Dynamic duo

All great basketball teams are made up of dynamic duo’s. There’s Shaq and Kobe of the Lakers, Stockton and Malone of the Jazz, Nash and Nowitzki of Dallas, Jaworski and Arnaiz of Toyota, Co and Guidaben of Crispa, and recently Taulava and Alapag of Talk N’ Text. As they say, it takes two to tango.

In the business circle, the question is, can the Manny Pangilinan-Polly Nazareno tandem bring the PLDT fixed line business to higher heights?

I will hazard to say yes for the following reasons:

Manny and Polly have worked together for over 10 years now and therefore must have developed an understanding of each other’s styles, quirks, shortcomings, strengths, and more importantly, roles. Having worked together is a valuable factor to a team’s success.

The spectacular performance of Smart is a clear case study of the duo’s success as chairman and president. Therefore, there exists a precedent of the potency of their combination.

Manny has an eye for the future, while Polly is excellent at execution. Successful businesses map out what’s up ahead and executes the plan. The two go hand in hand. In this regard, both Manny and Polly complement each other.

But most important of all, I am told that the two trust each other fiercely. And in any partnership, trust is the single most important ingredient to hurdling all obstacles and moving things forward. I asked Manny why he chose Polly, and his answer was simple, "Polly is the best man for the job".

Only time will tell what kind of results the Pangilinan-Nazareno tandem will deliver. But from what I hear so far, Manny has dished an assist pass to Polly, and Polly is sprinting to the basket to hit the three-point shot. Looks like PLDT is in good hands.

New Wonderboy Under Attack

Unscathed from his company’s numerous legal battles for the past two years, Mel Velarde, executive chair and CEO of Next Mobile, formerly Nextel, faces a new challenge – this time, it’s personal.

After his successful management buy-out bid of Nextel, a $250 million dollar investment, from its original owners in 2002, Mel would have fallen flat on his face with a ruined reputation had there not been a quick turnaround. The company that lagged behind competition and lost more than P10 billion over four years had done a fantastic transformation in the last 24 months. Through a successful financial restructuring and a business strategy that needed to turn the organization and operations upside down, the company’s record of performance has been more than amazing: EBITDA positive end-2002, net income positive end-2003, equity growing from negative P 10 billion to positive P 3.5 billion, and all these at zero bank debt! More customers are signing up even without enormous advertising expense but through shear personalized selling to corporate CEOs.

Recently, Mel acquired Premiere Entertainment Productions (400 films including a good number of FPJ movies) through a share-swap transaction amounting to P6.5 billion. Since PEP is listed in the PSE, Next Mobile through this transaction shall become a publicly listed company in no time.

This Silicon Valley-type story would have continued to proceed smoothly had it not been for its chosen setting. We’re in the Philippines, my dears! Newly fabricated arrows have been launched at mid-air and guess who’s the target. Clue: If we can’t bring down the firm, let’s hit the CEO.

An article in a local tabloid alleged that Mel had an investment company that defrauded investors in the amount of P5,000 as initial investment. His office however clarified that he never owned an investment firm. A simple check with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the columnist was probably too lazy or too arrogant to do this). He had an Internet company and not an investment firm (a huge, huge difference which understandably this police reporter cum columnist and TV host will never be able to comprehend). In this Internet company, Mel had only seven partners whose contributions amount to about P250 million (not P5,000 each). The company, which ceased operations in late 2002 due to losses, has about P250,000 in debts unsettled because the holder of the convertible notes wants the loan amount upon maturity higher than the firm’s computation.

Poor Mel. The attack by the columnist was so off the target and below the belt so Mel called me up, since he knows that this columnist is a good friend of mine way, way back in college, on the possibility of sending him some documents to prove Mel’s case. You know what this columnist said? Tell Mel to go to the NBI because I’m not going to stop until I put him down. And he calls himself a journalist? This columnist who was once accused of dollar-salting should know how it is to be falsely accused (or was he?)

I kidded Mel who is now in Harvard taking his second year management program at the business school and told him that these attacks might be due to the fact that since he owns 97percent of Next Mobile, he is now technically a billionaire thrice over. He, however, replied that this is all money on paper with which he can’t even buy hamburgers.

Well, I’m sure he’s in Boston figuring out a way to liquefy his holdings and turn paper into gold. But as we welcome him to the big league, my advice to this young man of 40, who Raul Manglapus called "wunderkind" and who the late Geny Lopez referred to as his wonder boy, would come from that famous line of Bette Davies in an old classic movie: "fasten your seatbelt, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride from here!" Get some advice from your friend, the original wonder boy Manny Pangilinan.

Another World Record

Don’t be surprised if there are not much strawberries on sale on the occasion of this year’s Strawberry Festival.

La Trinidad as of this writing is attempting to make the world’s biggest strawberry cake to earn a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The giant cake, called the Giant Magnolia Strawberry cake, will be shaped like a big strawberry fruit, measuring nine feet high and 11 feet long. I am told that some 1,155 kilos of Purefoods Baron all-purpose flour, 20 kilos of Purefoods Bake Best premium baking powder, 1,670 bars of Magnolia Gold Butter, 9000 eggs from farms using B Meg feeds, and 330 liters of Magnolia Fresh Milk will be used for this purpose. Other ingredients include 2,000 kilos of fresh Sweet Charlie variety strawberries, 1,550 bottles of strawberry extract, 675 kilos of strawberry jam, over 1,600 kilos of sugar, 12 kilos of iodized salt, and for the whipped cream icing, 250 liters of Magnolia Whip N’ Top and 188 liters more Magnolia Fresh Milk.

San Miguel Corp. is supervising the entire baking process through the expertise of the SMC Culinary Arts. The baking process started evening of March 19.

The cake will be so big that it is good for 48,000 servings, more than four times the number generated by the town’s first attempt two years ago.

Announcement

FICAP is holding the 5th International Cable Congress and Exhibit dubbed ‘Surviving Cable TV Challenges’ from March 25 to 27 in Tagbilaran City, Bohol. Guest speakers include Senators Francisco Tatad, Ernesto Maceda, Heherson Alvarez, and Panfilo Lacson.

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