID-19 response, Mr. Lette says that startups rightfully trail behind the health and livelihoods of the Filipino people. But that doesn\u2019t mean that startups are going to keel over and die.\n\u201cI\u2019ve been told of one startup that had an annualized revenue of over $1 million per year, but following lockdown, it saw revenue collapse to almost zero overnight,\u201d Mr. Lette said. \u201cThis global health crisis that this pandemic has wrought is now not simply a health crisis, it\u2019s become this economic calamity.\u201d\nMr. Lette said these kinds of dramatic crashes not only lead to staff layoffs, but also flow-on effects throughout the ecosystem, such as other companies reliant on them no longer being able to use their services. While the IATF has outlined at least 19 public-sector programs tailored towards assisting MSMEs through COVID-19, Mr. Lette believes that they just don\u2019t meet the needs of startups.\n\u201cStartups take large risks with new and experimental business models,\u201d he said, pointing out that there simply is no way for programs designed for traditional MSMEs to properly service them. \u201cThese 19 programs provide fantastic and much-needed assistance to the backbone of the Philippine economy, but through their targeting, they exclude the majority of startups.\u201d\nWhile the government has recognized this and begun taking strides towards plugging these gaps through legislation like the Innovative Startup Act, the clock is ticking for grassroots innovators. Immediate action is needed, and the slow, deliberate pace of the public sector may not get the job done in time.\nAs the executive director of MAIN, Mr. Lette has proposed establishing a government-partnered facility to issue bridge financing for tech startups. In these high-risk times, he argues that the government can do a lot to help mitigate those risks and allow private investors to step in where they can\u2019t towards supporting the nation\u2019s fledgling startups.\n\u201cPeople know that startups have a high chance of failure under normal conditions, so it\u2019s a fair question to ask why we should save them, and why we shouldn\u2019t just let them fail,\u201d he said. \u201cBut startups are more than just businesses. They are a driver of economic innovation. If nothing is done and the startups are left to fend themselves, our greatest concern is that the startup economy of the Philippines will be severely weakened. The number of years and the level of investment that has gone into building the community to the point where it is now is going to be lost.\u201d\nTimes of crisis are a powerful motivator for innovation, and these last few months have seen the local community rising to meet the pandemic head-on.\n\u201cYou can look back at the last global financial crisis and see that there\u2019s opportunity in this moment,\u201d Mr. Lette said. \u201cIt was during the last recession that some of the world\u2019s unicorns (companies valued at over $1 billion) were founded. What survives through this process proves the grit of its founders.\u201d\nWhile the government has shown a clear interest in embracing these initiatives, only time will tell if these firms will live long enough to see the fruit of their efforts. Today, the innovation community stands at a crossroads. Will COVID-19 be the final curtain call on a generation of startup enterprises, or will it be the dawn of a new era for innovative entrepreneurship?", "date_published": "2020-07-20T00:05:22+08:00", "date_modified": "2020-07-20T00:05:22+08:00", "authors": [ { "name": "大象传媒", "url": "/author/cedadiantityclea/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/fc38d2668fdee8f1e2b22df5e72ae6f4ad265ab7814de4aa60060edd377a70ce?s=512&d=mm&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "大象传媒", "url": "/author/cedadiantityclea/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/fc38d2668fdee8f1e2b22df5e72ae6f4ad265ab7814de4aa60060edd377a70ce?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "tags": [ "anniversary report", "Mariel Alison L. Aguinaldo", "Patricia B. Mirasol", "Santiago J. Arnaiz", "Special Reports" ], "summary": "THE FIRST CALLS for volunteers went out in early March. As local government units scrambled to respond to the spread of COVID-19 in their municipalities, nonprofit Developers Connect (DevCon) decided to mine its nearly 40,000 Facebook followers for tech developers willing to help it \u201chack the pandemic.\u201d" }, { "id": "/?p=242977", "url": "/special-reports/2019/07/22/242977/founders-funders-and-bayanihan-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/", "title": "Founders, funders, and bayanihan in the fourth industrial revolution", "content_html": "By Santiago J. Arnaiz, SparkUp Editor
\nWHEN Keller Rinaudo founded his drone-based delivery start-up Zipline, it was with the lofty dream of building \u201can instant, automated logistics system for the planet.\u201d It was 2014 and, at the time, AI-powered robots were commonplace only in the warehouses of the world\u2019s tech giants: Alibaba, Amazon, and the like. But Mr. Rinaudo felt that the technologies of the future were being wasted on delivering tennis shoes and pizza. Instead, he believed \u201cthe long-term impact of that technology is providing universal healthcare to every person on the planet.\u201d
\nToday, Mr. Rinaudo oversees the largest commercial autonomous logistics system in the world, delivering emergency medical supplies and relief packages to remote communities. Like his drones, Mr. Rinaudo is constantly travelling to far flung regions, finding new ways to partner with local governments and private institutions, taking his futuristic solution to as many places as possible.
\n\u201cPeople in Rwanda today say \u2018Yeah, of course we have drones that deliver blood. How else would you solve that problem?\u2019\u201d Mr. Rinaudo said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing how fast it goes from science fiction to totally boring.\u201d
\nWhile the team is headquartered in California, Zipline\u2019s operations are halfway across the world in Rwanda, Ghana, and \u2014 following a meeting last month with the Department of Health and Department of National Defense \u2014 the Philippines.
\nIt\u2019s across the Philippine archipelago that Mr. Rinaudo believes Zipline will truly come into fruition as a game-changer in autonomous logistics. With their drones, Zipline will be able to send payloads of vital cargo across various bodies of water, instantly connecting remote islands otherwise considered unreachable in emergency situations.
\nThe Philippines is a vast country, with an equally vast array of social ills, borne out of generations of band-aid solutions and neglect. Infrastructure gaps, wealth inequality, disproportionate allocation of private and public funding \u2014 all these and more constitute a nation rife with complex, interlocking problems.
