(The Freeman) Updated April 03, 2009 12:00 AM
CEBU, Philippines - Cebuano residential developer CLS Properties Inc. is looking at providing socialized housing products for Cebu to cater the less ventured market for less than P2 million house and lot package.
CLS Properties Inc., the developer of several pocket subdivisions in Metro Cebu, will soon offer socialized housing projects, specifically in Mactan, Minglanilla, and Mandaue areas.
CLS chairman Cesar L. Salimbangon said that simultaneous with the company’s thrust to aggressively invest into middle-income residential projects, the company will also give opportunities for families with limited income to own a house through offering socialized yet of quality housing units. In this way, the company could take advantage of the big market that could afford to pay easy monthly amortization.
Although becoming an urbanized city, Cebu still has good market for these kinds of projects, Salimbangon said. In fact, CLS recently launched its latest pocket-subdivision, the 1,000 square-meter Cielo e Terra in Capitol Hills, Cebu City.
Aside from Cielo e Terra, the company has also started several pocket housing projects in Cebu including two separate projects called East Ridge Residences, both in Mactan Island (Basak and So-ong areas), Green Valley in Cebu City, Pereville Subdivision in Mandaue City, and Matilde Condominium project in Ramos. All these projects are in partnership with property owners.
In the next few months, Salimbangon said the company is going to build more affordable house and lot products as its way of providing decent home living among average earners.
At present, the company is marketing some of their existing middle-range residential projects that capture the interest of middle-income earners, including bulk of OFW-funded purchases.
CLS is one of the pioneering developers that ventured into subdivision developments in far-flung towns in Cebu, such as the Solid Homes Subdivision in
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Go Forth and Network
ONE STEP UP By Chris Tio (The Freeman) Updated July 24, 2009 12:00 AM
I get a lot of feedback from readers thru email and most recently, thru Facebook. I really appreciate it when readers take the effort to communicate and share their reactions with me. It helps to know what people are thinking and what their opinions are. It helps me to also define the direction of this column to best suit the reader’s needs. Thank you for that.
I get surprised sometimes by the wide variety of feedback as well as the different professions and backgrounds of those that do. I have one particular reader that stands out. She works for the Government. Lillian is connected with the Bureau of Internal Revenue. She wrote me once to tell me that she follows my column. Lillian also wrote to ask if she could share her own thoughts and insights based on her readings, which could also help other readers out.
Recently, Lillian sent me an email on the importance of networking in finding a job and for promoting business. I would like to reprint what she sent me, as it is very helpful especially for young people looking for their first job. Here are the Lillian’s tips:
“First, Circulate. Talk to people. Be where when you can meet a lot of people. Attend conventions, seminars, meetings which are related to your work. Introduce yourself to many people. But it doesn’t mean that you will talk and mingle only with people in your line of work. Mingle with others, too. You will meet these helpful persons everywhere--- the beach, at the park, in the church, in the supermarket. The point is to be acquainted with lots of people. New acquaintances that you meet can open golden chances for you.
Second, Send a letter to the manager of the firm you are interested in. Make the letters as irresistible as possible. So you will not be denied the appointment you greatly desire and express admiration for the person you are writing to.
Another clever idea is to stay in touch with people you know. Let them know you are still around and eager to make the line of communication open. When you are on vacation, send them card and notes. When someone gives you a favor, send a thank-you note immediately. These gestures will not be forgotten. Don’t ever disregard that small, nice touch. It is central to your success.
You may also request referrals. Referrals play a vital role in one’s career. Through three referrals, the networking widens, which leads to more contacts. Remember, no man is an island, you need other people, to survive and succeed.
You may also join organizations where you are sure to meet lots of people. Give calling cards with your address and phone numbers and state your line of work.
Get rid of your shyness. Build up that self-confidence, fast. Sometimes, you fail in an endeavor due to a feeling of insecurity. Instead of going directly to a prospective client, you back out due to feeling of inadequacy, to handle that situation. Smart women know that timidity has no place in effective networking.”
