Facebook Instagram Linkedin X Youtube
Home Blog Page 4656

AGI extends share buyback plan, allots P2 billion more

ALLIANCE Global Group, Inc. (AGI) has allocated another P2 billion for the extension of its share buyback program to reach a total of P9 billion, it said on Wednesday.

In a regulatory filing, the company said its board of directors had approved extending its buyback program up to April 2025 or an additional 12 months from the original ending date of April 8, 2024.

The Tan-led firm said the objectives of the program’s extension remain the same — similar to its term set in October 2021 and extension in December 2022.

“The extension and the increase in the allocated amount are still geared towards enhancing shareholder value,” the company said.

The company’s share buyback program was initially set in 2021, earmarking an initial P4 billion for AGI’s common shares. It was extended in December last year with an additional allocation of P3 billion.

To date, Alliance Global has already bought back 596.85-million common shares which are valued at about P6.93 billion of the total P7 billion initially earmarked before the new extension.

AGI is engaged in property development, food and beverage manufacturing and distribution, quick service restaurants, and integrated tourism development.

The company’s subsidiaries are Emperador Inc., Megaworld Corp., Travellers International Hotel Group, Inc., Golden Arches Development Corp., and Infracorp Development, Inc.

AGI dropped 1.34% or 18 centavos, closing at P13.30 per share on Wednesday. — Adrian H. Halili

Delivery app Pick.A.Roo adds personalized recommendations

LIFESTYLE delivery app Pick.A.Roo now uses advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities to give its consumers a convenient, stress-free experience.

Pick.A.Roo, under Megaworld Corp.’s subsidiary Agile Digital Ventures, Inc., has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to make the app more user-friendly and tailor-fit to every customer.

“By utilizing the power of AWS’s cutting-edge technologies, we are committed to offering personalized recommendations and curated selections that cater to each individual’s unique tastes and preferences,” said Eric Bataga, Pick.A.Roo chief executive officer, in an e-mailed statement.

“Our goal is to help urban consumers transition to the next normal with ease, convenience, and peace of mind,” he added.

The app’s colorful yet neat interface allows customers to order groceries from supermarkets like Shopwise, S&R, The Marketplace, Landmark, AllDay, Robinsons Supermarket, MerryMart, and UltraMega Grocery.

Restaurants and food groups such as Max’s and Dencio’s from the Max’s Group; Italianni’s, TGIF, and Denny’s from The Bistro Group; and Tim Ho Wan and Mesa from Foodee Global Concepts are also available.

Even food from hotels like Shangri-la Hotel can be found on the app, among more affordable options like McDonald’s, S&R Pizza, and Shakey’s Pizza. There’s a wide variety to choose from.

Joan Estacio, chief operating officer of Pick.A.Roo, added that the partnership with AWS drives “higher engagement rates, revenue growth, and enduring brand loyalty.”

“By combining AWS’ powerful infrastructure and Pick.A.Roo’s customer-centric focus, we are confident that our joint efforts will deliver exceptional outcomes,” she said in a statement.

Ordering groceries from a store automatically registers as data for the app to suggest where else to get similar items. Afterwards, it will keep the store as a “favorite” on one’s home page for easy access next time.

Pick.A.Roo also shows the bestsellers for that week, whether it’s ballpoint pens and boxes of paper clips from Office Warehouse or bags of Tostitos and pizza combos from S&R. Browsing through the various stores and items becomes fun and convenient (albeit a time-consuming and expensive hobby) — a testament to the friendliness of the app.

The Pick.A.Roo team said that the top categories are usually pantry essentials, fresh meat and seafood, and housekeeping and cleaning items. — Brontë H. Lacsamana

Damosa Land, Imperial Homes to build solar net-metered units

DAMOSA Land, Inc. said it signed an agreement with Imperial Homes Corp. (IHC) to build solar net-metered housing units in Panabo City, Davao del Norte.

In a statement on Wednesday, Damosa Land said its memorandum of agreement with Imperial Homes will explore green and innovative technologies for the development of solar-powered homes.

The agreement was signed by Damosa Land President Ricardo F. Lagdameo and IHC Group of Companies President Emma M. Imperial.

Damosa Land said both parties share the same ambition of modernizing homes while also working to mitigate the possible impacts of climate change and housing backlogs.