\nBut where there are problems, there are also opportunities. Just as Zipline hopes to address Philippine infrastructure gaps with artificial intelligence and robotics, the fourth industrial revolution presents a nearly bottomless toolkit with which enterprising firms might tackle the issues that plague our country.
\nAnd it\u2019s in that intersection of emerging technologies and societal need that we\u2019re seeing the rise of a new breed of enterprising pioneers: Start-ups.
\nLEADING THE CHARGE
\nAs of 2017, Impact Hub Manila CEO Report 2018 found that Metro Manila alone was home to over 500 registered start-ups. In the same year, global investors funneled over $100 million into Philippine start-ups, outpacing the growth of the community\u2019s Singaporean and Indonesian counterparts.
Since then, the local ecosystem ballooned, with more than half the current roster of start-ups founded in the last two years. Earlier this year, global business ranking report Start-upBlink found that the Philippine start-up ecosystem jumped up 16 slots to 54 out of 100 countries surveyed.
\nToday we see dozens of case studies of independent, homegrown companies that have leveraged their innovative business models to raise significant institutional funding, create thousands of new jobs, and quickly achieve liquidity.
\nCoins.ph, a regional success story that made headlines after its $72 million acquisition by Indonesian tech giant Go-Jek, drew massive support by allowing users to invest in cryptocurrencies. FlySpaces, another homegrown company, is now Southeast Asia\u2019s leading provider of serviced office and co-working spaces, with locations all over the region. Similarly, Edukasyon.ph is now one of the fastest growing ASEAN-based education technology start-ups, with over one million monthly users covering more than 40 percent of Filipino students with internet access.
\n\u201cThe Philippines has incredible potential to be a leading start-up hub,\u201d said Katrina Chan, Director of QBO Innovation Hub, a public-private initiative supported by the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Trade and Industry, IdeaSpace, and J.P. Morgan. \u201cWe are starting to see more elements come into place \u2014 increased investment activity, growing public -private support, rising interest in entrepreneurship \u2014 which makes me believe that the Philippines can live up to its promise and\u2026 rival the biggest names in the region in the next few years.\u201d
\nWhether homegrown or foreign, start-ups are thriving in the Philippines and, in turn, the community is helping the Philippines thrive. But in order to understand how to best bolster that growth, it\u2019s important to first understand what exactly that community looks like.
\nTHE START-UP ECOSYSTEM
\nPop culture is saturated with hero stories of visionaries reshaping entire industries with their revolutionary ideas. One imagines the founder leading a scrappy team of developers, bootstrapping their projects out of garages and studio apartments. While the reality of start-ups in the Philippines is not nearly as romantic, it is, at least, infinitely more interesting.
Today, there are at least 20 major incubators and accelerators offering mentorship and seed funding opportunities to start-ups in metropolitan cities across the country. Additionally, there are at least 30 angel investor and venture capitalist groups actively seeking new Filipino start-ups to fund and help scale.
\nAnd it doesn\u2019t stop there. Many schools have launched their own business accelerator programs, to complement their management and entrepreneurship curriculums. Institutions like Ateneo de Manila University and the Asian Institute of Management boast robust accelerators, while modern schools like MINT College connect their students to the start-up world through partnerships with global networks like Impact Hub.
\nAs with any major societal venture, the government plays a key role in creating the scaffolding against which entirely new industries are being built. Earlier this year in May, the Senate passed on third and final reading the Innovative Start-up Act, which aims to create a more conducive environment for start-ups to grow in the country.
\n\u201cThese are start-ups that provide unique and relevant solutions to our problems, from daily hassles, like finding a taxi during rush hour, to improving the delivery of healthcare, providing support for our farmers, and addressing unemployment,\u201d said Senator Paolo Benigno \u201cBam\u201d Aquino IV, the bill\u2019s primary author. Under this act, start-up founders can expect tax breaks and expedited processes for securing business permits and certifications.
\nAccording to the Senate, the measure also includes a provision for the establishment of a P10 billion \u201cInnovative Start-up Venture Fund\u201d that entrepreneurs can apply for through the Department of Science and Technology.
\nElsewhere in the executive branch, start-ups have found even more direct partners in offices such as the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Information and Communications Technology. Through their affiliate agencies both national and local, these departments have created innovation centers, competitions, workshop programs, and grassroots projects all directed towards equipping Filipinos with the tools needed to respond to the nation\u2019s needs through entrepreneurship.
\nA COMMUNITY EFFORT
\nWhile the self-organizing founders of the local start-up scene have benefited greatly from academic and government support, it\u2019s in strategic and funding partnerships with corporations that many of these founders have been able to take their businesses to the next level.
\u201cCorporations really want to work with start-ups,\u201d said Minette Navarete, vice chairman and president of Kickstart Ventures. Kickstart Ventures is one of the country\u2019s leading venture capital firms, a subsidiary of Globe Telecom backed by Ayala Corporation and SingTel.
\nAccording to Ms. Navarete, large corporations benefit from the creativity and excitement that start-ups bring to the table. Whereas corporations like Globe Telecom and Ayala have the resources to fund large ventures, start-ups are agile enough to develop and scale solutions at a pace traditional firms just can\u2019t keep up with. Far from the narrative of disruptor versus disrupted, corporations in the Philippines play a vital role in creating spaces for start-ups to flourish.
\nBuilding the Philippine start-up community is a tripartite effort that calls on the government, the academe, and private institutions across the spectrum to work together in unprecedented new ways. To pull that off requires no shortage of creativity and open-mindedness \u2014 a paradigm shift towards collaboration that, if properly structured, could see not only the start-up community, but the nation as a whole, flourish.
\nIn choosing to expand into the Philippines, Zipline\u2019s founder Keller Rinaudo echoed what many start-ups have already known about the local ecosystem. It\u2019s not just the wealth of opportunity that firms like his can capitalize on, but the spirit of collaboration that permeates every facet of the local start-up community.
