In business to make a difference

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, businesswoman Noemi O.
Baltazar felt hopeless. Her newborn son Arby was diagnosed
with Down syndrome — a chromosomal disorder
characterized by impairment of cognitive ability and
physical growth.
It was something unexpected, to say the least. Prior
to giving birth to Arby, Ms. Baltazar was a typical
housewife, married to Cesar. They already had three
sons and a daughter. Little did she know her life was
about to change when Arby came to her life.
“Initially, I was sad of course. Like every expectant
mother, you want to give birth to a healthy child… but
that was not the case with Arby,” Ms. Baltazar said.
But instead of sulking about her fate, Ms. Baltazar
chose to accept the challenge, and turn it to an opportunity.
“The first thing I did was to remove all the fear, and
then the sadness, and then the denial,” Ms. Baltazar
said. “The earlier I dealt with those, the better for my
child, because then the attention would be focused on
him rather than on me and the rest of my family.”
Back to school
When Arby was six years old, Ms. Baltazar decided to
study Special Education, when she could not be satisfied
with the therapy and education her son was getting
from his school. In 2002, Ms. Baltazar—who was
then already 47 years old—enrolled in a master’s degree
in Special Education at the University of the Philippines.
“I knew also, deep in my heart, I really could not
find a perfect school for him. There was no perfect
school actually so I thought I’d better study so I could
help my son. Whatever he was learning from [the
school], maybe I could complement with whatever I
learned, so I took up Special Education,” she said.
An accountant by profession, Ms. Baltazar admitted
returning to school was initially difficult. To encourage
her, her husband who is a chemical engineer, also enrolled
in the same university to take up a doctorate in
educational psychology. (They are currently writing
their theses).
“We were both venturing into a very different field.
But we were doing it for our son. Our only intention
was to help him,” she explained.
It was during her studies that she discovered there
were many things she neglected to do to help her son
while he was growing up. “As I studied, I realized I
20 VWEEENKTENUDR WEASRRIOR JAN 2005
should have given more attention to him. I should
have stayed with him more. I should have been there
for him,” she narrated.
It was at that point that Ms. Baltazar resolved to
set up a therapy center to help similarly situated parents
deal with their special children and help these
children lead productive lives.
Born out of being a mother of a special child, Ms.
Baltazar set up Therapy Plus Learning Center last August
in an office space at the City & Land Mega
Plaza Building in Ortigas Center in Pasig City.
‘World of learning’
Armed with her knowledge of Business Management
System (BMS) obtained from attending seminars by
the Partnership Forum for International Trade Dev’t.,
Inc. (FITDEV), Ms. Baltazar was able to efficiently set
up Therapy Plus in just six months. (Husband Cesar is
the president of FITDEV).
Learning from BMS to clearly define a business,
she positioned Therapy Plus as an alternative to
other therapy centers and special education schools
currently catering to special children.
“Looking for the right school could be very frustrating.
Most of these schools, we have to understand,
are mainly for business,” she said. “In our
case, since I define my business as a center that
opens a world of learning and development opportunities
for children with special needs, we focus on
what we can do for our clients.”
Thus, in Therapy Plus, there are regular consultations
with parents and caregivers of the special children
to ensure that everything done during the
therapy sessions would have follow-up activities at
home.
”Before, I just brought my child to the therapy
session every week, then that was it. I didn’t know
what the therapist did, and what was the response of
my child,” Ms. Baltazar narrated.
“I found that lacking. That was not enough. So
here at Therapy Plus, we have sessions with parents.
The therapists discuss with the parents, or whoever
