Who can beat Chinas financial strategy vs Western bank?

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

By  being more liquid than others having  $6trillion in liquidity - $4 trillion in banks, and 2 trillion in parallel structure:   govt corporation and other Chinese companies.

Western banks are unravelling because they were not paying attention to their liquidity and or their balance sheet.

Its a brilliant thing:   Chinese Central Banks prints money to:   buy forex of Chinese companies for their bank liquidity,  buy gold and strategic commodity reserves:   oil, iron ore etc, even agricultural lands.  That we know is magic -  from nothing -  currency printed backed by liability to buy something solid and fungible.   

The West has been fond of something intangible -  intellectual property NFT,  crypto.  China being old school like us love hard assets.

Which is better?  Even Western financial wizards recommend the hard assets

Quality investment by Peter Lynch

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

Author of One up the Wall Street.  One of the most successful stock market  investor

1.  His rules  know what you own and understand why you  bought this the company   You should be able to understand the business in 2 minutes or less or by your daughter.   Foucs on benefits

2.  High GP rate 60% or more (its going to have competitive advantage and can invest in R & D marketing and staff

3.  Invest in quality companies (just like Philipp Fisher)

4.  Ignore macro (or focus on micro -  thats what this post taught at GSB)    Micro beats the Macro if you are in a niche

Uncommon profits from common stock - new investment philosophy (vs Ben Graham - basement cigar butts strategy) that upped Warren Buffett gains

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

Phil Fisher - Common stock uncommon profits

It was Phil Fisher investment philosophy that bumped up the gains made by Warren Buffett in his investment career, not what he initially learndd from Benjamin Graham which was basically basement cigar butts hunting.    Find undervalued stocks here and there Fisher looked at something more qualitative and far enduring.  He looked  at quality of top management and their vision.  It should be same standard we should set for outselves if we are to be the darling or be in the radar of investors

15 points to look for in Growth Investing by Phil Fisher (he too was connected with Stanford - a great modern learning institution.

Fisher’s 15 Points to Look for in a Common Stock

In “Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits,” Fisher outlines 15 key points to consider when evaluating a company for investment. These points are divided into two categories: management’s characteristics and the characteristics of the business itself.

1. Does the company have products or serv

The venture capitalist mindset - "How to get funding for your start up? Being a failure champion!!

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

The headline sounds contradictory

But thatswhat it is all about: by being both a failure champion from the side of the start up and venture capitalist       

The video is by Ilya Strebulaev who teaches at Stanford (had some encounters with professors at that School) and we know many billionaires are associated/have connections with Stanford.

The VCs are successful only 1/60 of the time.   There is even a Museum of Failures where there is display of failed ideas and innovation.  The idea is to keep on moving and moving forward always despite failures. 

The VC mindset:

1.   Expect failures   That is going to be part of the life of the proponent and the VC analyst

2.  Stay out of the office -  go to the proponents office/factory, see his prototype, talk to prspective customers  (be at the Gemba)

3.  Have a prepared mind.   Chance favors the prepared mind.   (This post experienced this when he talked to a banker for a possible funding.  I was prepared with the number and business plan in my  head which I recited to him without ppt.  He approved a P14M line from that conversation

4.  Say no a 100 times.   it is easier to conduct an interview with a proponent if your question is "Why should I not fund your project

The blurb (the short pitch for Gmail)

There were many words for this:   the elevator pitch, it was just pitch when I was teaching.  That is what every new entrepreneur business leader should know when making speech or spiel for funding or sponsorship.

It should be typically just two short paragraphs:

    1.  About you, why they should trust you with their money  (zillions)  what are your extraordinary

         skills and experience, corde.  What is extraordinary about you and your team?

   2.  Your team:   what disruption, what extraordinary thing can you do about existing business and 

         value chain.   How could you monetize your ideas.  Why should it be noticed?  Chosen

What they are teaching at MBA in GSB - how to steal business from existing ones (how to steal their customers

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

When this post taught at a GSB almost a decade ago, his first activity for the group is " How to rob a bank"  The idea is to point out that robbing a bank, an immoral act has the same component as a legit business organization.   There was so much fun in it, (as we had in a borrowed case from late Dr. Morato -  the Victoria Court case (a repositioning case)

    1.  It has a goal (the ROI the payback the loot)

    2.  Planning Doing, Checking (practicing)

    3.  An organization

    4.  Risk benefit analysis

    5.  Exit plan

    It emphasizes the idea of business plan, organizing, being detailed. 