Lillian concludes by writing, “ Networking is reciprocal . You do things for others and they also do good things for you. And there is no such things as useless contact. Even if real benefits are not yet apparent, something will crop up sooner or later. Take good care of all your contacts, everyday of your life, add more to the network, especially if you are looking for a good job. Many people get their jobs through this networking, a powerful strategy to reach your goals and dreams.”
Thank you Lillian for caring enough to share with us your thoughts. A lot of us are familiar with the saying, “Its who you know that makes a difference.” That alone shows the value of networking. I want to share what Bob Burg added to that, he thoughtfully said, “It isn't just what you know, and it isn't just who you know. It's actually who you know, who knows you, and what you do for a living.”
Let’s follow the examples of these ordinary individuals as they strive to make a difference. Each week, lets all get together and share knowledge, stories, experiences, information, all for the sole purpose of getting One Step Up.
For comments, suggestions or stories that you want to share, email me at stirspecialist@gmail.com, or visit www.stirspecialist.blogspot.com
I get a lot of feedback from readers thru email and most recently, thru Facebook. I really appreciate it when readers take the effort to communicate and share their reactions with me. It helps to know what people are thinking and what their opinions are. It helps me to also define the direction of this column to best suit the reader’s needs. Thank you for that.
I get surprised sometimes by the wide variety of feedback as well as the different professions and backgrounds of those that do. I have one particular reader that stands out. She works for the Government. Lillian is connected with the Bureau of Internal Revenue. She wrote me once to tell me that she follows my column. Lillian also wrote to ask if she could share her own thoughts and insights based on her readings, which could also help other readers out.
Recently, Lillian sent me an email on the importance of networking in finding a job and for promoting business. I would like to reprint what she sent me, as it is very helpful especially for young people looking for their first job. Here are the Lillian’s tips:
“First, Circulate. Talk to people. Be where when you can meet a lot of people. Attend conventions, seminars, meetings which are related to your work. Introduce yourself to many people. But it doesn’t mean that you will talk and mingle only with people in your line of work. Mingle with others, too. You will meet these helpful persons everywhere--- the beach, at the park, in the church, in the supermarket. The point is to be acquainted with lots of people. New acquaintances that you meet can open golden chances for you.
Second, Send a letter to the manager of the firm you are interested in. Make the letters as irresistible as possible. So you will not be denied the appointment you greatly desire and express admiration for the person you are writing to.
Another clever idea is to stay in touch with people you know. Let them know you are still around and eager to make the line of communication open. When you are on vacation, send them card and notes. When someone gives you a favor, send a thank-you note immediately. These gestures will not be forgotten. Don’t ever disregard that small, nice touch. It is central to your success.
You may also request referrals. Referrals play a vital role in one’s career. Through three referrals, the networking widens, which leads to more contacts. Remember, no man is an island, you need other people, to survive and succeed.
You may also join organizations where you are sure to meet lots of people. Give calling cards with your address and phone numbers and state your line of work.
Get rid of your shyness. Build up that self-confidence, fast. Sometimes, you fail in an endeavor due to a feeling of insecurity. Instead of going directly to a prospective client, you back out due to feeling of inadequacy, to handle that situation. Smart women know that timidity has no place in effective networking.”
Lillian concludes by writing, “ Networking is reciprocal . You do things for others and they also do good things for you. And there is no such things as useless contact. Even if real benefits are not yet apparent, something will crop up sooner or later. Take good care of all your contacts, everyday of your life, add more to the network, especially if you are looking for a good job. Many people get their jobs through this networking, a powerful strategy to reach your goals and dreams.”
Thank you Lillian for caring enough to share with us your thoughts. A lot of us are familiar with the saying, “Its who you know that makes a difference.” That alone shows the value of networking. I want to share what Bob Burg added to that, he thoughtfully said, “It isn't just what you know, and it isn't just who you know. It's actually who you know, who knows you, and what you do for a living.”
Let’s follow the examples of these ordinary individuals as they strive to make a difference. Each week, lets all get together and share knowledge, stories, experiences, information, all for the sole purpose of getting One Step Up.
