Filipinos abroad learning business smarts

By Ria Mendoza

INQUIRER.net

(Photo: From left to right: UP Professor Ilano, Philippine Consul General Benito Valeriano, PBC President Lucille Ong and UP Professor Florendo awards the sixth ‘Managing for Business Success’ seminar participants the certificate of completion).

On the other hand, others have no solid idea where to start realizing their dreams.

This is the reason why 19 Filipinos working across all sectors made a beeline for the “Managing for Business Success” seminar organized by the Philippine Business Council (PBC) in association with the University of the Philippines (UP). The three-day seminar, held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel from September 23 to 25, is the only seminar certified by UP outside of the country.

Choosing the right business to get into is always tricky, but the discussion of UP Marketing and Strategic Management Professor Art Ilano gave the basics of not only finding the right fit for a person, from franchising to starting an all new enterprise, to branding, expansion and effective marketing.

Complemented by the lectures of Joselito Florendo, UP Professor of Finance and Accounting, the participants learned the intricacies of income statements, cash flows and balance sheets. However, Florendo emphasized that though the work can be done by accountants and bookkeepers, it is important for business owners to know how to interpret this data to know how their business is faring.

Philippine Consul General Benito Valeriano attended the closing ceremony and awarded the participants their certificate of completion together with PBC President Lucille Ong, Professor Ilano and Professor Florendo. The “Managing for Business Success” seminar is the sixth in the PBC-UP seminar series to be held in Dubai and was sponsored by the Western Union Foundation.