Technology has really evolved fast in the recent decades, and it has changed our way of life. In business, computers make it more efficient to transact business or monitor productivity. Communication has also been made easier with cellphones and social network sites. Things are now going so fast with technology that it would be a challenge for everyone to try to keep up with the changes. But what amazes me is that young kids today seem to have their way with it. Give a child a gadget, and he or she will learn how to use it in minutes. In fact, my five-year old daughter Isabella has been so skilled in using an iPad even if no one has taught her.

This natural, inquisitive trait of children must have been the factor that makes it easy to integrate technology with education. Efforts had been made not only to provide classrooms for young Filipino students, but also to make sure that these classrooms are equipped with modern facilities and teaching materials. Just yesterday, one of Go Negosyo’s trustees and Vibal Publishing House founder, Esther Vibal launched the Philippine Normal University-Vibal Center for Digital Education. For a woman in her eighties, Mrs. Vibal is surely a techie lady, changing her company’s printing business model to one that tech-oriented. Together with her son Gus, who is also passionate in integrating technology in their education advocacy, the mother and son tandem donated a full Center with around 30 computer units to be used by students. Vibal also donated the V-Smart Technocart, which is a multimedia cart that can load as much as 40 tablets, an LCD projector, and multimedia speakers. The idea is to have several carts donated to several schools, and from there we can develop an adopt-a-school/classroom program to be able to bring these carts with tablets to many more students, with the Vibal technology group providing the soft copy of the books loaded in the device. The reason behind this partnership is to maximize the learning process: students can better understand their lessons through moving visuals and sounds that their interactive e-books provide, while teachers can easily assess the students’ performance because the system can automatically grade the exercises that they perform on the tab. In effect, this project strengthens the drive to improve the status of education in the country to produce students who are smart and technologically adept.

Institutions in the academic sector like Vibal are now starting to embrace digital technology as an effective way to sharpen young minds. This means that even in education, technology is now the way to go. Increasing the accessibility of any student, especially the underprivileged students, to technology and the Internet, is the best thing that can happen since it would definitely level the playing field. Just like the vision of our friend from Smart, Doy Vea, to have Internet access for all, technology empowers anyone to access information and knowledge from the web, especially that affordable smart phones and tablets are now available. It is really important that we embrace change and use it to our advantage. Technology can be a great tool for us to achieve what we are aiming for in life, or in business and I am glad that many groups are doing their share.

Here are more wishes for 2013 from the Go Negosyo community:

It was a good year for ECHOstore Sustainable Lifestyle as a social enterprise, as we awarded our first licensee in Quezon City and this jumpstarted our licensing program. We also put up our ECHOsi Foundation which now ensures the continuous supply of artisanal products for our stores. Our very own CSR has become our assurance of our supply chain. We see more people wanting to put up social enterprises so with our expansion through licensing, we can make partners or licensees start their own ECHOstore/ ECHOcafe immediately with our four years of experience. Being a green social enterprise, we can continue to help improve the lives of many small producers who can now supply our growing store network. Just this Christmas, we had to order continuously from our weavers of baskets, from our small artisan producers of chocolates and coffee making their businesses more vibrant and active. – ECHOSTORE CO-FOUNDER PACITA JUAN

The year 2012 was quite an eventful year as we focused on expanding the business to greater heights. Some of our restaurants were moved to more strategic locations that are closer to our patrons. We opened signature and new-concept restaurants in the Philippines and abroad; a key milestone was the first Cabalen in San Bruno, California. In 2013, we intend to reap the fruits of our labor in 2012 and continuously improve the company by concentrating on the development of our people – streamline the management system and upgrade the skillset of our employees. Empowerment begins from the inside out, so we start within the company – our people. We enrich their lives by educating them and developing their skills to reach their full potential. The continuous improvement of our employees assures that we deliver only the best quality service to our valued guests. – CABALEN CORPORATION PRESIDENT MARITEL NIEVERA

2012 was a challenging year for us due to the crafting of the new “sin tax” measure on alcohol and tobacco which will affect our business effective 2013. So this year will not be easy with the steep hike in excise tax on distilled spirits. It is game-changing, so we will need to be more creative, innovative and not just work harder but smarter too. But on the positive side our country’s economic forecasts are good. By setting high quality standards that everyone in our organization needs to meet. We provide the necessary training and mentoring to develop the skills and knowledge required to improve their performance so that they can grow professionally and move up in life. – DESTILERIA LIMTUACO & CO. INC. PRESIDENT OLIVIA LIMPE-AW

2012 was indeed a good year for us. We are looking at a continuous growth for our company this year amidst challenges and tougher competition. We launched two community/neighborhood malls last year, and it performed better than we expected. With that, we are launching two more centers this year, which encourages new players and upcoming entrepreneurs to join our development, thereby creating more opportunities for the people. In our food business, will are eyeing our entry into global brands licensing this year as we open a series of foreign concepts to please the palate of our ever demanding market. – FOODLINK PRESIDENT AND CEO ENRICO DEE