“IHC will build modern-designed housing units with solar net metered solutions within [Damosa Land] to assure future homeowners zero electricity bills which will redefine their home experience,” it said.

This project will be launched in the first quarter of next year and is described by Damosa Land as the first of its kind in Mindanao.

The partners will also combine their expertise to develop and bring “an advantageous mid-market housing community with beneficial cutting-edge technologies.”

Damosa Land said the project, which involves 549 housing units, will rise on a five-hectare land next to its Anflo Industrial Estate.

The company is a sustainable real estate developer while Imperial Homes is a developer of innovative solar net-metered homes. — Ashley Erika O. Jose

Market-driven

MICHAEL FOUSERT-UNSPLASH

“EV industry lobbying for incentives to support new-vehicle adoption,” reports BusinessWorld in its June 13 issue. The story details how the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (eVAP) plans to “press the government to provide incentives that will encourage the broad adoption of electric vehicles.”

I am interested to find out what else eVAP has in mind to jumpstart the EV industry. To date, Executive Order (EO) No. 12 has already reduced the tariffs on certain EVs to zero for five years, to lower EV prices. That zero tariff is already a big advantage over gas- and diesel-fed vehicles that are charged a tariff or import tax of at least 5%, in addition to a 12% value-added tax.

In addition, through Republic Act No. 11697 or the EV Industry Development Act (EVIDA), government agencies and the private sector are encouraged to convert at least 5% of their vehicle fleet to EVs. Just yesterday, I actually saw an electric pick-up truck with cab driving about as a service vehicle of a telecommunication company.

Even the Metro Manila Development Authority had gotten into the picture by exempting EVs from the number coding scheme in the metropolis. As such, EVs need not observe window hours or coding days, regardless of the ending number of their number plates. The exemption, for eight years, is actually provided for under Section 31 of RA 11697.

Obviously, this combination of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives is not enough to actually grow the EV market. More must be done. Even the effort to modernize jeepneys, and possibly convert at least some of them to EVs, seems to have fizzled out. And while the use of e-buses seems to be on the rise, growth has not been fast enough to realize a significant phaseout of polluting buses.

Even Tagaytay City, which embarked on a project to modernize particularly public utility tricycles in the resort city, opted still for gasoline-fed Bajaj tricycles rather than pushing tricycle operators to switch to electric. Imagine if all public utility vehicles in Tagaytay, or Baguio City, were converted to electric? Air quality will improve significantly in these resort towns.

I support eVAP’s aim of quicker migration or transition to EVs. However, I also believe this transition should be market-driven rather than government-driven. Using the government, through policy and regulation, to improve public access to EVs will not be enough to sustain industry growth. And the worse thing to do is to ask the government to mandate transition.

The economics of EVs, for some households, do not make sense. In my case, for instance, I do about 6,000 kilometers a year. At an average mileage of eight kilometers per liter, I consume about 750 liters of diesel fuel annually. Multiply that by an average price of P60 per liter, then I spend about P45,000 on fuel for one year. If I switch to an EV, then I can save about P45,000 annually, or about P225,000 in five years.

If the difference in the retail price or acquisition cost of a gas-fed car and an electric car is more than P225,000, where the electric car is more expensive by at least that amount, then it will take me at least five years to recover that difference through fuel savings. That is assuming I bought a purely electric car, and not a hybrid car that also uses fuel. But in many cases, the price difference is actually more than that.

Note also that over the same five-year period, both vehicles depreciate in value, perhaps even at the same rate. There will be maintenance costs for both as well. And while EVs save on tune-up costs and oil changes, one needs to account for possible battery replacement. Insurance rates may also not be the same, considering that EVs may require special tools for repairs, and special containment in case of battery or vehicle fire.

Moreover, I doubt very much if many of our car dealerships are already well-equipped, or highly competent, to service EVs. It may be a case of mostly hot swapping or assembly replacements, rather than repairs. And last but not least, the most crucial disadvantage of EV ownership now is the limited availability of charging stations in the country. Not to mention EVs’ limited range.

In short, the charging and service infrastructure required to actually help growth the EV market is still not in place. And while there have been efforts to lower acquisition cost, or to improve ease of ownership, via government regulation, we still have a long way to go in terms of providing for sufficient charging infrastructure.