And also the idea how a legit business could be corrupt to become illegal.

Well from the recent viewing of a YT video, this post should have gone further.  The typical teaching from Harvard and other USA university (and basis for many new business  is

 "How to steal business from existing one?"

There is a video by Professor Thelis Texeira and he has a book how to steal customers from Billion Dollar companies.  

He explains how existing businesses can identify points where they fail to create value and offers methods to provide high value to customers. He examines the customer value chain, proposing a framework to identify and break apart the weakest link. He teaches how to generate ideas that offer high value to customers and how to attract customers away from

The process involves decoupling the value chain (eroding ) and then coupling. Find out the weakest poin in the value chain, improve, revise or disrupt these and/or create more activities around it. For example, the pharmacy business has been decoupled and coupled to include the medication in packets that are in accrodance with the Drs. Rx. No need to remember the Drs RX and remove the meds from the bottles. This has taken care of the company. No wonder the traditional pharmacy company are failing in the US

So really, "How do you steal from an exisitng business (that has stagnated or has a weakness.

Now hiring employment opportunities - apply now

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

JOB OPENINGS - now hiring 

at Holy Gardens Philippines

     1.  San Carlos

     2.  Greenhills (Calamba)

     3  Oton (Iloilo)

Employment opportunities

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

JOB OPENINGS - now hiring 

at Holy Gardens Philippines

     1.  San Carlos

     2.  Greenhills (Calamba)

     3  Oton (Iloilo)

Apply now

Audacious move by Megawide for P10 b investment by Pag ibig in a construction outfit via preferred share

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

We know one of the top execs of Pag ibig, when we manifested our desire 1 year ago to go into 4ph project.     But we found out that it would take P300 m to finish a project before you ever get a take out  So its going to be capital intensive for a developer and most likely he would go into a liquidity hiccup.   No developmental loan.  

However this one bypasses the loan portion because the govt takes an equity, albeit riskier bet on the developer.   Probably this was done to save the 4ph project, a flagship project of PBBM to save the dwindling popularity of the President in the light of many challenges his administration is facing

Since we know the top guns fo the said govt institution we can probably explore the same possibility (follower) and or let PAG IBIG invest in our different ventures.

Three businesses I would like to be in soon

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

What are the three?

1.   Trading of excavators

2.    Agar wood

3.    Solar lamps

All promise great wealh building potential.   The two which involves import expoert from China can build gp up by 100%.   For example certain HE can be bought at $5,000 if bought wholesale and can be sold up to $12- 15,000 with taxes and transport included.   And so I found out to save on taxes, you locate yourself at SBMA.   And then the solar lamps, I found I can get a good deal for P10,000 but sell up to to P30,000 depending on the market.  Many made huge profit for DPWH projects.

As for Agarwood, it takes years to grow the tree, it is technology intensive, but trees grow without much care and yes you can sell up to $100,000 per kg on very good treees.   And there are plenty of agri land in the PHL that are idle and you can still acquire low price agri lands anywhere in the PHL

3 things very wealthy people do before a market crash (so that we can prepare)

Nation building via learning and being the best in business 

 It happened in 1933, 2008, is it happening in 2025 There are three things that super rich investors do before a crash (do they have something we dont have why they can see a crash before it happens?

This is what they do:

1.  They liquidate their assets (especially if they can see if the assets:  stocks real estate are overvalued)

     They position themselves into liquid assets getting ready for 2.  We see Buffet with $325 Billion hoard of cash

2.   They position themselves into precious metal like silver or gold.  In the case of Bill Gates, positioning for farmland invested in 275,000 acres of farmland

3.   They to take advantage of debased financial assets with put option, debt swaps, and shorting to do bargain hunting and or vulture investing.

Put options

Buying a put option

You can also buy a put option to express a directional bias. A long put is similar to short selling a stock. The outlook is for the stock to decline after the put has been purchased and subsequently sell the option back at a higher price. Because of certain account type restrictions you may not be able to short stock, so buying a long put enables you to have a bearish position in a security with reduced capital allocation. 

Long puts have defined risk (the original cost of the option is the most you can lose) and undefined profit potential. Puts are typically more expensive than calls because investors are willing to pay a higher premium to protect against downside risk when hedging positions.

