By Rizal Raoul Reyes
@rizreyes
Part One
IT’S oxygen to business. Innovation, according to executives polled by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (Pwc), has become a “competitive necessity” for companies. Innovation, the executives said, promises revenue growth.
Of the 96 CEOs who participated in the PwC’s local survey, the majority (84 percent) believe innovation is key to their organization’s growth.
For Antonio S. Yap, innovation is the key to further growing the Philippine economy.
People are always in constant search for change, because people want to improve the old order, Yap, chairman of the Benita and Catalino Yap Foundation (BCYF), told the BusinessMirror. “The search for something better on a continuous basis is what defines individuals and organizations.”
Yap’s belief led him to push for recognizing Filipinos who have wielded innovation in their businesses or their chosen fields of profession.
On February 7 the BCYF chose several finalists for its BCYF Innovation Awards (BIA), which the group hopes could inspire other Filipinos to continue embracing change and wield its positive effects on the country and, hopefully, outside of its geographical borders.
“My hope is very simple. The average person whether they are leaders or followers, we believe that each one can make a difference, Yap said.
According to him, innovation doesn’t need to be done inside a science laboratory, university campus, a factory or a corporate boardroom.
“It can be extended to the family, society’s basic unit, as its members can exchange views on what’s best for them.”
One of the innovators could be just around the corner, Yap added.
‘Yo soy’ Layson
ONE of the finalists that could bag the top BIA is entrepreneur Gadmer G. Layson.
Layson, a police beat reporter for a local media company, hasbeen known on certain to be handing out for free his company’s products to strangers: bottled soy drink.
But while soy drinks is nothing new, Layson’s 4-year-old business has caught the eye of BIA judges for its instant soya coffee.
According to Yap, this is the first time he heard of soy linked to the product of another or different bean.
The 47-year-old Layson said he roasts the soybeans manually.
The taste testing of his company’s products start with friends and family members.
According to Layson, the first product—soy milk—was tested by him, his wife and their three children.
Because they enjoyed it, I name the company—3K—to them: Kyla (15 years old), Kyle (8) and Kevin (3). He said his children were also the inspiration for his soy ice candy.
Roots
BORN to a marginalized and big family in Mexico, Pampanga, Layson experienced a rough and tough life starting in his growing years.
Nevertheless, he maintained a positive outlook in life and never complained about his deprived condition in life. Instead, Layson rolled with the punches, so to speak. He grabbed every opportunity that comes his way that he considers as blessings.
Layson recalled his inspiration to extirpate himself from the shackles of poverty came from his special neighbor who is a person with a disability (PWD) who works as a photographer.
“If he can take photos with his camera even without fingers, what more I who has a complete set of hands?”
Thus, Layson embarked on a career as a commercial photographer. To jump-start his ambition to become a photographer, he bought a camera from his share of this father’s palay harvest.
For a start, he initially focused on the most popular source of photographer’s bread and butter fondly called KBL—weddings, baptisms and funerals.
Furthermore, Layson also penetrated the school market by working on class pictures and graduation pictures. He even covered show-business events and the night club scene during its heydays.
His break in the media came when a reporter from a tabloid asked him to be his partner-photographer. He immediately grabbed the opportunity and this signaled the start of his journalistic career.
To be continued