If regular car owners grapple with fuel cost, EV owners grapple with “fuel” supply. And with “limited” supply of charging stations, once demand grows, then costs may go up as well. After all, there is a cost to the infrastructure. And electricity is not given away for free. The funny part is that while EVs may not require fossil fuel, some electricity producers still use fossil fuel to generate power.

I recall a story by Rachel Wolfe in the Wall Street Journal in 2022 on how she and her companion rented an electric car for a four-day road trip but ended up spending more time charging the vehicle than they did sleeping. Also, their 2,000-mile (3,200 kilometers) round trip to Chicago from New Orleans and back cost them $175 (roughly P10,000 at P55:$1) in charging services.

The distance of their four-day trip is like three round trips to Laoag, Ilocos Norte from Manila (500 kilometers one way or 1,000 kilometers round trip), plus a bit of driving around Northern Luzon. And for such a trip, with a vehicle capable of doing 10 kilometers per liter, fuel consumption will be roughly 320 liters. For a diesel-fed vehicle, total fuel cost at P60 per liter will be around P20,000.

I noted in a previous column that given these numbers an EV seems to make sense with respect to “energy” cost. And, with no emissions to boot. The turnoff, however, is that EVs are still expensive locally. Worse, there are only a limited number of charging stations operating in and out of the metropolis. Hybrid, rather than pure EV, may thus be the more practical choice.

Wolfe’s main issue was the lack of charging stations, particularly quick chargers, in many places along the way, even the US. Secondary to this was the long charging times if and when a charger is actually available. In contrast, here and abroad, fuel stations dot main highways and thoroughfares, and filling up doesn’t usually take more than 10-15 minutes. With EVs to date, the compromise is on one’s time, and its cost. The unpredictability of actual rate of battery consumption also makes the switch to EV an even more difficult choice.

In this line, eVAP needs to make public more information, more data from studies, experiments, and research on how EVs, whether purely electric or hybrid, actually perform particularly in Metro Manila’s traffic jams, or flooded streets, or bumpy roads riddled with potholes, and on long-distance trips outside the metropolis. And what is the overall implication of EV use on air pollution.

Moreover, it should make feasible and actionable recommendations on how to best improve the charging infrastructure, and why public and private investments in this regard can make business and economic sense. It is not enough to simply demonize fossil fuels and extol the virtues of EV use relative to protecting the environment. The EV industry should convince the public that making the switch now is actually the practical choice.

 

Marvin Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippine Press Council

matort@yahoo.com

Treasury fully awards reissued T-bonds, allows rate to advance

BW FILE PHOTO

THE GOVERNMENT fully awarded reissued 20-year Treasury bonds at a higher rate at an auction on Wednesday as investors expect yields to start declining later this year.

The Bureau of the Treasury raised P25 billion from the debt, with total bids reaching P51.705 billion, or more than twice the offer.

The bonds, which have a remaining life of 14 years and eight months, were awarded at an average rate of 6.085%. Accepted yields were 5.98% to 6.18%.

The average rate of the reissued bonds was 41.5 basis points (bps) lower than the 6.5% coupon for the series.

It was 10.1 bps higher than the 5.984% quoted for the 15-year bond and 9.9 bps above the 5.986% seen for the same bond series at the secondary market before Wednesday’s auction, based on the PHP Bloomberg Valuation Service (BVAL) Reference Rates provided by the Treasury bureau.

The agency said tenders for the bonds, which were last auctioned off on July 31, 2018 when the Treasury rejected all bids, were 2.1 times the P25-billion offer.

“With its decision, the committee raised the full program of P25 billion, bringing the total outstanding volume for the series to P165 billion,” it added.

“The higher bid rates for the Treasury auction today were still reflective of stronger demand for high-yielding long-term securities,” a trader said in an e-mail. “Investors are expecting potentially lower bond yields later this year or by 2024. Hence, investors are currently seeking to lock in higher rates.”

The higher rates followed the rising US Treasury yields, Michael L. Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said in a Viber message.

The 10-year US Treasury yield was up 10.4 bps at 3.452%, approaching the top of its range since March, Reuters reported.

The US Treasury yields rose ahead of the conclusion of the US Federal Reserve’s meeting on June 13-14, Mr. Ricafort said.

