I like it! Fit n Fast Gyms are a new player serious about making a huge impact in the fitness/gyms marketplace — and I reckon they could have a winning marketing formula. Using a combination of Facebook, Foursquare, and Twitter, they’re spreading the word through the power of personal social networks on what I imagine is a shoestring budget. Arrive at your gym, and Fit…
Are Australians living in poverty just as much as Filipinos? Is it not about how much money you have? During my visit to Davao City last week, I had the opportunity for several great chats with my good friend Glen Biggs, from Global Impact. One of our evening discussions involved late night coffee at an excellent, relatively new, coffee establishment just down the…
On my flight back from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne yesterday, I took the opportunity afforded by flying AirAsiaX (sans onboard entertainment) to read another sizeable chunk of “Creative Capitalism: A Conversation with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and other Economic Leaders”. I guess I’m a bit slow in getting to the literature of leading global economists but I can now say I’ve read Milton…
The past two weeks have flown by, and although I’ve been constantly ‘on the go’ I was still unable to meet with everybody that I would like to have. I missed out on meeting with Mellany Ramos Stametalaky from Kids Hope this time around, and didn’t get to International Needs in Marikina. I didn’t see my friend Raffy Ilano, or Cha Cha del…
When I started writing this mini-series of posts profiling different Filipinos I had a few different specific people in mind for the Part 3 feature. But in just 2 weeks I’ve encountered so many people in such a variety of circumstances, that I couldn’t decide upon just one person for this 3rd profile. In fact, I’d also encountered so many people who’s story…
By the time I arrive at Dencio’s in the Trinoma mall, Joy has already started drinking cocktails. She’s seated squarely in the centre of the long bench seat behind a table large enough to seat six, and the waiters are attentively at hand any time she requires another drink. Joy has recently graduated from Law and is staying with family in Manila during…
Fred owns a two storey house in Bulacan, about 40km north of Manila. Meandering through the quiet local streets to his home, the bustling traffic of EDSA and Cubao are forgotten, and the pace of life slows down alot. Fred’s pace of life mirrors his surroundings. Getting up in the morning, he shuffles around his home, gets his live-in girlfriend to make him…
I’m here! If home is where the heart is, I’m definitely home. I’ve arrived at Diosdada Macapagal International Airport, more easily known as Clark, just north of the city of Angeles (not pronounced the same as you’d say Los Angeles — instead try to say the ‘g’ more like you’d say ‘guess’) and caught the shuttle bus down to Cubao. Immediately I knew I was…
Having spent less than 12 hours in Kuala Lumpur, and all of those being ‘after dark’, I really can’t tell you much about Malaysia, but as I was coasting in to Sentral on the AeroBus shuttle I had time to just watch and think. After checking into my hotel I then, as is my habit, took to the streets in search not only…
Major corporations struggle to deliver high quality services, and small businesses learn through repeated ‘trial and error’, and yet 5000 semi-literate lunchbox carriers in Mumbai can lose just one 1 in 6 million ‘tiffins’ that, as a united organism, they deliver from the client’s home, to their workplace, and back to home again. I’m on a flight from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur at…
