Wednesday, May 28, 2008

the new philippine heroes

Hello again everybody im back after a three week hiatus for a little vacation. :) it was a good break after a year of hardwork. :) and of all my vacations i have to say that this one gave me a lot of realizations. :) first realization of was of being how rich the greek culture is and how much it has influenced the world and especially the roman culture. As they say “the glory that was greece, the grandeur that was rome.” and how true it is. :) and the next i will explain further in this article. :) the first part of the vacation was a land tour around athens, kalambaka, meteora, delphi and olympia. :) and the second part was a cruise around the greek islands mykonos, patmos, heraklion, rhodes and santorini. :) the cruise ship had around 2,000 more or less passengers and it had 432 staff members of which more than a hundred were filipinos. :) and the filipino crew members recognizing us being their “kabayans” they were friendly and were asking about how things are back home and told us about their lives in the ship which really touched me. Compared to working in the philippines there is no doubt that they are paid better working abroad but the sad part was that they were in europe and all their expenses were in euro but they were paid in us dollar(greeks are smart eh?). :) they usually have contracts of 8 months and mind you there is no day off and they work 12-13 hours a day. Tsktsk i remember a waiter telling us that sometimes he or most of his fellowmen in the ship get home sick and are too tired to keep on working but just receiving one text message from loved ones back home and it is enough to keep them going. I was really touched when i heard that. Then the first filipino staff member that i met in the ship was mike the head bartender and his story was that he sends back 80%-90% of his salary back home because he has three kids who are going to school. Can you imagine such sacrifice. He was also a champion in a singapore bartending event and he is even given a 30minute bartending and juggling exhibition in the ship for its passengers and i curiously asked him if he is given extra because of that skill. Then he told me that he didnt ask any extra pay from the company for that but in exchange he just asked that his brothers also be taken in the company for work and he has three brothers also working in different departments for the same company. Such a touching story. :) he even gave me a hundred dollars to bring back home and left me the choice of jewelry that will fit his budget for his wife because it was her birthday. :) then another was a waitress from iloilo also and she told us of her plans that she was going to save enough money to buy a van for her mother back home to start a rent a car business and help the whole family. :) and she also sent a $100 through us for her mother. It was really touching to hear stories of our heroes abroad. They are truly our heores for if it wasnt for the ofws our country wouldve been in much worse shape. They have basically helped sustain our economy. Helping kids go to school, helping build homes and helping millions of other filipinos live better lives. :) the government should do something so that our fellowmen wont be forced to go abroad to find work. More jobs should be generated here in the country! :) the ofws are our modern day heores! Long live the ofws! Long live the filipino and the filipino spirit! :) God bless and take care. :)

Thursday, May 01, 2008

iba ang langhap sarap

Hello there again everyone and i do hope all is well with you. I recently just had a check up with the doctor because i have been having heartburns recently and i was afraid there was something wrong with my heart and i had a sigh of relief when the doctor said that my heart is normal and the cause of the heartburns were acid. Tsktsktsk so my advice to all of you dont skip meals and eat at the right time. :) anyway its also ironic that the topic that ill be discussing with you today is something very close to my heart, it is FOOD!!! hehehe especially fastfood. :) one thing is for sure, we all have to eat, sleep and drink. :) there were two gentlemen who e-mailed me about jollibee and whats my opinion about it. Im sorry it took me quite some time to reply and to a few other emails ill reply soon. :) Hopefully, i can explain this to you clearly. :) when i first bought jollibee three years ago it was only P24.00 per share. :) thats was after i did my research. :) jollibee back then was the number one fastfood chain in the country and still is until now. :) and i am glad to say that the philippines is one of the few countries and possibly the only country where mcdonald's is present and the latter is not the number one fastfood chain in that country. That my ladies and gentlemen is a very big testament of what a great company jollibee is(by the way im just talking of jollibee fastfood and that doesnt include the other companies that it acquired chowking, greenwich etc). Ronald mcdonald is no match for the bee here and a big part of that is the tan caktiong family which is headed by mr. Tony tan caktiong. :) a truly dynamic leader and visionary in the food industry here in the philippines. Transforming a small ice cream parlor into a fastfood chain with branches philippines even up to tawi-tawi or is it jolo im not sure exactly where but around that area which is just open on weekends. :) doesnt matter if youre just open two days a week because if i have it right its sales there every weekend is around the six digits range. :) i hope mr ronnie mcdonald can say he has a branch there. :) so if some people say that jollibee has no room to grow then its true! Where else would it open??? when it is almost everywhere now. :) when youre number one there is very little room for growth and it is so hard to stay at the top but when youre catching up then i do believe there is still a lot of room for you to grow. :) with this dillema jollibee made a great move acquiring companies and not just any company but ones within their core competence. :) great fastfood companies and restaurants. :) not like san miguel when they had no room for growth they acquired different kinds of companies even investing in the power sector????? thats not the right way to invest, it should always be something that is within your core competence. :) jollibee acquired chowking, greenwich, red ribbon, delifrance and yonghe king and i hope i didnt leave out any company. :) now with that there will be ensured growth in the company for years to come. :) so now back to jollibee to make sure things are still the same i did a survey among family, friends and employess be it young, old, rich or poor it really doesnt matter i just wanted to get the people's beat. :) the results that i got are interesting. :) among social classes a,b and c here are the results: among the a market it is almost a tie between jollibee and mcdonalds. :) the former here has a very slim lead over the latter. :) i would estimate not over 5%. :) in the b and c market it is really dominated by jollibee which i would say more or less has 60%-70% of the market share here. Im sure you guys are familiar with the social structure here in the country which is 10% - a, 20% - b and 70% - c. then you can do math with that. :) it shows you the dominance that jollibee has over mcdonalds. :) here are some of the impressions that i got doing the survey...with jollibee it appeals more to the “masa” and to the kids. People also have an impression that the food prices in jollibee is cheaper. And people prefer jollibee because of the chicken, pies, palabok and spaghetti :) a little trivia it is only here that mcdo serves spaghetti :) a true testament of jollibee's dynamism which mcdo was forced to copy. :) and jollibee's number one food is not their burgers but their chickenjoy. :) now with mcdonalds i got the impression that more sophisticated people eat here and people go there for the burgers and the fries which i also would agree but in fairness jollibee has improved with their fries the last few years but still mcdo has that edge in that department. :) but i think the one big edge that the bee has over mcdo that can never be changed is that jollibee is filipino. :) they are closer to the filipino's heart because it is truly ours and they are able to cater something that is to the filipinos liking and taste. :) i remember this jollibee advertisement 10 years ago when our country was celebrating our centenial celebration there was this advertisement of a kid and marlou aquino with the philippine flag in the background and the line at the end was “iba ang pinoy”. I believe that mcdonalds wasnt able to counter that. :) i do know that mcdonalds is also a great company and their food is great too but in the battlefield it is just like the americans and the vietnamese during the vietnam war. :) the locals just knew more about their country. :) jollibee is truly one great story of a david fighting the goliath and succeeded. :) God bless everyone and good luck in your investments. :)
ps: for any comments, suggestions or questions please email me at compounder888@gmail.com. please also feel free to answer the poll questions :) i will always make sure that there are 2 or 3 poll questions open everytime you log in. :) please forgive the typographical errors that i commit sometimes :) i just have to keep on writing when i have a good idea. :) good luck on your endeavours. :)