The US central bank raised borrowing costs by 25 bps last month, bringing the Fed fund rate to 5-5.25%. It has increased borrowing costs by 500 bps since March 2022.

The Treasury bureau wants to raise P185 billion from the domestic market in June — P60 billion via Treasury bills and P125 billion via T-bonds.

The government borrows from local and foreign sources to help fund its budget deficit, which is capped at 6.1% of economic output this year. — Aaron Michael C. Sy

The importance of scent

“IT SIGNALS the cerebral cortex and sends a message straight into the limbic system, a mysterious, ancient, and intensely emotional section of our brain in which we feel, lust, and invent. Unlike the other senses, smell needs no interpreter. The effect is immediate and undiluted by language, thought, or translation,” wrote Diane Ackerman in A Natural History of the Senses, in describing how the mind interprets a scent.

At the sidelines of a talk in Makati earlier this month by wellness brand Sekaya, we met certified aromatherapist and Alliance of International Aromatherapists member Geri Gil, otherwise known as the Oilbularyo. In her website theoilbularyo.com, Ms. Gil offers up aromatherapy classes as well as a store selling essential oils and other related products, due to her own beliefs about aromatherapy.

Ms. Gil’s journey into aromatherapy began in the early 2000s. A musician by profession, she worked in the advertising industry. In 2008, she was diagnosed with adult asthma, and her children also began exhibiting symptoms of skin asthma. She went under medical treatment including steroids and other drugs, but after three months, her asthma attacks came back. Her doctor told her to undergo a complete lifestyle change, down to changing her diet and even her cleaning products. Later, after her children graduated from school, she even changed her work environment by leaving the advertising world. Disliking the smells of her new cleaning regimen at home, she turned to essential oils.

“It didn’t happen overnight. After seven months, [I said] I haven’t had an asthma attack.”

The Oilbularyo as a business began in 2015.

Ms. Gil distills her beliefs thusly: “We believe in a mind, body, and spirit connection. If your mind is not well, then the other two will not be well. We are in constant ebb and flow. We have to keep that balance,” she said. “Aromas heal. On top of the chemical constituents, the sense of smell is there for our survival. It helps us regulate our well-being and how we connect with each other”

“That came to the fore when a lot of people lost their sense of smell during the pandemic — they cannot smell the persons that they love,” she pointed out. One of the symptoms of a COVID-19 infection is the loss of smell and taste.

Ms. Gil agrees with Ms. Ackerman’s text, saying, “Aromas do heal because it is connected with the limbic system, which is right behind the nose. When you inhale an aroma, it’s processed by the brain, and it sets off signals of people, events, places, memories.

“When we inhale certain aromas, the constituents… there, the turpenes in the oils will help calm you there,” she said, adding that stimulant oils (like lemon) will in turn, have stimulating effects. “That’s what aromas do. They can shift you from one mindset to another.”

As a cheat sheet, she says that oils derived from flowers help with beauty (pointing that her facial serum contains chamomile essential oil); herbs are for health purposes; fruit oils uplift you, while oils from trees ground you. Her bag jingling with the sound of oil bottles, she pointed some out: lavender is the “mother of all oils,” and good for “almost everything,” but especially its calming effects. Peppermint is the “oil of bright heart,” and can be used to refresh, cool — and even relieve grief.  “I like to connect that also to traditional Chinese medicine and how there’s a direct connection between negative emotion and disease,” she said.

Still, there are of course precautions to aromatherapy. She warns that one should, “Go low and start slow.” That means diluting the oils in neutral carrier oils, and start by applying it to inconspicuous areas like the bottoms of the feet, lest one risk an allergic reaction. “It’s very concentrated, you don’t need a lot… I wouldn’t,” she said of essential oils. Secondly, she advises checking where the plants for the oils come from. “Make sure you know the farms. Make sure that they’re 100% pure, unadulterated, uncut. It’s not in the label. You really have to do a background check with the farms.”

Many of the commercial products we use come with some sort of scent: from dish soap to face cream. Asked if one can get the same effects while perhaps doing the dishes or putting on perfume, she says, “You could. I can’t really speak for a lot of the synthetics, but in theory, aromas do that to you.”

