Key leopard population ‘crashing’
PARIS — The leopard population in a region of South Africa once thick with the big cats is crashing, and could be wiped out within a few years, scientists warned Wednesday.
Millennials are changing the game in the Philippine Stock Exchange
“A JUNGLE.”
That’s how the trading floor appeared to Mica Tan, who was then in her teens when she walked in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) in high school uniform.
The colossal electronic board, its dizzying figures, bewildering codes, and people shouting from different corners formed an almost intimidating world that the curious Ms. Tan, with a backpack slinging on her shoulder, still set out to explore.
Her first mission was to find herself a mentor. Perhaps amused with finding a kid in a sea of coats‑and‑ties, the head of a brokerage firm agreed to teach her the ropes.
“I saw how important it was for them to make decisions in a second,” recalled Ms. Tan, who founded of an investment firm called MFT Group of Companies at the age of 20. In an interview, she shared the first lessons from she learned on the trading floor: which stocks to buy, how much, if they should hold or if they should sell. “And they’re not talking about some change,” she said. “They’re talking about millions.”
Ms. Tan is part of an ongoing shift in the stock market now seeing an influx of “millennials,” the generational cohort born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, a long way from the market being formerly dominated by the “old boys’ club.”
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Art Samantha Gonzales with Freepik
Jose T. Pardo, the 75‑year‑old chairman of the PSE, compares this to his own career history, reeling in the time where he started trading in his late 30s. With “very limited funds,” he said, he invested only in “very select” dividend‑paying stocks.
“The PSE has joined the digital age, it is now information technology [I.T.]‑driven,” the chairman said. “The millennials, being tech‑savvy, are quick to adapt so we’re seeing an upsurge of younger stock market investors.”
As a result, brokerage firms have been prompted to change their strategy in a bid to cash in on this market.
Ramon Tejero, head of retail equities‑e.commerce of Maybank ATR Kim Eng, has observed that millennials are aggressive and are risk takers. His company regularly mounts coaching sessions for young people interested in investing in the stock market.
“They value speed, they’re highly mobile, and they want to do it themselves,” he said.
While millennials are known to value experiences more than material things, according to a study conducted by Harris and sponsored by Eventbrite, they may opt to go to the stock market because of its competitive nature. Mr. Tejero said that while millennials are “probably not yet at a stage where acquisition is more important to them, it’s all about experience.” He added that people who get a high in winning in sports also enjoy trading. “It also gets you high because it’s like a win. Not only are you sikat (popular), you have money in your pocket.”
Millennials have a higher risk appetite than their senior counterparts. They trade more often but in smaller amounts, while the older ones trade less often but pour in huge chunks of money.
“Since the seniors also trade in bigger amounts, they tend to be deliberate. They tend to be sure. They tend to study the trade before they enter it,” Mr. Tejero said. “The more senior clients would be still a handover from the previous generation which is a buy‑and‑hold generation. For millennials, it’s price action. You trade what you see.”
The PSE has joined the digital age, it is now IT‑driven. The millennials, being tech‑savvy, are quick to adapt so we’re seeing an upsurge of younger stock market investors.
The younger investors might be more inclined to say: “Tutal naman ₱20,000 lang ‘to, pwede ba ‘tong trade na ‘to? Sige na, may target price naman ako.” (Since it’s just ₱20,000, can I trade this? Come on. I have a target price anyway.)
Their actions are also driven by the “flexible” nature of their jobs—a lot of them coming from, say, business process outsourcing—which allows them to devote more time on their online portfolio and on monitoring the market, compared to the seniors who may be executives with very little spare time.
The main difference between the millennials and the Gen X? They trade daily, weekly, or monthly, unlike the latter who wait for a year or more.
“The frame of mind of the millennial is more different. They’re more opportunistic. They’re more risk takers,” Mr. Tejero said.
This makes online trading a perfect platform for the youth. Aside from providing mobility, it allows them to open an online account for as low as ₱5,000 and start trading real‑time, unlike before when investors would have to call their brokers to place an order, and wait, because with the limited resources that they had, brokers might prioritize those with higher bids.