For comments, suggestions or stories that you want to share, email me at stirspecialist@gmail.com, or visit www.stirspecialist.blogspot.com
A Better Ballpen
ONE STEP UP By Chris Tio (The Freeman) Updated August 21, 2009 12:00 AM
Recently, a number of people have turned to me for advice on their business idea. I would worriedly protest that I was not qualified to give them advice. But they would insist that I hear them out. I realized that I could at least look at their idea from a common sense point of view and ask simple questions based on that. I found out that a lot of people either wanted to start a business because they love the thought of being an entrepreneur or see someone succeeding in one type of business and want to imitate it but do it better.
I get very interesting answers when I hear the answers to one simple question, “Why do you want to do this?” The answers often range from, “Because everybody thinks it’s a good idea…” to “I have some money saved up…” But I often get very little response to the question, “ What is it that you really want to do?, What are you passionate about?” I often get a blank stare and a rebuttal, “Can that be a business?”
One of the common threads in starting small businesses is that we fall in love with imitation, being a copycat. For example, if someone starts a barbeque restaurant featuring fresh seafood, if it becomes successful, the street will soon have several restaurants with the same concept. Not enough people want to start businesses that are unique and creative. The common fear is that it is too risky and nobody wants to be the one to try. After all, they can be the one to follow if it works…
I believe there are many ideas that exist for business that actually fulfill a need, a unique solution that people have failed to recognize. We often fall in love with complex plans or sophisticated solutions when many times, the actual answer was just staring at us in front of our noses.
I remember a popular story on how much NASA spent to develop the first gravity ballpen. It seems that it was a big problem that ballpens would not write upside down due to the effects of zero gravity. So not so few million dollars later, a zero gravity pen was made. It was a monumental achievement, one that the Agency was very proud of, until they discovered what the Russians were using: A pencil.
Another humorous story was when a Japanese soap manufacturer was horrified to discover that a customer had bought an empty box of soap. To make sure it never happened again, it directed its engineering team to develop a solution to prevent this occurrence. The team immediately came up with a unique x-ray that was mounted at the end of the assembly line. There, all boxes were immediately scanned to make sure that there was always a bar of soap in every box.
After a successful test run, Tokyo headquarters immediately instructed the engineers to ship the new x-ray machines to all of their factories worldwide. The Japanese president of the Philippine subsidiary was worried about what to do while waiting for the x-ray to arrive. He asked his Filipino engineers to study the problem. They promptly came up with an alternative solution, they mounted a high powered industrial fan at the end of the assembly line to blow away any empty boxes.
There is a lot of room for creativity, passion, innovation and uniqueness in starting a business. It may be risky but when it succeeds, the rewards can be enormous. Google co founder Larry Page once said, “You don’t need a 100-person company to develop that idea.” Remember how Google started? It was a school project, on how to develop a better search engine.
I would like to congratulate the UP TAO Brotherhood and Sisterhood for reaching their 20th anniversary this weekend. I would also like to congratulate the UPS for also achieving this significant milestone. I am proud to have been part of the start of these organizations.
I would also like to congratulate Charmaine Ong on the one year anniversary of the Oras ng Jaycees program on DYRF. Thank you for inviting me to guest and discuss the need for entrepreneurship especially for our youth. Congratulations.
Let’s follow the examples of these ordinary individuals as they strive to make a difference. Each week, lets all get together and share knowledge, stories, experiences, information, all for the sole purpose of getting One Step Up.
For comments, suggestions or stories that you want to share, email me at
stirspecialist@gmail.com, or visit www.stirspecialist.blogspot.com .
Recently, a number of people have turned to me for advice on their business idea. I would worriedly protest that I was not qualified to give them advice. But they would insist that I hear them out. I realized that I could at least look at their idea from a common sense point of view and ask simple questions based on that. I found out that a lot of people either wanted to start a business because they love the thought of being an entrepreneur or see someone succeeding in one type of business and want to imitate it but do it better.
