Batuhan: Just business
WHEN one hears the world Liverpool, a lot of rich imagery comes to mind.
For those who are old enough, Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields evoke recollections of the most vibrantly brilliant music ever heard. After all, it is in the heart of Liverpool where Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts...
Batuhan: Politeness schizophrenia
THERE is something about Filipinos and their aggression.
In the best of times, we are a polite and meek lot. Too meek and polite, in fact, that others tend to trample us underfoot, without even a whimper in protest from us.
Batuhan: Confuse rather than clarify
IT HAS been a couple of weeks since I returned from a month-long extended trip to the US. While there, in the midst of the primary season for this year’s presidential elections, I saw firsthand the process that they follow almost religiously in America, about how they choose their candidates,...
Batuhan: With great power...
WHAT is it with Americans and their dogs?
A couple or so weeks back, a Democratic “strategist” unearthed a heinous crime that the almost-presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney committed, that should supposedly bar him from the presidency.
Batuhan: E pluribus unum
THE race for the presidency is definitely heating up.
In the week before I finally return home, it seems that the contest for the presidency of the United States is reaching fever pitch.
Batuhan: The color green
TWO weeks is a long time in America. Just the week before Easter, we talked about how constant racial angst seems to be keeping this nation almost forever in its grip.
Back then, the minority African-American community was up in arms over what it perceived to be unjust treatment one if...
Batuhan: Racial angst
BEING in America these days feels very strange indeed.
After losing its erstwhile pristine AAA credit rating, it seems to me that America is, well, now just “one of the guys.”
Batuhan: Death through taxes
I WAS at the regular monthly forum on taxation, sponsored by the American Chamber of Commerce, for the benefit of its member organizations. I have not been—for various reasons—in regular attendance at these sessions, but this was a very important one, because of the developments that it...
Batuhan: Religious tourism
IT IS that time of year again. Yes, it is. When the vestments of the clergy turn the color purple. When the intricately woven palms come out for blessing. And when the heat of the summer sun seems to recreate scenes of Calvary right here in our very own shores.
Yes, Lent is here. A time...
Batuhan: Be a friend
WHAT is the secret of the world’s most successful people?
Skill perhaps? Intelligence? Personal charisma? Luck? Concern for others?
Perhaps all of the above. But also, perhaps some more than others of the above.
A lot of the spotlight has focused on an individual’s...
Batuhan: Control and compliance
I WAS recently a guest speaker at a meeting of our young cadre of leaders in our company. These were young men and women in their mid-twenties to early thirties, who were just assuming their first leadership roles in the organization.
I was tasked to talk to them about the twin subjects...
Batuhan: Business-friendly
IT IS easy to do business in the Philippines. Yes, we like to tout ourselves as a destination of choice for would-be investors, because here we give them all the advantages they need in order to make their business successful.
Batuhan: Major hurt
A LOT of big things appear to be in store for us in 2012. It is, after all, The Year of the Dragon, and this is always known to be a period of major change.
For starters, the world is supposed to end this year. That is, if the Mayan calendar is to be believed. In fact, major catastrophes...
Batuhan: The year of major changes
WHILE most of the world has celebrated the arrival of the New Year, a good part of it—people-wise, that is—are still to herald the new one on Monday.
Yes, it is arrival of the dragon—the water dragon, to be exact—that many of the world, influenced by Chinese custom and tradition, will be...
Batuhan: Sharing God’s blessings
IT IS not uncommon these days—especially with Facebook and Twitter—to read of people complaining about Christmas. More often than not, they will describe Christmas as a totally draining experience.
Batuhan: The masters of deception
THEY say that lies have an uncanny knack for becoming the truth, especially when repeated often enough. Especially these days when it is easy for anyone to think aloud, and for the whole world to hear – and repeat – his or her lies throughout the entire world.
Batuhan: Do they ever learn (yet again)?
REALLY, I thought our last piece was the end of it.
We began our articles with the theme of “do they every learn?” by talking about how companies always seem to forget the lessons of the past, by repeating either mistakes committed by their peers, or even themselves.
We zeroed in...
Bathuhan: Separation
THE world of business is one continuously wracked by one crisis after another. No sooner has one died down, than another starts brewing to take its place.
Batuhan: One reaps what one sows
The last time around, our series of articles focused on companies that never seem to learn from the mistakes of the past. We zeroed in particularly on the dilemma of centralization versus decentralization, and how organizations seem to be to-ing and fro-ing between one extreme and the other....
Batuhan: Parable of the see-saw: Do they ever learn?
PAIN for some, but gain for everybody, as a whole. This seems to be the mantra behind decisions regarding group consolidations. Clearly, with cross-border cost differentials, not all subsidiaries within a global organization’s portfolio will have identical cost structures. Some will be lower...
Batuhan: Do they ever learn (2)?
IT ONLY takes a global financial crisis for a company to unlearn everything that ever made it great, and try to remold itself into an organization that it isn’t, all in pursuit of “cost savings” to demonstrate its long-term viability as an ongoing enterprise.
Last week, I talked about a...
Batuhan: Do they ever learn?
IT SEEMS that companies never learn.Over the course of my almost 20 years in management, it seems that the debate of centralization versus decentralization has not been settled yet. No, far from it. In fact, I get the feeling that 20 years hence, I may be writing another piece lamenting how the...
Batuhan: iPhone in Heaven?
WHEN Steve Jobs passed away this week, the whole world—it seems—wept for him. The technology world lost one of its great icons—the man who changed both the world of mobile computing and mobile telephony forever.
There are few names who are up there among the world’s technology elite....
Batuhan: Two sides of the same blessing
MODERN technology has a way of leveling the playing field for all.
It used to be that in days gone by, those who held power were the ones who had the stores of knowledge stashed for themselves. Individuals, communities or countries who were able to accumulate information to do or make...
Batuhan: A couple of laments
IT’S funny how we Filipinos have lost our sense of humor. Or perhaps, just some of our skills in the English language.
Last week, I wrote what I thought was a rather funny piece, satirizing how the world seems to have turned its back on God, preferring instead to worship all things...