Online stock market accounts grew 35.6% to 236,669 in 2015, from the 2010 count of 35,559, data released last year by the PSE showed. In the same statement, PSE president and CEO Hans B. Sicat said: “We expect online trading to continue to drive growth in stock market accounts. We are hopeful that the rate of expansion we saw in the last five years will be sustained especially as more trading participants start offering online trading services.”
“If I could google ‘mentors’ 10 years ago, I would’ve done that,” Ms. Tan said. “But now, my eight‑year‑old niece would ask me if she could buy Apple Inc. stocks because she owns an iPad.”
“From old boys’ club to the rich kids’ club, I partly agree that there is a big transition,” Ms. Tan said. “But I also think that it’s not only the rich kids who get to appreciate it now. There’s a growing number of middle class tapping into stocks because they’re more educated on what to do with their money.”
The PSE affirms this view, noting that the income profile of investors has “become more skewed” to the lower income bracket.
Those earning half a million pesos or less every year took up 40.9% of investor accounts in 2015, from just 29.1% in 2010 when bulk of them earned more than P1 million (36.7%).
“Technology levels the playing field in providing access to our stock market as shown by the higher share of online investors from Visayas and Mindanao,” PSE’s Mr. Sicat said.
Even as majority or 72.7% of retail investors still come from Metro Manila, those from Luzon increased to 15% from 14.4% in 2010. Those from Visayas and Mindanao comprised 5.6% (from 2010’s 4.3%) and 2.8% (from 2010’s 1.8%) of the total accounts, respectively.
Investors based overseas accounted for 2.6% of the retail accounts, higher than the 1.2% share registered in 2010.
“It all ties down to the Philippines’ financial inclusiveness. It hasn’t reached yet that certain level that will allow us to be more aggressive to a higher level of financial inclusiveness,” Mr. Tejero said.
He said the fact that “90% of the Philippine population is below economic class C puts us way behind in terms of penetration rate.”
The gamification of the stock market thus seems to widen the access to the formerly old boys’ club‑dominated floors, letting in millennials who get a high from registering their first profit or their first dividend check. “In the terms of millennials,” Mr. Tejero said, “Achievement unlocked.”
Yet at the same time, not all endings are happy. “There are people who also lose money,” Mr. Tejero added. “That’s why education is important. You have to start the right way.”
For Ms. Tan, who remembers already having more than a passing concern about her future and her finances even as early as six, and who also remembers not having enough cash to buy stocks when she was a teenager, the stock market is like a “fast‑forward button” that will allow you to go faster wherever you want to go.
“Being in the stock market allows you to think the way big businesses do,” she said. “I would pretend I’m in Wall Street, when I’m in Ayala Triangle.”
In her own office at the Bonifacio Global City—a concrete jungle far larger than the trading floors she had since conquered—she looked back to the day she saw one company go public at the trading floor. “I said, ‘One day, I’d like to make that happen.’”
Pola Esguerra del Monte and Krista Angela M. Montealegre contributed to this story
The author wrote this feature as a cover story for BusinessWorld University Edition when she was still on the PSE beat as a reporter for BusinessWorld. Ms. Magturo is now an equity analyst.
To learn more about Maybank ATR Kim Eng’s coaching sessions, visit their website www.maketrade.com.ph
The Philippine Stock Exchange has a market education site at www.pseacademy.com.ph
Tradition saves the business of religious items
In a predominantly Catholic country like the Philippines, religious artifacts depicting images of saints and the Holy Trinity are considered symbols of faith.
With more than 80 million Filipinos—or roughly 82% of the country’s population—following Catholicism, religious articles have become more than just an ornament.
Faced with a dwindling church attendance, an increasing variety of other religions, and even a critical political milieu, the business of retailing these crafts remains strong.
Video Paolo Lacambra Lopez
In Tayuman, a few meters away from the LRT station, stand a number of these religious craft stores, aged with dust and pollution. Standing guard at the thresholds are Mama Mary and Jesus Christ—in multiples—staring out their plastic covering with their round glass eyes.
Among the first shops established here is Our Mother of Perpetual Help Religious Store, known for its religious figurines made of wood and fiberglass, that come with a price tag of between ₱150 and ₱22,000.