takes care of the child. If you really think about it,
what do you get from a one-hour session? So there is
really a need to have a follow-up at home to see if
the child really learned, and was able to apply what
he or she learned from the therapist or teacher.”
And while other learning centers only provide
speech, occupational and physical therapy to special
children, Ms. Baltazar said Therapy Plus takes it a
step further by providing “interest group” sessions
on swimming, painting and drawing, dancing and
bowling.
She said she thought of offering these after finding
out there are hardly any classes for sports and
recreational activities for special children.
“My son loves sports. He plays golf. He is very
good in table tennis. He plays basketball as well. But
whenever there are sports clinics during summer, I
discover these do not accept special children.”
She said the interest group sessions are conducted
at venues outside the Therapy Plus office in
Ortigas Center, such as her house in Valle Verde I in
Pasig City. “Since art supplies can be very costly, we
decided to offer the art and drawing classes in my
own home to save on costs,” she explained.
She said offering a distinct service sets Therapy
Plus apart from its competitors, something that she
learned from the BMS seminars she attended last
year.
“One of the BMS principles I learned was ensuring
repeat customers to guarantee the viability of the
business. By offering something unique, I am assured
I will be the preferred source of therapy for special
children,” she explained.
Ms. Baltazar added she is very lucky to get competent
individuals to handle the classes. The dance
classes, for instance, are conducted by a member of
the professional dance group Whiplash, while the art
classes are facilitated by hall-of-fame award winners
of the national art competition conducted by the
Metrobank Foundation.
Knowing the market
Ms. Baltazar said Therapy Plus caters to special children
up to 18 years old. With her knowledge of being
a mother of a special child, she was able to tap
her network of friends to help her spread the word
about her new business.
She said that based on studies, Down syndrome
occurs in one in every 800 births. In the Philippines ,
she said the Down Syndrome Association of the Philippines
has a registered membership base of 2,000.
“Since I am very talkative, I get to meet all these
people, who refer clients to us,” she said.
She said when parents learn she is also a mother
of a special child, they prefer Therapy Plus to other
therapy centers in the metropolis. “They know I understand
better. I am coming from a place of concern..
They know that I know what they are going
through. I have a mother’s point of view,” Ms.
Baltazar said.
She said her knowledge of the market gives
Therapy Plus its distinct advantage over its competitors..
“It is important to know the market. It is the
people you are serving,” she said. “You may have a
good mission-vision statement, you may have good
facilities, you may have good people, but if you
don’t have clients, you don’t have a business.”
As of December, there were 12 students enrolled
in Therapy Plus’ various course offerings and sessions.
Having just 12 students might force some centers
to accept “regular” students for tutorial just to augment
their income and keep up with their overhead
expenses. But following the BMS precepts, Ms.
Baltazar has never lost sight of her business focus—
to provide therapy and education to children with
special needs.
“Without BMS, probably my business would not
have focus. It will be hodge-podge. But since I am
focused, I am keeping my clients satisfied with the
services I offer,” she said.
Ms. Baltazar said that for a relatively new business
like hers, there have been missteps along the way. In
her case, she found she was not charging enough to
cover rent and the salaries of teachers and therapists.
But using the BMS principles she learned, she
has since then adjusted the rates while still keep Therapy
Plus’ services competitively priced.
“My goal is to make a difference in the lives of
our clients. Did we make a difference in their lives? I
think that is how businesses should be run,” Ms.
Baltazar said.

