The color of performance

The color of the flag outside each of the five La Farge cement plants changes every day. Green immediately signals to employees that the plant has met its targets, as of yesterday, yellow means the targets are at risk; and red means the targets are compromised (read: performance is way below target).

Not that anybody is fired, mind you.

It seems the flag color is just a no-brainer reminder to employees to work together towards a common target.

La Farge is the largest French presence in the country, with investments since 1997 of 12 billion euros. That’s P90 billion.

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Bank notes 1: That’s strike two for former Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho, who campaigned for somebody else in the recently concluded presidential election.

First President Macapagal-Arroyo accepted the resignation of Lito Camacho’s Don Bosco High School classmate, Antonio Bernardo, as commissioner of the Bureau of Customs.

Then, the President appointed Jose Perez as president and chief executive officer of United Coconut Planters Bank, replacing Mr. Camacho’s De la Salle University classmate, Jose Querubin.

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Bank notes 2: Incoming Development Bank of the Philippines president Reynaldo David should get along quite famously with chairman Vitaliano Nañagas II. You see, Rey David used to be the boss of Lanny Nañagas at Citibank NA.

Mr. David, who used to be the bad boy of banking (with his flamboyant personal life), has mellowed with religion.

Mr. David has yet to clear his desk at Export and Industry Bank, which is chaired by former Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. president Sergio Ortiz-Luis.

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Bank notes 3: Obviously, incoming Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Fe Barin couldn’t say no to the President, whose father, former President Diosdado Macapagal was a close friend of Ms. Barin’s dad.

Ms. Barin – who resigned much, much ahead of her six-year term as Energy Regulatory Commission chairman because she didn’t have enough time for her family anymore – had accepted the job as Monetary Board member in large part because it is an eight-hour job every day.

For that, Ms. Barin and other MBMs, who help set monetary policy under the chairmanship of Bangko Sentral Governor Rafael Buenaventura, is paid between P100,000 and P150,000 a month.

As SEC chairman, Ms. Barin will be getting double that pay and probably triple the headache.

Ms. Barin replaces Lilia Bautista, who retirement package (once it is settled to everybody’s satisfaction) would include all those accumulated unused vacation leaves that she never bothered to take.