Its current manager Jingle Morante, hails from the family that started the business 40 years ago.
“I think everything is pretty much the same as before,” she said, somewhat distracted by the customers that come in and out the door, picking up a saint or two. It’s another business day for her.
Video Paolo Lacambra Lopez
The store has retained its regular buyers throughout the years: religious groups, priests, nuns and the Catholic faithful from Metro Manila and far provinces. According to her, there is no remarkable disparity between the number of patrons then and now. Nothing is affected by the winds of change in Philippine catholicism.
“There may have been new religions,” she said, “but what people are used to will never change.”
Meanwhile, Salvador Digol, who owns JefStar Trading that sells the same line of products for 12 years now in the area, boasts of his continuously growing network of customers. Like Ms. Morante, he believes that there is only one thing that keeps the industry alive—tradition.
Started in 2005 with a small stall and a capital of ₱20,000, JefStar has become a go‑to shop for buyers in the area with its array of religious merchandise.
Mr. Digol said Filipino traditions such as religious processions during lent season double—and even triple—the demand for the products that he sells.
“People really like these kinds of products because they believe that these perform miracles,” he said.
Philippine’s growth outlook positive but challenges remain
THE PHILIPPINES “will remain a top performer” in East Asia and the Pacific, the World Bank said yesterday, even as it flagged risks that include rising global interest rates that could weaken the peso, crimp capital flows and stoke inflation, as well as fiscal risks as the state ramps up spending while flagship tax reforms aimed at raking in more funds for government struggle through Congress. Read the full story.
Do companies still look at an applicant’s grades?
In a country where a good education comes at an often steep price, academic performance seems to be the sole measure of what one is worth.
As fresh graduates slip in their brand new corporate attire and walk in their first job interviews with a resumé in hand, hangs the following thought: will their transcript of records affect their chances of landing a good job?
At a panel discussion during a student congress organized by online advertising platform JobStreet.com at Baliuag, Bulacan last March 23, hiring officials from three companies weighed in on the impacts of academic performance on a fresh graduate’s job application.
For Judy Chua, senior human resource manager of SM Supermalls, good grades is an advantage for fresh graduates, but not an indicator of their possible success.
“We would like to hire applicants who have good academic background, but this is just one factor or one area that we look into,” she said. “There are also other characteristics of a candidate that will make a person become successful and we look for people that we can develop and train.”
We want someone who is actively engaged in activities outside their existing work because it helps initiate or drive an employee’s engagement.
Employers, instead, consider an applicant’s flexibility and adaptability more than a good academic standing as well as their involvement in extracurricular activities, she added. According to her, it reflects a person’s “determination and purpose” and exhibits a graduates potential as a team player and decision maker.
Ms. Chua is not alone in that opinion.
“Academic achievement is an important trait for a graduate because it reflects the drive of a student to perform well,” said Mark Flores, service management head of construction materials manufacturer LafargeHolcim, but he added: “We want someone who is actively engaged in activities outside their existing work because it helps initiate or drive an employee’s engagement. And I think engagement is one of the most critical components being an employee, especially for millennials.”
Art Samantha Gonzales with Freepik
The 2017 Fresh Graduates Report released by JobStreet on March 15 also suggests that academic standings do not affect a fresh graduate’s chances of landing a job.
The report, which includes the results of a survey conducted by JobStreet among 644 companies, shows that high grades and other academic‑related factors are not among the foremost considerations in hiring applicants who are just out of college. In the previous year’s survey, involvement in extracurricular activities was among the top three considerations that improved a new graduate’s employability.
Still, this is no excuse to slack off and cut class. Field of study still remains among the top attributes that employers seek out among fresh graduates.
But it’s a little reminder to stop obsessing over the figures. It takes more than just a 1.00 to be the chosen one.
Automotive Industry performance
VEHICLE sales grew by more than a fifth year on year last quarter, local car and truck manufacturers said in a statement on Monday that cited “another record increase.” Read the full story.
Foreign direct investments in the Philippines
FOREIGN direct investments (FDI) to the Philippines grew more than a tenth annually in January, the central bank reported yesterday, noting that lending by firms abroad to support operations and expansion of their local units had more than doubled.Read the full story.