\nWith the government\u2019s scaffolding of legislative and executive support, the academe\u2019s thrust towards equipping the next generation of business leaders with the business and tech know-how to thrive, and the entrepreneurial spirit that drives Filipino founders forward into the fourth industrial revolution, it\u2019s no wonder why firms across the globe have their eyes on the Philippines.
\n\u201cMany people think the next big technological applications of our time will come out of places like Japan or the United States,\u201d Zipline\u2019s Mr. Rinaudo said. \u201cBut it\u2019s precisely the [countries] that embrace innovation that end up leapfrogging ahead of even developed nations.\u201d
\n", "content_text": "By Santiago J. Arnaiz, SparkUp Editor\nWHEN Keller Rinaudo founded his drone-based delivery start-up Zipline, it was with the lofty dream of building \u201can instant, automated logistics system for the planet.\u201d It was 2014 and, at the time, AI-powered robots were commonplace only in the warehouses of the world\u2019s tech giants: Alibaba, Amazon, and the like. But Mr. Rinaudo felt that the technologies of the future were being wasted on delivering tennis shoes and pizza. Instead, he believed \u201cthe long-term impact of that technology is providing universal healthcare to every person on the planet.\u201d\nToday, Mr. Rinaudo oversees the largest commercial autonomous logistics system in the world, delivering emergency medical supplies and relief packages to remote communities. Like his drones, Mr. Rinaudo is constantly travelling to far flung regions, finding new ways to partner with local governments and private institutions, taking his futuristic solution to as many places as possible.\n\u201cPeople in Rwanda today say \u2018Yeah, of course we have drones that deliver blood. How else would you solve that problem?\u2019\u201d Mr. Rinaudo said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing how fast it goes from science fiction to totally boring.\u201d\nWhile the team is headquartered in California, Zipline\u2019s operations are halfway across the world in Rwanda, Ghana, and \u2014 following a meeting last month with the Department of Health and Department of National Defense \u2014 the Philippines.\nIt\u2019s across the Philippine archipelago that Mr. Rinaudo believes Zipline will truly come into fruition as a game-changer in autonomous logistics. With their drones, Zipline will be able to send payloads of vital cargo across various bodies of water, instantly connecting remote islands otherwise considered unreachable in emergency situations.\nThe Philippines is a vast country, with an equally vast array of social ills, borne out of generations of band-aid solutions and neglect. Infrastructure gaps, wealth inequality, disproportionate allocation of private and public funding \u2014 all these and more constitute a nation rife with complex, interlocking problems.\nBut where there are problems, there are also opportunities. Just as Zipline hopes to address Philippine infrastructure gaps with artificial intelligence and robotics, the fourth industrial revolution presents a nearly bottomless toolkit with which enterprising firms might tackle the issues that plague our country.\nAnd it\u2019s in that intersection of emerging technologies and societal need that we\u2019re seeing the rise of a new breed of enterprising pioneers: Start-ups.\nLEADING THE CHARGE\nAs of 2017, Impact Hub Manila CEO Report 2018 found that Metro Manila alone was home to over 500 registered start-ups. In the same year, global investors funneled over $100 million into Philippine start-ups, outpacing the growth of the community\u2019s Singaporean and Indonesian counterparts.\nSince then, the local ecosystem ballooned, with more than half the current roster of start-ups founded in the last two years. Earlier this year, global business ranking report Start-upBlink found that the Philippine start-up ecosystem jumped up 16 slots to 54 out of 100 countries surveyed.\nToday we see dozens of case studies of independent, homegrown companies that have leveraged their innovative business models to raise significant institutional funding, create thousands of new jobs, and quickly achieve liquidity.\nCoins.ph, a regional success story that made headlines after its $72 million acquisition by Indonesian tech giant Go-Jek, drew massive support by allowing users to invest in cryptocurrencies. FlySpaces, another homegrown company, is now Southeast Asia\u2019s leading provider of serviced office and co-working spaces, with locations all over the region. Similarly, Edukasyon.ph is now one of the fastest growing ASEAN-based education technology start-ups, with over one million monthly users covering more than 40 percent of Filipino students with internet access.\n\u201cThe Philippines has incredible potential to be a leading start-up hub,\u201d said Katrina Chan, Director of QBO Innovation Hub, a public-private initiative supported by the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Trade and Industry, IdeaSpace, and J.P. Morgan. \u201cWe are starting to see more elements come into place \u2014 increased investment activity, growing public -private support, rising interest in entrepreneurship \u2014 which makes me believe that the Philippines can live up to its promise and\u2026 rival the biggest names in the region in the next few years.\u201d\nWhether homegrown or foreign, start-ups are thriving in the Philippines and, in turn, the community is helping the Philippines thrive. But in order to understand how to best bolster that growth, it\u2019s important to first understand what exactly that community looks like.\nTHE START-UP ECOSYSTEM\nPop culture is saturated with hero stories of visionaries reshaping entire industries with their revolutionary ideas. One imagines the founder leading a scrappy team of developers, bootstrapping their projects out of garages and studio apartments. While the reality of start-ups in the Philippines is not nearly as romantic, it is, at least, infinitely more interesting.\nToday, there are at least 20 major incubators and accelerators offering mentorship and seed funding opportunities to start-ups in metropolitan cities across the country. Additionally, there are at least 30 angel investor and venture capitalist groups actively seeking new Filipino start-ups to fund and help scale.\nAnd it doesn\u2019t stop there. Many schools have launched their own business accelerator programs, to complement their management and entrepreneurship curriculums. Institutions like Ateneo de Manila University and the Asian Institute of Management boast robust accelerators, while modern schools like MINT College connect their students to the start-up world through partnerships with global networks like Impact Hub.\nAs with any major societal venture, the government plays a key role in creating the scaffolding against which entirely new industries are being built. Earlier this year in May, the Senate passed on third and final reading the Innovative Start-up Act, which aims to create a more conducive environment for start-ups to grow in the country.