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The Talented Filipinos (But…)

May 26, 2008

Everyone is talking about doing business with the Chinese and Indians but they are missing out on one small country that is full of energetic, smart and creative people. I’m talking about Filipinos, of course.

There is, for instance, the recent story of Gian Karlo Dapul, a high school student who won a public speaking competition in the UK in early May. The fact that he won over college students and native English speakers makes his victory even more important (English is a second language to us Filipinos).

There’s also the sweet story of Charice Pempengco and Arnel Pineda – two Filipino singers, unknown in the Philippines but skyrocketed into fame, thanks to YouTube. Ellen Degeneris saw Charice singing in a YouTube post and asked her assistants to find her. Arnel is now the new lead singer of the band Journey, after he was discovered in YouTube by lead guitarist Neal Schon.

We do not just excel in eloquence and show business. Dado Banato, a Filipino engineer, opened up an IBM-PC back in the 1980s and realized he can improve the graphics performance through “chipsets”. Thus was born S3 Graphics, a critical improvement to the basic architecture of the computers as we know it today. Dado is now a serial entrepreneur and a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley and in the Philippines (More on Dado).

Filipinos also thrive in contact centers, health care and the hospitality industry. Employers won’t really say it out loud, but they’ll confide that they prefer Filipinos because they are friendly, patient, sympathetic and easy to talk to. 

Given all these, how come our country still lags behind its neighbors in Asia? Pose this question to Filipinos and they will recite this litany of national woes: corruption, irresponsible politicians, unconcerned government leaders, etc. It’s easy to be depressed when brought into this discussion. 

I don’t believe that Filipinos lack discipline and the right attitude to thrive in business. Perhaps our major fatal flaw is we like to complain about the flawed systems that we have, but we never try to do anything about it. 

Just look at the successful Pinoy businesses like San Miguel, Jollibee and SM, corporations that have since conquered other countries (San Miguel now owns major food companies in Australia).

It’s just a matter of attitude. Perhaps if we all look at the bright side and be more positive towards our country, then we will start focusing on making it better, instead.

 

Written by Ruben Canlas · Filed Under Blog, Startups | Leave a Comment 

Leading a Startup

May 15, 2008

Frustration! Anger! Stress!

It’s just another day in the life of a startup entrepreneur. One hour you’re dealing with an irate client. The next hour, you’ll be taking it out against your staff.

How do you cope with stress? What “psychological skills” do you need to deal with the every day pressure of managing a startup?

Leading a startup requires more than just having technical skills to survive. Being a good web designer, for example, does not mean you can be good at leading a startup web design firm. Often, having good technical skills works against you — you tend to be meticulous, an irritating “micromanager” unwilling to delegate tasks. This leads to more stress and an unhealthy work environment for your startup.

What you need is a strong emotional makeup. For me, what helped was reading about emotional intelligence (EI) and understanding how it affects us, as individuals and team players. EI taught me a couple of vital lessons to help me lead teams and manage stress. Let me give a very brief summary of what it takes to be emotionally intelligent.

  • Be self-aware. Knowing who you are and what you want to accomplish is important. What do you enjoy doing most? Is your startup a way for you to give you that sense of fulfillment? What do you dislike doing most? 
  • Manage your emotions. Once you are self-aware, you have a better grasp of what fulfills or irritates you. What triggers your happiness? Your anger? What body signals indicate that you are about to explode? Do you notice your blood pulsing in your head, or your heartbeat racing? Will breathing deeply and counting to ten help? Managing emotions does not mean suppressing them. You may still let employees know that you are displeased with their performance, but you don’t have to throw them out of the window because you’re mad as hell (yes, I know one person who did just that!).
  • Have empathy. Empathy is the ability to put yourself in other people’s shoes. If someone is underperforming, it’s not just on a whim. There is probably a reason behind it. You need to feel for that person and see it from their perspective. Perhaps a family matter is troubling them. Maybe they’re overworked. The Dalai Lama has a good technique for cultivating empathy. He says to treat everyone as if they were your mother.
That’s it for now. This entry is just part of a series on emotional intelligence and how we can use it to become better startup entrepreneurs. I’ll be building up on this in upcoming blog entries. Do send your questions and comments. 

Written by Ruben Canlas · Filed Under Startups | 1 Comment 

Introducing Ruben Canlas

May 2, 2008

Please welcome Ruben Canlas to the Philippine Startup Blog.  Ruben is the IT columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine (Philippine edition), columnist for Masigasig Magazine (small business) and contributor for the Manila Times.  Ruben is a serial entrepreneur having founded seven companies.  His most recent is Dig It All Solutions, a web application and IT consulting firm focusing on open source solutions.  Welcome to the Startup Blog Network Ruben!

Written by Alexander Muse · Filed Under Blog, Startups | Leave a Comment