Selling a put option can also be an advantageous strategy to purchase a stock, because the credit from the put option reduces the cost basis of the stock position if assigned. Many investors sell puts on stocks they are happy to own and gladly accept payment in return. A short put option can be thought of as a limit order. 

For example, you might sell a put at a price you believe is support. Instead of waiting for the share price to fall and trigger your order, you essentially get “paid” to wait for the price to decline below the short put option’s strike price. If the stock price never drops below the strike price, you get to keep the premium.

Think about it: if a stock is trading at $102, and you would buy it at $100, why not sell a put with a $100 strike price? If you receive $5.00 for selling the put, you’ve reduced the position’s cost-basis to $95. You’re already up $500 per contract!

(Note: to sell a “naked” put, or cash-secured put, your account must have enough capital to purchase 100 shares at the contract’s strike price).

Put option spreads

While some of these use cases for put options may sound too good to be true, there are risks associated with selling options. As mentioned before, a short put option has undefined risk. That’s where spreads come in handy.

A spread combines two or more options into a single position to define risk for the seller or reduce cost for the buyer.  

A bull put credit spread has the same bullish bias as a single-leg short put, but a long put is purchased below the short option to define the position’s risk. You’ll take in less credit because you have to buy a put option, and the credit received is still your maximum potential profit. But you can rest easy knowing your max loss is defined by the spread width minus the credit received.

For example, if a $5 wide bull put spread sold at $50 collects a $1.00 credit, the maximum profit potential is $100 if the stock price is above the short put at expiration. The max loss is $400 if the stock price is below $45 at expiration because the broker would automatically buy shares at $50 and sell shares at $45. (Remember, short put = buy, long put = sell). The trade’s break-even point is the short put strike minus the premium received.

Joseph Kennedy, Ackman are very famous for this.  They made their killing when the market was crashing.

Why is crash just around the corner (6 most to 18 mos)

1.  Overvaluedd stocks

2.  Huge US 38trillion debt

3.  Crashing real estate:

      House overpriced at 50%  (spreading homelessness in US)

      30-40% vacancy rate of  commercial real estate)

4.   End of petrodollar

5.   End of US as reserve currency

6.   Unwinding of the carry trade due to yen increase of bond rate.    Japan problem can take US with 

      it      

Gold mine for investors - real estate in the provinces (even farmlands, phase 2 in trades for zillionaires)

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

Investors have focussed on MM condos, commercial, rentals and neglected the provinces.  Local investors have bet consistently in local developments:   malls, rentals, subdivision.    We are small player but we played out in the province.

The second phase for traders/investors in volatile market is to invest in gold.  The substitute by Gates and Zuckerberg is to purchase farmlands.  This is the option for stock and financial instrument trader.  This was the playbook for Antonio to go into RE in the 80s with Youngstown development

Focus enables you to see other possibilities and solutions to the business processes which can add tremendously to efficiency and wealth creation

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

                                               Wide cut, zero turn

                                       DIY RC lawn mower with caster wheel and  RC accessories

                                       RC receiver and motor can be installed easily (not available in PHL?

                                            PC 40 soon to be delivered either in LU or HGGMP

                                                2022,   placed on ad Dec 9, Php 827,000

Machinery line Philippines Komatsu pc 40

This post thought of diversifying into agri forestry products But there seem to be many problems and gaps in our current business that need our attention.  One was mechanization of a certain process.   We will save about P1,500 per unit and that adds up to x 300-->> P450,000 a year and if you add up interest that you dont pay to others, and the depreciation charges.  You can easily add up another P500,000 to the bottom line.

Now there is another area where we can mechanize and maybe we can save up to two laborers:   grass cutting.  There are available robotic lawn mower and maybe thats P250,000 x 2 =   P500,000.  We will have less head ache on manpower etc and their dynamics.    We can concentrate on marketing, and admin of managing the records, and selling

Income opportunities, apply now

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

We are HIRING.  

We are growing nation wide company focused on providing top notch customer service to our customers.    We have upgraded our entry level positions by as much as P4,000+ per month.  Our officers position salaries are as competitive with other industries.

We belong to the top 5 in the industries

Come and join our team.  Plenty of  opportunities for financial and career advance.