She emphasizes: “It’s not about treating illness, but you want to create wellness every day, so that you are not harboring hate, anger, or sadness. That will really have a direct effect on certain organs in your body.”

Visit theoilbularyo.com for information on classes and to shop for essential oils. — Joseph L. Garcia

Alfamart opens first Pangasinan location to hit 1,500th stores

ALFAMART has opened its 1,500th store and first location in Pangasinan, the minimart chain of SM Markets said on Wednesday.

“We will continue to look for communities in need of access to basic food products in both urban and hard-to-reach places to make everyday shopping more convenient for the families living in these communities,” said Alfamart Chief Operating Officer Harvey T. Ong in a statement.

The new store located near Urdaneta City’s residential cluster is Alfamart’s first branch within the province.

Alfamart has so far opened about 100 stores as it continues the minimart chain’s goal to open 250 stores within the year.

The company said that the new store marks the 1,500th branch established since it opened its first concept store in 2014.

“In just six years, the super minimart concept has achieved significant scale by blending two grocery formats of a supermarket and a convenience store into one,” the company said.

“This unique service enabled the company to provide everything one needs at home such as frozen meats, vegetables, seafood, and more, in order to truly serve the immediate needs of every community,” it added.

Mr. Ong added the company had partnered with local lessors by renting their land or building space while partnering with local contractors for the construction of the stores.

“We provide opportunities for local product suppliers by carrying their products in Alfamart stores. Lastly, we provide employment opportunities to the local community members,” he said.

Alfamart Philippines is a joint venture between the SM group and PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk (Alfamart Indonesia), creating the minimart chain of SM Markets, the food retail brand of SM Retail, Inc.

SM Retail is one of the core businesses of SM Investments Corp., which serves as the holding company of the SM group with interests in retail, property, and banking. SM Investments’ shares fell by 1.73% or P16 to P910 on Wednesday. — Adrian H. Halili

Nokia sees interconnect solutions boosting PHL data center industry

STOCK PHOTO | Image by DC Studio from Freepik

By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter

BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS solutions provider Nokia expects the development of data center interconnect solutions in the Philippines to support the industry’s growth.

“Nokia is a leader in terms of data center interconnect solutions. Data center interconnect solutions are, as we know, networking infrastructure that help connect multiple data centers,” Nokia Philippines Head Carlos Alberto Reyes said in an interview.

Mr. Reyes said the Philippines is a strategic location for data centers, making it a viable prospect for data center interconnect solutions.

“The Philippines, at this moment, has a very interesting development of the business in the data center because of the geographical location and because of the different multiple subsea cables that connect the Philippines to the world,” he said.

“At this moment, we consider that the data center interconnect solutions of Nokia can strongly support the development of the data center industry that is developing in the Philippines,” he added.

He added that data center interconnect solutions will help in storing large amounts of data from Philippine firms.

“Many of the sectors that are in the Philippines require a high amount of data to be managed at storage like the banking and business process outsourcing industries, and all of these are reliant on the data center ecosystem that is currently growing in the Philippines. Our solution in Nokia can strongly help the development of these solutions and the performance of the data centers in the Philippines,” Mr. Reyes said.

He said Nokia’s data center interconnect solutions, which have the highest speed optical links, offer secure protocols and high performance, can contribute to the growing data center industry in the country.

He added that many industries in the Philippines are interested in tapping the services of data centers.

“The Philippines is preparing very well in the direction to have the capacity of data centers and become a very important data center player in the world,” Mr. Reyes said.

For the industry to grow further, large enterprises, public organizations, and the government should collaborate, he said.

“Large enterprises, government and public organizations are working in the direction that they need to automate and digitalize the way they are working. This definitely requires a data center capacity to handle it,” Mr. Reyes said.

One of the challenges that organizations face is how to shift from their old systems to an automated one, he said.

“I think the concept of the data centers and the cloud are fundamental because they can facilitate the process of moving all this data in the proper way and in a cost-effective way,” Mr. Reyes added.

Deposit and loan growth boost lenders’ total resources

By Keisha B. Ta-asan, Reporter

THE Philippine financial system’s total resources rose at the end of April after sustained growth in banks’ deposits and loans, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.

Resources of banks and nonbank financial institutions grew by 8.4% from a year earlier to P28.52 trillion.

