BusinessMirror
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Saturday, November 18, 2017 A11
How to make sure your e-mails give the right impression INTEGRATED Development Studies Institute (IDSI) President George Siy with speakers Huawei Technologies Head of Public Affairs and Communication Wellington Liu (fourth from left), Asian Institute of Management Associate Director John Paolo Rivera (fifth from left), Cloudfone Founder and CEO Eric Yu (sixth from left) and other guests during the recent Philippine Association for Chinese Studies and the IDSI forum on Philippines-China Economic Forum: Toward Philippine Inclusive Growth
Partnership with China benefits Cloudfone L BY RIZAL RAOUL REYES
OCAL mobile-phone company Cellprime credited the efficient supply chain and manufacturing efficiency of Chinese suppliers for their growth in the Philippine mobile-phone market. Eric Yu, the founder and CEO of Cloudfone, said they were able to provide affordable devices to Filipinos because Cellprime was able to develop a strong partnership with Chinese manufacturers. When they initially entered the local market, Cellprime was selling Cloudfone for P7,000. By partnering with Chinese suppliers, Yu said Cellprime is currently selling smartphones as low P1,000. “Our success can be attributed to our close relationship with China. We stayed the course that allowed us to reach a higher level, and developing higher quality but affordable products,” Yu said in a recent forum on Philippines-China Economic Forum: Toward Philippine Inclusive Growth, held recently in Makati City. “By getting the right partners, we were able to democratize the access to mobile phones by providing affordable prices,” Yu added. The event was organized by the Philippine Association for Chinese Studies and the Integrated Development Studies Institute (IDSI). Cellprime encountered rough sailing during the early years of doing business with Chinese companies because they have a different mind-set, and were not used to dealing with foreign partners. “Aside from the language barrier, Chinese companies were also concerned about how they can get their return on investment and profitability, among others,” he said. “As we matured and grew the business, we were able to work with competent suppliers,” Yu added.
After fixing the problems with Chinese suppliers, Yu tackled content development. He approached the National Basketball Association (NBA) for possible partnership. He said it was a challenge to deal with the NBA for content development. “The NBA was used to operating in a developed market like the United States,” he said. “The main issue was bridging the gap transferring the content from the television screen to the mobilephone screen,” Yu added. Right now, Yu said Cloudfone’s major goal is to reach out to younger markets. To attract these markets, Cloudfone will continue to pursue innovation, adoption of evolving design approaches and technologies, and rapid product introductions. “Our biggest growth remains the replacement market, as a lot of Filipinos replace their old mobile phones in a short span of time,” he said. The International Data Corp. (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile-Phone Tracker predicts 2017 will be a good year for local phone manufacturers as demand for newer gadgets will continue to grow. “Consumers continue to show demand for smartphones, and OEM [oiriginal equipment manufacturers] flagship hype seems as strong as ever,” the report said. “Worldwide smartphone shipments grew 4.3 percent in 1Q17, which was slightly higher than IDC’s previous forecast of 3.6-percent growth.” Inline with this growth, Cloudfone was the only local smartphone provider in the country to post a sales growth of 11 percent according to the first half of 2017 study results conducted by GFK in the Philippines,” Yu explained. Yu said they had to work hard to achieve the growth. He said Cloudfone will continue to pursue innovation to remain competitive in the local market. In the same forum, Wellington Liu, Huawei Technologies head of public affairs and communication, said the Shenzhen, Guangdong-
Insurance, investment go online THE youth of today—“millennials” as they’re called—are known for making the most out of the present, enjoying life while also keeping a keen eye on future goals: whether that’s to travel the world, start a business, or pursue a lifelong passion, like the arts. Now, one can live the life they choose with no fear with the help of MyAmbition, a life insurance and investment plan you can buy online, that was designed with young professionals. AXA (www.axa.com.ph) knows that this market prefers transacting online and are always on the go. Think online shopping for life insurance. What’s more, it lets consumers grow their money by investing in a fund that suits their risk appetite—the amount of risk the consumer is willing to accept to pursue their goal, which in this case is growing their money through investing. The risk appetite—or “hunger for risk”—may be conservative, moderate or aggressive (or low,
medium or high). Whatever the consumer’s risk appetite is, there’s an investment fund that suitable. One can invest in AXA MyAmbition for as little as P50,000 to a maximum of P125,000. And because it doubles as a life insurance, loved ones will receive bigger gains in the future in case something unexpected happens. One also has the option to let their money stay with AXA so it can grow further. MyAmbition is available via an easy online application process. Everything that consumers need to know about their insurance plan is on the web site. Payments are equally easy as they are made via AXA’s secure payment partner, Peso Pay—the leading online payment gateway in the country. One can check the performance of their investment by simply downloading the MYAXA app and registering their policy. One can avail himself or herself of up to 10 MyAmbition policies, and pay the premium via a credit or debit card.
