Category: Events

BY QUARREN M. DEL ROSARIO

Brown Group of Companies held its 1st Quarter Manager’s Forum on March 6-7 with the theme: “Defining Brown Group of Companies’ Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System” last March 6at XSCCI Function Rooms. There were 31 employees who attended the one-and-a-half-day forum represented by managers and supervisors from different groups in operations: Construction & Development, Sales & Marketing, Plantation and from the support group Accounting, Admin Services, Compliance, Credit & Collection & Human Resources.

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The forum was facilitated by Mr. Noel Sales, a retired Senior Software Engineer of IBM Hursley Laboratories Ltd. in United Kingdom.

The primary goal of the forum is to define and understand the importance of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System in the company and be able to create the requirement document which will be the basis in coming up with the program/system application.

BY KHRISTINE O. ECHEVERIA

Pope Francis, dearly called by Filipinos as Lolo Kiko, visited our country last January 15-19, 2015 primarily to comfort the Filipinos stricken by typhoon Yolanda and devastated by the quake. He communed with the youth, mingled with the poor and homeless, reached out to the victims of calamities, soothed the pain of those who are hurting and quenched the thirst of those who are experiencing spiritual drought. All of these, and even more, he has done, all for one mission, to deliver God’s message for us Filipinos.

Pope Francis was a good shepherd. He was chosen by God to touch our hearts by His message. To be merciful and compassionate missionaries of faith, that is what God wants us to be. That very message has pierced deep into the hearts of Filipinos.

In the words of Manila Archbishop Antonio Luis Cardinal Tagle (to Pope Francis), “Every Filipino wants to go with you, not to Rome, but to the peripheries. We want to go with you to the shanties, to the prison cells, to hospitals, to the world of politics, finance, arts, the sciences, culture, education and social communication. We will go to those worlds with you, to bring the light of Christ. Jesus is the center of your pastoral visit and the cornerstone of the church. We will go Holy Father with you, where the light of Jesus is needed.” This only goes to show, that we have clearly listened, and heard God’s message.

My prayer for us Filipinos is to continue living up to our mission, to be missionaries of faith—full of mercy and compassion as people of God.

BY QUARREN M. DEL ROSARIO

A birthday surprise and a short tribute was prepared by the employees for the diamond birthday of Sir Robert E. Pizarro last October 20, 2014.

The President of the Brown Group of Companies’ celebrated another milestone of his life as he turned 60 years old last October 21.

Sir Robert was surprised by his family and employees as they entered the XSCCI Bar-Lounge right after the Monday Flag ceremony and serenaded him with a birthday song.

Mrs. Annabelle Brown, the older sister of Sir Robert, gave her warm birthday message and shared his inspiring story of success during his younger days.

A short skit was also presented by the talented employees from A Brown, depicting Sir Robert at home with his family and kids followed by a heartwarming birthday video presentation showing a glimpse of his life. Mrs. Teena Pizarro, the beloved wife of Sir Robert imparted her words of gratitude to the employees who made the said event meaningful for her dear husband.

The program ended with a message of overwhelming gratitude from the birthday celebrator.

A thanksgiving mass was also celebrated at the Immaculate Conception Chapel attended by the employees.

BY KHRISTINE O. ECHEVERIA |

While December is the most festive month of the year, November is perhaps the just as well-awaited, since we get to receive our 13^th Month pay at this time and the Christmas Bonus comes next. We would then think of splurging out our money for self-gratifying stuff—reward that we could give ourselves for all the hard work done for the year. However, before hitting the mall shops, going on vacation trips, or even clicking on the “add to cart” button, I think we must all pause and think a few times over, how to spend our 13^th month pay and bonus wisely.

Purchase gifts early for Christmas

It isn’t necessary to buy expensive gifts, inexpensive ones would be enough. Spend a portion of your 13^th Month pay and bonus to buy gifts for your ina-anak and love ones. Start buying gifts as early as now so it wouldn’t hurt so bad buying gifts all at once. You may even start buying every second or third quarter of the year so you could spread out your budget for these. After all, you may just keep all the stuff you have bought without damaging them.

Pay one’s debt

Instead of replacing your old phone with a trendy and in gadget, it is often best to have a debt-free year-end. Prioritize paying off debts.

Save

It’s always best to save for the rainy days. Keeping a small portion of your 13^th month pay, your monthly salary and all other monetary benefits for the year, keeps you a step forward from panicking when emergency situations arise. It makes us feel secure that whenever there’s a need, we have an emergency fund which we could immediately use. We really do not have to run and look for some “Bombay” for 5-6 and be in great debt.

Aside from saving for emergency purposes, it’s also nice to save for retirement this early. Even just a small percentage of your monthly salary, 13^th month pay and bonuses would pile up as time goes by.

Aren’t we all excited for our 13^th month pay and Christmas bonus? I bet you are. Woohoo!!!

