NU6 Paper 6: R090204 - On Line Borrowing and Lending

Although not as commonplace as in other countries, more Filipinos now organize garage sales or yard sales, usually in their homes, to sell personal belongings or household items that they no longer want or need. Surplus stores are also available for customers to select from a wide variety of previously owned items that one may want to purchase - from sala sets and electronics gadgets to home appliances and baby strollers. In addition, sale of second hand garments and accessories in ukay ukays continue to be widespread.

The increased usage of social media has added another dimension to the dynamics of selling used items and personal effects. Online sellers now leverage on the use of social networking sites like Facebook and Multiply to sell pre-owned belongings like designer bags and clothes. These items are often advertised as pre-loved or pre-owned.

A successful transaction in any of the mediums described above indicates a change in ownership from the seller to the buyer. Finality so to speak, in that what was previously yours is now considered as the possession of the other party and any form of attachment to the object must be severed. For those, however, who have personal belongings or household items that they do not use or need as often but are still not willing to part with, what happens then? In most cases, these items end up in the storage or the attic collecting dust over the course of time.

In order to maximize the use of such items, an idea is to create a venue by which these owners can have others loan or borrow that item for a defined period of time and at an agreed borrowing fee. In this way, owners are able to maintain ownership of their belongings yet earn some income in the process. On the other hand, borrowers are able to find value in that this saves them from having to purchase an item that they will not need or use for a long time. One example could be the need to borrow a saxophone for a school play, or a bike for an office activity for the weekend or a costume for a social engagement.

The venue in mind is an online portal for better visibility and wider reach. This online portal will be very much like a social networking site in that it enables potential lenders to post the items that they want to lend out. As easily, potential borrowers can navigate through the site to search for the items that they wanted or needed to borrow. This channel can serve as the medium for lenders and borrowers to discuss on their terms of agreement as in the borrowing period and for how much this will cost, how the item(s) will be sent to the borrower and how the borrower will return the item(s) to the lender. The concerned parties can have the option of meeting up in person or course the transfer of the item via courier. Linkage to courier companies can also be coursed through this portal. Payment facilities can be integrated in the site as well. A service or commission can then be paid to the site owner for administration and maintenance services. 4

An old adage goes; another man's trash is another man's treasure. In the case of a social borrowing site as described above, another man's treasure remains to be his treasure and is another man's treasure (for a limited time).

NU6 Paper 5: R090204- Juan Pass

Malls have become part and parcel of the leisure and recreation time of Filipinos. Malls are not only associated with shopping but are also closely referred to as a place to hangout in, socialize in and connect with other people. Malls are very much integrated into the Filipino psyche that a 2008 Nielsen Media Research indicated that "around 80 percent of Filipinos go to shopping centers and around 36 million people visit shopping plazas once or twice a month."[1]

The high affinity of Filipinos with shopping malls and the sheer number of people who visit these establishments, thus, bring with it a lot of logistical challenges and considerations. These areas include safety and security, crowd control, foot and vehicular traffic flow and sanitation concerns among others. Personally, however, the most trying aspect of going to the mall and holding office in the vicinity of a mall are parking related.

Finding an available parking slot is often times already a challenge in itself. What makes it more irksome is the long wait in line to get to the parking attendant to pay for your parking ticket and get out of the vicinity. In the shopping-office-residential complex that I work in, this wait can last for even as long as 30 minutes. This is a familiar scenario I am faced with every Friday night after work and I find myself waiting in line together with mall goers also heading home. Not only has it been inconvenient to maneuver through the traffic inside the parking area but also costlier as the waiting time gets added to ones parking fee. The same is true for other malls in other areas that I visit. There are instances wherein I also experience the long wait to the exit especially in the evening nearing closing hours when those who dined out or those who watched a movie also head out. I expect the situation to even be more strenuous as the Christmas season draws near and as malls hold pay day weekend store wide sales and midnight madness sales.

In order to help facilitate ease of entry and exit into parking areas and improve the traffic flow and payment facilitation, an idea is to implement the use of proximity cards or prox cards as a payment system. Motorists can just tap their prox card in a terminal as they enter the parking area and tap out into the exit terminal to make their payment. In this way, the need to issue parking tickets or parking cards during entry is eliminated. Also, the need to have parking attendants collect payments during exit is voided and queuing time is managed.

