Manila Food and Beverages Expo 2015

Today, I had a chance to take part in the Manila Food and Beverages Expo (MAFBEX) at the World Trade Center. Now on it’s 9th year, I must say that MAFBEX still doesn’t disappoint as one of the most sought after gatherings of the newcomers and pillars of the foodservice and hospitality industry. Whether you’re a company looking to showcase your products, a business owner looking to source out some decent supplies, or just a curious individual wanting to check out the latest trends…this is absolutely an event worth checking out!

11777956_10153433475606136_1478501439_n

For the purpose of this blog post, I have handpicked some of the brands (and items) that were of interest to me:

Malagos Chocolate ~ Did you know that 70% of the cacao beans produced in the Philippines are grown in the Davao region? Well, these guys should know as their cacao beans are produced in the foothills of Mt. Talomo in Davao, Philippines.

Malagos Agri-Ventures Corporation have ventured into the cacao business since 2003. Aside from their cool booth design, I really enjoyed my quick chat with Rex as well since he made an effort to give me some cool information about cacao and how to best enjoy their product.

11759531_10153433472661136_1141054958_n

Shakey’s…on Wheels! ~ A clever strategy from Shakey’s by parking the bus inside the World Trade Center. Literally. Definitely a scene stealer!

11774506_10153433475526136_1697606256_n

McDonald’s ~ One of the most well-known brands in the country and the world. One thing that I like about McDonald’s (aside from their food, obviously) is that they are always making sure that their presence is felt. Whether in events or different advocacies, they never stop.

11797995_10153433475176136_1280775505_n

11721132_10153433475466136_1441160570_nCoffee brands ~ Really happy that I got to see some coffee brands present at MAFBEX! And guess what? They’re all franchise-ready! I had a trip to Bangkok recently and there were coffee kiosks in almost every street that I went to. Amazing! That would be a perfect dream.

There’s no doubt that the coffee culture in the Philippines has been improving, but I believe that there’s still some room for coffee kiosks and other players to come in.

One of those brands is Farron Cafe. They actually have 80 branches nationwide and growing! I watched the baristas make the drinks and their techniques for mixing the drinks are easy to learn. Not only that, they have a wide range of drinks and their prices are affordable too. Check out their cute mascot!

11787429_10153433475401136_105537773_nBaking supplies
~ There were several booths selling cake decorating tools, packaging materials, stencils, etc. But, I just had to take a photo of the materials below because they were really huge.

Booze On-line Inc. ~ Now, who doesn’t love some fine, imported beers? online!

Empanada de Norte  ~ A popular snack in the Ilocos region. Authentic, savory, and tasty…this definitely hits the spot!

Overall, it was a great experience for me and met lots of great people. If you’re interested to attend MAFBEX, the event will run until this Sunday, July 26th, so make sure to catch it this weekend while you can.

The End of a Legendary Internship

My ten-week internship with PayrollHero reached its end last week. As a fitting closure to my first post on hiring interns in Singapore, I thought it would be a good idea to write about my experience here. I’ve had an amazing summer at PayrollHero and learned more than I thought I would. Ten weeks flew by and it took a few days to organize my thoughts. Here is what I learned from my internship at a startup in Singapore.

PayrollHero Pragya Last DayLesson 1: Learning is built in to PayrollHero’s DNA

The company doesn’t just declare its “Ridiculously Client Focused” psyche on the website, it lives and breathes the idea. To achieve that end, everyone is always learning new things through whichever means that they can. But it doesn’t end at just learning something by yourself, it’s all about sharing it with everyone else. When I joined the communication channel, Slack, the most interesting channel to me was the reading-list. A mandatory channel for all members, the reading-list includes articles that are relevant to the team from all kinds of sources. Anyone can share something that they have read, and anyone can comment on it.

One of the first things I did at PayrollHero was to broaden my reading base. As an economics student, the obvious reading material I blindly follow are opinion blogs by economists, or economics journals, and of course, the newspaper. But within two weeks, I had apps on my phone that gave me news about startups, tech blogs and more. It was awesome to see that everyone was invested in improving themselves and the team. It was also interesting to see what everyone was reading. Rarely does a college kid get the chance to find out what seasoned entrepreneurs are reading. And here I was, discussing the very articles with the founders of PayrollHero.

Lesson 2: You’re an intern, and you’re still taken seriously

Trust me, this one was huge. While I was interning at PayrollHero, I had friends interning at big accounting firms, consultancies and banks. I would often hear stories about their internships where all they did was photocopy documents for their bosses. This was not the case across the board, but I heard it often enough to realize that my internship was unique.

During the ten weeks, I never once had the impression that I was just an intern slaving away at something inconsequential. If it ever seemed like I was not doing enough, I could speak up about it and get more work to do. The great thing about working in a small place is that there is always something to do and the little that you contribute has a visible impact on the company. Furthermore, Steve ensured that the communication lines were open and that an intern in the Business Development team was equally important (and accountable) as any other member on the BD team. The feeling of being a relevant member of a team is definitely something that I will take with me from this internship.

Lesson 3: Diversity

When I read about PayrollHero before sending in my resume, I loved the idea of Adventure Engineering and knew that PayrollHero was based in the Philippines, Singapore and Canada. To me, that seemed to reflect diversity well enough until I met the team. If you hang out with the Singapore team, you will find yourself in a room with around 10 people representing at least 7 different nations. That is incredible and speaks volumes to the success of PayrollHero’s drive to attract talent, no matter where it comes from.

There are many studies that show how diversity improves results in a company. Diversity was a crucial aspect in my experience. Despite being an international student studying in a foreign country, I had never seen so many nationalities from across the world working together before I showed up at PayrollHero. Imagine this, a Canadian, Ukrainian, Polish, Indian and Filipino sitting in a hawker center, eating a plate of prata and talking about the latest episode of Game of Thrones. As ridiculous as that sounds, it’s just another regular day at PayrollHero. You can’t help but appreciate how easily PayrollHero has embodied the concept of diversity in a company.

Lesson 4: Hanging out with the team over beers

If I look back over the ten weeks I was at PayrollHero, some of the most memorable interactions with the team was not during work, but outside it, when everyone hung out with some beers after a long day of work. I learned the most about the people who make up PayrollHero during this time. Whether it was about their professional lives or just a casual conversation about what everyone’s “ah-ha!” moment was during the DDD workshop, these interactions helped me understand people in a world I had little or no idea about.

I think this is especially invaluable to interns because a large part of interning is to try and figure out what to do with our lives professionally. While colleges make an effort to conduct networking sessions with professionals from every field, it does not come anywhere close to actually spending time with the same people day in and day out.

Finally, all these elements together made for an internship that immensely broadened my perspective. When I first walked into PayrollHero, I wondered if an unstructured internship would teach me anything new or if the work would be rewarding. But the truth is, the very fact that it was an unstructured program made me want to push myself to do new things and be open to ideas that I wasn’t exposed to before. At the end of it, I came away having met inspiring people from all over the world, learning about the startup culture and learning more about myself through it all. I hope the little work I did at PayrollHero was useful to the company. I also greatly appreciate the time invested by Steve and Mike and everyone else to make my internship worth it. At the risk of sounding super cheesy right now: good luck, PayrollHero, and may the force be with you!

Editors Note: Thanks Pragya!! While Pragya is off on her next adventure you will still see her posting on the PayrollHero blog a few times a month.