Social entrepreneurship as a solution to the drug problem

March 7, 2017 - Read article Winner of 2018 CMMA Award for Best Business Column

Toward Pamamahalang Pilipino

February 27, 2024 - Read article

Social-emotional learning in AI-assisted pedagogy

June 4, 2024 - Read article

Filipino business as a force for kaginhawaan

April 17, 2025 - Read article

Fighting BS in the age of AI

June 10, 2025 - Read article

Kasangkapwa: Navigating the hybrid space of human-AI collaboration

June 19, 2025 - Read article

Why These Pieces Matter Now

That 2017 drug piece? It started with irritation.

Everyone was debating enforcement tactics while missing the elephant in the room. Drug cartels run like Fortune 500 companies. They have CEOs (drug lords), marketing departments (pushers), supply chain managers (distributors), even customer loyalty programs. If we're fighting a business, why weren't we thinking like businesspeople?

The column won an award. Maybe because it asked the wrong question at the right time.

Fast forward to 2024. I'm teaching MBAs, and something feels off. Every framework we use comes from somewhere else. Porter's competitive strategies? Born from American industrial battles. Toyota's lean systems? Japanese resource constraints made tangible. Design thinking? Silicon Valley solutionism wrapped in Post-its.

Where were the frameworks that captured how Filipino businesses actually work?

"Toward Pamamahalang Pilipino" emerged from that frustration. Colleagues raised eyebrows. Haven't we moved past this cultural stuff? But dig deeper into successful Filipino enterprises and you'll find something interesting. They optimize for relationships first, transactions second. They measure success in ways our spreadsheets can't capture.

Take kaginhawaan. Try translating that into English. Comfort? Too shallow. Wellbeing? Too clinical. The word encompasses physical ease, economic security, social harmony, and spiritual peace all at once. One word. Multiple dimensions. Kind of like how Filipino businesses actually operate.

Then AI crashed the party.

The education pieces wrestle with a peculiar problem. We now have tools that can write perfect essays, generate flawless business plans, create compelling presentations. Students love it. Productivity soars. But something gnaws at me. What happens to thinking when machines do our thinking for us?

"Fighting BS in the age of AI" names the beast. Harry Frankfurt (philosopher, not AI) defined bullshit as speech without concern for truth. Just words that sound good. AI excels at this. Eloquent emptiness, delivered instantly. We're drowning in articulate nonsense.

Yet the same technology that amplifies BS might help us detect it. Paradox? Maybe that's the point.

The kasangkapwa piece ventures into stranger territory. What if we stopped seeing AI as just another tool? Filipino culture recognizes different forms of shared presence. Your kasangbahay shares your home without being family. Your kasama shares your journey without being your destination. Could AI become kasangkapwa—sharing our cognitive space without being human?

Sounds weird. Then again, you probably consulted AI three times while reading this.

These pieces frustrate people seeking actionable frameworks. Sorry. (Actually, not sorry.) The moment we package wisdom into neat frameworks, it stops being wisdom. It becomes another product to consume.

What connects these explorations? Maybe it's the suspicion that imported solutions miss local realities. That technology amplifies whatever values we bring to it. That business could ease burdens instead of creating them.

Or simpler: maybe we're asking the wrong questions about the right problems.

The drug cartels adapted. They now use cryptocurrency and encrypted apps. AI keeps evolving—GPT-4 makes GPT-3 look quaint. Filipino businesses continue their quiet experiments in values-based management. Some succeed. Many fail. All teach us something.

We academics love clean conclusions. But life is messier. These pieces don't offer solutions because the problems keep shifting. They offer invitations instead. To see differently. To question deeply. To imagine wildly.

Business thinking needs to expand. How? That's what we're figuring out together.

One uncomfortable question at a time.

Manila Times - Managing for Society

Fighting BS in the age of AI

June 10, 2025 - Read article

What managers can learn from 'KiBam' victories

May 20, 2025 - Read article

Holy Week now good for business — but at what expense?