Entry level:

    1.  Customer service specialists        needed/required at Calamba, Oton, Calapan and San Carlos                                                                        City (8)

    2.  Accounting staff                           at San Carlos City, San Fernando City, Calamba, Calapan and                                                                    Oton  (5)

    3.  Drivers (transportation specialist)      at Calamba, Morong, San Fernando, San Carlos, City

    4.  Gardeners maintenance staff              San Fernando (2)   San Carlos City (2) Calamba (2) 

    5.  Lending staff -                                    3 staffers.    

Officers

    Malasiqui  -                 1, Calapan    -1,  Calamba - 1

    Lending operations  -  1

    Main office   -             3  (Asst Gm, HR, Gen Accounting)

    Funeral service  -        3 funeral directors

Minimum qualifications

    Educ attainment -   For GT and TS high school, for officie staff, college graduate with major

                                     related to job, eg.   Accounting - Accounting Major, CSS - marketing

    Experience -   preferred but nor required;  for officer, a minimum of 3 years in supervisory position

    Passionate, high level of integrity, excellent oral and written communications, computer literate

           Gmail, AI,  blog, FB, xls, word, 

Hurry apply now.   Prepare for:    stoppage of BPO because of US law to bring home call center, the forthcoming Japan and US reset (economic woes)   We are glad PHL will be exempt for these forthcoming economic reset.   

APPLY, CALL TEXT NOW GMAIL LETTER OF INTENT AND CV

Send cv to letter of intent to:      jorge@holygardens.ph

Contact number                          +63908 928 7888

AI bubble burst - worse than dot.com burst, real estate burst

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

History just shows us that we never learn.  Greed pervades.  Herd mentality is forever.   We follow trends even if that trend leads us to loss or perdition.   The pied piper wins.

What do we do next, how do lick our wounds, how do we recover the losses.  

The conservatives always go for the solid asset based wealth.  Common productive enterprises.    Food, water, insurance, transportation, health.   The future does not have to be nebulous or hazy.     The next big thing cant mean our perdition.  

How do we learn from our mistakes:

What is essential is invisible to the naked eye - from Little Prince

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

We often see the book cover and see only one side of the coin or the business.  The business model that you see may be actually  losing money

1 The car dealership may barely make a profit on the unit they sell but they earn on:

     1.  Parts and lubricants

     2.  Servicing the unit

     3.  Insurance

     4.  Repairs

2.  We on the other hand barely make 5% on the unit we sell but we make up for the services too.  Our margin on service is 50-60%

3.   A billiard hall may not make money on the pool tables but earn money on food and drinks, tournaments, memberships, events

4.  As in Amazon they lose money on membership prime ($20 b) a year but make up for it in sales and video streaming

5.  A computer shop makes money on peripherals and consumables

6.  A gasoline station makes money on retail rentals rather than gasoline

7.   A condo or subdivision makes more money on recurring income:   H20 sewarage and building admin

8.  A retail establishment makes money on rack rentals rather than the sales of good.   Prime locations are paid by manufacturers more than margin of each product  (Sales - cgs)

Japan's auto industry facing uncertainity

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

Will Toyota remain the largest world automaker?

All ready we see pressures and cracks in the Japan's automotive industry:

1.  The US tariff is hurting them and slowing down their sales

2.   BYD, China's EV dominance

3.   Aggressive moves by China to get hold of Japan supplier and former plants

What is  going to happen to Japan?  How will Toyota hold on to its leadership position? In the household electronic industry Japan has lost its dominance with the difficulties of Panasonic, Sharp, Toshiba and more.  China cheap manufacturing platform has something to do with their loss of leadership  and competitiveness

Nothing is forever.  Japanese juggernaut and manufacturing and car industry are losing it and China may soon replace them.   And then this financial difficulty they are currently experiencing:   tariff wars with USA, loss to EVs, yen weakness?

What would you suggest?

Japan's nuclear counter attack tsunami vs US dollar; this ends period of prosperity and economic stability for US

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

For years it is said that Japan, ever since the Plaza accord has propped up and provided cheap money for US, and propped up  the latters economy  for decades:    1.  low if not zero interest, 2.  cheap yen vs US dollar.  And were also buyers of higher yielding US treasuries.

But lately Japan has taken steps on its economy and fiscal matters that others seen as an attack on US dollar or economy.  (It could be because of Trumps tariff which is hurting Japan's export.!!)