\n\u201cThese are start-ups that provide unique and relevant solutions to our problems, from daily hassles, like finding a taxi during rush hour, to improving the delivery of healthcare, providing support for our farmers, and addressing unemployment,\u201d said Senator Paolo Benigno \u201cBam\u201d Aquino IV, the bill\u2019s primary author. Under this act, start-up founders can expect tax breaks and expedited processes for securing business permits and certifications.\nAccording to the Senate, the measure also includes a provision for the establishment of a P10 billion \u201cInnovative Start-up Venture Fund\u201d that entrepreneurs can apply for through the Department of Science and Technology.\nElsewhere in the executive branch, start-ups have found even more direct partners in offices such as the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Information and Communications Technology. Through their affiliate agencies both national and local, these departments have created innovation centers, competitions, workshop programs, and grassroots projects all directed towards equipping Filipinos with the tools needed to respond to the nation\u2019s needs through entrepreneurship.\nA COMMUNITY EFFORT\nWhile the self-organizing founders of the local start-up scene have benefited greatly from academic and government support, it\u2019s in strategic and funding partnerships with corporations that many of these founders have been able to take their businesses to the next level.\n\u201cCorporations really want to work with start-ups,\u201d said Minette Navarete, vice chairman and president of Kickstart Ventures. Kickstart Ventures is one of the country\u2019s leading venture capital firms, a subsidiary of Globe Telecom backed by Ayala Corporation and SingTel.\nAccording to Ms. Navarete, large corporations benefit from the creativity and excitement that start-ups bring to the table. Whereas corporations like Globe Telecom and Ayala have the resources to fund large ventures, start-ups are agile enough to develop and scale solutions at a pace traditional firms just can\u2019t keep up with. Far from the narrative of disruptor versus disrupted, corporations in the Philippines play a vital role in creating spaces for start-ups to flourish.\nBuilding the Philippine start-up community is a tripartite effort that calls on the government, the academe, and private institutions across the spectrum to work together in unprecedented new ways. To pull that off requires no shortage of creativity and open-mindedness \u2014 a paradigm shift towards collaboration that, if properly structured, could see not only the start-up community, but the nation as a whole, flourish.\nIn choosing to expand into the Philippines, Zipline\u2019s founder Keller Rinaudo echoed what many start-ups have already known about the local ecosystem. It\u2019s not just the wealth of opportunity that firms like his can capitalize on, but the spirit of collaboration that permeates every facet of the local start-up community.\nWith the government\u2019s scaffolding of legislative and executive support, the academe\u2019s thrust towards equipping the next generation of business leaders with the business and tech know-how to thrive, and the entrepreneurial spirit that drives Filipino founders forward into the fourth industrial revolution, it\u2019s no wonder why firms across the globe have their eyes on the Philippines.\n\u201cMany people think the next big technological applications of our time will come out of places like Japan or the United States,\u201d Zipline\u2019s Mr. Rinaudo said. \u201cBut it\u2019s precisely the [countries] that embrace innovation that end up leapfrogging ahead of even developed nations.\u201d", "date_published": "2019-07-22T00:24:48+08:00", "date_modified": "2019-07-22T00:24:48+08:00", "authors": [ { "name": "大象传媒", "url": "/author/cedadiantityclea/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/fc38d2668fdee8f1e2b22df5e72ae6f4ad265ab7814de4aa60060edd377a70ce?s=512&d=mm&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "大象传媒", "url": "/author/cedadiantityclea/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/fc38d2668fdee8f1e2b22df5e72ae6f4ad265ab7814de4aa60060edd377a70ce?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "tags": [ "大象传媒 32 Anniversary Report", "Santiago J. Arnaiz", "Special Reports" ], "summary": "WHEN Keller Rinaudo founded his drone-based delivery start-up Zipline, it was with the lofty dream of building “an instant, automated logistics system for the planet.” It was 2014 and, at the time, AI-powered robots were commonplace only in the warehouses of the world’s tech giants: Alibaba, Amazon, and the like. But Mr. Rinaudo felt that the technologies of the future were being wasted on delivering tennis shoes and pizza. Instead, he believed “the long-term impact of that technology is providing universal healthcare to every person on the planet.”" }, { "id": "/?p=211636", "url": "/technology/2019/01/31/211636/ibm-tells-phl-firms-to-invest-in-tech-savvy-work-force/", "title": "IBM tells PHL firms to invest in tech-savvy work force", "content_html": "By Santiago J. Arnaiz
\nFROM AI to blockchain, conversations on adopting new technologies have been ongoing these past few years, with firms both private and public scrambling to future-proof their systems. But the reality is most firms are nowhere near ready for the future of work.
\nThere\u2019s no question about the benefits of leveraging on latest technology to power today\u2019s workflows, but the transition towards better structures has been slow. The development bottleneck? A lack of skilled workers to manage this transition.
\nAs with the rest of the world, the Philippines suffers from a yawning skill gap in technology. Unable to leverage on its rich labor force to take advantage of opportunities opening up across the globe, how will a developing economy keep up?
\nLast Jan. 22, IBM announced a tripartite partnership with Taguig City and Taguig City University to launch the local leg of its global P-TECH school model.
\n\u201cThere is a massive skills shortage in the world and we feel a responsibility as one of the creators of many of these amazing new technologies that we fill that skills gap,\u201d said Harriet Green, CEO of IBM Asia-Pacific. \u201cThe Philippines needs more of these skills if the trajectory of six to seven percent growth is going to continue.\u201d
\nFROM BLUE COLLAR TO NEW COLLAR
\nCreated in 2011, P-TECH draws a direct path through high school, college, and career, uniting expertise across sectors to strengthen education and reinvigorate local economies.
\nAll this is designed to prepare the future of the Philippine work force to cash in on \u201cnew collar jobs\u201d in various industries affected by advances in technology.
\nNew collar jobs refers to the roles opening up in tech\u2019s fastest growing fields. From cybersecurity to cloud computing, these are positions that require more specialization than a high school education provides, but not necessarily a college degree.
