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MONEY AND CAREER: “IT’S NOT JUST ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!”

By: Isabella Bartolome

Are you interested to learn how to earn, save, and invest money? Have you been searching for ways to find meaning in your career? What if we told you that you could learn both in one week? The DMU Enhancement Week, with the theme “M&M (Money and Meaning, Money with Meaning): Shaping Future Leaders into Profit and Purpose,” that took place last November 4-8, 2019 would have been perfect for you. The week was filled with talks, team building activities, and a business case competition titled “Think Strat”, which all DMU students from 1st year to 3rd year college were encouraged to attend.



During the 1st day, Ms. Rachel Matubis, spoke about the millennial workforce starter pack. Her talk revolved around the meaning of Millennials: Manage your expectations, Innovate & integrate, Limit social media, Look for a mentor, Evaluate yourself, Never underestimate the oldies, Nurture your mind, Initiate connections, Appreciate your boss, Love yourself, and Seek growth. She strongly believed in the statement “Millennials are more assertive and can better demonstrate leadership effectiveness in the workplace,” which inspired her presentation. Her parting quote was “Never stop learning, because life never stops teaching,” a lesson that has been instilled in all the students who attended.



For the afternoon session, Sir Denver Daradar gave the introduction of the business case competition. He explained the criteria and expectations for the 6 groups that registered for the competition. Each team consisted of 3 DMU students (a mix of 1st and 2nd year) with a 3rd year mentor. With cash prizes on the line, the 6 groups were preparing to submit an executive summary of the case they were assigned for the elimination round on that same day.



For the morning session of the 2nd Day, Professor Nas Harrison, a DMU representative, spoke about the shift from Customer Acquisition to Customer Value management. She emphasizes that “It’s all about engagement-how we try to understand and get closer to our customers.” Her talk focused on the shift from being product-focused to customer-focused. In summary, she talked about the importance of retaining the relationship that businesses have with their current & avid customers because it’s more costly to acquire new customers.



In the afternoon, team building activities were conducted to build camaraderie amongst the DMU students. The games included Human Bingo, Cheer, Matt Relay, Balloon-Action Relay, Pipe Relay, and Pass the Action (which was a teaser for the Infinity War team building games on the 4th day, Thursday). These games were meant to showcase lessons on teamwork, strategies, leadership, and communication that is relevant for all the students to acquire.

During the 3rd Day, Ms. Rachel Rustia showcased her knowledge on Personal Financial Management. She gave tips and pointers on where you should put your money and how to divide it in a way that could help secure your financial future. She gave a strong statement that we should “Make money at work-you have to let money work for you!” This resounded well with the students of DMU, who are excited to earn money after they graduate from school.

The next speaker was a proud SISFU alumni, Mr. Paolo Tomacruz, and talked about Personal Investment Management. He discussed different aspects of stock trading, and he gave tips on how to navigate the stock trading world. As an alumni, he gave sound advice, emphasizing the importance of knowing what you’re passionate about and really working hard for it. He believes that “Regret is scarier than failure,” which inspired him to take on the challenges that he has faced in his young life. He encouraged the students to take the leap and to find their passion.

For the afternoon session, a debate on “Scientific Management vs. Humanistic Management” was organised and presented by the students of 1st year BABAM A&B with the affirmative perspective that Scientific Management is still relevant in the workplace.

The participants are as follows: For the affirmative side (Government) were students from Section A namely Jireh Mari Rivera, Roberth Ignacio, and Lorenzo Amari Inciong. For the negative side (Opposition) were students from Section B namely Darren Jacob Bautista, Jeroen Paulo Manahan, and Christian Nazaire Rengel. The adjudicators for this event, Aleen Joi Gonzales from 3rd Year Management, Margaux Oruga, and Tram Panaligan from 1st Year BABAM, who declared Government the victor.



There was also a business case “ThinkStrat” workshop that was conducted by Sir Denver Daradar, mostly for the benefit of the contenders for the business case competition, although all students were encouraged to attend

For the 4th Day, the much awaited Amazing Race: Infinity War, led by Migs Cantero and the games committee, was held. There were a total of 2 teams (The Avengers and The X-Men) who played that day. There were a total of 6 stations that consisted of different games and activities. The main goal of the race was for the 2 teams to collect all the different stones in a limited amount of time. The Avengers eventually took home the 1st place prize.

The different stones represented a specific characteristic of a businessman that was important for the DMU students to reflect on and which they hopefully would strive to have. The characteristics for each stone is as follows: The Power Stone: Leadership; the Time Stone: Time Management; the Mind Stone: Focus and Creativity; the Reality Stone: Realizing real world problems; the Soul Stone: Ethics; and last but not the least the Humility Stone: Be humble and be kind.

The final day of the enhancement week, was a jam-packed journey with exciting talks from 4 speakers and the final round of the business case competition. The first speaker for that day was Dr. Raymund Habaradas, who talked about Humanistic Management. He showcased videos as examples and he conducted activities that made the students critically analyse if the given companies in his examples practiced humanistic management. He gave an important and relevant statement relating to his topic: “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used to create them,” and encouraged the idea of thinking outside the box and being better.

The second speaker was Sir Patch Aure, and he discussed the rising and vibrant social enterprise sector in the Philippines. He also interacted with the students through playing videos and through activities emphasizing on how businesses should approach different ways to spark change. He stated that, “You want stakeholders to be embedded on how you do business,” which is an important tip for future employees or maybe even for future business owners.

As for the 3rd speaker of the morning session, Ms. Marge Barro, a representative from the Makati Med Foundation, lead a discussion on the importance of CSR in the community and in business. She had an impactful and meaningful statement that in the CSR world, “You have to think with your heart, and feel with your head,” which is an inspiration to those who would like to take on CSR as their future work or in their future workplace.

For the afternoon session, Ms. Maricel Balatbat, gave a talk on the “Preparation for the real world: Processing benefits.” She gave various tips on how to approach job applications, handle job interviews, and process different government requirements like SSS, BIR, etc.

After the last talk, the culminating activity was done which was the final round for the business case “ThinkStrat” Competition commenced. With the 6 groups making it to the final round, they were tasked to present and defend their case for 10 minutes with an allotted time for a Question and Answer portion with the judges for 10 minutes as well. The esteemed judges were Sir Bob James Carreon, Ms. Maria Rosario Balagot, and Dr. Virginia D. Lineses.

After a very impressive and diverse round of presentations, the final winners were announced, the champions of ThinkStrat 2019 were Aiko Iwata, Frances Mendoza, and Celine Go with their mentor, Jirah Aguilo taking home a cash prize of 5000 pesos. For Second Place (Silver) were Harvey Kent Lagura, Imann Cedric Mariano, and Andee Renèe Rojales with their mentor Juan Miguel Cantero winning a cash prize of 3000 pesos. Last but not the least winning Third Place (Bronze) were Sim Seonghyeon, John Deza, and Jeroen Paulo Manahan with their mentor Yancy Catacata winning a cash prize of 1,500 pesos. The other three teams who participated were awarded with consolation prizes.



All the activities and talks were accomplished and they were all aligned to the theme of “M&M (Money and Meaning, Money with Meaning): Shaping Future Leaders into Profit and Purpose”. Students can look forward to more outstanding events like this, conducted by the school for the rest of the school year. Till the next DMU enhancement week!


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