No trifle thing

 

IT WAS ALREADY TWO in the morning but Angelita
“Anji” Resurreccion, co-owner of consultancy firm
Passion for Perfection, was still awake.
Anji and her husband and business partner, Rene,
were in a panic as they desperately searched for a
document they needed for a training the next day.
Thus, while the rest of the world slept during those
unholy hours, tempers flared at the Passion
offices, as Anji, Rene and their staff went through
their files.
That was before Ms. Resurreccion and her company
learned about the Business Management System
(BMS), which she described as “a tool that can
make one an intelligent businessman.”
“That incident happened in 1998. I was not aware
of BMS then,” Ms. Resurreccion said in Filipino.
BMS teaches an entrepreneur the importance of
becoming the preferred supplier in his chosen market.
Ms. Resurreccion said BMS would help a businessman
identify the crucial tasks that have to be
done to improve the management of the enterprise.
“It can help you face stiff competition and identify
the important things you have to do and not the
things you want to do just because these are popular
or are being done by others,” she said.
Many opportunities
Ms. Resurreccion said she and her husband formed
Passion for Perfection in October 1991 in response
to the demand for training and workshops. They offered
courses for business start-ups and expansions,
and seminars on positive work attitude, public speaking
and labor management for private companies.
The company’s mission is “to be a global service
provider that epitomizes excellence and professionalism
in the delivery of achievement products and
programs.”
During its first year, Passion served local clients.
In subsequent years, the Resurreccions traveled to
countries in the Asia-Pacific, Africa, South America
and Europe to conduct training to various groups.
Aside from providing training programs, Passion also
sells motivational books and educational games designed
to teach business planning, management and
values such as punctuality.
The company has provided services to government
agencies such as the Trade and Labor departments
and the Technical Education and Skills Development
Authority, companies like the Manila Electric
Co., Purefoods, and Eastern Telecommunications;
and international clients such as the
German Technical Cooperation and the International
Labor Organization.
Armed with a master’s degree in psychology from
the University of the Philippines and more than two
decades of experience as trainer or consultant for
companies and institutions in 15 countries, Ms.
Resurreccion was poised to take advantage of many
opportunities while doing something she loves.
V E N T U R E S
“There was a great demand for training at the
time. People relied on us for supplies, venues and
even training reports,” she said. “We had to do everything
from conducting the training to providing
the needed materials or even the venues.”
Ms. Resurreccion, who had worked with companies
and groups based in countries like Brazil, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and
even as far as South Africa, knew everything she
needed to know about her craft. But a panic-filled
episode would show she did not have everything
down pat.
Locating files
Ms. Resurreccion said that as Passion kept responding
to the needs of clients, they overlooked aspects
related to production, specifically the handling of
materials. And this became evident during the “2
a.m.” episode.
“I knew we had problems about filing but I never
knew it would be critical to our strategy as a business.
We could not locate the files we needed,” she
said. “Diyan (production side) kami nadale (We
bogged down in that aspect).”
Ms. Resurreccion said these changed after she
V E N T U R E S 17
18 WEEKEND WARRIOR JAN 2005
Rene and Anji
Resurreccion at
the Passion for
Perfection office.
learned about BMS in 1998. “The UN (United Nations)
brought BMS here. DTI (Department of Trade
and Industry), one of our clients, identified us (Passion
for Perfection) as trainers. We were trained to
train others,” she related.
But even the greatest teachers could still learn a
thing or two from others. Such was the case with Ms.
Resurreccion, who realized she needed to make improvements
to her business.
There was no problem with marketing but production
was spotty. They therefore began classifying
and digitizing their files to make them easier to locate.
“BMS teaches you to focus on what is important.
Before, we spent much time making our reports attractive.
But there was one time I saw my report on
the shelf of one of our clients. It remained unread
and untouched,” she said.
“It is good to [make the reports attractive] but
when you lack manpower and time, you may not
need to do that. In my case, that was not the reason
why the clients patronized my services.”
She said BMS also taught her to concentrate on
what attracted her clients: Passion’s training programs.
“We offer training programs that inspire
people to achieve. We configure our training programs
to have an ‘experiential quality.’ The learning
experiences we offer are uniquely designed or customized
to approximate the work context of our participants,”
she said.
She said BMS also allowed them to streamline
their operations and trim costs. ”Before, we would
hire people to fix certain things but after we improved
our management, we no longer needed to
do that. This helped us reduce our expenses,” she
said, adding Passion does not need a big staff in order
to run.
Whereas before she maintained offices in Manila
and Lipa manned by four-full-time assistants, she
streamlined processes and retained just the Manila
office and two assistants. “The Lipa City office was a
branch office. It did not do very well, and BMS
helped me accept the fact it was a wrong decision to
open that branch,” Ms. Resurreccion said.
“After we decided to close that, we pursued expansion
by publishing books and other resource materials
for trainers.”
Passion, she added, also added research to its list
of services. “It is not our main bread and butter, but
last year it brought in some substantial revenues,”
she shared.
Ms. Resurreccion said the application of BMS to
Passion allowed them to share its advantages to
budding entrepreneurs. And learning the BMS
framework and applying it to her business operations
made her a credible teacher.
“We were trained to be master trainers and counselors
on the BMS. We first had to prove that BMS
works. Proving it presupposes you believe in it,” she
said. “How can you prove something you don’t believe
in? All of us decided to prove BMS works in
two ways: first, by applying it to our own business,
and applying it in other businesses.”
“Of course, the practice of any newly-learned skill
will make one more competent. But I think the issue
is more of credibility. How can you advice others
when you yourself are not using the same tool to improve
your own business? ”
Ms. Resurreccion said their BMS trainees found
the framework “very reasonable, interesting, and
practical.”
“But I found that business people do not care
whether it is called BMS or XYZ or ABC. They care
not about labels and frameworks. They care more
about the message,” she said.
But while much has been said about the advantages
of BMS, Ms. Resurreccion said these would
not materialize in an instant. “Business people find
BMS simple and easy to understand. However,
when it comes to application, it is not simple. It
takes patience and plenty of information to go
through the process of strategic planning. Counselors
are needed to help businesses sift through
ideas.”
But Ms. Resurreccion stressed learning BMS was
worth it as this allowed them to help small businesses
while spare them from sleepless nights.
“We no longer need to stay awake at dawn to finish
our tasks. We already improved our system of filing…
BMS helped us systemize our thinking,” she
said. “Our training of entrepreneurs has not been
the same since.”