\nThese new jobs are a \u201cpotential upside for roughly 654,000 net new jobs to be created by 2022, from a baseline of 1.15 million jobs in 2016\u201d, according to the Philippine IT-BPM Accelerate PH Future Ready Roadmap 2022.
\nWhen P-TECH kicks off in June, the Philippines will be the second country to adopt the model in Southeast Asia and only the tenth in the world, following 110 P-TECH schools across the United States, Morocco, Australia, and Taiwan.
\nEnrolment in the program is free, as it is specifically targeted towards the underprivileged to make competitive, not only locally but also globally.
\nIn the United States, where the program was conceived, IBM has seen massive progress with P-TECH, with scholars graduating four times faster than the average US community college graduate. Scholars from lower income groups even graduate up to five times faster.
\n\u201cThese P-TECH scholars graduating, every single one of them, within a matter of weeks, gets work,\u201d said Harriet Green.
\nIn the Philippines, P-TECH will span grades 11 to 12, with students participating in a paid internship program, and culminating in an associate\u2019s degree in computer technology. Over the course of their senior high school year, these scholars will benefit from mentorships, worksite visits, and project days.
\n\u201cMost people still put focus on getting a four-year college degree, so we end up with a lot of people with these diplomas that are unable to find jobs because their degrees don\u2019t match the requirements of the marketplace,\u201d said IBM Philippines\u2019 Chief Technologist Lope A. Doromal, Jr.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re not going to make any changes to the existing curriculum, but we will be supplementing it,\u201d he said. \u201cAs the students goes through their normal education, they will have interactions with IBM-ers and our corporate partners so they have real life experience of what it\u2019s like being in a working environment.\u201d
\nFUTURE-PROOFING THE WORKFORCE
\n\u201cOur outcome-based curriculum hasn\u2019t been very successful in terms of the employability of our graduates,\u201d said Taguig City University President Dr. Juan C. Birion, referring to the current K-12 educational framework. \u201cIn senior high school, the graduates are not yet that acceptable when it comes to employment. P-TECH is the right answer to that problem.\u201d
\nAs the country\u2019s first P-TECH school partner, Taguig City University will be joining an ecosystem of more than 200 schools by the end of 2019, and 550 industry partners in sectors like technology, health care, and advanced manufacturing. IBM said it hopes to continue building its community of school and industry partners.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re very aware of the urgent need for skilled STEM talent,\u201d said Harriet Green. She said partnerships among government agencies, educational institutions, and private partners looking to invest in the future can boost efforts to build a strong local workforce.
\n\u201cP-TECH is a direct response by IBM to the global skills crisis and is very much in line with the needs and strategy of the Philippines as a nation,\u201d she said.
Ballet Philippines‘ Young Choreographers Showcase will be held from June 9-10 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Seven pieces will be presented for the first time.
\nVIDEOGRAPHY AND EDITING SANTIAGO J. ARNAIZ
\nINTERVIEW WITH ALICE REYES
\n
National Artist for Dance and Ballet Philippines founder Alice Reyes talks about the importance of the Young Choreographers Showcase, which will be held from June 9-10 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
\n“Magdalena”
\nChoreography Bonifacio Guerrero Jr.
\nMusic: Antonio Lucio Vivaldi
From the \u201cbaro\u2019t saya\u201d to crop tops and skinny jeans. From neatly kept hair to permed and rebonded hair. The Filipino woman has drastically changed over the years. Today, we have the \u201cMagdalena\u201d identity. She is reserved, modest, obedient, and submissive to her partner. Yet, she is also seductive, immodest and domineering. Do we women stick to the old Filipina identity? Or do we move forward with this new Filipina persona?
\nDancers: Ni\u00f1o Royeca, Monica Gana, Graciela Andes, Karla Santos, Joanne Tangalin, Ramona Yusay, Jan Mikaella Villanueva, and Gia Cuerpo
“Danse Macabre”
\nChoreography Danilo Dayo
\nMusic: Charles-Camille Saint-Sa\u00ebns
“Danse Macabre” or dance of death is a medieval allegory involving a procession of both living and dead figures. It originated from late 13th- and early 14th-century poems that combined the ideas of the inevitability and impartiality of death.
\nDancers:\u00a0Luigie Barrera, Ace Polias, Justine Joseph Orande, Edgar Lacaba, and Mark Anthony Balucay
“The Weight on Our Toes”
\nChoreography Erl Sorilla
\nMusic: Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin
“The Weight on Our Toes” is a metaphor for gender fluidity. At times, we abuse ourselves by conforming to societal norms, which, in turn, leaves us feeling empty. From this emptiness may come a desire to break free from labels: shaping, pressing, conquering the weight on our toes by “filling our own shoes.”
\nDancers:\u00a0Victor Maguad, Ni\u00f1o Royeca, Alexis Piel, and Ricmar Bayoneta
“Sun Down”
\nChoreography Gia Gequinto
\nMusic: Johann Sebastian Bach
“Sun Down” revolves around a woman who wears a cloth wrapped around her waist, hanging down loosely and covering her legs. The skirt is an inspiration to embrace the struggles, challenges and imperfections that one encounters in life. One moves through this journey, skirting the edges of their personal limits. As Jill Santopolo wrote: \u201c\u2026and though she was in this dark and broken place, she still able to create beauty.\u201d
\nDancer:\u00a0Katrene San Miguel
“Psst\u2026!!!”
\nChoreography John Ababon
\nMusic: Johann Sebastian Bach & Edward Elgar
Everyone is searching to find their purpose in this journey we call life. Along the way, we discover many things about ourselves. These may be small, big, good or bad for us. But no matter what these discoveries are, what matters most is the satisfaction you have gained and found in yourself.
\nDancers:\u00a0Carlo Padoga, Gianna Hervas, Isabel Shy, and Claire Jeng
“That Moment”
\nChoreography Monica Gana
\nMusic: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
We encounter many people in our lives. But when we meet that one special person, a unique journey begins\u2014almost like a roller-coaster ride.