A Walk in the Food Park
One day, we all woke up to a new kind of park. Gone is the soft blanket of grass—it’s been replaced with gravel—and what blooms on it aren’t flowers, but a plethora of food. It’s not the turf of children, but the playground of businessmen.
Behold the food park.
Spreading like wildfire across Metro Manila, this new dining trend has breathed life to vacant lots, marking niches across Quezon City to as far as Tagaytay. Unlike the other types of food venues—halls, courts, markets, the list goes on—the food park concept strikes a chord with pumping music, cramped parking, a notorious amount of comestibles , and a laidback vibe that drowns out the workday woes. More importantly, for the empowered middle class, it unlocks risqué cuisines (some even as peculiar as Southern Louisiana Creole) at rather painless prices.
Establishing them certainly took an enormous amount of effort.
Cheska Del Castillo, founder of StrEAT Maginhawa Food Park in Quezon City, knows all about it.
She pioneered the concept, as we know it, in 2015 to help startup entrepreneurs. Ms. Del Castillo, who is a 24‑year‑old Fine Arts graduate of the University of the Philippines, has a soft spot for small businessmen because her mother gave up a career in marketing to also launch her own pet projects.
BUILDING A FOOD PARK BRAND
The younger Del Castillo conceptualized a convergence point for food and beverage micro and small enterprises. She picked the word “park” because of the sense of community it connotes.
“Since we want to be the starting point for entrepreneurs, we don’t really charge that much when it comes to the rent,” she admitted. Rent varies depending on proximity to the entrance.
Her and her family’s brainchild rapidly gained traction.
While she did not divulge exact revenues, the idea that the brand has expanded to Commonwealth and Tagaytay in a span of two years is enough to conclude that the business pays off.
But beyond he financial returns, what gives Ms. Del Castillo more fulfilment is their social relevance. “One of our first tenants, The Lost Bread at StrEAT Maginhawa, has managed to put up a branch in a major mall,” she said. “And we couldn’t be happier for them.”
“That’s the goal,” she added. “To be the stepping stone.”
Right now, she is focused on their expansion in Tagaytay: their food park aptly named South StrEAT. The first of its kind on this side of the country, it already boasts 27 food and beverage stalls spread across 1,200 square meters.
To distinguish itself from its two Metro Manila brothers, South StrEAT follows a Memphis design theme, a postmodern eighties movement marked by geometric motifs and mixed media artistry. Already, the branch is showing signs of success. Ms. Del Castillo is adding more tenants on a second floor that will launch this year, and is targeting to raise the number of parking slots from 35 to 100.
But the more important thing she started building is a new dining culture.
Carnival Food Park, which opened late last year, spans 1,600 square meters.
And just like any other business, it wanted to be known for its own unique brand.
“We want a happy place, a family place,” mused 23‑year‑old Brian Florendo, co‑owner of this family business.
Aside from the obvious carnival theme, events were put in place to attract customers: acoustic shows, KTV nights, even costume parties. Each specialized in a particular target market.
No business is devoid of problems, and the range of those that Mr. Florendo encounters includes tenants’ daily demands and city regulations, as Marikina City has a strict ordinance against noise beyond 10 p.m.
DEALING WITH PROBLEMS
“I lose sleep often,” Florendo quipped semi‑seriously, adding that his response to problems is to give‑and‑take. “But you have to be a risk‑taker,” he warned. “I borrowed money from my parents and at some point, I feared that I won’t be able to return it,” he admitted. “Yet I realized that if we won’t try, we won’t fail but neither will we accomplish anything.”
So far, the risk has reaped some rewards. After only a few months of operation, Carnival Food Park already expects to hit its Return of Investment (ROI) in July in terms of rental, but if you include the profits they earn from a stall they built in their food park, they have already reached their ROI. Likewise, they are growing, with food parks in Quezon City, Las Piñas and soon, even as far as Cavite. A lot of new sources of income, and also a lot of new neighbours.