April 22, 2025 - Read article

How students deal with AI — one thoughtful question at a time

February 18, 2025 - Read article

Finding meaning and truth in information management

February 11, 2025 - Read article

A troubling cycle in the 2025 national budget

January 28, 2025 - Read article

Beyond triple bottom line thinking

January 7, 2025 - Read article

Managing for society: A 2024 review

December 31, 2024 - Read article

AI as a mirror for reflection among business leaders

December 17, 2024 - Read article

Understanding 'likas-kaya' and 'diwa-kapwa'

December 3, 2024 - Read article

Integrating AI in MBA education

November 26, 2024 - Read article

Diversity in the future of business education

November 5, 2024 - Read article

Pursuing wisdom in business and management

October 22, 2024 - Read article

Paradoxes of AI in business education

September 24, 2024 - Read article

P-pop culture as a force for good

September 10, 2024 - Read article

RVR Awards insights: Overcoming 'The Great Rewiring'

August 27, 2024 - Read article

Diwa ng wika: Insights for management

August 20, 2024 - Read article

Olympics and the embodying Filipino values

August 13, 2024 - Read article

Navigating individual and collective authenticity

June 18, 2024 - Read article

Social-emotional learning in AI-assisted pedagogy

June 4, 2024 - Read article

Management as stewardship

May 7, 2024 - Read article

Dignitas Infinita and Filipino management

April 23, 2024 - Read article

Business as a force for good

March 12, 2024 - Read article

Toward Pamamahalang Pilipino

February 27, 2024 - Read article

Call for nominations: RVR Siklab Awards

January 30, 2024 - Read article

Gifts that keep on giving

December 26, 2023 - Read article

Teaching use of AI with meta-reflections

December 12, 2023 - Read article

AI and human-centered learning

November 7, 2023 - Read article

Managing well-being in the hybrid workplace

August 9, 2022 - Read article

Toward a clearer vision of moving forward in business and management

February 4, 2020 - Read article

#WeCAN: Reimagining the partnership for the Sustainable Development Goals

October 8, 2019 - Read article

From creating products to crafting art

April 23, 2019 - Read article

Encouraging social entrepreneurship among business students

September 25, 2018 - Read article

The alchemy of social entrepreneurship

February 20, 2018 - Read article

Food for the buds: A glance at the food park business trend in the metro

May 23, 2017 - Read article

Social entrepreneurship as a solution to the drug problem

March 7, 2017 - Read article Winner of 2018 CMMA Award for Best Business Column

Humanizing our pursuit of 'next big things'

October 18, 2016 - Read article

Rappler - Good Business

Kasangkapwa: Navigating the hybrid space of human-AI collaboration

June 19, 2025 - Read article

Filipino business as a force for kaginhawaan

April 17, 2025 - Read article

Puso ng saging, puso ng tao: How loob shapes kapwa at Villa Socorro Farm

April 3, 2025 - Read article

Island Harvest Farm's kaloob: A gift that keeps on giving

March 20, 2025 - Read article

Kaloob and kapwa: Agrabah Ventures on co-creating a bountiful tomorrow

March 6, 2025 - Read article

Brewing "kapwa" in a cup: The road to Philippine specialty coffee

February 6, 2025

From values to virtues

November 14, 2024 - Read article

Sparking the Filipino diwa towards nation-building

August 22, 2024 - Read article

Steering generative AI towards nondisruptive creation

August 1, 2024 - Read article

Redefining success, guided by values

June 13, 2024 - Read article Launch article for the Good Business column

BusinessWorld - The View From Taft

Love and resilience in the time of Omicron

January 31, 2022 - Read article

What businesses can learn from marriages during the pandemic

February 3, 2021 - Read article

To love is to 'co-create'

February 12, 2020 - Read article

Towards inclusion

August 14, 2019 - Read article

Setting entrepreneurship education at senior high school

January 16, 2019 - Read article

Can we move towards sufficiency-driven consumption and business models?

June 27, 2018 - Read article

Four lessons on funding social enterprises

May 2, 2018 - Read article

Love lessons from social enterprises

February 14, 2018 - Read article

Business school vs the school of hard knocks

August 3, 2017 - Read article

Manila Standard - Green Light

Rediscovering optimism: Teaching management during the pandemic

September 27, 2020 - Read article

Social enterprise incubation in DLSU

May 19, 2019 - Read article

Embedding mission in business models of social enterprises

February 17, 2019 - Read article

Embracing our blindness

October 21, 2018 - Read article

What are business schools for?

July 16, 2017 - Read article

Teaching Management at the senior high level

December 18, 2016 - Read article