Do good, serve well and win awards

For the work they have done to benefit their stakeholders, individuals and businesses were honored with finalist citations and merit and excellence awards at the 2012 International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Quill Awards held last Monday, Nov. 12, in a black-tie affair at the Crowne Plaza, Robinson’s Galleria. Also urged to renew their dedication to doing what is right, the awardees recommitted themselves to selflessness and community service — corporate social responsibility programs for the advocacies they’ve chosen.

The motivation underlying a number of the Quill entries was pure advocacy or good corporate citizenship — that anger and despair about a depressing state to compassion and love for the afflicted that can provide a platform for change and development. Their programs don’t deny the legitimacy of noble anger or courage or injustice of any kind. Rather, they seek to work for the love of Filipinos instead of against the evil people or institutions that cause the malady and malaise.

In reality, doing the right thing can demand enormous sacrifice. When you feel tempted to avoid all the squabbles that come with doing what you know you should do, just believe that things do have a tendency to balance themselves out. If you turn your back on opportunities to make things go right for your families, friends, or even strangers, don’t be surprised if, somewhere down the road, people you meet take the same easy road rather than help you out of the rut.

In a business context, it means not only avoiding monstrous wickedness; it is actively doing what is ethical and admirable. Since business corporations and conglomerates comprise half of the world’s largest economies, they have as much potential to improve or destroy lives as war does. Many socially responsible companies, however, realize that they should bring some idealism back and become a force for positive change.

Businesses are created by humans, and are thus vulnerable to human impositions. People’s behavior and attitudes toward a company can have an impact on its operation —positively or negatively. It is inextricably linked with the constituencies it serves, and under this reality, it cannot avoid moral choices. Its future success or failure depends on public support or the lack of it.

“Be the change that you want to see in the world,” Gandhi admonished. That simple teaching has philosophical overtones. If businesses want a loving, compassionate milieu, then they must become loving and compassionate themselves. They should make doing the right thing a way of life. Author Emmet Murphy and environmental care advocate Will Keepin offer some valuable insights on how businesses and their leaders can do it.

• Bestow good fortune on others. Give them valuable, albeit intangible rewards, not for recognition or gain but for the welfare of those you have helped. To expect rewards or praise whenever you extend a helping hand should be far from your mind. The value of intangible awards you receive for doing what is good is more valuable than the tangibles. A company can’t take a Quill trophy to its grave, but corporate reputation and good deeds will continue to live on long after its existence. In fact, the more challenging call is for a non-attachment to the outcome of your deed. The thinking is that, if your work is to foster lasting positive change, you must commit to doing something even if you never see the results in your lifetime.

• Don’t turn away an opportunity to do good. Protect your integrity. You might regret it later. Do it, not just to win the respect of others, but more importantly, to gain your own self-respect. Your integrity is your protection. If your work has been built around a solid principle, then that itself will protect you. You should always place a premium on protecting your own moral probity. Failure to do so could haunt you forever.

• Avoid a false sense of altruism. Don’t kid yourself. Selfless service is a myth, because in serving others, you also serve yourself. This is important to recognize so you don’t fall into the trap of pretentious service to others’ needs and develop a faulty impression of generosity.

• Learn to trust others for they will trust you in return. Emphasize trustworthiness in your everyday activities. Engender the trust of your publics when making decisions in your everyday life. When you distrust others, they usually distrust you, too. Let trust guide your actions.

• Don’t cut off from the misery of others. You must allow your hearts to be broken open. As you let the pain in, you become a vehicle for transformation, and if you block the anguish, you prevent your own participation in the country’s attempt to heal itself.

• Choose a good deed that shapes and defines you clearly. What you attend to, you become. If you constantly attend to battles, you become embattled. On the other hand, if you constantly give love, you become loving. If you extend help, you can receive it when you need it.

• Set a good precedent. When you do the right thing, you inspire others to do the same. And if people see you doing the right thing, you will feel inspired to do likewise. The influence of your actions can tremendously impact the behavior of those around you. And as you work together you must move from a “you-them” consciousness to a “we” mindset. You and your publics become one in thought, behavior and process in doing what is beneficial for all, if not most. A good deed is directed at a specific community, rather than ourselves. We serve for the benefit of others, and not for our own satisfaction and glorification.  We are sowing seeds for a cherished vision to become a future reality, and our fulfillment comes from the privilege of being able to do this work.

The best of quill

Smart Communications Inc., DZMM.com.ph, and Stratworks Marketing Communications bagged the top awards in communication management, communication skills, and communication creative, respectively, the highest honor bestowed on division winners at the Quill Awards.  The awards ceremony is the annual program of IABC Philippines, which recognizes the excellent use of communication in the projects and campaigns of the country’s leading corporations and communication agencies. This year’s edition of the Quill Awards, which will be telecast on ANC (SkyCable channel 27) in January, proved to be more thrilling and memorable than ever with the launch of the first Philippine Student Quill Awards and the introduction of three special awards for organizations that received the most Excellence Awards. Awardees, guests and the elite of business filled the ballroom of the Crowne Plaza Galleria to its maximum capacity.

Making history was De La Salle University’s The Lasallian Facebook Page, which won the Top Award at the Student Quill Awards. Smart Communications, meanwhile, won Company of the Year for bagging the most number of excellence awards, followed by the Manila Electric Company as first runner-up, and ABS-CBN Corporation as second runner-up. Ogilvy Public Relations Manila bested other communications agencies to bring home Agency of the Year, while Colegio San Juan de Letran bagged the School of the Year award.

For over a decade, the Philippine Quill Awards has been recognizing companies that have effectively and innovatively used communication in their programs and projects towards attaining their organization’s goals. Each year, the country’s top companies, institutions and foundations in both private and public sectors, enter their best works in the Philippine Quill Awards’ 27 categories that cover various disciplines in business communications, ranging from communication campaigns to communication skills.

Best of the bests

This year, Smart’s Project Visa garnered the highest mark among Excellence Awardees in its division with an aggressive communication program that empowered its customers to “live more” by enabling them to do simple and routine transactions while on the go. The campaign’s success was evident as transactions through Smart’s online and onsite Self Care channels rose by eight points by the end of 2012’s first quarter.  The re-launched website DZMM.com.ph of ABS-CBN’s flagship AM radio station, meanwhile, strengthened DZMM’s multiplatform news coverage and social media efforts, while also extending the reach of the station globally. With better graphics and new features, the site’s page views jumped more than 100 percent from 4,891,757 to 9,885,310 ccording to Google Analytics.

Stratworks’ End of the World Survival Kit for Axe Philippines, on the other hand, successfully introduced a new fragrance through a tongue-in-cheek campaign that went viral and achieved 200 percent of its target mileage. The La Sallian’s Facebook page also impressed the judges, as it has become the news and feature resource of DLSU faculty, alumni, students, and even the general Filipino public.

IABC Philippines vice president and 2012 Awards Committee chair Kane Errol Choa said this year’s Quill Awards turned out to be one of the biggest ever in terms of participation with a 25-percent increase in the entries from last year. “This year’s turnout is a clear indication of the prestige and credibility of the Quill Awards,” he said. “The country’s top corporations were not only more aggressive in pursuing the seal of approval of the IABC through participating in the contest, but they also came up with generally better entries to meet the International Gold Quill standards.”

The Gold Quill, deemed the highest honor in business communication, is awarded by the global IABC, a network of 15,500 communication professionals all over the world.

Good communication programs deliver goodwill, take care of people and push development. They also win awards.