Today I had the pleasure of meeting the Chancellor of a local high school & college in the Philippines. Unlike in a great many countries I see that the Philippines offers accelerated growth to its capable academics. I wonder if this is by design or by necessity in as much as many of its better staff would be lured to foreign countries. I was introduced to the senior academic staff of the facility, all of whom implied high educational standards. My partner conveyed that the chancellor as a teacher some years ago was able to make history fun. This is interesting because I had the same experience learning philosophy when I was young. A great many people would consider philosophy boring. To me it was the most interesting and important subject. The reason was my professor:
1. Also made it fun by ridiculing ideas of other philosophers using sarcasm
2. He also grounded those ideas in facts so the education became relevant to people's lives.
Of course you can examine the professional qualifications of an academic institution, but its not until you see the concrete expression of the leaders management that you begin to see the flaws in the system. Certain things like the disparity in remuneration between the West and East need to be addressed. We had the opportunity to tour the grounds. This institution I suspect is one of the better performing institutions in the country. Its programs convey the right intent, though there are changes that need to be made in execution/implementation. Its positive that the chancellor has an MBA, but the issue, did he attain an MBA by necessity or by desire. Its clear to me that he did it by necessity because throughout our meeting he conveyed his desire to escape the business side of education and to spend more time on his creative writing interests. This of course differentiates his thinking from mine because I have been interested in science and business since I was 13 years old. For me they are a seamless integration. This is why I am focused on the business side.
So we have a academic institution which is running a commercial hotel, a travel agency and a cafe in order to teach staff how to manage such businesses. The problem is that they are really not 'commercial businesses' in as much as they are not geared for profit. Let me give you some examples. The travel agency was unable to make a flight booking because they were unable to contact their agency. They could not even investigate flights. The cafe meal was average, the student staff were polite, but shy. We could have walked out without paying because the students were not really invested in making this business profitable. The cashier was turned away from us, maybe working on an assignment. A real business would make sure customers paid. The hotel has low occupancy because its over-priced and located within student grounds. The problem is that this facility is not just an academic institution, its an opportunity to give students real experience running a real business. So what I would be looking to do would be:
1. The key is to make the experience as real for students as possible.
2. How to retain professional academics to stop them drifting overseas
3. How to get funding for research
Achieving first world commercial standards
Clearly if you want to offer a standard of hospitality which will achieve high standing in the global tourism market then you need some conception of first world standards. The best chance of achieving this is by finding Filipinos abroad who are interested in running such a business for commercial gain. The Philippines cannot match first world standards of remuneration. The error is to think they need to. Yes, the Philippines is losing a lot of staff to the first world, but that is fine, some will come back as business owners. The solution is to offer or remunerate the CEO of the commercial unit well, the rest need not be. The CEO (leader) is critical. Why? The CEO ensures high standards, provides critical, conceptual input, and ensures excellence in quality control and buesiness development. Cheap labour can do everything else.
Retain professional academics to stop them drifting overseas
Remunerating such a person, maybe even a foreigner if you want to attract higher critical thinking skills, is easy. Simply make it a commercial business unit and not a part of the academic institution. Afterall it is supposed to be a commercial experience. So let Filipinos profit from the experience. If there is no satisfactory Filipino staff then lease the facility to a foreigner for 10 years so they can train up a Filipino, but allow them to make a good profit until they do. The Philippines will benefit from a plethora of better skilled students.
We have to remember that skilled Filipinos are going overseas as staff. Foreigners are coming here as business owners. Why would a person go overseas if there was a local business opportunity, unless they had some aversion to risk. So the intent is to offer risk-opportunities in the Philippines, to teach risk management skills, to create a risk culture, so Filipinos stay in the Philippines, or come back when they have the skills, because they are motivated by business opportunities rather than lifesytle, because I can think of no better place to set up a business given the low cost of labour.
The Philippines is not the only country facing this dilemma. NZ has the same problem. This is a traditional problem because NZ has long been penalised by its small isolated market. NZ has however the opportunity to offer the world an array of niche services, particularly online opportunities. For a Western country it is particularly attractive for high level programming, online content development, etc. Cheap movie making. It would not lose people overseas if it had a culture of entrepreneurism which saw them take a business risk rather than make a lifestyle decision and go overseas. This will not stop people going overseas, but it will encourage them to go abroad an save for the day when they can go overseas and return to set up a business.
How to get funding for research
This Philippine college was investing a lot of energy in soliciting external support from business. It was particularly focused on building relationships with Filipinos abroad, particularly alumini, both to encourage them to return, to support the institution, to inspire students, and perhaps as future educators. They were also hoping to expand research at the college. These are credible objectives, but several points needs to be made. Business people have a commercial focus, so when they enter an academic institution they can sense the different culture. That gap needs to be broken. Only when that gap is broken will research funds be forthcoming. There is no shortage of funds in the world, there is a shortage of credible sales propositions because of a shortage of critical self-reflection.