BY ELROY UTA

With Halloween landing right at us in a few weeks, the Food & Beverage and Kitchen Departments of Xavier Sports and Country Club  spiced up our office area and gave a fresh Halloween-themed ambiance to the office. It also gives an opportunity for guests and customers to take some quick photos.

Through time, Halloween has grown into an important event to look forward to and is now one of the most popular holidays, second only to Christmas. When you ask a random person what he or she thinks about this time of the month, most likely you’ll get Halloween as an answer. We Filipinos love traditions, and Halloween is a season for us to visit our departed love ones in cemetery and for the kids to engage in scary costumes and play trick or treat. It is also one of the best holiday traditions to celebrate with our families and also at work.

For a company, it’s also a great way to spice up the work place. Celebrating Halloween at work appeals to the kid in us and helps create a sense of fun and it’s also creatively entertaining.

Well, first a little disclaimer: when I say celebrate Halloween at work, I’m not tellingyou to pull a scary prank on your officers or to your co-workers. I don’t want to be responsible if anyone is called up by HRD for misbehavior!

As with any corporate activity, we all look up to Human Resources for events and activities. But, in our small way, we can spice up our office for Halloween. One great idea to celebrate Halloween is to beautify our own cubicle or table just like the way we adorn it with Christmas decorations, this will put fun on an otherwise dull office ambiance. We can then offer prizes for the best and most festively decorated work stations. Here are some.

Another great idea is office Trick-or-Treating (but without the tricking.. We can encourage all employees to bring treats in loot bags to be shared and employees can then go cubicle to cubicle or officer to office trick or treating for fun.

To appeal to our corporate social responsibility, we can partner with some community events for charities and company employees then can participate in full costume and passed out treats. However, this activity needs the participation of the whole corporate community so this needs some serious planning.

I believe that celebrating the Halloween tradition at good for boosting employee morale . This will greatly enhance the team building aspects of the group by encouraging everyone to work together to decorate their shared work area. These ideas will spark creative thinking and open up boxes of possibilities for celebrating Halloween at work.

Additionally, when a certain department makes their own ideas to celebrate holidays like Christmas, employees are more likely to participate in it, just like what we experience every time we decorate our office for Christmas.

Sounds fun, right? Do you have some Halloween ideas for the workplace?

BY RUFINO T. MAGBANUA |

Upon the invitation of Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) Chair Paul G. Dominguez, ABCI President Robertino E. Pizarro attended the annual meeting of PBSP Mindanao on September 8, 2014 at SMX Convention Center in Davao City.

Pizarro was accompanied by Juan Paolo P. Pizarro, plantation Operations Manager of ABERDI.

During the meeting, PBSP launched the Inclusive Agribusiness Program for Mindanao, geared to incorporate stakeholders within the company value chains as suppliers, consumers, employees and distributors to create shared value.

Currently, PBSP is working with various agribusiness companies involved in rubber, coffee, cacao, oil palm, and seaweeds to enhance their inclusive business models and improve income and productivity of farmers in Mindanao.

Pizarro lauded the inclusive agribusiness initiative of the PBSP, saying that the program comes in time as the government seeks to transform Mindanao from the “Land of Promise to the Land of Promises Fulfilled.”

The program has outlined clear strategic imperatives towards harnessing the resources of Mindanao for the common good.

PBSP introduced its current undertaking to advocate inclusive business and to draw support from the organization’s member companies, non-member companies, civil society organizations and government officials.

The program upholds PBSP’s Inclusive Business Imperative (IBI) campaign in Mindanao, aiming to particularly address poverty, job generation and the need for climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Pizarro commended PBSP’s efforts for inclusiveness, equitability and meaningful progress, “one that has enabled countless Filipinos to live more dignified and productive lives.”

“Instead of viewing communities as mere locations for factories or markets for their products, PBSP and its partners sought to develop those communities into partners towards development—whether through PBSP’s flagship program for tuberculosis control, for example, or the construction of public school classrooms through your initiative, or even the sustained promotion of corporate social responsibility in all of your activities,” he said.

The priority industries of PBSP’s inclusive agribusiness program include coffee, cacao, corn, palm oil and rubber.

Meanwhile, Dominguez inked a Memorandum of Understanding with Mindanao Development Authority chair Lualhati Antonino for a collaboration to implement PBSP’s initiatives and programs that aim to achieve inclusive business growth for the Mindanaoans.

BY QUARREN DEL ROSARIO |

ABCI believes in the idea of continuous improvement in the workplace. Since 2012, the company had adopted the Japanese way of promoting productivity and quality of products and services.

Empowering employees to utilize their potentials for improvement in quality and to create an environment of work that stimulates commitment towards excellence are among the goals of Quality Circle and Easy Kaizen. The Quality Circle (QC) is under the Productivity Improvement Program of the company.

