Philippines 2020
A Heritage of Smallness = 21st Century Bigness
Before anything else, let go of your easily-prickable Pinoy pride for 15 minutes and read (or re-read) Nick Joaquin’s A Heritage of Smallness. In this influential essay, the one-time National Artist for Literature holds up a mirror to the Filipino Soul and eschews our love affair with all things small : “Society for the Filipino is... »
Business Partners, not Beneficiaries
Last weekend, Reese Fernandez – President of Rags2Riches, Inc and my other/better half – conducted a transition workshop with the Rags2Riches Cooperative’s Board of Directors. The main content of the workshop was – and stay with me here – finance and managerial accounting. To appreciate the concept on why it’s a transition, one has to... »
CyberPress awards Inovent as Startup of the Year for 2009
Woot!! Woot!! The IT Journalists Association of the Philippines (a.k.a. CyberPress) awarded Inovent as IT Startup of the Year for 2009. The other nominees in the category were Sulit.com.ph as well as ANTS. Unfortunately, Brian Quebengco was in the US so he couldn’t join myself and our partner Henry Nguyen for the awarding. Aside... »
My TEDx Manila Talk : Change, Inc – How Social Businesses Can Help Build A Better World
Sharing my TEDx Manila Talk — a personal passion for changing the world through social businesses, and how we at Hapinoy try to live this through the work that we do. Change, Inc : How Social Business Can Help Build A Better World View more documents from Mark Ruiz. »
Eradicating Poverty Conference
The MCPI (Microfinancing Council of the Philippines) had a regional conference on the theme Beyond Credit : A Holistic Approach to Poverty Eradication, and we at Hapinoy were invited to share our experience and perspective on the topic. The topic is actually quite interesting, especially since we founded MicroVentures/Hapinoy specifically on this insight : Given... »
Filipino Efren Penaflorida is CNN Hero of the Year!
Thank you for the pride, Ef It’s such a cool and refreshing feeling to see headlines like the ones below … you rock! »
BASA Book Launched!
BASA (Bayan Akayin sa Abot-Tanaw) is a volunteer-driven outreach project conceived by Father Ted Gonzales, SJ. The group envisions a Filipino people nourished by reading; thus harnessing a powerful imagination for nation-building. The group’s challenge is to enlighten souls, liberate minds, and empower lives through knowledge sharing – believing that informed minds and hearts of... »
Spreading Innovation!
LS145 Business Innovation Management Class Intro! View more documents from Mark Ruiz. In the spirit of open-source and sharing my cognitive surplus, I’ll be uploading my Innovation Class week-on-week as it unfolds (that way, I still have the upper-hand in surprising my students). I’ll eventually be organizing all of them (with all the notes, readings, etc) into... »
Sustainability as Core Strategy
So there it was, on the front page of the Philippine Star yesterday — ‘Ayala adopts sustainability as new business strategy’. With this (i’m assuming) much-discerned strategic direction, Ayala will be reorganizing its multiple businesses around sustainability. Meaning to say that they won’t just be focusing on financial returns; they will now be ardently looking... »
TEDx is Coming to Manila
TED, our inspiration behind putting up the WhyNot?Forum, is coming to Manila! This particular event is called TEDx Manila, and is being organized by Filipino UP Professor and education advocate Rom Feria (himself a TED Fellow). TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is... »
Connect
