By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
Since the declaration of the President that we cannot afford lockdowns anymore appears to be holding out, many, if not everybody in business are excited thinking on what to do with their operations to survive or stand out (and have more profits) in the new normal.
What may reverse the tide and cause lockdowns is the Monkeypox. I think though that it is not as deadly as Covid-19 when it came to transmissibility. Covid was really scary as it can be transmitted just by being so close with those who wer infected. As to Monjeypox, from what I have read, those who are vulnerable are those engaging in M&M or men having sex with men. Certainly these are fewer who might infect you compared to those with Covid. Nevertheless, those of you engaging in M&M, be careful.
So we might not get hard lockdowns anymore. After all, the Covid-19 virus appears to have lost steam or have weakened already. Even the new variants appear to be laughable. It does not hurt though to still maintain or abide by the health protocols to avoid Covid.
Some of us in the media are already instituting changes on what they have to offer to the public. Others announced ambitious expansion projects.
In my case, I am going to thread the path of conservatism. I will have to start looking at or thinking back at what we had been doing in the past that worked. There were a good number of sections of this paper that we can easily revive without breaking the bank. These were liked by readers but had to be amputated for the sake of survival, or cost-cutting in management parlance.
Yes, we might revive some of these with due care not go overboard with excitement.
One thing though that had been itching inside my brain for a long time is to tap into the tourism market. Now might be the time to bite the bullet and start it—gingerly though. I don’t think it is right to be gung-ho about it and start with a big bang. For that would mean big money which we don’t have. A calibrated approach would be the better way and see first how the economy will pick up in the coming months.
As long as China will not invade Taiwan which might mean World War 3, we can go ahead and plan, then implement.
Since the beneficiary will be my kid, I guess we will get him and his teenager cousins to brainstorm with. It will actually be more like lecturing them on how to start a business. I might be met by blank stares, but who knows?
First and foremost would be the mission statement. The target market and prospective advertisers. Roadblocks along the way. Identifying the cost and profit centers. Etcetera.
As we go along there will be a lot of RDS (Review, Defects and Solutions) thinking.
The most important though at this stage is to start the ball rolling. Too much intellectualizing will get us nowhere. After all, we are not starting from scratch. I went through that already 25 years ago.
Another thing to keep in mind though was what James Clavell related in that novel “Taipan” (on how Hongkong came to be)—that the Chinese do business with a long time horizon. They think in terms of centuries.
I am already 67 and am not getting any younger. But if I could start something that my son or his progeny will consider worth continuing, then it would be worth the effort.
I have already done some preliminary cost accounting (kwentang intsik) and there seems to be hope.
The moral of the story is, for those who are in business and those planning to get into one, it might be time to be upbeat and expand, or to start something new.**
