By Leony R. Garcia
What does it take to be a champion? According to American athlete Patty Berge, it takes desire, dedication, determination, concentration and the will to win.
But there is no one path or magic pill for producing a champion in our midst, whether you’re a great leader or, say, a professional athlete. To become a champion, one needs to go on and on.
As what the song “We Are the Champions” by the British rock band Queen said: “But it’s been no bed of roses/ No pleasure cruise/ I consider it a challenge/ Before the whole human race/ And I ain’t gonna lose/ (And I need just go on and on, and on and on).
The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Philippines has recently selected the champions among the best business communication programs in the country via The Philippine Quill Awards 2015 for professionals and The Philippine Student Quill Awards 2015 for college students.
IABC Philippines
ESTABLISHED in 1983, IABC Philippines is the national professional association of top business, industrial and organizational communicators. It is the first country chapter established outside of North America of the San Francisco-based IABC. IABC is one of the largest business communication organizations in the world, with some 14,000 member-professionals in over 70 countries.
Celebrating its 32nd year in 2015, it upholds excellence in business communication through master classes and other learning activities that equip its member-professionals with trends and global-standard communication skills and strategies. Its flagship programs for communication excellence are the annual Philippine Quill, Philippine Student Quill and CEO Excel Award programs, which honor exceptional communication work by organizations, students and business leaders, respectively, that are worth emulating.
The Philippine Quill
THE Philippine Quill is the country’s most prestigious awards program in the field of business communication. It has given its seal of approval to the most reputable organizations and corporations in the nation for over a decade, emphasizing the excellent use of communication to achieve business goals and make a difference in the society.
There are four divisions in the Philippine Quill Awards: Communication Management, Communication Research, Communication Training and Education and Communication Skills. In every division, a top award is conferred on the entry with the highest score earned from the distinguished board of judges.
The entrant organization that wins the most number of awards were declared Company of the Year, Agency of the Year and School of the Year.
Top Awardees at IABC PH’s Philippine Quill Awards 2015
STRATEGIC Works Inc. (Stratworks), Meralco and the University of Sto.
Tomas were adjudged Agency, Company and School of the Year, respectively, during the grand ceremony on May 17 at the Marriott Grand Ballroom, Newport City.
Stratworks won the Agency of the Year for the second straight year with its harvest of seven excellence awards. It was also the third straight year for the University of Santo Tomas to win the School of the Year award for hauling 14 Excellence Awards.
Meanwhile, Meralco (Manila Electric Co.) was declared the Company of the Year for winning a total of 11 Excellence Awards. It was also Meralco’s second time to win the prestigious award since it was launched in 2012. Smart Communications followed closely with 10 excellence awards and was named 1st runner-up. Unilever Philippines was the 2nd runner-up with seven excellence awards.
Manila Water Co., EON The Stakeholders Relations Group and Mommy Mundo also won coveted Top Awards at the Philippine Quill Awards 2015, the country’s most prestigious and most comprehensive awards in business communication. Manila Water Co. bagged the Top Award in Communication Management for its “Lingap Para sa KatutuboL Satisfying the Thirst for Clean Water Supply in Boracay’s Ati Community,” with which the company provided access to clean, safe, reliable potable piped water to the entire Ati community and decreased their vulnerability to water-borne diseases.
EON The Stakeholder Relations Group won the Top Award in Communication Research Management, making it the first recipient of the award since its launch in 2014. EON was recognized for its 2014 Philippine Trust Index that culls insights and opinions on the levels and drivers of trust of Filipinos on six key Philippine institutions.
Mommy Mundo, an online go-to resource for moms, got the Top Award in Communication Skills for its “#MomManifesto: Journey to Mindful Motherhood” campaign that gave mothers a fresh perspective on life by encouraging them to become mindful parents and formulate their mission statements via online workshop and the Expo Mom 2015 event.
Top Awards were conferred to entries that garnered the highest score among excellence awardees per division, after undergoing the Quill’s stringent judging procedure.
On the other hand, the organization and the agency that won the most excellent awards, meanwhile, get distinction as the Company and the Agency of the Year.
For the Philippine Student Quill Awards, the junior version of the Quill that honors outstanding communication work by college students, Colegio de San Juan de Letran notched the Top Award with the entry Sukat, a TV documentary about a grandmother who works as a street vendor despite her age and handicap just to provide a good life and bright future for her orphaned grandchild.
Send a Child to School, another entry from Colegio de San Juan de Letran, clinched the Holcim Special Award for Sustainability. The award is given to the student entry that best exemplifies a communication initiative to advocate and support sustainability. This covers efforts that propagate a holistic and long-term view of balancing business or profit with environmental and social responsibility. It also rewards the exceptional work that helps push a culture of safety, high ethical standards, collaboration, aesthetics, innovation and opportunities for replication.
Philippines: The bastion of topnotch business communicators
IABC Philippines President Kane Errol Choa said the Philippine Quill Awards program has become the showcase of the best in business communication. “The Quill winners continue to amaze. The high quality of winning entries affirms that our country is a bastion of topnotch business communicators,” he said.
IABC Philippine chairman Ritzi Villarico Ronquillo said the winning entries are not just well-crafted campaigns, but also promote values, improve lives of the underprivileged, empower the oppressed, and champion the culture and the environment. She said, “Words remain potent and strong: they shape—and shift—a whole new landscape. Discovering how they do so is an awesome and moving experience.”
Belle Tiongco and Richard Arboleda, committee heads for this year’s Quill and Student Quill awards, said this year’s cycle saw a plethora of communications campaigns across many industries that showcased innovations that produced outstanding results.
“Technology is now so much an intrinsic part of everyday life that refusing to embrace it would mean being left behind. As technology continues to evolve at a breakneck speed, it is imperative for the communications profession to keep pace with all these innovations,” Tiongco said.
For his part, Arboleda said, “While many have gone digital and social in approach, the fundamentals of business communication—building brands and corporate reputation, delighting the customers, and giving back to the country and the community—remain as steadfast as ever.”
In 2014 Metrobank Foundation Inc.’s “Metrobank Group Helping Hands Relief and Rehabilitation Response for Yolanda Survivors” campaign, Shell Companies in the Philippines’s “Shell Centennial Campaign,” University of the Philippines Diliman-College of Mass Communication’s “Beware: You are at risk (Be aware: You are at a risk communication conference)” and Colegio de San Juan de Letran’s Rainbow X bagged the Top Awards.
Shell Companies in the Philippines was named Company of the Year, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) as the 1st runner-up and ABS-CBN Corp. as 2nd runner-up. Strategic Works Inc. (Stratworks) was the Agency of the Year, while UST transpire as School of the Year.
The Philippine Quill Awards 2015 was made possible with the support of Gold sponsors Flawless, Holcim Philippines Inc., Meralco, PRU Life UK, San Miguel Corp. and Security Bank; Silver sponsors Landbank of the Philippines and San Miguel Brewery Inc.; and Bronze sponsors ABS-CBN, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor), Petron, San Miguel Foods, Social Security System (SSS) and TeaM Energy Corp.