 

A wide view of a business

 

THE IPM GROUP of Companies, a family-owned enterprise
with roots in construction, has an
overarching framework for doing business: to generate
profits by delivering products and services to
more customers; getting the clients of its competitors;
and, converting non-clients into customers.
The group, which straddles the line between medium-
sized enterprise and a large-scale business, has
adopted this framework to determine its course of
action and business direction, and if its rapid expansion
in recent years is anything to go by, the approach
works.
“Right now, we’re into several businesses. Overall,
we’re now bordering on [being considered]
large,” Dwight M. Ramos, senior vice-president of
the group and head of business development, said.
V E N T U R E S 13
14 WEEKEND WARRIOR JAN 2005
Started in the 1980s, the IPM Group, whose name
comes from the initials of proprietor Isabelita P.
Mercado, was set up as a construction company but
later diversified into trading, waste management,
business process outsourcing (BPO) and others.
After acquiring a BPO firm in 2004, the group began
beefing up its waste management business, venturing
into landfill operations in addition to garbage
collection. It is also exploring opportunities in the
mining sector.
To help the group achieve its business goals, it
has integrated the Business Management System
(BMS) into its management processes.
Mr. Ramos said the system has made it easier for
the group to determine its courses of action.
“BMS allows you to view your business and manage
it as a whole. It doesn’t treat the business like
it’s made up of several compartments where costs
are scattered, you see the entire thing as a whole,”
he said.
“Your basic questions are: what’s the business
objective? what is the product and whom is it for?
This makes it easy to see the effects of what you do
in one part of the business on the other parts. [We
can decide on which actions to take] on the basis of
which one redounds to [accomplishing] the objective…
You get to choose, and you can prioritize
[plans].”
Introduced to BMS in 2005, Mr. Ramos said he
found the tool a good fit for IPM, which had been
doing things the BMS way without knowing it.
“It dawned upon me that many of the things we
were doing were BMS-based. But now, I found there
is actually a system and what we were doing could
be more thorough and easier to implement. There
would be less mistakes and the approach to managing
our business would be more comprehensive,” he
said.
Adopting BMS
To get other managers to be on the same page as
him, Mr. Ramos asked the Partnership Forum for International
Trade Development Inc., a non-profit organization
that trains enterprises on the use of BMS,
to conduct a seminar for IPM’s senior managers.
Since then, the group has used BMS processes in
determining the way forward. When the group
started its ICT business in 2004 following the acquisition
of a BPO firm, for instance, it had done so
blindly.
“When we bought the BPO firm, we didn’t understand
it very well. It was an investment opportunity
because the previous owner was my boss’ friend, so
we decided to get into it, anyway, it had employees
and everything,” he said.
Following the acquisition, the group started marketing
to clients. Representatives went to the US to
make pitches and conduct road shows to BPO endusers,
but the company soon saw cost considerations
outweigh the closed deals. It was time to regroup.
“Using BMS, we defined our business [and] found
out that the BPO was not for end-users but businesses.
We were marketing to the wrong people,”
Mr. Ramos said.
Thus, instead of going to end-users like banks and
offices, IPM went to BPOs that were servicing these
establishments and explored subcontracting.
“We offer our services now, not to the bank, but
to the BPO,” Mr. Ramos said.
This led to a change in strategy—from trying to
secure contracts from end-users to piggybacking on
the clients of service providers. Because service providers
look for cheap subcontractors, IPM had to
slash its pricing. Margins were lower, but volume
compensated for the smaller spreads.
Redefining the unit’s business direction had another
added benefit: it drastically reduced IPM’s expenses
as company officials no longer needed to
take costly trips to the US.
“We didn’t need to market in the US anymore
because our clients were the ones doing the marketing.