based company will give a strong focus on research and development jobs to explore future developments. “Huawei is also considering harnessing artificial intelligence for the future,” Liu said. To make the company develop a strong recall always in the minds of Filipino consumers, Liu said Huawei will always observe the local market on a frequent basis. Although there is a perception that Chinese-made goods are low quality, Liu added it is interesting to know that iPhones and Samsungs are also made in China. As far as Huawei is concerned, it is considered a Chinese technology dragon present in 170 countries worldwide. Moreover, he said Huawei Philippines wants to invest more in the Philippines, but it has been a big challenge for the local subsidiary because the country produces insufficient engineering graduates. “According to the Commission on Higher Education, only about 18 percent of Filipino graduates finish a degree in STEM majors [science, technology, engineering, mathematics]. And most of your best engineers work abroad,” Liu added. In 2016 China graduated 4.7 million engineers while the United States had 568,000. In his remarks, IDSI President George Siy said the digital Silk Road offers tremendous opportunities to developing countries like the Philippines. Filipinos stand to benefit from China’s ambitious 21st century Silk Road. To be part of the Silk Road means to be part of a highway of trade. It’s like when the national highway crosses your property, the value skyrockets overnight just by being part of the highway. “With creativity and a bit of entrepreneurship, you and your family can gain more, for instance, if you open a sari-sari store, a guest house, or canteen,” Siy said. ■
BY SHANI HARMON Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. EVERY e-mail you send affects your professional reputation. Don’t make these all-too-common mistakes: ■ Writing e-mails too long for anyone to digest. Given that the adult attention span is a mere eight seconds, it’s important to make every moment count. Get to the point. ■ Including too many people. Remember that each message you send contributes to everyone’s inbox, including your own, especially when a recipient decides to “reply all.” ■ Dashing off incomplete thoughts. Do you end up with a high volume of clarifying questions in response to your messages? If so, that’s a clue that your e-mails need more composition and more context. ■ Burying the main point. Make sure your readers know what your request is and why they should care about responding. If you want your readers to digest your message and, perhaps, even take action on it, make it easy for them to do so. The next time you start to write an e-mail, follow a few rules: ■ Use an intuitive subject line that clearly states the purpose of the message. Bonus points if you include headers in the body of the e-mail, such as “ACTION” or “INFORM,” that help readers understand the expected response. ■ Provide a clearly stated request right at the beginning of your e-mail in case your audience fails to read beyond the first few lines. At least you’ll increase the chances that people will understand the essence of your message. ■ Bold the names of anyone who’s been assigned a task or asked a question in the body of the e-mail to increase the likelihood that your message will get people’s attention. ■ Take the time to be nice. It will help your audience to truly hear what you have to say. ■ Shani Harmon is the chief delivery o��icer and cofounder of Stop Meeting Like This. NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
IBM SAYS IT’S REACHED MILESTONE IN QUANTUM COMPUTING IBM has announced a milestone in its race against Google and other big tech firms to build a powerful quantum computer. Dario Gil, who leads IBM’s quantum computing and artificial-intelligence research division, said on Friday that the company’s scientists have successfully built and measured a processor prototype with 50 quantum bits, known as qubits. Gil says it’s the first time any company has built a quantum computer at this scale. Quantum computing, a technology that’s still in its early phases, uses the quirks of quantum physics to perform calculations at far higher speeds than current computers. Seth Lloyd, an MIT mechanical-engineering professor not involved in IBM’s research, says it’s likely that IBM still has glitches to work out but the 50-qubit announcement is a sign of significant progress. AP