      1.  They have hinted on raising bond rates (bond pricing hitting 1.9%)

      2.  They have stopped buying US treasuries

      3.   They are dumping US treasuries (almost $200+ billion for a quarter)

This affects:

     1. Carry trade  trades involving borrowing cheap yen and investing in higher yielding stocks and 

          treasuries.  It is estimated to be between 12 -20 trillion dollars.   Its unwinding

     2.  May affect liquidity

     3   US economy stability as no one would continue to buy US debt

     4.  US quality of life.  This sort of interest rate subsidy would  end and jack up housing and

           credit card % rate

All the while the environment of US economy is not at all conducive 

The ongoing trend of de dollarization:

    1.   Declining importance of US as reserve currency

    2.   De dollarization by BRICS, USSR, UAE India in their trades

    3    End of Petro and Euro dollars

    4.   US huge $37 trillion in debt

How will these affect the Philippine economy.?

Shall we weather these economic storms?

What are our countermeasures?

In this economic environment, how will you  plan?   How will you strategize?   Its vastly different from the world we were born and grew...It will make your head spin

           

YT experienced massive declines in viewership and they solved this with simple trick

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

The people at Google are smart people and we should emulate their ingenuity.   Once their engineers and programmers noticed decline in YT video viewership.  After a view of a video, the reader would leave not to come back again.   

The Google engineer simply solve this by:

   1.  Putting on the right hand pane a thumbnail of other videos

   2.  The other videos that are related posted on the last page of the video just played

   3.  Review button on the video.  

   4.  The shorts.  People have such attention span that they view short videos (FB version - reels)

Brilliant eh.  By doing this YT viewership climbed exponentially

Increasing YT views

How the gold and bitcoin reset (double talk for currency devaluation) will erase US $37 trillion debt and cause financial difficulties for most citizens?

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

How will this impact your business.   This is going to be completed in 2027.    

Here is the plan:

1.  President DT under the Economy Emergency Plan has all ready signed an EO protecting the Bitcoin  US has about $200 billion of this which were bought and confiscated in the drug raids.    US has 8000 tons worth of gold valued at $42.22 dollars in US treasury books amounting to $200 billion 

2.   The govt will revalue the ff assets:

       gold from $42.22 to P20,000/ounce which will increase  value to $5 trillion and bitcoin to $1,000,000         each from current market value of about $100,000 which will revalue the bitcoin to  $2 trillion.

       The $37 trillion will now be backed by 20% of total govt assets and the debt of $37 trillion will be but erased.

        Brilliant eh

But such move will:

      1.  devalue the dollar

      2.  gold can be confiscated

      3.  wipe out the value of savings and retirement including salaries and wages

      4.   there may be hyper inflation

Who will benefit:

     1.  The US Fed

     2.  The US govt  it will now appear stronger and financially sound

     3.  Politicians  - they dont have to raise taxes or worry about the massive spending deficit they are doing.  or worry about paying the massive $1.2 trillion in interest alone to the $37 trillion debt.  

     And this happening right now as:

     1.  There is pending crash of the financial market just like in 2008 because of overvalued stock

     2.   The unravelling of the estimated $20 trillion carry trade (investments in stock and other financial instruments by borrowing cheap Japan Yen and investing in other financial high yield financial instruments. 

    This post foresees difficulties and economic difficulties in USA especially for its 300 million citizens.  Its a great pain to solve its difficulties.  (And many foresee that a collapse of finances could lead to the demise of the empire as it happened to UK and Rome before)   While PHL is still far away the awesome and massive of plunder of the PHL treasury could cause the same pain.  Its time to execute and punish the plunderers from executive and legislative branches of the govt

    

Lose some, gain plenty - the story about Amazon prime - THE BENEFITS OF THE FREE (ALSO FREEMIUM)

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

This is about the strategy of Jeff Bezos at Amazon.   Sales were declining and their team was a at loss on how to arrest the decline.   After long brainstorming and research they found out that shipping was causing the friction that rubbed sales the wrong way

So they established the Amazon prime.  For only $__ subscription, membership a year, you could have unli shipment.    Before customers buy 1 to 3x per year.  But with the Prime membership, the customers bought on the average 27 x a year.   Translating into 27x more sales

Amazon loses $20b a year on the free/reduced shipping cost.     But it is accelerating its sales.  Now the prime is into video streaming  now an enemy of Netflix.  The customer base is a rich mine for other businesses.    

Google is in freemium model.  It does not charge for the search engine but makes up for ads and maybe google maps  and YT ads.!

So what could be causing friction in the company.  We hypothesized it could be the _ permit  or ___certificate.  It may be made FREE - DEDUCTED FROM THE SERVICE or even processed by our staff.   For the lot sales, we may make the transfer fee FREE.

