The AIM Blogger

Take note of this post's title because that may the last time those three will appear together. The news of AIM losing the European Foundation for Management Development (EMFD) EQUIS accreditation and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business ( AACSB ) International accreditation almost simultaneously has reached the media. A Business story from the Manila Standard Today entitled " Short of AIM " discloses that AIM lost the EQUIS and let the AACSB accreditations in the wake of events critical to the school. From the article: According to the grapevine, AIM no longer sought to renew the American accreditation and allowed it to lapse this year after having been informed of the European setback. The loss of the industry accreditation comes not only as AIM celebrates its 40th anniversary but also at a time when many of its board of trustees, including chairman Jose Cuisia Jr. and vice chairman Armin Luistro, are leading protest actions against Gloria Maca...

One of the traditions that an MBA class in AIM follows is the Baguio Trip and a stay at the AIM Conference Center Baguio (formerly known as the Igorot Lodge). This activity is really a mix of classes and R&R since Baguio is considered the "Summer Capital of the Philippines" for its cool climate and nice mountain views. Our class had its trip scheduled from March 25-March 27, 2008 (Tuesday to Thursday). No thanks to a bout with flu, I wasn't able to go to Baguio. I guess I'll be know as the " Sickly guy in class " after being the " Blogger dude " and a member of the " Punjabi Pinoys ." I really wanted to go-- I had my bags packed, I already had arrangements which room to stay , and when I started feeling sick during the weekend, I really loaded up on medication and even went to see the school doctor. I actually was planning on going even though I wasn't feeling all well, but the doctor said it was best for me to stay here in Manil...

Thanks to the very good reception to the Corporate Blogging seminar I organized last March 7, 2008, I have been encouraged to do a follow-up to my project for one of my classes in the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). The last event, " Corporate Communications 2.0: Corporate Blogging " was able to raise PhP 19,500 and all proceeds went to the GILAS Project of the Ayala Foundation. I have been informed that this amount will be used to provide internet connection for one year to a public school in the rural areas. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank those who supported the past seminar. The upcoming seminar is entitled " Corporate Blogging & Online Reputation Management Seminar ," a series of talks from industry experts that focuses on blogging and improving a company's online presence. To give everyone an idea, the Corporate Blogging & Online Reputation Management Seminar is primarily intended for: Business executives who recognize the...

Given how things have been extra tense and stressful lately in the MBA program, I can't help but tie things to one of my favorite movies, 28 Days Later . 28 Days Later, as Wikipedia would put it, "depicts the breakdown of society following the accidental release of a highly contagious virus and focuses upon the struggle of four survivors to cope with the ruination of the life they once knew." Hmmm... sounds about right. In the movie, the virus that ravaged civilization was called the Rage Virus and it took 28 days for the virus to turn normal people into savage, rage-filled beings. Technically, it has been 228 days since the first 16-month MBA program was rolled out. (Has it been that long?) and I wonder if MBA life has "infected" the class to make us savage, stressed-out folks . The film also describes the infection cycle in 28 days. Here's my timeline for the our 228 days in AIM: Day 1 - a typical student is excited and hopeful that MBA classes would be a...

The AIM sports teams have made strides for this year's campaign for the Inter-MBA Friendship Games. After languishing at the cellar of the standings last year, the AIM badminton, basketball and volleyball teams are all playing for 2nd runner-up (after sports powerhouses Ateneo Graduate School of Business and De La Salle Professional Schools ). The teams' performance in the tournament may be considered a quantum leap, considering the school's small population and little awareness and support from the school community. I would imagine the teams doing better if people took the time to cheer on the players for moral support. I'm sure athletes out there know how a rabid crowd can boost a team's morale and uplift the individual athlete. Think Olympics, or think World Cup. In any case, it's good the sports teams have fared very well so far. I hope this could be a good jumping point for the next Inter-MBA campaign. :)

When you're down and out, When you're on the street, When evening falls so hard I will comfort you. The verses above come from "Bridge Over Troubled Water," a song by Simon & Garfunkel. I realized the song has much relevance to our MBA batch as the final grades for the first five quantitative ("quant") subjects our class has taken. Sadly to say, there were classmates of mine who had trouble meeting the eligibility requirements. In the MBA program, there is 15 units worth of classes considered as quantitative, and an MBA student is required to pass 75% of quantitative subjects (Language of Business, Quantitative Analysis, Financial Management 1, Economics & Management of Cost and Profit). That means if you do not pass 3.75 units worth of subjects, you will no longer be eligible for the MBA program; the subjects we got earlier have a total of 12 units. It's hard to believe that this is the last day for some of us here. The atmosphere in class beca...

For our Human Behavior in Organizations (HBO) class yesterday, Prof. Jun Borromeo invited Michelle Boquiren, AIM alumna and manager at the Investec Group , a special banking firm. She finished her MBA degree in 2000 and she had worked with Merrill Lynch and Overture Financial Services. I was lucky to bring my camera along, so I got a few shots: Michelle gave an overview of her company shared how the company's culture can do a lot for job satisfaction and productivity. She related how the open culture in Investec is quite different from big companies (Merrill Lynch) and start-ups (Overture). Furthermore, Michelle related how life is at New York and how AIM helped her become the leader who runs Investec's business in the Americas. The talk was very interesting and a good preview of the life some of our class will lead in the future. (Provided, of course, we pass our subjects :P)

After the big events last week, such as the International Students' Night , the AIM Grand Alumni Homecoming and my walkabout , I feel this week has been a slide despite the work we have to do. But one thing that has kept things interesting for us MBA students is the coming Baguio trip in the last week of March. Classes that week will be held at the AIM Conference Center - Baguio (ACCB) and students, by default, will stay during a period of three days and two nights. The reason why I say the trip is interesting because there has been some little tension created by everyone's search for accommodations-- people are looking for the best places to stay outside of the ACCB; and for the people staying in ACCB, looking for the people to share rooms with since there's a three person limit per room. I don't know if this phenomenon is exclusive to Asians, but most of the students feel uncomfortable asking people of they could join a group in a room or place and some students w...