\nDancers:\u00a0Gia Gequinto and Emmanuelle Guillermo
“MA”
\nChoreography Ronelson Yadao
\nMusic: Yann Tiersen and Lucio San Pedro
“MA” is a tribute to Ronelson Yadao’s mama and to all the women that he was blessed to call “mami,” “nanay,” “ina.” Says Mr. Yadao: “My mama is my first mentor when it comes to strength.\u2028 Strength in giving me breath inside her womb, milk from birth, sleepless nights just to give me a good night’s sleep, early call times for a good day breakfast and words of wisdom as I go through this lifetime.\u2028 This may be a lifetime of exhausting tasks for a mother but the word \u2018task\u2019 is never listed in her vocabulary towards her children.\u00a0 The word \u2018task\u2019 is covered by \u2018Love\u2019.\u2028 A Love in sacrificing and enduring everything and would never think twice to do it all over again.\u2028 One of the greatest forms of Love, after Jesus, is from our Mothers.”
\nDancers:\u00a0Sarah Alejandro, Jemima Reyes, Danilo Dayo, and Erl Sorilla
Taking to the skies with PhilJets.
\nWORDS\u00a0 SANTIAGO J. ARNAIZ |\u00a0PHOTOGRAPHY\u00a0ALDWIN ASPILLERA
\nThe old saying \u201ctime is money\u201d is attributed to American patriarch Benjamin Franklin. In a letter penned in 1748, he described the opportunity cost of wasted, idle time. Though the maxim was addressed to a businessman living and working nearly three centuries ago, one might imagine the late Franklin spending time in 21st-century Manila gridlock traffic, frustratedly pulling out what sparse hairs he had left and arriving at the same conclusion.
\nThat gridlock is an enormous issue, one that\u2019s rattled local legislators and global leaders, many of whom warn that the nation\u2019s major cities will soon be uninhabitable. President Rodrigo Duterte himself has gone on to say the capital will be a \u201cdead city in 25 years,\u201d setting his administration on a feverish infrastructure development push in response.
\nBut while the government has fully committed itself to the monumental task of rehauling the nation\u2019s infrastructure systems, many of these projects\u2014like the expansive Metro Manila Subway system\u2014won\u2019t be completed for another decade. As a result, the country is losing billions every day to congestion.
\nFor most living in major cities around the country, that\u2019s an inescapable reality. For those that can afford a premium alternative, that\u2019s where aviation groups like PhilJets come in.
\nCatering to the country\u2019s corporate elite, PhilJets is a leading player in the business aviation industry, offering chartered flight services with their fleet of private helicopters and jets. Thierry Tea, Chairman and CEO of PhilJets, said he started the company five years ago with two objectives: To promote the Philippine business aviation industry, and to connect Filipinos and tourists in the capital to more destinations around the country.
\nCurrently, PhilJets is expanding their services to meet increasing demand for leisure trips, medical evacuations, and aircraft maintenance. But even then, most of their clients continue to come from the business sector. According to Mr. Tea, demand for VIP charter services is only going up from here.
\nIn a country suffering from increasingly congested thoroughfares, alternative transportation solutions are sorely needed. Earlier this year, the National Economic and Development Authority cited a study they conducted with the Japan International Cooperation Agency, estimating that the country loses Php3.5 billion a day due to traffic congestion. That\u2019s roughly Php1.28 trillion a year. By 2035, that number is expected to balloon to Php1.97 trillion, nearly 10% of the national GDP (gross domestic product) last year.
\nGranted, the average blue-collar worker won\u2019t be swapping out their morning commute with a chartered helicopter trip. But the benefits that a business aviation firm that can offer C-Suite executives the means to get from Makati City to Quezon City in five minutes can\u2019t easily be overlooked.
\n![\"\"](\"http://www.bworldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/hl-HORIZONTAL-PJ2.jpg\")
\u201cWe enable more people to do business in the Philippines,\u201d Mr. Tea said. \u201c[Clients] can arrive at the airport, do one or two meetings, then go back to the airport and fly back to wherever they came from\u2014whether it\u2019s Hong Kong, Singapore, or even the United States. It might not look very substantial, but it enables big business to be done.\u201d
\nMr. Tea, along with co-founder Matea Delen, started PhilJets in 2013, when he heard that an American television crew was looking for a helicopter chartering service in the Philippines. Mr. Tea had previously served as the CEO of Airbus Group Philippines for a number of years and so had the network and industry know-how to land the deal.
\nWhen they began, PhilJets was only a brokering service. Five years later, they\u2019ve built a fleet of 13 aircraft. According to Mr. Tea, they\u2019ve gone from holding 2% of the market to controlling 70%. Over the last three years, Mr. Tea said they\u2019ve managed to grow their revenues 100% year-on-year, with plans to expand even more.
\n\u201cWhen you are a startup company like us, you have to grow and grow fast,\u201d he said. \u201cIn order to do so, we\u2019ve been investing a lot in trainings, in hiring the right people: The right pilots, experienced technicians, experienced mechanics.\u201d
\nMr. Tea said one initiative his group decided to take on has been to bring Filipino talents abroad back home. \u201cWe\u2019ve been able to attract experienced [Filipino] pilots who were flying, working abroad in Africa, in Thailand, [elsewhere] in Southeast Asia,\u201d he said. \u201cToday, they are all working back in the Philippines. We are very proud of that\u2014that we are able to bring back employees in the Philippines, so they can spend more time with their families.\u201d
\nPhilJets isn\u2019t the only firm that\u2019s recognized this growing need for premium transportation services. Geoffrey Cahen, head of sales and marketing for PhilJets, says the local industry is still young, but growing rapidly.