They don’t need to travel from the Philippines
because they are based there. They are able to do
things that we found difficult to do,” Mr. Ramos explained.
And because they no longer had to maintain a
presence in the Makati central business district, IPM
moved its BPO operations to a warehouse in Pasig
City, where real estate costs much less.
“Iba na ang concept ngayon, iba na ang model
“BMS doesn’t
treat the
business like
it’s made of
several
compartments.
You see the
entire thing
as a whole.”
V E N T U R E S
(The concept and the model have changed). Now we
save on costs. Kailangan mababa kasi yan ang gusto
ng kliyente natin (It has to be low because that is
what the clients want),” Mr. Ramos added.
Waste management
The group also employed BMS in determining the direction
for its waste management business.
“Looking at BMS, we focused on finding who our
client is: is it the one who throws the garbage, or is it
the mayor? If it’s the mayor, what does the mayor
need? Efficient and cost effective collection of garbage,
so that the local government unit could save,
and most importantly, it has to be uninterrupted,”
Mr. Ramos said.
As uninterrupted service means making sure that
landfills are open for dumping, IPM formed the Solid
Waste Contractors Association with other waste
management service providers.
“The wisdom for organizing the group was to
have a say in the disposal site. BMS also tells you
that networks and alliances are part of your resources.
When we you are an industry, you have
clout,” he said.
IPM went further: from having a say in the operating
hours of the landfill, the group “gathered our resources
to establish our own disposal site,” Mr.
Ramos said.
“We built the first sanitary landfill in Clark. Using
our resources, we partnered with a German firm.
They provided the technology, we provided the construction.
We were able to set up the engineered
sanitary landfill that is compliant with all the environmental
laws,” he said.
In 2006, the group partnered with an Australian
firm and operated the dumpsite in Payatas, Quezon
City for the local government.
“And we now have our own disposal site in
Morong, which opened last year. We are no longer
dependent on government—it’s part of our strategy
to provide uninterrupted service,” he said.
He added that venturing into landfill operations
opened new avenues for expansion as well. “We now
construct sanitary landfills. We’ve constructed one
for San Pablo City and Davao and we are now negotiating
to construct several others in places like
Boracay and Baguio.”
Also another avenue the company is looking at to
improve its services is recycling. Efforts at recycling
undeniably boost a company’s image, but Mr. Ramos
stresses that for IPM, it makes business sense to embark
on the environmentally-friendly venture.
“If everyone has efficient trucks and people to
collect the garbage, the next wave will be, how can
we make our services the cheapest? We think we will
be the cheapest if we find value in the trash we collect.
So that is our focus now, going into recycling
technologies,” Mr. Ramos said.
Framework
The executive put things in perspective by saying
that IPM would likely have implemented its expansion
plans even without BMS, but added that the
tool provided the proper framework for IPM’s
growth.
“If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re basically doing
BMS, it’s just that you do not know. And when you
come to know BMS, it’s when you realize you just
have to systematize processes. But already, the
things or the principles that are being espoused by
BMS and the procedures they tell you to do, you’ve
already been doing it,” he said.
He also pointed out that BMS made things easier
by providing a management framework that is less
convoluted than the systems taught in management
schools.
“The applicability of BMS is more on SMEs (small
and medium enterprises) in growing and developing
countries.
“The mindset before was that for us to be successful,
we had to have MBAs. But if you really think
about it, an MBA requires long planning sessions like
two-day planning sessions. SMEs don’t work that
way. For family corporations, you basically talk to the
mother and father, and a decision is reached,” he
elaborated.
“BMS has a ready roadmap and it tells you what
to look for. There are steps and you don’t move until
you’ve answered each question for each of the
steps.”