There are 8 existing circles with 9 QC projects in the company coming from different departments with their respective circle names and projects such as:

Department	Team Name	Title
1. ABCI – Vertical Construction	Obelisk	“Modern Steel Form Shoring System for Terrace Pre-cast (Cast Canopies and Molding)”
2. ABCI – Horizontal Construction	The Horizons	“Fabricated Manholes and Lean Concrete Application”
3. ABCI – Sales & Marketing	The Realtors	“Backlog of Previous Accounts”
4. ABERDI – Mill	The Millers	1st Project: “Design and Fabrication of Bucket Cups in the Bucket Elevator” 2nd Project: “Fabrication of a Mechanized Vibrating Nuts and Fiber Separator”
5. ABERDI – Opol Plantation	Verdant Fields	“Increasing Efficiency in Planting and Proper Handling of Palm Oil Seedling During Hauling”
6. ABERDI – Kalabugao Plantation	Mountain Bounty Bunchers	“Rearranging of Frond Piles and Installation of Signages/Numbering of Permanent Harvesting Path”
7. ABCI – Purchasing	The W.A.C.K.Y.	“Eliminating Delay in Providing the Team-Requested Materials”
8. ABCI – HR	HR A.I.M.S.	“The Innovative Ways and Solutions for the Reduction of Frequent Delays in Payroll Processing”

This year there are three circles that are still working on their projects, namely ABCI-Accounting, ABCI-Crushing, BRC-Chalet & Housekeeping and XSCCI-Kitchen and Dining. The circles will present their projects to the management on December 12, 2014.

By Rufino T. Magbanua

For its immense contribution to the housing and real estate development, A Brown Group of Companies has been awarded the rare distinction as one of Mindanao’s top business leaders in ceremonies held last July 26, 2014 at Centrio Ayala Mall in Cagayan de Oro City.

A Brown was among the 14 top business entities and firms in Mindanao selected to receive the prestigious 2014 Business Leaders Awards.

Now on its third year, this recognition dubbed “Celebration of Business Successes in Mindanao” is being spearheaded by Mindanao Business Week Group of Publications in partnership with the City Government of Cagayan de Oro, Provincial Government of Misamis Oriental, Rotary Club of Cagayan de Oro, Personnel Management Association of the Philippines, Oro Bankers Club, Ayala Centrio, Veterans Bank, Asian Hills Bank and Steag Estate Power.

Other awardees include: Sumifru Phils Corp for agri-business, Ist Valley Bank for banking and finance; FICCO for cooperative banking; Alrose Group of Companies for food manufacturing and marketing; Royal Mandaya Hotel for hotel industry; Dahilayan Adventure Park for resorts and tourism development; Phoenix Petroleum, mega entrepreneur; Salay Handmade Paper Industries, social entrepreneur; JCA Realty, service entrepreneur; Anakciano Inc (Lechon Manok ni San Pedro, business entrepreneur; Yulo Tee GTY Marketing, trading entrepreneur; Oro Asian Automotive Corp for transport industry and Italpinas for alternative energy.

This annual business awards aims to value and recognize the outstanding achievements of business firms and entrepreneurs that helped propel Mindanao’s economic growth by way of sustained leadership, innovations, creativity, entrepreneurship, application of best practices and people empowerment.

By Quarren Del Rosario

One of the events for September is the 6th Architectural, Construction and Building Exposition 2014 (ARCBEX ’14) on September 5, 6 and 7 at the Limketkai Mall Rotunda, Lapasan, Cagayan de Oro City where A Brown Company, Inc. is one of the sponsors/exhibitors. This year’s theme is “Architecture: Practice beyond borders.”

This big event is participated by the different suppliers, manufacturers, dealers and distributors of different building materials for building construction.

Photo via Philippine Institute of Architects

By Rizza A. Janea

The recent forum titled “Economic Briefing: Priming Up for the ASEAN Integration” held last July 3, 2014 was a remarkable success. The speakers during the forum, Dr. Bernardo Villegas, Dr. Rolando Dy, Dr. Thomas Aquino and Dr. Graciano Yumul were brilliant as they imparted their knowledge to the audience. The forum also had the best audience. More than the company’s expected guest list of 200 arrived: a total of 100 participants from various universities and more than 150 representatives from various business sectors and government offices. Around 50 managers and supervisors from A Brown Company, Inc. also joined the forum. Chairman Dr. Walter Brown, President Robert Pizarro and Board member Atty. Antonio Soriano were there to support the event.

With the success of the event, a plan to have a quarterly Breakfast Talk or “Kapihan” has been organized and started on July 19, 2014. A small gathering of selected Cagayan de Oro’s top businessmen will take part and discuss business over a cozy breakfast ambiance.

Indeed, it is a heroic act of A Brown to gather the best businessmen, government representatives and intellectual students in Cagayan de Oro to support the city’s industry. The forum initiated by A Brown is just the beginning of a huge lasting success of balanced business relationship, thus, building strong and determined business people that will lift up the city in the future.