\n\u201cI will say the competition is not like in some other countries, but it\u2019s there\u201d Mr. Cahen said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty aggressive. Everyone knows there is an increase in need for fixed wing and helicopter charter services as there are more and more businessmen looking to invest in the country.\u201d
\n\u201cIn terms of tourism, the country is also booming, with destinations like Palawan, Boracay, Bohol, or even Taal Volcano,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen that more and more players have joined the competition.\u201d
\nOne such competitor, AirTaxi.ph, has been operating in the Philippines since 1996, and offers chartered flights from Manila to 22 cities all over the country, as well as a host of set day trip packages. Members of their \u201cemerald class\u201d enjoy priority access to their fleet of helicopters and private planes for business, leisure, or emergency medical trips.
\n\u201cCompetition is good,\u201d Mr. Cahen said. \u201cIt pushes us to always offer to our clients better services, better packages. At the end, we just need to be more creative in targeting our clients and listening to them.\u201d
\nIn addition to corporate executives and high-flying tourists, Mr. Cahen said PhilJets has seen a lot of demand from different sectors of the mining industry. In fact, after Mr. Tea landed his contract with the American television firm, the company really began to gain traction when they realized how the intricacies of the mining business could benefit from chartered flight services.
\n\u201cThe [Philippines] is also full of mining companies, and those mining companies sometimes are based in remote areas,\u201d Mr. Cahen said. \u201cSo they need the choppers, not for personal use, but really for operations\u2014to carry some of the equipment, some of the employees, and sometimes to also carry the precious cargo.\u201d
\nThough most of their clients look for customized services to take them to specific destinations, Mr. Cahen explained that they do also offer fixed packages, including a helicopter flight directly to Tagaytay. In this package, the chopper lands your group at world-famous destination restaurant Antonio\u2019s for lunch, before flying you off again for an aerial tour around Taal Volcano.
\n\u201cIt takes more or less, five hours,\u201d he said. \u201cOne hour of flying time and four hours on site. It\u2019s been a very popular package.\u201d
\nAccording to their team, PhilJets\u2019 success can be attributed to the attention they pay to curating their services to meet the possible demands of their clients. \u201cSome clients they just want to do a ten-minute tour around Manila,\u201d Mr. Cahen said. \u201cSome clients they just want to avoid the traffic and are willing to pay for a premium service. Some clients just want to go to Tagaytay or to Baguio to play golf.\u201d
\n\u201cEach client is very unique,\u201d he continued, \u201cand we try to cater to these clients by offering a customized experience.\u201d
\nCurrently, clients interested in taking to the skies to circumvent Manila\u2019s clogged arteries need to rent out the entire aircraft. Unlike more robust services one might find abroad, local demand isn\u2019t yet at the level necessary to support a pay-per-seat model. But Mr. Cahen said the industry is definitely headed in that direction.
\n\u201cFor now, [our services] can take you from Quezon City to Makati in more or less five minutes,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the helicopter will pick you up somewhere in Makati. Then Makati to Q.C., we\u2019re talking five minutes of flying time. Either the chopper will wait for you at Q.C.\u2014if we are authorized by the building\u2014or the chopper will fly back to Manila. The cost would be roughly Php30,000 for the entire helicopter.\u201d
\nThe service is definitely pricey. But if time is money, it\u2019s all about how much you value your time. \u201cDo you want to spend two and a half hours in traffic, getting stressed?\u201d Mr. Cahen asked. \u201cOr would you prefer to spend five minutes… saving a lot of time for more business with your team, with your partner?\u201d
\n\n", "content_text": "Taking to the skies with PhilJets.\n\nWORDS\u00a0 SANTIAGO J. ARNAIZ |\u00a0PHOTOGRAPHY\u00a0ALDWIN ASPILLERA\nThe old saying \u201ctime is money\u201d is attributed to American patriarch Benjamin Franklin. In a letter penned in 1748, he described the opportunity cost of wasted, idle time. Though the maxim was addressed to a businessman living and working nearly three centuries ago, one might imagine the late Franklin spending time in 21st-century Manila gridlock traffic, frustratedly pulling out what sparse hairs he had left and arriving at the same conclusion.\nThat gridlock is an enormous issue, one that\u2019s rattled local legislators and global leaders, many of whom warn that the nation\u2019s major cities will soon be uninhabitable. President Rodrigo Duterte himself has gone on to say the capital will be a \u201cdead city in 25 years,\u201d setting his administration on a feverish infrastructure development push in response.\nBut while the government has fully committed itself to the monumental task of rehauling the nation\u2019s infrastructure systems, many of these projects\u2014like the expansive Metro Manila Subway system\u2014won\u2019t be completed for another decade. As a result, the country is losing billions every day to congestion.\nFor most living in major cities around the country, that\u2019s an inescapable reality. For those that can afford a premium alternative, that\u2019s where aviation groups like PhilJets come in.\nThierry Tea, Chairman and CEO of PhilJets.\nCatering to the country\u2019s corporate elite, PhilJets is a leading player in the business aviation industry, offering chartered flight services with their fleet of private helicopters and jets. Thierry Tea, Chairman and CEO of PhilJets, said he started the company five years ago with two objectives: To promote the Philippine business aviation industry, and to connect Filipinos and tourists in the capital to more destinations around the country.\nCurrently, PhilJets is expanding their services to meet increasing demand for leisure trips, medical evacuations, and aircraft maintenance. But even then, most of their clients continue to come from the business sector. According to Mr. Tea, demand for VIP charter services is only going up from here.\nIn a country suffering from increasingly congested thoroughfares, alternative transportation solutions are sorely needed. Earlier this year, the National Economic and Development Authority cited a study they conducted with the Japan International Cooperation Agency, estimating that the country loses Php3.5 billion a day due to traffic congestion. That\u2019s roughly Php1.28 trillion a year. By 2035, that number is expected to balloon to Php1.97 trillion, nearly 10% of the national GDP (gross domestic product) last year.