A state of drift
November 5, 2005 | 12:00am
Are we in a state of drift? Going nowhere, bobbing up and down, moving left to right being carried by the stagnant water beneath us. I remember five years ago I was president of a medium-sized Filipino advertising agency and I was bored with my job. I wanted to stimulate myself so I decided to enroll in the Masters of Entrepreneurship program at the Asian Institute of Management or (AIM), the most prestigious school in the country. See, I never went to college. In preparation for my retirement, I wanted a master’s degree and it looked like this might be it.
It was run then by Andy Ferreria, a most personable professor, and Ed Morato, a scary one, at least to me. I was doing very well until I required emergency surgery on my neck and that took me out of commission for a while. My performance slipped but nevertheless, a year and a half later, I graduated with commendable performance. I had my diploma. I had a Masters in Entrepreneurship degree.
I left my job and taught writing until nine months later when I had a stroke. There are very few visible signs of my stroke, I am told, but I know that my body is crooked, my left side is lower than my right by at least an inch. I spent a year staring into space and drifting. I had been elected into the AIM alumni board but could not be very active. Nieves Confesor was elected dean and then a short time later she resigned. There was all this brouhaha on the campus, camps fighting, intriguing against each other. I looked at the problem and said, "All it says is this is a time for change." The alumni board agreed but could do nothing except accept the parts extended to us by the board of trustees. That was good. It was better than what we had before, which was nothing.
Sometime last year I remember seeing pictures of Andy Ferreria and Ed Morato in a supplement announcing their becoming something in some university’s activities on entrepreneurship. I was surprised, held my breath awaiting action from the school. There was a clear conflict of interest and in my CEO eyes, that would require something radical, probably terminations. I mean, here you are leaders of the Masters in Entrepreneurship program at the AIM, and now, without telling us formally, you are offering the same entrepreneurship program at a cheaper university and you don’t mind drawing the name of AIM into the press release? Please give me your letter of resignation immediately. But no, they were not fired, nor even asked to leave. Instead other changes happened. Vicky Licuanan was appointed dean. Things began to pick up for a while and then they began to drift again.
Oct. 15. I was lunching with a friend. I waited in her office looking around for something to read. She had a pile of old newspapers. I decided to glance through. See, I don’t read newspapers unless it’s Saturday and I’m tracking my column. This was dated Oct. 3 and it had a supplement of National University forming a School of Entrepreneurship and a board of advisors, which included Andy Ferreria and Ed Morato yet again. The name of AIM is so often mentioned as the source of their talent that you’d think the National University had a formal agreement with AIM to share their talent for entrepreneurship with lesser mortals. This time the supplement hit me between my eyes. What really is going on here? Are they building themselves up to give themselves more value for AIM? Why drag that institution’s name into this?
I went to our alumni office, showed it to the executive director, who said, "Oh, Mr. Pascua was asking me to provide him with this." She called up the PR department of AIM. They had not seen it. I got on the phone. "It came out on Oct. 3. Today is the 15th. You’re telling me you didn’t see it?" Bobby de Ocampo, AIM president, was apparently in the US on vacation, so maybe there was less pressure. Dean Licuanan was around and probably saw nothing wrong with this practice? Ric Pascua walked in and read it. He said we must ask for an explanation, to hear their side. I asked him, "As a former CEO, why would you ask for that explanation? To give yourself grounds for firing them on the basis of conflict of interest, right?" He agreed. Whether you are a CEO of a giant company, as Ric was, or of a medium-sized company as I was, conflict of interest is clear, important and actionable. You need to do something about it immediately. I worked to learn that. Surely business schools should teach you that but not once did they teach met that at AIM.
One month down the road from its publication, everyone is still in a state of drift. The board of directors of the alumni has written a letter almost two weeks ago, has received no reply. We will probably get one citing tenure or whatsoever lame excuse for this obvious conflict of interest. Maybe a conflict of interest is not important at AIM. It is only important to me because I worked in the real business world for 33 years. In the real world I know this would not go unnoticed. But at the Asian Institute of Management, where one goes for the best business master’s degree in the country, it goes unnoticed. It is ignored. Why? Because, I regret to say this though I know from sufficient witness, that the institution is in a state of drift.
Is that lamentable? Maybe for me, only for me, it is highly lamentable. We send our children there to study, spend a lot of money, but the business school you sent them to doesn’t fire anybody. Does that sound like running a good business? What will my child dream? Maybe I should send a young person with three to five years of work experience to the National University instead. There the people who set it up in AIM are coaching for less money. My child will learn the same thing for much less.