To eliminate the need to maintain multiple proximity cards for different establishments and satisfy different consumer needs, why not have one card that will be accepted in the different malls and establishments. To make it even more useful and practical to maintain, this proximity card can be the one card that Filipinos can use for their transportation, commute and motorist needs. This one card can thus be called the Juan Pass that can be used to facilitate access and payment of parking in different malls and retail areas. The Juan Pass can also be used as the payment and access system for the use of the MRT and LRT, the use of buses and shuttle services, and perhaps even e-jeepneys, among others.

The idea is to have the Juan Pass be a re-loadable proximity card that can be made available through leading establishments like convenient stores and sales kiosks in the train stations, bus terminals, mall concierges and retail outlets that sell prepaid cards. Value or load can be added via these channels as well. Acceptance and use of the Juan Pass can be extended later on as a means to add load to mobile phone services and as a means of payment to partner retail merchants and establishments like convenient stores, restaurants, supermarkets, and even gasoline stations as well.

Use of a proximity card can help ease logistical problems and inconvenience in malls. At the same time, it can also help integrate retail establishments with the transportation and motorist needs to make it a more pleasant customer experience. Lastly, the use of a single card can also promote integration of products and services on the part of retails and merchants from various sectors and industries.4

References:

1.       International Association for Educational Assessment 2011 - http://www.iaea2011.com

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[1] International Association for Educational Assessment 2011. Mall Nation Philippines. Retrieved from http://www.iaea2011.com/articles/52

:Nu 6 by JS Use of Social Media by IBM for Internal Communication

Social Media is defined as "media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques … the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communications into interactive dialogue. "[1] The more common forms of social media today includes Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Skype and blogs among others. Social media has grown in tremendous popularity and its usage as widespread and diverse as ever. Social media has not only become a tool to connect with peers and family members but is also a means to promote marketing, public relations and even learning.

Albeit widely used, acceptance on the use of social media in the workplace still raises varying perspectives and opinions. On one hand, there are companies that allow employees to access social media sites while at work. Companies that promote the use of social media see it as valuable particularly in building customer relationships, collaboration and market research. An informal survey conducted by Proskauer, on the other hand, indicates that there are more companies that prohibit the use of social media in the workplace so much so that these sites have already been blocked. Companies who disallow its use see it a real form of distraction that poses a risk to productivity and makes the occurrence of errors more susceptible.

IBM Corporation, the world's second most valuable technology company and a forerunner in pioneering new business practices, brings a new dimension into the use and application of social media in the workplace. IBM Vice-president for Social Business and Collaboration Solutions Sales and Evangelism, Sandy Carter, said at the Management Association of the Philippines CEO conference last September that the company has recognized how social media contributes to the revenue of the company. "It found that employees who had active (online) social relationships would bring in $700 in revenue per contact, and for every executive contact, it would bring in $7,000 in revenue … These social relationships are good for the bottomline" Carter said.[2] This thus prompted IBM to embrace the use of social media, establish guidelines and elevate it to the next level as a social business – one that encompasses the organization and business processes.

As a social business, IBM leverages on the use of collaboration tools and social networking to enable global teams to work effectively. It allows the organization to be three things – "engaged, nimble and transparent."[3] With over 436,000 employees working in 170 countries using about 17,000 blogs, 1 million daily views of internal wikis and 20 million minutes of LotusLive meetings monthly IBM indeed is a Social Business. In the process of allowing employees to engage in social media, the company has also observed that the value of the IBM brand has increased.

Cognizant of the power of social media and its many uses, this encourages this author to think of the many ways by which we can leverage on new technologies and new platforms to create, to cultivate, to harness and to sustain new businesses. As aspiring entrepreneurs, social media can indeed be used to one's advantage to create brand and product/service awareness, build rapport with customers, promote one's product and monitor operations among others.

The following are some ideas of how one can leverage the use of social media as a business strength:

1. As a new marketplace – Tools like facebook and multiply can be used as a platform to sell and advertise one's product and services. More and more entrepreneurs who lack financial capital have maximized the use of social media to penetrate the marketplace, promote their products and build a customer base. Social media has definitely leveled the playing field in that transactions are now borderless and time zone-free. A new entrant can now be in the same marketplace side by side with well established companies from other parts of the globe.

2. As a communication medium – One video that has recently circulated in You Tube and Facebook is the Chris Lao – BPI Auto Loan Commercial. Even without having to air the commercial over national TV, the video has become talk of the town gaining interest from its intended target market. With that, use of social media can be used as a medium to launch a product and create promotional materials. A compelling video in You Tube or an attention grabbing picture in Flickr or similar sites can indeed create a viral effect. Use of Twitter and blogs to complement this can also work to ones advantage to create awareness and build brand recall.