I get very interesting answers when I hear the answers to one simple question, “Why do you want to do this?” The answers often range from, “Because everybody thinks it’s a good idea…” to “I have some money saved up…” But I often get very little response to the question, “ What is it that you really want to do?, What are you passionate about?” I often get a blank stare and a rebuttal, “Can that be a business?”
One of the common threads in starting small businesses is that we fall in love with imitation, being a copycat. For example, if someone starts a barbeque restaurant featuring fresh seafood, if it becomes successful, the street will soon have several restaurants with the same concept. Not enough people want to start businesses that are unique and creative. The common fear is that it is too risky and nobody wants to be the one to try. After all, they can be the one to follow if it works…
I believe there are many ideas that exist for business that actually fulfill a need, a unique solution that people have failed to recognize. We often fall in love with complex plans or sophisticated solutions when many times, the actual answer was just staring at us in front of our noses.
I remember a popular story on how much NASA spent to develop the first gravity ballpen. It seems that it was a big problem that ballpens would not write upside down due to the effects of zero gravity. So not so few million dollars later, a zero gravity pen was made. It was a monumental achievement, one that the Agency was very proud of, until they discovered what the Russians were using: A pencil.
Another humorous story was when a Japanese soap manufacturer was horrified to discover that a customer had bought an empty box of soap. To make sure it never happened again, it directed its engineering team to develop a solution to prevent this occurrence. The team immediately came up with a unique x-ray that was mounted at the end of the assembly line. There, all boxes were immediately scanned to make sure that there was always a bar of soap in every box.
After a successful test run, Tokyo headquarters immediately instructed the engineers to ship the new x-ray machines to all of their factories worldwide. The Japanese president of the Philippine subsidiary was worried about what to do while waiting for the x-ray to arrive. He asked his Filipino engineers to study the problem. They promptly came up with an alternative solution, they mounted a high powered industrial fan at the end of the assembly line to blow away any empty boxes.
There is a lot of room for creativity, passion, innovation and uniqueness in starting a business. It may be risky but when it succeeds, the rewards can be enormous. Google co founder Larry Page once said, “You don’t need a 100-person company to develop that idea.” Remember how Google started? It was a school project, on how to develop a better search engine.
I would like to congratulate the UP TAO Brotherhood and Sisterhood for reaching their 20th anniversary this weekend. I would also like to congratulate the UPS for also achieving this significant milestone. I am proud to have been part of the start of these organizations.
I would also like to congratulate Charmaine Ong on the one year anniversary of the Oras ng Jaycees program on DYRF. Thank you for inviting me to guest and discuss the need for entrepreneurship especially for our youth. Congratulations.
Let’s follow the examples of these ordinary individuals as they strive to make a difference. Each week, lets all get together and share knowledge, stories, experiences, information, all for the sole purpose of getting One Step Up.
For comments, suggestions or stories that you want to share, email me at
stirspecialist@gmail.com, or visit www.stirspecialist.blogspot.com .
Cebu beats other cities for Bombardier facility
By Rhia de Pablo (The Freeman) Updated April 29, 2009 12:00 AM
CEBU, Philippines – Cebu City was chosen, among 62 metropolises around the globe, as one of the two locations for the global finance shared services center for accounting and reporting of the multi-national transportation company Bombardier Transportation.
In a recent ceremony, Bombardier Transportation formally opened its Global Finance Shared Service Center for Accounting and Reporting here in Cebu at the 14th floor of the new TGU Tower in Asiatown IT Park with 20 employees that is expected to grow by 150 in 2014.
Bombardier Transportation is a world leading manufacturer based in Canada engaged in innovative transportation solutions from commercial aircraft and business jets to rail transportation equipment, systems and services.
Bombardier general manager and director for finance accounting and reporting Heiko Kafer said that after months of training their local based accountants, Bombardier Transportation will migrate transactional activities in Cebu for the English speaking countries and Asian countries this October while the other one located in Cluj, Romania will service European countries requiring different language capabilities.