“The higher resources of banks were due to the continued growth in deposits and loans, as well as the higher net income that adds to capitalization,” Michael L. Ricafort, chief economist of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said in a Viber message.

Banks include universal and commercial banks, thrift banks, as well as rural and cooperative banks. Nonbank financial institutions include investment houses, finance companies, security dealers, pawnshops and lending companies.

Nonstock savings and loan associations, credit card companies, private insurance firms, the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System are also nonlenders.

Based on central bank data, banking resources increased by 9.8% year on year to P23.48 trillion as of end-April. Big banks held P22.07 trillion of total banking resources, 10% higher than a year ago.

Resources of thrift banks hit P1.01 trillion, inching up by 3.9% from a year earlier. Total resources of rural and cooperative banks increased by 10.6% to P397 billion.

On the other hand, nonbanks’ resources grew by 2% to P5.03 trillion from a year earlier.

“For the coming months, continued growth in deposits, loans and net income as the economy further reopened, as well as more capital-raising activities by some banks would lead to higher total assets and resources,” Mr. Ricafort said.

The cumulative net income of the banking system rose by 42% to P94.62 billion as of March from a year earlier, separate data from the BSP showed.

Meanwhile, outstanding loans from big banks grew by 9.7% to P10.86 trillion in April. Domestic liquidity also rose by 6.6% annually to P16.3 trillion.

Remote work pay cuts send the wrong message

CHRISTINA WOCINTECHCHAT-UNSPLASH

CEOs frustrated that workers aren’t coming into the office more often are trying a new tactic: tying in-person attendance directly to higher pay.

At least one big law firm has explicitly linked office presence to employee bonuses. At other companies, the connection is more tacit. Google recently said it would use face time as a factor in performance reviews; executives didn’t have to spell out that these ratings influence compensation. Nor did IBM Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna need to explain what he meant when he said “your career does suffer” if you work remotely; if it’s harder to get a promotion, it’s naturally going to be harder to get a raise.

Leaders who want to experiment with this approach should proceed carefully. A compensation disparity hits differently when framed as a penalty for remote workers than as a bonus for commuters. And a clear policy is likely to work better than vague insinuations.

Some bonus for regular in-person attendance actually seems reasonable. Commuting is time-consuming, and something most people find unpleasant. It’s expensive, and not only because of the price of parking or train tickets — if you can’t be home in time to pick up your kid from day care, you’ll have to hire someone to do it. If you don’t have time to cook, you’ll have to get takeout. The costs add up.

And a study last year by Jose Maria Barrero, an economist, and several collaborators suggested that remote work lessened wage-growth pressures because workers value it so highly. As my colleague Jonathan Levin wrote at the time, “remote work has an ‘amenity value,’ much like a company car or an office gym.” Clawing back that amenity could be expensive: A survey of London workers conducted by Bloomberg Intelligence earlier this year found that employers would need to give hefty raises to lure people back to offices five days a week.

But the recent crop of CEO comments tying pay to office presence aren’t framing remote work as an amenity. They’re calling it a performance problem for which remote workers should be financially penalized. And that suddenly makes it less palatable.

Some of this is basic loss aversion, the psychological principle that bad is stronger than good. If you find $20, you’ll be mildly pleased. But if you lose $20, you’ll be seriously annoyed.

But there’s more going on here. There are questions of fairness. Several studies have shown remote workers are more productive. Shouldn’t workers be paid for their output? Not to mention that polls have consistently shown a preference for remote work among groups at greater risk of discrimination, such as women, older workers, people of color, and the disabled.

Yet paying for face time, rather than output, is a practice companies have long used. It’s part of the reason that men earn more than women do — on average, men tend to report spending longer hours working. Women — especially mothers — generally report less, because they do more unpaid labor at home.

To be clear, people who log more hours don’t necessarily get more done. But many managers have overlooked that detail. A pre-pandemic study of consultants showed that people who pretended to work long hours were rated highly by their bosses, regardless of their output. Employees who were honest about working “only” full time were penalized — even though they churned out just as much work.

This is why, for years, workers have used tricks to give the appearance of putting in more time than they are — leaving a jacket on the back of their desk chair, for example, or scheduling e-mails to send at odd hours. (Don’t pretend you’ve never been tempted.)