Pioneering innovation

BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS can start with
fun and games — learning only becoming a bonus.
Pacito “Chito” I. Madroño, owner of 13 P.M. Enterprises,
started his business making educational toys
and games for children in 1978, an offshoot of a
“walk-about” requirement or mini-thesis for a
master’s program in management at the Asian Institute
of Management.
Apart from satisfying the requirements of the program,
Mr. Madroño also set up 13 P.M. Enterprises
to meet the growing demand for toys and games of
the domestic market, which was, at that time, being
served by imports.
He said: “It was our modest attempt to provide
supply through local or domestic product
ion. It was put up as a mechanism for import substitution.”
Mr. Madroño’s initial investment was just P3,000
to cover the cost of the mold of his first product,
Brain Twister, an innovation on the tangram, a Chinese
geometric puzzle. Whereas the tangram is composed
of seven pieces, Brain Twister is composed of
four geometric pieces that could initially form the
letter T, and into 40 different contiguous designs
and shapes.
Big dream
In 2004, Mr. Madroño wanted to break into the export
market. He participated in the “Winning With
The Web Search E-nabling SMEs Program,” which he
read about in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The program was conducted by the Association of
Training Institutions for Foreign Trade in Asia and
the Pacific (ATIFTAP), in cooperation with the
International Trade Center (ITC), the joint agency of
the United Nations and the World Trade Organization
that focuses on helping developing countries
develop products for export. ATIFTAP is the ITC hub
in the Asia-Pacific region.
12 WEEKEND WARRIOR JAN 2005
The core
competence
of 13 P.M.
Enterprises
is product
research and
development
a n d
“innovention,”
the amalgam
of innovation
and invention.
V E N T U R E S
The seminar introduced the Business Management
System (BMS) with pioneer, Dr. Ozman Atac, as
the principal lecturer. After the seminar on BMS, Mr.
Madroño began to wholeheartedly and meticulously
apply the BMS tools and techniques to his business
as part of the competition that followed.
Applying the BMS tools, he set out marketing and
production objectives for 13 P.M. since in BMS, Mr.
Madroño said, the marketing and production functions
define the business.
“In BMS,” he stressed, it is said that “if you fail to
plan, you plan to fail.”
The objectives for marketing were to:
• increase sales from the existing market or to existing
customers by offering additional product
choices;
• increase sales by penetrating the market or the
customers of his competitors;
• increase sales by tapping new markets that are
neither his existing market nor his competitors’ market;
and
• achieve short and medium-term profitability.
For production, these were to:
• increase new product offers through innovation;
• improve on existing product quality to meet the
exacting demands of the AB target market; and
• reconfigure or optimize production costs
to compete with foreign brands.
These objectives were met before the end of the
competition.
Mr. Madroño came up with two new products:
Brain Twister: Special Edition and Eureka Chess Set
in Bag: Deluxe Edition. 13 P.M. Enterprises saw its
sales rise after it began exporting and expanding its
domestic market.
Initially, his first export market was the US. Malaysia
and Southeast Asia later followed.
In July 2005, almost a year after the seminar, all
his efforts were rewarded when he was declared the
winner of the “Winning With The Web Competition”
conducted by ATIFTAP and ITC that was participated
in by about 30 SMEs.
Up to this day, 13 P.M. continues to use BMS.
More products
Starting from a single product in 1978, 13 P.M.
Enterprises currently has more than 13 educational,
learning, fun and leisure products. These include two
editions of Brain Twister, two editions of Word Factory,
three editions of Eureka Chess, two editions of
Eureka Crossword Games, Kinder Kit, Leap N’ Slips,
Mouseville Run and Tic Tac Toe.
13 P.M. Enterprises’ core competence, Mr. Madroño
said, is product research and development and
“innovention,” the amalgam of innovation and invention.
All 13 P.M. products are registered with the Philippine
Intellectual Property Office and are covered
with patents, trademarks and copyright. In addition,
13 P.M. products are also approved by the Department
of Health (DoH), complying not only with the
DoH product safety standards for toys, but also ISO
standards for toys that are exported to the US and
Europe.
Mr. Madroño said 13 P.M. ensures its products
are of top-notch quality. It has also positioned these
to satisfy the learning and leisure toys and games
needs of the AB market.
The Kinder Kit, for instance, is targeted at children
ages 3-7 years old while Eureka Chess is aimed
at chess federation members, chess clubs, chess
players, schools and students and chess enthusiasts.
The Word Factory and Crossword Games are targeted
at students, young adults and adults in the
ABC market category.
These toys and games are sold in National Bookstores,
SM and other department stores, Toy Kingdom,
Hobbes and Landes, Hypermart and Gaisano
stores, among others.
13 P.M. has also utilized all channels of distribution,
from authorized distributors, to wholesalers,
agents, brokers and, finally, to retailers. For some
products, it ships directly to end-users.
Mr. Madroño also pointed out: “13 P.M. products
are moderately, but competitively priced, they’re
neither too low nor too high for its intended buyers.
They’re affordable and provide value for money.”
He also said 13 P.M.’s products are innovative,
entertaining and strictly adhere to high quality standards.
He said: “Our products are unique. And we
are probably one of very few manufacturers that sell
products on a COD basis. As we say in BMS, we have
a ‘competitive monopoly.’ We don’t mind competition.”
Future Forward
Mr. Madroño said 13 P.M.’s focus for now is the
Kinder Kit, a self-learning tool for children but actually
a help for parents who do not have enough time
to help their kids with their lessons.
To suit market needs, 13 P.M. will innovate it by
introducing subjects such as social studies, environmental
education, geography, history and civics into
the tool that basically teaches kids how to read and
count.
13 P.M., Mr. Madroño also said, will also expand
its market reach, especially to public schools and day
care and barangay centers as part of its advocacy to
educate impoverished children. It also intends to explore
more export markets in Southeast Asia, and
venture into India and China.
His advice to fledgling entrepreneurs: “It is the
entrepreneur’s creativity and ingenuity to develop
and adapt to the ever changing demand or needs of
a growing, sophisticated market and population that
will make him stand the test of time.
“The environment we are in is of our own making:
full of threats and risks.. Look for opportunities that
fit your strengths and don’t lose hope. Stay close to
the ground and yet look beyond the sky and aim
high.”

