Newsmaker: The Philippines Is Getting More Competitive in Business

Picture this: You are a Filipino student in an international MBA class. Every one of your 54 classmates is from a different country. Your professor gave the class an assignment. You have to research on how well your country can create and maintain the competitiveness of businesses. He wanted you to know more about your country’s  economic performance,  government laws and practices, business policies and procedures, and infrastructure.

After all the research papers were turned in, your professor ranked the 55 countries. He posted the rankings on the wall for everyone to see. Your American classmate came first with a score of 100%, your Singaporean seatmate was 2nd (99.33%) and your other seatmate Hong Kong was top 3 (94.96%). Your eyes went down the list looking for the Philippines. You skipped a number of countries until you found it - Philippines - Top 40 - 50.48%. You say to yourself, “Not bad! At least it’s above 50%”. To further console yourself, you look at the ones you beat and you see familiar countries such as Greece, Brazil, Italy, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia and South Africa. “Even better!” You go back to the list above the Philippines and check out your friends’ rankings: Spain 33rd, Korea 31st, India 29th, Thailand 27th, Japan 22nd, UK 21st, Malaysia 19th, Taiwan 13th. You quietly say to yourself, “I can beat those countries!”

This is what the newly-released IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) 2008 is all about. According to the scholars of the Swiss-based research, “WCY analyzes and ranks the ability of countries to create and maintain an environment which sustains the competitiveness of enterprises. The assumption is that the creation of wealth takes place primarily at enterprise level, whether private or state-owned. Enterprises operate in a national environment which enhances or hinders their ability to compete domestically or internationally - this field of research is called: “competitiveness of nations” and has been studied annually by WCY since 1989.”

In this year’s rankings, the Philippines moved up five spots to 40th place. Let’s hope we can continue to improve next year.

Quote of the Day: Merton Miller

“I can’t speak for them, of course, but I believe that most economists would accept the view that, while you sometimes can make a score by sheer luck, you can’t do it constantly, unless you’re willing to put the resources in.” — American economist Merton Miller, (May 15, 1923 - June 3, 2000), shared the Nobel Prize for his contributions to financial economics.

Life is Fun

A young businessman had just started his own firm. He rented a beautiful office and had it furnished with antiques. Sitting there, he saw a man come into the outer office. Wishing to appear the hot shot, the businessman picked up the phone and started to pretend he had a big deal working.He threw huge figures around and made giant commitments. Finally he hung up and asked the visitor, “Can I help you?”

The man said, “Yeah, I’ve come to activate your phone lines.”

The Power of the Word

“Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands.” — Psalm 112: 1

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About this post:

This is the daily post of Lester Galvez Cavestany entitled Perlas. The information here is presented to you in bite-sized servings so that it’s quick and fun to read. It has four parts: 1) Newsmaker - news and views that matter to you;  2) Quote of the Day has history, quotes and biography tidbits; 3) Life is Fun gives you a healthy dose of medicinal laughter;  4) And lucky last, we have The Power of the Word which can serve as your daily spiritual bread.  

If you enjoyed reading this post, come back to this site every day and be sure to share Perlas with your friends.

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References:

Life is Fun:

http://afunnycleanjokes.wordpress.com/category/businessman-jokes/

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