Built on rock solid business model and innovative strategies, GSI has survived several corporate crises. The first crisis sparked off from a non payment of about P4M by a partner was resolved on a day-to-day basis. That was easy, we moved on and contained the business ills.


The second one was rather too punishing caused from a very poor cash flow from government projects. That was almost a point of no return. But, GSI must not fail.

Night after night I was watching war movies to learn how platoon leaders and generals were able to turn around a defeat to a victory. One of the Vietnam War movies, "We Were Soldiers" caught my attention as it showed great leadership and precise decision making process. Based from Wikipedia -

"We Were Soldiers is a 2002 war film that dramatized the Battle of Ia Drang which took place in November 1965, the first major engagement of American troops in the Vietnam War. It was directed by Randall Wallace and stars Mel Gibson. It is based on the book ‘We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young’” by Lieutenant General (Ret) Hal Moore and reporter Joseph Galloway, who were at the battle."




DVD after DVD, I have consumed most of the most war films. What about other crisis situations than war? Then I remembered a failed lunar landing - the Apollo 13. A 1995 movie of the same title was shown but I never had a chance to watch it. I prefer to play tennis, read and play the guitar than to watch a movie.


So, I got hold of the DVD, and watched it four times, almost memorizing the sequences of events leading to a "successful failure". With insights on averting disastrous failure, I wrote the strategic framework "Apollo 13 - Turning Around GSI" in May 4, 2002.





The crisis led to a lot of confusion and dissertion that made so many information buried in mud.

As in "Houston, we've had a problem", our team accepted the fact that we are in the middle of a ferocious storm - waiting to be wiped out by the shear force of Category 5 wind. We defined the problem - financial.

Setting up the roadmap and action schedules to hit the ground, a mind set of "Failure is Not an Option" permeated the company.




We looked back and analyzed why we must NOT fail. We quantified the values GSI has generated and the goodwill it has contributed to the society .

It was interesting to note that GSI trived in crisis and chaotic business environment because it was formed in the middle of the Asian Economic Flu of 1997.

Therefore, GSI has been resilient at very start.




Next step we hurdled was to make an inventory of "What Good Things Have We Got". And we found many. Those were
good enough to set things moving and confront the crisis.


Days turned to weeks, weeks to months, months to years - grinding slowly at the start in mitigating the crisis until speed was achieved to comfortable do business with confidence.




Looking back, it was GSI's clear vision of the future as well its adherence towards honesty, integrity and hardwork that saved us from the black hole of failed business. Our clients, suppliers and partners did not turned their back on us.

As of today, GSI is still owned by us. No external fund was infused by banks, investors or financial insitutions.

Without COO/EVP Gemma Pelagio, CFO Annie Fabre, COB Hermes Dorado, Ambassador Encomienda, Engr Tato, and SBCorp "Failure is Not An Option" would have been rewinded to "Houston, We've Got a Problem".

To my fellow entrepreneurs and the SME space, I am looking forward to share with all you the details of this blog to assist you mitigate and adapt to business concerns and crisis.

Labels: Ambassador Encomienda, Annie Fabre, Apollo 13, Averting Business Crisis, Engr Tato, entrepreneur, Failure is not a option, Gemma Pelagio, Hermes Dorado, SBCorp

 
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• Today, I attended a Forum on "Biodiversity and Climate Change" held at the auditorium of the National Institute of Geological Sciences. It was conducted on the occasion of the 2007 International Day for Biodiversity. With me was Hermes Dorado, our Chairman of the Board.
  
  We attended the forum as coping with climate change is one of GSI's corporate social responsibility pillars and a component of the company's Strategic Program named "Modernizing the Philippine Archipelagic State 2015".
  
  Dr Ed Listanco, Director of NIGS opened the forum by situating climate change based on geological perspective and the anthropogenic cause of climate change.
  
  A paper on "Climate Change and Biodiversity" written by Dr A.C. Alcala of SUAKCREM, Siliman University was distributed. The highlights of the paper are :

1. Climate Change is not a new Phenomenon

• at the peak of the ice age 20,000 years ago, the sea levels was 100-120 meters lower than what it is now as large as volumes of water were held in ice
• The earth slowly warmed resulting to rise of sea level. The present sea level was reached 6,000 years ago
• The carbon dioxide concentrations fluctuated in past but the trend in rise has been dramatic during the period of 1900 to 2000 AD.

2. Natural Causes of Climate Change

• continental drift
• volcanic eruption
• earth's tilt
• comets and meteorites
• ocean currents

2. Human-induced causes

• use of fossil fuels
• deforestation
• human activities that increase production of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases

In less than 300 years since the industrial revolution, humans have burned a
large amount of oil, gas, and coal as source of energy. According to the
conclusion of climatologist, the primary reason for rapid changes in
temperature, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is human use of fossil
fuels.

3. Effects/Manifestations of Climate Change

• Trapped heat from the sun and increased temperatures on ground and oceans
• Heavy rainfalls in some areas and droughts in others
• Glaciers melts and spring comes earlier
• Rise in ocean levels and salt water intrusion into land
• Changes in ocean circulation
• Permanent stratification of ocean waters
• Changes in weather patterns

4. Quantitative Measurements of Changes

• Total global temperature change since 19th century is 0.6 degree C
• CO2 concentration in atmosphere before industrial era (1750) was 280 ppm +/- ppm
• CO2 concentration was 367 ppm in 1999, 377 ppm in 2004
• 280 ppm was exceeded during the past 420,000 yrs and not within the past 20 million years
• Oceans absorb about 1/3 of human-induced CO2, uptake declines with absorption

5. Experts' Predictions/Conclusions

• Possible rise in global temperature could be from 1.4 degrees C to 5.8 degrees C by 2100
• Large climate related impacts predicted, for example, hurricanes and typhoons would increase in severity
• End of Ice Age, the disappearance of Glacial Ice in the North Pole
• It will take centuries for CO2 level to come down to the pre-industrial level of 280 ppm from the 377 ppm today
• With more CO2 absorbed by oceans, efficiency of building calcium carbonate skeletons by marine organisms is lessened/prevented, thus could lead to extinctions
  

6. What are we to do?

• Change energy consumption patterns
• Increase sequestration of CO2 already in the atmosphere by implementing Kyoto Protocol, reforestation of denuded lands, protection of the 20,000 sq km coral reefs, restore 500,000 has of mangrove forests
• Protect remaining forests
• Adopt measures to increase soil storage of rain water
• Conserve natural marshes
• Avoid reclamation in coastal areas and building structures on reclaimed areas which are vulnerable to rising sea levels
• Strenthen foundations of buildings in reclaimed areas to decrease risk to sea level rise and coastal erosion
  I have attached a program showing the list of other speakers.
  A plenary discussion followed and I asked two questions
  
• 1) Is CDM a priority strategy considering that the Philippines is not a major contributor to CO2 emission? Should we be more focused on adaptive measures to sea level rise?
  
• 2.) Considering that Philippines is an archipelago, should we now make an inventory of our islands before they are drowned by the sea level rise? Indonesia is doing it now before it is too late. Hermes mentioned the strategic importance of island inventory as it is the basis of the country's boundary lines.
  Finally, a 14-point Forum Resolution was formulated which will be posted on pvpnetwork.net for comments. I look forward that we will all read the resolution and submit our own reviews and recommendations.
  
  

Labels: Climate Change, Corporate Social Responsibility, Dr Alcala, Dr Listanco pvpnetwork, GeoSpatial Solutions, Hermes Dorado, net

 
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