Not the usual wedding videos

WHEN BUDDY A. GANCENIA, proprietor of Reality Wedding Video, an alternative wedding video production company, looks back on the five years his business has been operating, he admits there was a time when he almost called for a pack-up.

Having been immersed in reality television and talk shows like Game KNB, Agri-Siyete and Sharon, the television editorturned-entrepreneur who ventured into the wedding video coverage business after accumulating broadcast experience from ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. and GMA Network, Inc. was clear on his vision of offering wedding videos that were edgier,
more interviews-based and more personal than the conventional music videos that other wedding video production companies had in the market.

He was also resolute on having the wedding video production outfit marketed online from day one, so http://www.realityweddingvideo. tv was launched as the cyber presence of the company. Merely a year into the business, however,
Mr. Gancenia came face to face with a two-pronged dilemma that almost killed the lights for the enterprise. On one hand, Reality Wedding Video
was growing, and the volume of work began reaching unmanageable levels. Mr. Gancenia, who was single-handedly running production—from taking the wedding video footages to editing them—was having a hard time keeping up and had six months’ worth of delivery backlog. “It was tempting to keep on accepting new projects because people were coming to us. [But] we had a hard time delivering [on time],” he said.

On the other hand, he still wanted to grow his client base, but seemed to have a problem attracting new customers despite the endless presentations he and his wife Cathy were making and the heavy discounts they were offering.
“We kept asking ourselves what the problem was. There were many things we
didn’t know,” Mr. Gancenia said.

If they had not been able to hurdle these challenges, “we would have closed
shop,” he said. “We were running the risk of burnout.”
Problems ticked off Before he could call a cut, however, providence
intervened and Reality Wedding Video was presented a way out of its
entrepreneurial bind. Attending church one Sunday, the Gancenias were introduced by their pastor to fellow church member Anji Resurreccion, enterprise management development adviser of the Association of
Training Institutions for Foreign Trade in Asia and the Pacific, a platform that trains entrepreneurs on the use of the Business Management System (BMS), which was developed by the United Nations’ International Trade Center (ITC).

The system, Mr. Gancenia said, prevented Reality Wedding Video from closing. “Through BMS, we identified the problems we didn’t even know were problems,” he shared.

The first order of the day was for the couple to apply BMS to determine the profile of their clients. Going through their records, the Gancenias found out that many of their clients were couples who were between 30 and 35 years old, and whose pockets ran deeper than the younger set.

“We didn’t know this before. We only found out after the exercise that our existing clients were more flexible with their spending because it was really important to them to make their wedding memorable. They had certain requirements which we [fulfilled], but we didn’t know that then,” Mr. Gancenia said.

With the market now clearly identified, the Gancenias implemented changes in the business. The first thing they did was to tweak their business model so that instead of going after the entire wedding video market, they now trained the lens on the segment that wanted their services.

