Category: Events

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.

By Elroy Z. Uta

First, I need you to pause for a moment. If you’re in your workplace I need you to look around, and if you’re not then I need you to imagine your workplace. Would you agree with me if I say that you have a hero hiding somewhere behind the desk? Now hold that thought for a moment.

Everyday Heroes
“People, who go to work every day, make sacrifices to raise families, and get through life without hurting other people if they can help it-those are the real heroes.”
―Dean Koontz, Winter Moon

If I ask you what your definition of a hero is, most probably your answer might be a person typically revered because of his or her bravery and honourable qualities. Maybe you’ll think about our National Heroes, and the men and women who made this country what it is today. But heroes aren’t merely people who fought and died for our country, or those who saved others from, say, a burning building. Arthur Ashe is the first African American who won the US Open and Wimbledon, and he said, “True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.” In short, a Hero can be just an ordinary person who makes his/her ordinary work extraordinary.

So how does this apply to our workplace?

We need to remember that an organization is a combination of teams spread out across the network we call ”the organizational chart”, and each team or unit is composed of people who possess various roles.

These same people will spend most of their waking hours fulfilling their assigned roles. They give their lives in the organization, often sacrificing their time in the process. For me, they are the unsung heroes who get things done, doing the extra mile, totally underrated and out of the limelight.

In our organization, these heroes are the strongest strand of the fabric that holds our company together. That’s you and me. Without us, our organization may not survive.

Recognizing our everyday heroes

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”
—Helen Keller

As cliché as it may sound, how many organizations do you think have emphasized the words above? How many company vision/mission statements embrace that kind of mantra?

I remember a quote that says, “An organization is only as good as its people.” I believe in that quote. I believe that the success of an organization largely depends upon its people united towards a common goal. And equally important is that people should also be praised, valued, rewarded, and recognized for their contribution.

It’s not rocket science that everyone feels the need to be recognized and to feel a sense of achievement for their work or even for a valiant effort.

That’s why every year, The Brown Group of Companies; hold its Annual Service Awards Ceremony. The Service Awards Program recognizes employees who have their service anniversary and to honour the contributions as well as the sacrifices made by these men and women in our workplace. The success of the Brown group is absolutely dependent upon these kind folks and it’s important that we identify these heroes. Employees need to feel valued and appreciated because they spend more time with their work compared to many other relationships in their lives.

People who feel appreciated are more inclined to contribute as much as they can, because they know that their hard work is being recognized. The more you show your appreciation, the more likely you will end up with hardworking employees who want nothing more than to represent your business in the best way possible.

Heroes in the workplace

Now let’s go back to your workplace. The heroes of our organization are the people you meet every day in the hallway, the person who greets you as you punch your time in the biometric, they are your co-workers, your best buddies, your partners.

These heroic employees pride themselves on knowing that they did their job well and sometimes their only consolation is just the silent thought of accomplishment for making it through a tough deadline.

We know who they are, we know the amount of effort and sacrifice that they put into their job, and so would it be nice if we can show them how much we appreciate what they do? And if we appreciate someone, can we not keep it a secret?

A pat on the back or a thank you note will certainly do. Can you do it now?

By Khristine O. Echeveria

Heroes are people who are admired for their distinguished courage, bravery (deeds) and nobility (qualities).

Anybody can actually be a hero. One doesn’t have to die for the nation to be one, or shoot the ball on the last second for the win; just by merely having a willing heart and being able to make even a small difference in other people’s lives, already makes one a hero.

We often do not recognize or appreciate the little things other people have done. Like the unsung heroes of our everyday life. Our parents, our friends, our siblings or even our colleagues, who just happen to run the “extra-extra” mile just so the team could achieve its goal.

We have a number of employees/colleagues who are often left unrecognized for genuine acts of concern and substantial efforts for the company. Though they do not require recognition for such acts, yet, they deserve true gratitude. I believe it’s not a matter of “Nah, they’re being paid for it!” but, it’s really about valuing the heroism these employees do possess. It’s unfortunate for anybody to overlook the efficiency, dependability and reliability of its asset, and our people are our companies’ asset. So…

Kudos to all Organizational Heroes! Same goes to all the Service Awardees. The 5, 10, 15 and 20 years of unparalleled dedication you have given to the company are such a noteworthy act. I pray that as pillars of the organization, we would continue striving to be models and heroes. Even if unsung, what matters more is the heart of a hero that remains in us.

I am a HERO. Won’t you agree?