3. As a research and customer feedback tool – One of the strengths of social media is its ability to encourage anyone and everyone to express themselves and voice out their opinions real time. Its ability to promote communication and ultimately collaboration can indeed be highly beneficial to one's business. Use of social media then can be used to gather market insight and customer's receptiveness on a new product or new service that a business will want to launch or venture into. In the same way, it can be used to gather how satisfied or dissatisfied the market is with one's product as it not only allows for positive feedback but customer complaints and suggestions as well. All of these inputs will come in very useful as an entrepreneur seeks to gain micro market insight and mastery of his or her existing and potential customer base.

4. As a business management system – Use of applications like google docs can promote collaboration within the business organization. For businesses operating in various locations, use of social media can be used to track inventories and financial outcomes real time. In the same way, hiring, training and business/team meetings can also be done via Skype and ooVoo as needed. Use of these technologies can supplement face-to-face interactions and can fill in the gaps whenever distance and time become a challenge.

5. As a means to expand ones network – Use of networking sites like LinkedIn can help promote one's business and the personalities behind the business. Moreover, it can also allow one to gain best practices and insights from key resource persons from the industry. In the same manner, sourcing of suppliers, potential customers and business partners can also be facilitated through these established networks.3

NU6 by JS, Serendipity Walk

Driving along Metro Manila, one cannot help but notice how much denser the city's landscape is compared to several years ago. More and more buildings have risen and so much more condominiums (condos) are being constructed within the vast expanse of the metropolis. More interesting and perhaps quite startling to note is the increasing number of condominium projects being worked at even in countryside areas like Tagaytay. This makes me wonder, is the Philippines slowly moving along the path of other Asian neighbors like Hong Kong and Singapore where space is more and more a priced commodity. Is the country really becoming so urbanized that the shift from single detached homes to building communities has become more prevalent.

Focusing on condominiums and its residents in the city, what has become apparent is the presence of nearby convenience stores, laundry services and water refilling stations in the area. Sari-sari stores, newspaper boys on bikes, taho and balot vendors do not form part of the usual scene in these types of neighborhoods. This shift in living preference leads one to become cognizant of the ways in which this will have an impact on the wants and needs of condominium dwellers.

Given the lifestyle of this market and the space constraints of living in a condo, the following are business ideas that one can venture into:

1. Car wash services

Unlike in other types of residential areas where a garage or the street is available to wash one's vehicle, parking areas in condominiums are not as designed for this purpose. A possible option would be for the residents to go to a nearby mall to have their cars washed but that would entail time, effort and parking fees to get the job done. An idea is to establish a car wash service that a customer can book for appointments, something like a dial a car wash type of service. In this way, customers can avail of the service without having to leave their homes. The car wash business can also leverage on a number of locations (condos and even nearby villages) to cater to as opposed to having to station ones resources in a fixed location like the mall and not have them fully utilized.

2. Food delivery and catering

As most people are on the go, they may not have the time to prepare delicious home cooked meals. The others who do with the little time they have left often end up preparing instant meals that they have grown tired off. Others, who don't, end up buying from fast foods. An idea is to establish a food delivery and catering business that can prepare different kinds of dishes that people can call and order from. Customers can select from several week menu plan options and have their meals prepared for them for the entire week and delivered to their door step. Customers can also select from an ala carte menu. This ala carte menu will have different serving size options and can come in ready to heat containers or party serving platters.

3. Pet care and grooming center

One of the challenges of living in a condo is to maintaining and taking care of a pet given the tight space and the noise level that has to be observed. A business idea is to put up a pet care and grooming center, that say dog lovers can leave their pets in when they have to leave for work or attend to other personal errands. The pet care center will see to it that the pets are well taken cared of and looked out for. This includes bathing, feeding and walking the pets as appropriate. In certain cases, where there are restrictions in certain condos from owners having pets, the pet care center can be seen as a second home/kennel for these pets and their owners can visit them there anytime.

4. Housekeeping and maintenance

Cleaning services, handyman requirements, electrical and plumbing needs remain to be necessities in maintaining ones home. The idea is to establish a pool of well-trained housekeeping and cleaning personnel, handymen, electricians and plumbers and deploy these personnel to the homes of its clientele. Customers can contact a hotline to advise of their needs and advise of their preferred schedule for the service.

These are just a few ideas that may be appropriate for condominium occupants. There are definitely several more prospects and options available. What is certain is that as living preferences change so do peoples lifestyle and choices. This then opens opportunities for creativity, innovation and foresight to be able to respond to these changing needs and preferences. 3.0