Steve Job Commencement Speech at Stanford U

"I was fired from the very company I created… and it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me."

When I was born, my biological parents gave me up for adoption.

That moment — even though I couldn't remember it — left a mark that never fully faded.

My adoptive parents gave me love, warmth, and stability.

But inside, a quiet voice kept asking: Why wasn't I enough to be kept?

That question became my engine.

That pain — my fuel.

I was determined to build something so meaningful that the world couldn't look away.

At 20, in my parents' garage, I co-founded Apple.

No investors. No safety net. No plan B.

Just an idea — and an obsession to make technology beautiful, simple, and human.

For a while, it worked.

Then life flipped the script.

At 30, I was forced out — fired by the same company I had built from nothing.

It felt like exile.

Like being thrown out of your own home. 💼⚡

For months, I wandered in the dark — humiliated, angry, lost.

But somewhere in that emptiness… a spark reignited.

I started again.

From zero.

I built NeXT — and bought a small animation studio that would soon become Pixar.

And while I was rebuilding, life had a strange way of coming full circle:

Apple bought NeXT — not to hire me back, but to buy the technology I'd created.

That's how I returned.

This time, stronger.

Wiser.

Free from the need to prove — driven instead to create.

Together, we launched the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone.

We didn't just design products — we redesigned how people live, dream, listen, and connect.

Behind every headline was a man once rejected, adopted, and fired —

who refused to let any of it define him.

🍎📲

Because sometimes the greatest breakthroughs are born from heartbreak.

Sometimes the fall is what gives you wings.

⏳💥

"Life will hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.

Because what feels like an ending… might just be the start of something extraordinary."

— Steve Jobs

Being mysterious: do you want to share a secret?

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

  Air of mystery (do you want to know a secret?)

       In sales platform, they sell mystery boxes and many fall for this.

      People go for mystery and intrigues and hence the prevlance of such shows novels and books

      We want to be kept on edge and be in the world of mystery and unknown.

     Hence the 11th missing herb for KFC, the secret formula for Coca Cola

     Hence in ads, dont reveal all.  Leave something for imagination   

     Make it a striptease.  Dont go for full brochures but fliers or ads that are teasers asking customers

     to want more.

    But personally I find the ads that asks something in return for more info more annoying especially

    if the competition is high.   Some companies are not so domanding.

   What do you do with your ads?   Selling benefits before mentioning price is a way of putting mytery

   in your presentation

      

     

The old book I read regarding increasing revenue by x %, and reducing cost/expenses by y% can increase profits by z%

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

We tried to recompute the GP on an important service and these were the things we did:

     1.  Mechanized the operastions saving xxxxx per unit

     2.  Raised the price by 20% true mark up ( x/0.80

     

The mechanization could increase the intake of customers by 20% and that means a lot

The GP could be a cool 8 numbers and double that of GP on plots wherein we gain only P5,500 per plot

So the things on the following are correct:

    1.  God is in the details

    2.   The box by Gettner re Amazon pain before on packign boxes on employees knees.  It was

           solved by common sense solution of packing on a table

    3.   Post on Elon Musk on wrong frequency which pointed out to a deformed aluminum part which

          could have caused another Space x disaster

    4.  One of the traits of an entrepreneur isi being process oriented

    So find the bottleneck in the operations, what causes the delay:   it could be lack of server in FB, or             slow processing of credit card.

Paul Getter posts and ideas seen at FB

Paul Getter the internet marketing nerd

These are some of his post at FB and we can learn a thing or two from him.  The theme is just being unusual, thinking out of the box, or a purple cow.

It is the focus of most strategist.   Do nothing exotic about your business model.  Just make an outstanding unique product or ad, to be the  most preferred and saleable 

product in the market place

And profiting from you mistakes

1.  THE BAD PEN  (a recurring theme in his writings)

      A bad pen in the batch can be your best teacher.   It teaches you to make a better product.    It can be your free consultant to improve your product and hence your company