He said that the primary objective of moving to a Finance Shared Service Approach is to better focus on internal customers, enhance business support, improve and standardize processes, centralize accounting expertise, improve competitiveness and ensure increased quality of balance sheet and financial results delivered to the market.
Meanwhile, the company’s VP Finance Shared Services, Accounting and Reporting Olivier Guitton underscored that their Finance Shared Service center in Cebu will be sustainable and successful because people are the basis of their excellent delivery of services.
“Cebu was chosen among the 62 cities because in Cebu there is an availability of highly qualified accounting staff at competitive cost who are used to a shared service mentality so we can ensure excellent delivery of services and support for our business for the worldwide market,” said Guitton.
Kafer said that the search for the location of their two Finance Shared Service centers started in August of last year and they have searched cities from all over Europe and Asia.
Among the shortlisted countries included Chinea in India and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia but Cebu was chosen because of its customer-oriented and service oriented culture.
Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said the launching stressed that the choice of Bombardier to locate one of its global financial center here in Cebu shows the continued confidence of foreign investors to Cebu as an area of growth.
The presence of Bombardier Transportation in the country has been started since 1996 as the company landed contract for the signalling system of the Metro Railway Transit (MRT) and now they are targeting several projects in Manila which includes the Line 8 project which runs from North Avenue to the East of Manila for rolling stock or the trains itself and the signalling systems.
They have also supplied Q400 and Q300 commercial aircraft to Philippines Airlines’ low cost segment PAL Express.
Bombardier Transportation has presence in over 60 countries and has so far installed base of over 100, 000 vehicles worldwide.
It offers the broadest range of product portfolio and is recognized as the leader in the global rail sector as well as the aerospace industry.
Its revenues for the fiscal year 2008 was at $17.5 billion in which $9.7 billion or 55 percent was gotten from its aerospace segment and $7.8 billion or 45 percent from its total revenues was taken from its transportation segment.
Bombardier Transportation is traded in the Toronto Stock Exchange and is listed as an index component to the Dow Jones Sustainability World and North America Indexes.
CEBU, Philippines – Cebu City was chosen, among 62 metropolises around the globe, as one of the two locations for the global finance shared services center for accounting and reporting of the multi-national transportation company Bombardier Transportation.
In a recent ceremony, Bombardier Transportation formally opened its Global Finance Shared Service Center for Accounting and Reporting here in Cebu at the 14th floor of the new TGU Tower in Asiatown IT Park with 20 employees that is expected to grow by 150 in 2014.
Bombardier Transportation is a world leading manufacturer based in Canada engaged in innovative transportation solutions from commercial aircraft and business jets to rail transportation equipment, systems and services.
Bombardier general manager and director for finance accounting and reporting Heiko Kafer said that after months of training their local based accountants, Bombardier Transportation will migrate transactional activities in Cebu for the English speaking countries and Asian countries this October while the other one located in Cluj, Romania will service European countries requiring different language capabilities.
He said that the primary objective of moving to a Finance Shared Service Approach is to better focus on internal customers, enhance business support, improve and standardize processes, centralize accounting expertise, improve competitiveness and ensure increased quality of balance sheet and financial results delivered to the market.
Meanwhile, the company’s VP Finance Shared Services, Accounting and Reporting Olivier Guitton underscored that their Finance Shared Service center in Cebu will be sustainable and successful because people are the basis of their excellent delivery of services.
“Cebu was chosen among the 62 cities because in Cebu there is an availability of highly qualified accounting staff at competitive cost who are used to a shared service mentality so we can ensure excellent delivery of services and support for our business for the worldwide market,” said Guitton.
Kafer said that the search for the location of their two Finance Shared Service centers started in August of last year and they have searched cities from all over Europe and Asia.
Among the shortlisted countries included Chinea in India and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia but Cebu was chosen because of its customer-oriented and service oriented culture.
Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said the launching stressed that the choice of Bombardier to locate one of its global financial center here in Cebu shows the continued confidence of foreign investors to Cebu as an area of growth.