Many attempts to cut through the politicking and reward employees for their actual output — such as Best Buy’s long-gone “results only work environment” — have sputtered.

This isn’t to say that all remote workers are more productive — or that there’s no reason beyond company politics to show up in person. As pro-office executives are often quick to argue, even if remote employees write more lines of code or create more PowerPoints, that’s not the only way to create value. Mentoring, collaborating, contributing to a positive company culture — these create value, too. And most are more readily done in person than remotely.

But Barrero points out that although remote and in-person workers might be contributing in different ways, it would be hard to say which type of worker contributes more value overall. Moreover, he warns, in-office workers aren’t necessarily working all the time they’re present, even if that’s what managers assume: Recent data has found that, during working hours, in-office workers were more likely than remote workers to play computer games.

“The key is to think about why you want the employees to be in the office,” Barrero told me. “An extra day in the office where they would be doing the exact same thing at home just seems like capriciousness.”

Indeed. But whoever said companies were entirely rational?

If companies want to financially reward employees who take the trouble to come into the office more frequently, they should be explicit about it: Come in X many times, get Y amount of extra money. Then workers can decide if juice is worth the squeeze. And executives will have to be honest about the bottom-line value of an occupied seat.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

Cormac McCarthy, dark genius of American literature, 89

NEW YORK — Cormac McCarthy, whose nihilistic and violent tales of the American frontier and post-apocalyptic worlds led to awards, movie adaptations, and sleepless nights for his enthralled and appalled readers, died on Tuesday at the age of 89.

Mr. McCarthy — arguably the greatest American writer since Ernest Hemingway or William Faulkner, both of whom he was sometimes compared to — died of natural causes at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, according to a statement from publisher Penguin Random House that cited his son, John McCarthy.

Little known for the first 60 years or so of his life, rapturous reviews of 1992’s All the Pretty Horses — the first in “The Border Trilogy” — changed all that. The book was made into a movie — as were 2005’s No Country for Old Men and 2006’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Road.

But Mr. McCarthy was never seen on the red carpet. An intensely private man, he almost never gave interviews. He granted a rare exception for Oprah Winfrey in 2007, telling her: “I don’t think (interviews) are good for your head. If you spend a lot of time thinking about how to write a book, you probably shouldn’t be thinking about it, you probably should be doing it.”

Mr. McCarthy wrote with a distinctive, spare style that eschewed grammatical norms but drew the reader in relentlessly to his world of blood, dust, and an unforgiving universe.

“He stood at the window of the empty cafe and watched the activities in the square and he said that it was good that God kept the truths of life from the young as they were starting out or else they’d have no heart to start at all,” he wrote in typical fashion in All the Pretty Horses.

NOT RESPECTABLE
Born Charles Joseph McCarthy, Jr. on July 20, 1933, in Providence, Rhode Island, Mr. McCarthy was one of six children in his Irish Catholic family, and later switched to using the old Irish name of Cormac.

His father was a lawyer and he was brought up in Tennessee in relative comfort. But middle America was not for him.

“I felt early on I wasn’t going to be a respectable citizen. I hated school from the day I set foot in it,” he told the New York Times in another rare interview in 1992.

He served in the Air Force in the 1950s and was married twice before the 1960s were out — first to Lee Holleman, who he met at college and with whom he had a son, and later to English singer Anne DeLisle, from whom he separated in 1976. After a short spell in Europe, he returned to Tennessee to settle near Knoxville, Tennessee and later moved to El Paso, Texas and then to Santa Fe.

His first book The Orchard Keeper, set in rural Tennessee and published in 1965, landed with Faulkner’s last editor, who recognized the young writer’s potential. But despite positive reviews — and some shocked reaction — for this and other early works like Child of God and Outer Dark, commercial success eluded Mr. McCarthy and he scraped by on writers’ grants.

In 1985 Blood Meridian was published, garnering little attention at the time, although it is now considered his first truly great novel and perhaps his best. With lots of violence and no heroes, it tells the tale of a gang of scalp hunters in the mid-19th century West.

All the Pretty Horses, a coming-of-age book that kicked off a trilogy centered around Texas ranch hands at the close of the frontier, finally brought him acclaim in the 1990s.