2.  The MISSING KEY

     One day, Andrew Carnegie the steel business magnate found out that they could not start the factory because they could not find the KEY  to the warehouse Then Andrew c ordered the

     unthinkable -  destroy and stop having a lock from thereon.   What was the lock and key for -  to prevent the 1% possibility of theft.  What then was the solution:    better system, better

     process to stop the theft .   The key could not be a bottleneck for running a multimillion project.   There has to be a better way.  How many times do we find bottlenecks in the business

     that should not be there and stop the business.  Find and remove them

3.  The spotlight switch

     This is about the concert of Bayonce that experienced a brown out.  The team of Bayonce was prepared and anticipated this.    And the concert was a success.  And a PR was created:

     to highlight the  team of Bayonce -   " Bayonce concert proceeded despite brown out"   A great team, a great singer   Turn a misfortune a disadvantage into a uniqueness, a shining moment, a 

     stand out

4.   The empty table 

       The story is about Steve Jobs returning to Apple.   Apple was on verge of collapse and bankruptcy  after he was fired and other CEOs took over including Sculley, whom he recruited from

       Pepsi Cola but fired him   Steve looked at the list of the plethora of products  And initially Steve Jobs said nothing.  But he cleared the table -  removed the other non performing products and

       left just four.   More products line:    1.   Create confusion and chaos    2   Dissipate resources and management thinking and energy.  3.   Destroys focus.

      Application in marketing;    the first 5 seconds is important.  If it cant be explained in 5 seconds, then you cant sell it.      If the ad cant stop the eye of the scroller in 5 seconds it cant sell.  

      Empty table enables focus, focus, focus

     The successful billionaires are those who focus on one industry or product.   Or activity.   Conglomerates

       are long gone  So who are most successful:   Warren Buffett Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg for               staying focussed.   Most successful ads are 7 words, some say it is 15 words.  Too many tend to               confuse

     Again same thing:   from nothing to nothing.  (Pay Pal  -   Peter Thiel)

5.  Inside out

     This is reverse thinking, this is about stand out.    This is about clothing     Abercombie fitch  Other clothing focussed on things that are visible -  outside.   Fitch focussed on logos and

      graphics in the inside.   They built identity inside and out.    The bigger the logos sign the bigger the sales.   Sales fettered out when they changed the strategy.  

     So the product must be presented what it does inside -  the body, the label, not what it does outside   It is one approach.

6   Lost luggage

     Thsi happened to Southwest, Herb Gallagher airline  One time it kep losing luggage.   It could not  afford that bad pr bad customer service.   So Herb athered its ground crew and staff and conferred

      on how to address this issue and they were able to solve this at a minimal cost.  From pure team work and cooperation.

    ( A negative into a positive)

7.   From missed call bug to an opportunity.

     There was a bug that existed in a Motorola phone model.  There was a buzzing sound in case there was a missed call  It was a bug.  Motorola did not solve this and use this bug aa a distinguishing

      feature.   Turning a glitch, a bug into an advantage

      (disadvantage into advantage)

8.   Less talk, less mistake, less talk more of mystery

How do you treat subordinates? Does good human relations and camaraderie apply

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

HR practitioners and new business leaders often mistake that being lax and friendly to the staff -  being lax on work standards and loan is the key to successful business management.   Often these individuals like me in the beginning fall flat on their faces.

Sooner or later the staff:    leave

Personnel management becomes difficult because of this system.

We need to have a system rather than personnel relationship

Business models: how companies make money and sometimes they are hidden

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

I saw this post at SocMedia regarding a driving school.  The other schools were charging P34,000 and others lowered this to P24,000   Still no takers

One enterprising driving school entrepreneur offerred the course for free.    But will require a P24,000 deposit for safety of car being driven (to cover repairs just in case.  

1.   The refund of the deposit can be given back at the end of the course;

2.  P5,000 will be given as reward  for safe driving at the end of two years. and P10,000 can be given at the end of 5 years if the studdent is accident free

3   How can the driving history be tracked?   By selling insurance to the student bought in bulk,   The driving school gets a 40% gross margin on this as com.

4.  By tying up with car companies and dealers for com by referring students for services and sales

Crafty isnt it?

Forthcoming glut in the heavy equipment business coming soon or is now happening?

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

Our group is canvassing for the purchase of light excavators to mechanize our operations (to further systematize and save money -  enough of providing jobs.    They abandon us in difficult times and costs are uncontrolled  in the age of AI)  We noted yards chock full of inventories and perhaps more are coming  .Perhaps the demand for these was high when large budgets and lot of projects were being dished out by DPWH.     Hence the big excavators.

But now DPWH has stopped bidding projects while investigation are ongoing.  The govt contractors are not getting any bids approved, no project implementation.  No new equipment needed.   For the private sector, the condo and subdivision sectors seem to have excess inventories.     Its going to be sad fort these equipment and construction materials supplier.