The presence of Bombardier Transportation in the country has been started since 1996 as the company landed contract for the signalling system of the Metro Railway Transit (MRT) and now they are targeting several projects in Manila which includes the Line 8 project which runs from North Avenue to the East of Manila for rolling stock or the trains itself and the signalling systems.
They have also supplied Q400 and Q300 commercial aircraft to Philippines Airlines’ low cost segment PAL Express.
Bombardier Transportation has presence in over 60 countries and has so far installed base of over 100, 000 vehicles worldwide.
It offers the broadest range of product portfolio and is recognized as the leader in the global rail sector as well as the aerospace industry.
Its revenues for the fiscal year 2008 was at $17.5 billion in which $9.7 billion or 55 percent was gotten from its aerospace segment and $7.8 billion or 45 percent from its total revenues was taken from its transportation segment.
Bombardier Transportation is traded in the Toronto Stock Exchange and is listed as an index component to the Dow Jones Sustainability World and North America Indexes.
Go signal given for unsolicited proposal on SRP joint venture
(The Freeman) Updated September 09, 2009 12:00 AM
CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City now has the go signal of the Commission on Audit to make use of the submission of unsolicited proposals for the joint venture transactions over the South Road Properties.
Joel Mari Yu, managing director of the Cebu Investment and Promotion Center, said that they now have a go signal from COA to pursue joint venture transactions by asking interested clients to submit unsolicited proposal.
A year ago, Yu said that their attention was called by COA on the said method as it accordingly disregarded the process of public bidding requirement on projects and services.
“At least now they also agree that the publishing of the unsolicited proposal for the joint venture is the same as public bidding since you are also inviting others to submit their respective competitive challenge,” Yu said.
Yu also said that an unsolicited proposal is better than the actual public bidding process considering that everything is negotiated to the disadvantage of the city.
“We don’t just accept their proposal even if the price is right, but we also make sure that we also agree with what they intend to do with the property at SRP,” Yu said.
He further said that the aim of the city government is to let the private sector manage most of the things.
In the SRP, the first joint venture contract is the one with Filinvest Land, Inc. which submitted an unsolicited proposal to pour in P25-billion investment over 50.6 hectares there.
Only the provincial government made intent of submitting a competitive challenge, but was rejected twice because of the lack of jurisdiction or identity.
According to the Joint Venture Selection Committee, Capitol is not a private entity.
Services for water at the SRP are also to be run by the private sector and still under a joint venture agreement.
Cebu City is set to close another deal with a company prior to the end of this year, which is also under joint venture. – Ferliza C. Contratista/MEEV (FREEMAN NEWS)
CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City now has the go signal of the Commission on Audit to make use of the submission of unsolicited proposals for the joint venture transactions over the South Road Properties.
Joel Mari Yu, managing director of the Cebu Investment and Promotion Center, said that they now have a go signal from COA to pursue joint venture transactions by asking interested clients to submit unsolicited proposal.
A year ago, Yu said that their attention was called by COA on the said method as it accordingly disregarded the process of public bidding requirement on projects and services.
“At least now they also agree that the publishing of the unsolicited proposal for the joint venture is the same as public bidding since you are also inviting others to submit their respective competitive challenge,” Yu said.
Yu also said that an unsolicited proposal is better than the actual public bidding process considering that everything is negotiated to the disadvantage of the city.
“We don’t just accept their proposal even if the price is right, but we also make sure that we also agree with what they intend to do with the property at SRP,” Yu said.
He further said that the aim of the city government is to let the private sector manage most of the things.
In the SRP, the first joint venture contract is the one with Filinvest Land, Inc. which submitted an unsolicited proposal to pour in P25-billion investment over 50.6 hectares there.
Only the provincial government made intent of submitting a competitive challenge, but was rejected twice because of the lack of jurisdiction or identity.
According to the Joint Venture Selection Committee, Capitol is not a private entity.
Services for water at the SRP are also to be run by the private sector and still under a joint venture agreement.
Cebu City is set to close another deal with a company prior to the end of this year, which is also under joint venture. – Ferliza C. Contratista/MEEV (FREEMAN NEWS)
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