This marketing manager has a dream. He sees himself at the head of the conference table issuing orders to a host of underlings.

In the background are his marketing staff who do nothing but gossip, criticize, malign, and all those unpleasant things an organization doesn’t want to have. You can’t change the environment, Bubuwit says, so don’t try. Change your organization instead.

Bubuwit insists that this company must be willing to make changes inside the organization in order to exploit the opportunities on the outside. Marketing is not just the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. Playing the game well can be its own reward.

But with the wrong people and with the wrong attitude at that, there’s always that danger. If the early signs are negative, your chances of survival are slim. The most dangerous aspect of long-term strategic planning” is the assumption that a truly significant long-range project will always create short-term losses. That assumption is why management often continues to throw in millions of pesos waiting for the pot of gold in the future.

The truth is, according to Bubuwit, big long-term success usually shows at least some signs of success from Day One. Having the wrong attitude of those marketing people are usually disasters at the beginning, too.

Battles are lost for three reasons: (1) you hired the wrong people; (2) you attempted something beyond your resources which is a wrong strategy; or (3) the totally unexpected occurred.

Bubuwit says others may be impressed with this company, but inside the organization, there is a problem on their hands. It’s not the awards of the success that matters; it’s the direction of the people that counts—having the right attitude. As long as things are moving in the right direction, then this company should be creating a momentum that will be hard for competition to stop.

Companies in every category are ready to strike out in the new direction and are eager to know how to succeed. There is a need for a new look at what leads to business success in the current shift from the industrial age economy to the information age—from the time when most business was production-based and dealt with the customer at arm’s length to a time when what you do to interact with your customers can be critical to your company’s future.

For most people writing is a lonely, frustrating and sometimes unhappy experience. The writer who actually enjoys the process of writing seems to be unusual; most writers enjoy having rewritten but get no joy whatever from the actual task of moving a pen across a sheet of paper or hitting one key after another on the computer.

This marketing manager has a dream. He sees himself at the head of the conference table issuing orders to a host of underlings.

Recognized by Forbes as the 34th richest person in Southeast Asia in 2005, renowned business tycoon John Gokongwei instilled the importance of taking risks, braving the odds and gracing great challenges amid the fiercest competition among more than 3,000 delegates at the 20th Philippine Advertising Congress.