Meanwhile, in the Katipunan Area, the London‑inspired multi‑level container food park The Yard has also dealt with complaints that it causes “horrendous traffic problems,” according to some social media posts, on Xavierville Avenue.
The negative image, however, was borne of something rather positive: that the venue has been getting a massive reception.
The Yard—founded by sisters Bobbie Soriano, Cohleen Soriano‑Ipapo and Hazel Soriano‑Fariñas, who are also behind Fariñas Ilocos Empanada—easily reversed its reputation into being known as Quezon City’s most successful food park.
Being meticulous is key, says Ms. Soriano‑Fariñas. “We make sure that every stall is offering something unique,” she said. “We’re very picky in terms of the tenant’s fare and design concept.” It also helps that they are hands‑on in managing their social media accounts, and using those to remain aware of the latest trends. In addition, they involve their husbands in the business for more manpower.
Ms. Soriano‑Fariñas shared that a number of tenants at The Yard, Xavierville received their ROI in less than a month of operations, while The Yard itself had already received theirs in eight months’ time, despite incurring more costs like additional parking space.
STARTING UP
After recently opening a branch in Pasig called The Yard Underground, the brand is already preparing for another one along Timog Avenue, Quezon City.
The competition is tight. More than 200 concessionnaires applied. Only 25 tenants will be accepted.
Among The Yard’s tenants across its branches are millennials.
“This is the continuation of their schooling,” chimed the three. With the exception of Bobbie Soriano, the sisters consider themselves “millennials-at-heart.” The two added: “We tell millennials that entrepreneurship requires not only a high IQ, but also a high EQ.” Fariñas Ilocos Empanada, which has more than 20 branches, also began in a seven‑square meter space, so the owners understand how it is to start up. At the same time, also believe that their tenants, who are operating in similarly sized spaces, can grow beyond their stall.
And even though the three have the advantage of more experience, they are also learning from the younger ones. They employ the help of their teenage children to keep updated with the next generation, the centennials.
Which is practical, given today’s fast-paced, disruptive lifestyle, which might render food parks obsolete in a sudden.
But until then, food parks will continue to sprout. At least we can take a break from the usual mainstream restaurants, and bite into comestibles that are unique, exciting and extraordinary.
Photos used in the graphics courtesy of Isa Bernardo, Alexx Esponga, Klarissa Javier, Bryan Florendo and Cheska Del Castillo.
Your negative posts on social media may hurt your job search
It never hurts to think before you speak—or in this case, post—because your future boss could be lurking in your social media accounts.
Not that they care about what you had for dinner, or how you look like behind a screen-licking dog filter.
“Employers may look at social media, so be careful what you post,” Philip Gioca, JobStreet country manager cautioned at the Baliuag University Student Congress. “If you’re posting a bad image of yourself, employers might just pick it up,” he added. “It can influence their hiring process.”
Though your profile is, ideally, your own personal space, social media has paved the way for acquaintances to see you beyond the pleasantries. That includes the unguarded moments when you shriek profanities.
And, you gotta believe this guy: the site represents Southeast Asia’s largest online employment company, which currently caters to 4.8 million candidates and 22,000 corporate customers in the Philippines alone.
During the same event, recruitment specialists from top companies also weighed in.
Judy Chua, senior human resources manager for corporate recruitment at SM Supermalls, admitted to checking an applicant’s social media accounts when she has extra time. She does deeper research on social media when she has doubts about a candidate after the interview.
“If you have a negative post online, it may come up in the future and affect you, especially if you go for a very sensitive position,” she said.
She acknowledged that some employers may understand that people blow off steam by posting about life’s minutiae. But not all employers, she noted, are that open‑minded.
Checking social media accounts could be a practice that does not apply to industries that mass hire, such as the business process outsourcing.
But at the same time, Kristine Racella, talent acquisition manager at VXI, recognizes social media posts as a measure of an applicant’s stress tolerance.
“As much as I want to, I just don’t have the luxury to do check every social media account,” she said, adding that her firm recruits about 1,500 new hires a month. “But if I can, why not? If that’s gonna be a filter or an indicator of an applicant’s qualification.”
Still, would you risk a 140‑character tweet that could trump the 20 years you spent at school?