Halting of bidding on govt projects.

Slower revenue collections, slower GDP growth seen due to DPWH corruption news

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

DOF BIR sees slowdown in collection due to corruption mess

The country's purse holders see slower revenue take due to on going investigations primarily the DPWH ghost projects over pricing.   It spells slower economic growth and our country failing to meet its target.

Its no time to despair.  We have to work harder.  Those in the govt must ferret out the offenders and punish them return death penalty to plunder to put a stop to this large scale thievery.

We the rest of people who work hard for progress must focus and be not  distracted.  

Why USA will continue to be the last superpower?

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

The thesis of the post is that being a superpower is determined by the land on which is sits on.  And the land has to answer these difficult questons:    1.  Can it feed its people,   2.  Doest it have access to the major oceans for trade,   2.  Can it defend itself.   

USA seems to have answer to the three.  China has only an access to one ocean and is even threatened by Philippines, Taiwan, and Asean countries.    Russia's access to the Atlantic means it has to be friendly

Japan has access to only the Pacific;  Germany only to the Atlantic.    UK ceased to be a world power when Germany was able to invade it from the skies.   

ICTSI 's Razon certainly helps countries become major superpower.       Subics deep seaport helps PH not only in trade but in defense.   

Despite all the stories about huge debt, declining quality of life, the author suggests that USA will continue to be a major superpower.     It can feed its people,  it has access to two major oceans for trade and it can definitely defend itself with its huge arsenal.    

Opportunities abound

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

While recuperating from an eye operation, phone calls come in for new ventures:

1.  A partner from North wants to buy a 2.5 property at P1,000 foreclosed by a bank.  He wants us to enter into a JV.   We can have about  6,000 inventories.  We can sell at 80,000 /per plot   Thats about P480,000,000 estimated sales

2.  A partner in Visayas is proposing a 1.5 hectare property which he plans to buy at 1,200 /sm but which will require about 2,000/sm development cost:   1,000 backkfilling and 1,000 infrastructures.   We can have 3,000 inventory.  We can sell this at P80,000/plot    About P240,000

3.  In Rizal we can have a 2.2 hectare project 1.4 + 0.8.   It becomes an 5 party project:   2 to ROW owners, two to lot owners and us.  We can have about 5,000 plora.  Selling price in the area is about P200,000 and we can sell billions.  Thats about a billion

4.  In another space in in Rizal an adjoining lot is selling to us at P5,000 /sm.   Our counter is JPA.  Or at P2,000 per square meter.     It is good for 5,000 inventory.      Good for  P500,000,000.  

Thats a total projected revenues:  

        P480,000,000

          240,000,000

       1,000,000,000

          500,000,000

Thats 2,200,000,000 total while resting at home recuperating post op from cataract.  I am happy that without going around, these opportunities knock at my door. It is hoped that we can close most of them.  There are still many obstacles to be overcome.  Am proposing a 1% catalyst for those who can close the projects.   

Debt (or excessive use of it) caused the downfall of empires.

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

Rome and the Ottoman empires lost their glow due to debt.   Is this similar to the US situation with $37 trillion public debt (due to deficit spending mostly due to wars and war machinery)

The Ottoan empire problem  started when they borrowed  for their war effort vs Russia.   They were screwed by terms favorable to the lenders:   high interest rate, short repayment terms etc.   Which were not matched by tax collection and revenues.  

When they defaulted the European demanded a say in tax measures and collection.    There was capitulation.    There was economic capitulation.   

Could this similar to Philippine situation where the debt of the country has been steadily rising since January of 2025 due to financing of plunder  by top govt official

Does corruption affect the investment climate in the country or buy when there is flood scandal?

Nation building via learning and being the best in business

It would seem to be such today with corruption now running into billions.  It was massive.  Other factors could be at play and one of the Cabinet Secretaries disputed the claim that corruption  caused the loss of Php 1.7 trillion loss of market value at PHP.

I would like to remember the old yarn,  " Invest in countries where there is blood on the street."   Black marketeers flourish during war or crisis times.  "  Ji Wei says Chinese.  Opportunities, and threat

We small businessmen have to live with corruption with even the lowest Barangay official demanding as much as P5/sm for a permit, or for his endorsement of a Citiy Resolution.  Without the permit, we cant go into a business.   We have to live with corrupt, dirty officials.