“All the communications and the writeups were redone to appeal to this particular group. Dati kasi, sabog ang website, hindi alam kung sino’ng tina-target (the website didn’t have any focus, we didn’t know whom we were targeting),” he explained.

Mr. Gancenia added that knowing Reality Wedding Video’s niche market made prospective clients’ decision to tap other video service companies less discouraging.

“Basically, we realized that when we couldn’t land clients, it was because ours
was not the preferred output they sought. When we started implementing BMS, we no longer had to exert effort [on those who were looking for something else],” Mr. Gancenia added.

Changes set

Changes in the marketing strategy followed. Participation in bridal fairs—which ate up 75% of the company’s marketing
budget but generated substantially less
bookings than the 25% allotted for online
expenses—was cut, and prospective clients
began to get directed to the website for inquiries
as well as sample videos.
Client calls and meetings were substantially
reduced. Nowadays, the Gancenias
only schedule meetings with couples who
have already booked on the basis of what
they see on the website. This, they agreed,
not only lowers costs, but also gives them a
100% booking rate for every meeting they
schedule.
Reality Wedding Video has also adjusted
its pricing—from P27,000 for a package in
2005 to a high of over P100,000 now. And
to provide incentives to couples who opt to
tap Reality Wedding Video, the Gancenias
offer a money-back guarantee for videos not
delivered within two weeks after the wedding.
The two-week delivery guarantee—
which is subject to certain conditions, including
the submission of songs to be used
in the video on or before the wedding
day— is much shorter than the industry
norm of three to six months.
“We made a matrix of the timetable for
the steps from the time the shoot ends until
the product is delivered to the client.
We divided the steps and then for each
step, we determined how long that would
take and how many people would be involved.
After everything was placed on the
matrix, we saw [the whole process] could
be done in a week,” Mr. Gancenia explained,
adding that the remaining week is
to give the company some leeway for problems
that might arise.
He was quick to add that quality is not
compromised for speed. As proof of this,
Reality Wedding Video joined the first Sony
Wedding Video Competition in 2007 and
bagged the top prize.
The Gancenias recognized they could be
alienating some clients with their current
business model, but added that niche-ing
works for them.
“When BMS came along, it became
clear to us we were offering a reality wedding
video,” Mr. Gancenia said. “Music
wedding video clients encompass around
80% of the wedding video pie. That leaves
us with 20% who are looking for an alternative,
which we offer.
“We no longer offer music videos just so
we can cater to those who are looking for
that. We no longer consider them part of
our market.”
By all indications, Reality Wedding
Video appears to be going in the right direction.
In 2007, the company was chosen
by the ITC as the best case study for the
use of BMS among small-scale businesses
in the Philippines.
They took the judges by surprise, Mr.
Gancenia said.
“Nagulat sila sa amin kasi ang liit-liit
lang namin at ang presence namin, website
lang talaga [They were surprised because
we are so small and our presence is solely
through our website]. We don’t have any
other means of promotion aside from the
website.”
Expansion
The company has since grown: from the
husband-and-wife tandem who operated
the business with only a P15,000 video
camera, Reality Wedding Video now has six
employees and four prosumer cameras.
The Gancenias have also branched out,
initiating buddygancenia.com, a video production
outfit with a web presence that
produces audio visual presentations and
birthday videos.
Also in the offing are Pinoy How-to, a
website that will carry how-to videos made
for and by Filipinos, as well as training
courses on video production.
While the segments for expansion have
been determined by the market that Reality
Wedding Video has been servicing, Mr.
Gancenia pointed out the forays were still
in line with BMS.
“Laging sinasabi ng BMS, wag kang
lalayo sa video services. Kung mag-iisip ka
ng product, it has something with video pa
rin (BMS tells us we should not veer far
from video services. If we think of a new
product, it has to still be related to videos),”
he said.
Mr. Gancenia stressed that BMS works
for them and could work for other small
businesses because it breaks down business
problems to make them less daunting
and easier to solve.
“With BMS, there are only two things
you need to watch: it’s all about production
and marketing,” unlike the textbook
approach, which divides the business into
several units, he noted.
“Everything you need to do, you simply
have to identify—if it has something to do
with the product that you deliver, that’s under
production. Anything you do to place a
deal is under marketing. It’s that simple.”