This is a part of Major Business Opportunities in the Philippines
Pwede na is a Filipino mindset that means good enough. Pwede na is a mindset most Filipinos have and is usually the attitude towards work.
The term Pwede na has been criticized by productivity junkies (people obsessed with excellence and workaholism) as doing something that is just good enough to pass requirements and is useable but not excellent. Productivity junkies link the pwede na mindset as a Palpak (failure) result. Productivity junkies bash the Pwede na mindset by comparing the Filipino Pwede na mindset with our other Asian neighbors.
They say the Japanese has an attitude of excellence and perfectionism when conducting work and doing the simple things which actually gives them the right to charge high for their wares because the poor Japanese worker had put his/her very soul into producing the product.
The Chinese however use their creative genius and lack of mercy to mass produce a multitude of goods ranging from plastics to electronics. They can copy anything and mass produce it for a fraction of a cost and are not afraid to use child slave labor if they have to in order to deliver your desires in large quantities very quickly.
If you’d like to mass produce something, go to China, I can’t vouch for the quality though it seemed questionable. Japan can give you perfection at a price. In fact Steve Job’s of Apple corp said that he initially wanted Apple Computers to be like Sony (a Japanese company). This generalization leaves the Filipinos with the Pwede na mindset at a loss compared to its two northern brothers.
I disagree.
Pwede na mindset is the perfect balance between quality and cost. Compare it to food. The Japanese quality is like Fine Dining, which is pefect but expensive. Chinese are like fastfood, cheap, fast, plenty but has questionable quality, heath benefits and ingedients used. If that’s the case then filipinos are much like cafeteria food. Cafeteria food tastes more like home kooked meals than fastfoods with less preservatives but are not as epensive as restaurants. What I’d like to add is that there’s a lot of variables that we can tweak in order to get the results in a way that we would like to achieve.
Back to reality.The Filipino pwede na mindset means that you’ll have the quality of your goods at a useable condition at a reasonable cost. Because of the Filipino pwede na mindset, we can guarantee that we are able to offer you basics but nothing fancy. That’s why Filipinos are good in the service industry. Because their skills are good enough (pwede na).
How to turn Pwede na into an Opportunity.
Pwede na is always a good start in any case. You already have something you can use. If you really like excellent results, then start with pwede na and improve it little by little until the results are excellent. If you’re excelent and you’re competing with pwede na even a slight hint of excellence is already a huge advantage. Use it if you’re doing business in the Philippines. Pwede na is a major opportunity that comes from the understanding that nothing is perfect and that what you have right now can be used. In fact Microsoft Corporation started out with a Pwede na operating system offered at the right place (IBM) at the right time (when personal computers are emerging). A good example of transitioning from pwede na is Apple Computer’s strategy. Apple’s products are not the top products in terms of latest technology and features. In fact most power-users consider apple’s products to be basic products because there are always products out there that have double the features compared to what Apple is selling at the moment. You can get an Android phone with top notch specifications for a phone, a Google Chrome OS which is the latest advancement in Cloud Computing, a custom built desktop that you can upgrade and modify for your personal computer needs. Did you know that Nokia and Sony Ericsson have cameras with the highest megapixels for mobile phones at the moment? What Apple makes sure is that they have pwede na hardware but they try to excel in specific areas where they can improve and nobody else seems to care about but customers. Apple’s pwede na hardware and specifications did not prevent them from dominating the market.
Here are a few things they did with Pwede na:
Maximizing the pwede na mindset involves that you focus on what needs to be focused on and less on what others are obsessing on. What’s important is that when you have reached a point that what you’re offering is pwede na, make sure you’re next upgrades are not better than everyone else but focused on what customers care about. Don’t go for bigger market value, reputation, size or bells and whistles in your business. Serve your customers well. Take the time to talk to them and always give them more of what they want and not some useless feature they don’t care about.
What do you think about the Pwede na business opportunity?
Written on March 2nd , 2011 by Kevin Olega