The Asian Institute of Management celebrated its 40th year anniversary and Grand Alumni Homecoming last March 7, 2008 at the Bonifacio High Street in Taguig City. I've blogged about the preview of the Asian High at Boni High and event is as good as advertised. The homecoming party was a spectacle with musical diva Rachel Alejandro opening the show. Apart from the great curtain raiser, the night's entertainment was superb-- The Batch '73 band performed hits from the 1960's and, of course, the Bollywood dance numbers from the International Students' Night was included in the progam (ehem, my personal highlight of the evening): The food was great, lots of freebies for everyone and I got to meet a few AIM alumni. Great evening, if you ask me. Kudos to the organizers of Asian High at Boni High!

The International Students' Night was celebrated in AIM last March 6, 2007. The event was huge as distinguished guests and the AIM Board of Governors and Board of Trustees were in attendance. It was also a venue for a lot of student walkabout projects , such as the Cultural Fashion Show (from Arpita Maity and Renu Kerketta), Guitar Duo performance (from Ravi Shekhar and Preetam Chandra), the Filipiniana Cultural show (from Rosie Avila), to mention a few. My personal highlight of the day was the walkabout project by my classmate Kanishka Bhargava. He choreographed and produced the Indian Bollywood-style dance numbers on the show. The first one was the "Mauja" and the second one was the "Punjabi Pinoys". If you ask me, the Punjabi Pinoys was the number that brought the house down; here' the video: I have to admit my bias here: I'm the guy wearing the gold vest on the left side of the stage. :P The other members of the Punjabi Pinoys are Bok Lamayan, Gino ...

The Peace Foundation 's Bridges: Dialogues Towards a Culture of Peace forum continues its final leg here in the Asian Institute of Management with a keynote from former World Bank president James Wolfensohn and like my last post on the forum, I'm blogging live . Mr. Wolfensohn's keynote is entitled " Beyond East-West, North-South - Peace and prosperity in a four speed world. " Ayala Corporation CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala gave the opening remarks and Wolfensohn's introduction was given by World Bank Philippines Country Director Bert Holfman. -- Mr. Wolfensohn just gave his talk and while it was insightful, he was barely audible. :( -- PHINMA President Ramon R. del Rosario, Jr. is the first reactor. His reaction to the keynote is rather tied to the issues the Philippines are encountering right now-- how corruption in a country can derail development. I like how he points out that how long can we accept "stability" as a reason to keep silent on...

I'm blogging here at the AIM Conference Center, the venue for the 5oth Anniversary Launch of the Ramon Magsaysay Award . The Ramon Magsaysay Award has been regarded as the Asia's Nobel Prize and the theme for its golden year is "50 Years of honoring Greatness of Spirit in Asia." The launch was hosted by Cheche Lazaro and highlighted by the video conference dialogue with two Ramon Magsaysay laureates: Jon Ungphakorn of Thailand (2005 awardee for Government Service) and Arvind Kejriwal of India (2005 awardee for Emergent Leadership). Several youth leader were invited to participated in the dialogue. An interesting point I picked up was that it was only this millennium that India recognized the right to information as a basic human right, as stated by Mr. Kejriwal. Also in attendance were Senator Ramon Magsaysay, Jr., Former award trustee and artist Jim Paredes, former COMELEC Chair Christian Monsod, Ayala Corporation CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala II and current trust...

I've been devoting a good portion of my time for the past few weeks preparing for my walkabout . (For those who do not follow this blog, the walkabout is one of our major projects in our Human Behavior in Organizations class). In fact, I've been very busy promoting my project, Corporate Communications 2.0: Corporate Blogging , via internet marketing. The experience of promoting has been far from bump-free , but that's the way things go. It is this promotion of walkabout projects that prompted me and my classmate Prashant Batra to have a tie-up in promoting each other's projects and even opening the cross-promotion arrangement to the whole class. I sent out an email to the MBA class, inviting everyone interested on the initiative that is built on the "I scratch you back, you scratch mine" honor system. The initiative was named The Walkabout Cooperative and its mission is to help all the members' walkabouts become a success. There are people who responde...

I'm supporting my MBA classmates who are doing this play as their walkabout. :) The play is entitled Romance In D and my classmates are producing the 7:00pm show on March 9, 2008 (Sunday). The venue is OnStage, 2/F Greenbelt 1, Ayala Center, Makati City. The play is directed by Miguel Faustman with Audie Gemora, Ana Abad Santos-Bitong, Chinggoy Alonso, Pinky Marquez as the main cast. Tickets Prices: Orchestra Center - Php 550.00 Orchestra Side - Php 350.00 Balcony - Php 250.00 For bookings, email playtickets@gmail.com or contact 0915-2929551. This is a DigitalFilipino.com Club sponsored ad: Honda launches VCM 643