\nGranted, the average blue-collar worker won\u2019t be swapping out their morning commute with a chartered helicopter trip. But the benefits that a business aviation firm that can offer C-Suite executives the means to get from Makati City to Quezon City in five minutes can\u2019t easily be overlooked.\n\n\u201cWe enable more people to do business in the Philippines,\u201d Mr. Tea said. \u201c[Clients] can arrive at the airport, do one or two meetings, then go back to the airport and fly back to wherever they came from\u2014whether it\u2019s Hong Kong, Singapore, or even the United States. It might not look very substantial, but it enables big business to be done.\u201d\nMr. Tea, along with co-founder Matea Delen, started PhilJets in 2013, when he heard that an American television crew was looking for a helicopter chartering service in the Philippines. Mr. Tea had previously served as the CEO of Airbus Group Philippines for a number of years and so had the network and industry know-how to land the deal.\nWhen they began, PhilJets was only a brokering service. Five years later, they\u2019ve built a fleet of 13 aircraft. According to Mr. Tea, they\u2019ve gone from holding 2% of the market to controlling 70%. Over the last three years, Mr. Tea said they\u2019ve managed to grow their revenues 100% year-on-year, with plans to expand even more.\n\u201cWhen you are a startup company like us, you have to grow and grow fast,\u201d he said. \u201cIn order to do so, we\u2019ve been investing a lot in trainings, in hiring the right people: The right pilots, experienced technicians, experienced mechanics.\u201d\nMr. Tea said one initiative his group decided to take on has been to bring Filipino talents abroad back home. \u201cWe\u2019ve been able to attract experienced [Filipino] pilots who were flying, working abroad in Africa, in Thailand, [elsewhere] in Southeast Asia,\u201d he said. \u201cToday, they are all working back in the Philippines. We are very proud of that\u2014that we are able to bring back employees in the Philippines, so they can spend more time with their families.\u201d\nPhilJets isn\u2019t the only firm that\u2019s recognized this growing need for premium transportation services. Geoffrey Cahen, head of sales and marketing for PhilJets, says the local industry is still young, but growing rapidly.\n\u201cI will say the competition is not like in some other countries, but it\u2019s there\u201d Mr. Cahen said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty aggressive. Everyone knows there is an increase in need for fixed wing and helicopter charter services as there are more and more businessmen looking to invest in the country.\u201d\n\u201cIn terms of tourism, the country is also booming, with destinations like Palawan, Boracay, Bohol, or even Taal Volcano,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen that more and more players have joined the competition.\u201d\nOne such competitor, AirTaxi.ph, has been operating in the Philippines since 1996, and offers chartered flights from Manila to 22 cities all over the country, as well as a host of set day trip packages. Members of their \u201cemerald class\u201d enjoy priority access to their fleet of helicopters and private planes for business, leisure, or emergency medical trips.\n\u201cCompetition is good,\u201d Mr. Cahen said. \u201cIt pushes us to always offer to our clients better services, better packages. At the end, we just need to be more creative in targeting our clients and listening to them.\u201d\nIn addition to corporate executives and high-flying tourists, Mr. Cahen said PhilJets has seen a lot of demand from different sectors of the mining industry. In fact, after Mr. Tea landed his contract with the American television firm, the company really began to gain traction when they realized how the intricacies of the mining business could benefit from chartered flight services.\n\u201cThe [Philippines] is also full of mining companies, and those mining companies sometimes are based in remote areas,\u201d Mr. Cahen said. \u201cSo they need the choppers, not for personal use, but really for operations\u2014to carry some of the equipment, some of the employees, and sometimes to also carry the precious cargo.\u201d\nThough most of their clients look for customized services to take them to specific destinations, Mr. Cahen explained that they do also offer fixed packages, including a helicopter flight directly to Tagaytay. In this package, the chopper lands your group at world-famous destination restaurant Antonio\u2019s for lunch, before flying you off again for an aerial tour around Taal Volcano.\n\u201cIt takes more or less, five hours,\u201d he said. \u201cOne hour of flying time and four hours on site. It\u2019s been a very popular package.\u201d\nAccording to their team, PhilJets\u2019 success can be attributed to the attention they pay to curating their services to meet the possible demands of their clients. \u201cSome clients they just want to do a ten-minute tour around Manila,\u201d Mr. Cahen said. \u201cSome clients they just want to avoid the traffic and are willing to pay for a premium service. Some clients just want to go to Tagaytay or to Baguio to play golf.\u201d\n\u201cEach client is very unique,\u201d he continued, \u201cand we try to cater to these clients by offering a customized experience.\u201d\nCurrently, clients interested in taking to the skies to circumvent Manila\u2019s clogged arteries need to rent out the entire aircraft. Unlike more robust services one might find abroad, local demand isn\u2019t yet at the level necessary to support a pay-per-seat model. But Mr. Cahen said the industry is definitely headed in that direction.\n\u201cFor now, [our services] can take you from Quezon City to Makati in more or less five minutes,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the helicopter will pick you up somewhere in Makati. Then Makati to Q.C., we\u2019re talking five minutes of flying time. Either the chopper will wait for you at Q.C.\u2014if we are authorized by the building\u2014or the chopper will fly back to Manila. The cost would be roughly Php30,000 for the entire helicopter.\u201d\nThe service is definitely pricey. But if time is money, it\u2019s all about how much you value your time. \u201cDo you want to spend two and a half hours in traffic, getting stressed?\u201d Mr. Cahen asked. \u201cOr would you prefer to spend five minutes… saving a lot of time for more business with your team, with your partner?\u201d", "date_published": "2018-04-02T16:35:27+08:00", "date_modified": "2021-04-02T10:45:12+08:00", "authors": [ { "name": "大象传媒", "url": "/author/blexticauldulack/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/1311207d4ac1996cb586666fe3d56418ca9f007d735b74eb19d3fa440df5c8b4?s=512&d=mm&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "大象传媒", "url": "/author/blexticauldulack/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/1311207d4ac1996cb586666fe3d56418ca9f007d735b74eb19d3fa440df5c8b4?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "tags": [ "Aldwin Aspillera", "fly", "helicopter", "PhilJets", "ride", "Santiago J. Arnaiz", "Thierry Tea", "Arts & Leisure" ], "summary": "Taking to the skies with PhilJets." } ] }