Adrift. We are all in a state of drift, bobbing up and down, right and left in a pool of very stagnant water.
Send comments to lilypad@skynet.net or visit www.lilypadlectures.com
It was run then by Andy Ferreria, a most personable professor, and Ed Morato, a scary one, at least to me. I was doing very well until I required emergency surgery on my neck and that took me out of commission for a while. My performance slipped but nevertheless, a year and a half later, I graduated with commendable performance. I had my diploma. I had a Masters in Entrepreneurship degree.
I left my job and taught writing until nine months later when I had a stroke. There are very few visible signs of my stroke, I am told, but I know that my body is crooked, my left side is lower than my right by at least an inch. I spent a year staring into space and drifting. I had been elected into the AIM alumni board but could not be very active. Nieves Confesor was elected dean and then a short time later she resigned. There was all this brouhaha on the campus, camps fighting, intriguing against each other. I looked at the problem and said, "All it says is this is a time for change." The alumni board agreed but could do nothing except accept the parts extended to us by the board of trustees. That was good. It was better than what we had before, which was nothing.
Sometime last year I remember seeing pictures of Andy Ferreria and Ed Morato in a supplement announcing their becoming something in some university’s activities on entrepreneurship. I was surprised, held my breath awaiting action from the school. There was a clear conflict of interest and in my CEO eyes, that would require something radical, probably terminations. I mean, here you are leaders of the Masters in Entrepreneurship program at the AIM, and now, without telling us formally, you are offering the same entrepreneurship program at a cheaper university and you don’t mind drawing the name of AIM into the press release? Please give me your letter of resignation immediately. But no, they were not fired, nor even asked to leave. Instead other changes happened. Vicky Licuanan was appointed dean. Things began to pick up for a while and then they began to drift again.
Oct. 15. I was lunching with a friend. I waited in her office looking around for something to read. She had a pile of old newspapers. I decided to glance through. See, I don’t read newspapers unless it’s Saturday and I’m tracking my column. This was dated Oct. 3 and it had a supplement of National University forming a School of Entrepreneurship and a board of advisors, which included Andy Ferreria and Ed Morato yet again. The name of AIM is so often mentioned as the source of their talent that you’d think the National University had a formal agreement with AIM to share their talent for entrepreneurship with lesser mortals. This time the supplement hit me between my eyes. What really is going on here? Are they building themselves up to give themselves more value for AIM? Why drag that institution’s name into this?
I went to our alumni office, showed it to the executive director, who said, "Oh, Mr. Pascua was asking me to provide him with this." She called up the PR department of AIM. They had not seen it. I got on the phone. "It came out on Oct. 3. Today is the 15th. You’re telling me you didn’t see it?" Bobby de Ocampo, AIM president, was apparently in the US on vacation, so maybe there was less pressure. Dean Licuanan was around and probably saw nothing wrong with this practice? Ric Pascua walked in and read it. He said we must ask for an explanation, to hear their side. I asked him, "As a former CEO, why would you ask for that explanation? To give yourself grounds for firing them on the basis of conflict of interest, right?" He agreed. Whether you are a CEO of a giant company, as Ric was, or of a medium-sized company as I was, conflict of interest is clear, important and actionable. You need to do something about it immediately. I worked to learn that. Surely business schools should teach you that but not once did they teach met that at AIM.
One month down the road from its publication, everyone is still in a state of drift. The board of directors of the alumni has written a letter almost two weeks ago, has received no reply. We will probably get one citing tenure or whatsoever lame excuse for this obvious conflict of interest. Maybe a conflict of interest is not important at AIM. It is only important to me because I worked in the real business world for 33 years. In the real world I know this would not go unnoticed. But at the Asian Institute of Management, where one goes for the best business master’s degree in the country, it goes unnoticed. It is ignored. Why? Because, I regret to say this though I know from sufficient witness, that the institution is in a state of drift.
Is that lamentable? Maybe for me, only for me, it is highly lamentable. We send our children there to study, spend a lot of money, but the business school you sent them to doesn’t fire anybody. Does that sound like running a good business? What will my child dream? Maybe I should send a young person with three to five years of work experience to the National University instead. There the people who set it up in AIM are coaching for less money. My child will learn the same thing for much less.
Adrift. We are all in a state of drift, bobbing up and down, right and left in a pool of very stagnant water.
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