I would encourage this academic institution to take the hotel-travel agency-cafe out of the school grounds and place it in a commercial setting, and run it like a business. If this is training they don't even need to spend on infrastructure. They need only develop a relationship with an existing business (hotel, cafe, travel agent) owner wanting cheap staff and free training. Staff could be trained in off-peak periods. This would free up floor space for other school activities like research, which don't require a shop-front presence.
1. Also made it fun by ridiculing ideas of other philosophers using sarcasm
2. He also grounded those ideas in facts so the education became relevant to people's lives.
Of course you can examine the professional qualifications of an academic institution, but its not until you see the concrete expression of the leaders management that you begin to see the flaws in the system. Certain things like the disparity in remuneration between the West and East need to be addressed. We had the opportunity to tour the grounds. This institution I suspect is one of the better performing institutions in the country. Its programs convey the right intent, though there are changes that need to be made in execution/implementation. Its positive that the chancellor has an MBA, but the issue, did he attain an MBA by necessity or by desire. Its clear to me that he did it by necessity because throughout our meeting he conveyed his desire to escape the business side of education and to spend more time on his creative writing interests. This of course differentiates his thinking from mine because I have been interested in science and business since I was 13 years old. For me they are a seamless integration. This is why I am focused on the business side.
So we have a academic institution which is running a commercial hotel, a travel agency and a cafe in order to teach staff how to manage such businesses. The problem is that they are really not 'commercial businesses' in as much as they are not geared for profit. Let me give you some examples. The travel agency was unable to make a flight booking because they were unable to contact their agency. They could not even investigate flights. The cafe meal was average, the student staff were polite, but shy. We could have walked out without paying because the students were not really invested in making this business profitable. The cashier was turned away from us, maybe working on an assignment. A real business would make sure customers paid. The hotel has low occupancy because its over-priced and located within student grounds. The problem is that this facility is not just an academic institution, its an opportunity to give students real experience running a real business. So what I would be looking to do would be:
1. The key is to make the experience as real for students as possible.
2. How to retain professional academics to stop them drifting overseas
3. How to get funding for research
Achieving first world commercial standards
Clearly if you want to offer a standard of hospitality which will achieve high standing in the global tourism market then you need some conception of first world standards. The best chance of achieving this is by finding Filipinos abroad who are interested in running such a business for commercial gain. The Philippines cannot match first world standards of remuneration. The error is to think they need to. Yes, the Philippines is losing a lot of staff to the first world, but that is fine, some will come back as business owners. The solution is to offer or remunerate the CEO of the commercial unit well, the rest need not be. The CEO (leader) is critical. Why? The CEO ensures high standards, provides critical, conceptual input, and ensures excellence in quality control and buesiness development. Cheap labour can do everything else.
Retain professional academics to stop them drifting overseas
Remunerating such a person, maybe even a foreigner if you want to attract higher critical thinking skills, is easy. Simply make it a commercial business unit and not a part of the academic institution. Afterall it is supposed to be a commercial experience. So let Filipinos profit from the experience. If there is no satisfactory Filipino staff then lease the facility to a foreigner for 10 years so they can train up a Filipino, but allow them to make a good profit until they do. The Philippines will benefit from a plethora of better skilled students.
We have to remember that skilled Filipinos are going overseas as staff. Foreigners are coming here as business owners. Why would a person go overseas if there was a local business opportunity, unless they had some aversion to risk. So the intent is to offer risk-opportunities in the Philippines, to teach risk management skills, to create a risk culture, so Filipinos stay in the Philippines, or come back when they have the skills, because they are motivated by business opportunities rather than lifesytle, because I can think of no better place to set up a business given the low cost of labour.
The Philippines is not the only country facing this dilemma. NZ has the same problem. This is a traditional problem because NZ has long been penalised by its small isolated market. NZ has however the opportunity to offer the world an array of niche services, particularly online opportunities. For a Western country it is particularly attractive for high level programming, online content development, etc. Cheap movie making. It would not lose people overseas if it had a culture of entrepreneurism which saw them take a business risk rather than make a lifestyle decision and go overseas. This will not stop people going overseas, but it will encourage them to go abroad an save for the day when they can go overseas and return to set up a business.
How to get funding for research
This Philippine college was investing a lot of energy in soliciting external support from business. It was particularly focused on building relationships with Filipinos abroad, particularly alumini, both to encourage them to return, to support the institution, to inspire students, and perhaps as future educators. They were also hoping to expand research at the college. These are credible objectives, but several points needs to be made. Business people have a commercial focus, so when they enter an academic institution they can sense the different culture. That gap needs to be broken. Only when that gap is broken will research funds be forthcoming. There is no shortage of funds in the world, there is a shortage of credible sales propositions because of a shortage of critical self-reflection.
I would encourage this academic institution to take the hotel-travel agency-cafe out of the school grounds and place it in a commercial setting, and run it like a business. If this is training they don't even need to spend on infrastructure. They need only develop a relationship with an existing business (hotel, cafe, travel agent) owner wanting cheap staff and free training. Staff could be trained in off-peak periods. This would free up floor space for other school activities like research, which don't require a shop-front presence.
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