The trilogy was followed by No Country for Old Men, a deeply disturbing and yet riveting Western crime novel about a drug deal gone wrong, quickly adapted into a movie by Joel and Ethan Coen that won the 2007 best picture Oscar.

This was the time that also saw the publication of The Road — perhaps even darker than what went before. Set in a world where an unnamed disaster has ended society and food production, a father and his son walk through a devastated landscape occupied by desperate people. The full depths of human depravity are on display — but also the love that the small family is able to sustain through it all. The Road won multiple awards and was also made into a movie in 2009.

Then came a long period until two new companion novels were released in 2022 — interconnected books The Passenger and Stella Maris that were unmistakably Mr. McCarthy, now approaching 90 years of age, albeit somewhat gentler — and, perhaps, valedictory.

“Enough,” says one character for whom death is approaching. “I have never thought this life particularly salubrious or benign and I have never understood in the slightest why I was here. If there is an afterlife — and I pray most fervently that there is not — I can only hope that they won’t sing.”

In a statement, Nihar Malaviya, CEO of Penguin Random House, said, “Cormac McCarthy changed the course of literature. For 60 years, he demonstrated an unwavering dedication to his craft, and to exploring the infinite possibilities and power of the written word.”

Mr. McCarthy was married three times, divorcing his third wife Jennifer Winkley in 2006. He had two children: Cullen, born in 1962, and John, born in 1998. — Reuters

Dingdong eyes restaurant reservations, retail shops, motorcycle taxis

LAST-MILE delivery solution startup Dingdong plans to explore restaurant reservations, retail shops, and the motorcycle taxi business to diversify its services.

“To further enhance the seamless experience, we will introduce a unique feature that allows customers to reserve tables at our wide selection of partner restaurants,” Dingdong Founder and Chairman Dong Dantes said in an e-mail interview.

“Looking ahead, our application aims to expand its services to include retail shops, incorporating exciting and innovative features that set a new standard in the e-commerce space. We are also exploring the possibility of entering the motorcycle taxi business in the near future,” he added.

According to Mr. Dantes, one of the growth areas for delivery businesses in the Philippines is the growing demand and shift in consumer preferences.

“Delivery service providers are expanding beyond their traditional role of goods delivery, venturing into sectors such as food, grocery, and pharmacy delivery,” Mr. Dantes said.

“This strategic diversification allows them to access new revenue streams and reach a broader customer base,” he added. “This expansion also creates opportunities for partnerships and cross-promotion with local businesses, driving mutual growth.”

On May 30, Dingdong and on-demand food and door-to-door delivery mobile application RiderKo signed a memorandum of agreement to create an all-in-one platform for local delivery service.

Starting June 12, the Dingdong application, powered by RiderKo, will be available for download on App Store for iOS and Play Store for Android.

Aside from diversification, Mr. Dantes also sees technological advancement and customer demand for sustainable options as growth areas for the delivery services industry.

“Advancements in technology have revolutionized the delivery services industry. From real-time tracking to route optimization and automated systems, technology plays a vital role in improving efficiency, reducing costs, and enhancing the overall customer experience,” said Mr. Dantes.

“Another growth factor in the delivery service industry is the sustainability and eco-consciousness of the customers: Customers and businesses are increasingly conscious of reducing their carbon footprint and opting for eco-friendly delivery options, such as electric vehicles and environmentally friendly packaging,” he said.

Mr. Dantes said delivery service providers that will prioritize sustainability are likely to gain a competitive edge.

“This is the reason why in our pipeline, we are looking at providing e-motorcycles in the future,” he said.

Dingdong is set to pilot e-motorcycles from Passenger Urban and Rapid Electric Vehicle Solutions, Inc. (PURE-EV) as a delivery option. 

“We take great pride in being the first to introduce e-motorcycles from PURE-EV to meet the evolving delivery demands of our valued customers,” he said.

“In the coming days, we will be piloting this innovative offering, demonstrating our commitment to embracing cutting-edge technology and driving positive change in the industry. These endeavors serve as inspiration and fuel our dedication to continuous innovation and excellence,” he added. — Justine Irish D. Tabile

1...4,6554,6564,657...14,169Page 4,656 of 14,169
© 2024 BusinessWorld Publishing.
All rights reserved.
Read our privacy guidelines
Facebook Instagram Linkedin X Youtube