Globe advocates use of mobile technology in sustainable development via photo competition

Leading telecommunications company Globe Telecom gave out special awards to three young men who best captured how mobile technology is used in initiatives for sustainable development. The winners were among the participants to the Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST) Ten Photos to Shake the World contest

First place winner of the Globe Mobile Technology for Sustainable Development award is Noel Ubaldo who received an iPad4 for his work entitled “It’s never too late for technology”.  The photo shows a group of elderly tribal members using a tablet computer. Ubaldoalso bagged ASSIST’s People’s Choice Award.

Second place went to Bryan Taguduar for his black and white piece “Taking the challenge of trend” where two fishermen in an outrigger boat hold a cellphone and a solar panel.Taguduar also won 9^th place in ASSIST for another entry.Klienne Eco’s “Light up my future”, a photo of a boy studying with the use of a tablet computer, won third.  Incidentally, the same entry was adjudged second in the ASSIST photo competition.  Taguduar and Eco received an HTC One SV and Samsung Galaxy Y mobile phones from Globe, respectively.

“We were only supposed to give one special award but we found the other two entries also very significant to our theme.  As an ICT company which advocates sustainable development, Globe believes this competition is an excellent venue to advocate the use of mobile technology in sustainable initiatives,” said YolyCrisanto, Head of Globe Corporate Communications. 

ASSIST is an international non-government organization which seeks to promote sustainable practices to address social problems in the developing world with focus on Asia and Africa. Its goal is to empower its target groups to make them resilient to social, economic and environmental challenges.

For the competition, ASSIST has chosen ten compelling photos that chronicle the journey towards sustainable development --showing poverty, climate change, global recession and other challenges, as well as the innovation and cooperation that result from them.

The photos also captured sustainable inventions, human partnerships, cooperationfor a sustainable economic development, inspirational and empowering activities/scenarios/innovations, under the overarching theme: “A showcase of Empowerment, Partnership, and Innovations for Sustainable and Inclusive Development.” The competition was open to all Filipino citizens who are at least 18 years old as of September 1, 2013. Know more about the photo contest in www.facebook.com/tenphotostoshaketheworld.

Globe secures Ayala Alabang community support for more cell sites

Homeowners at the Ayala Alabang village joined a growing number of upscale subdivisions supportive of Globe Telecom’s bid to provide tailor-fit solutions that would significantly enhance connectivity in posh villages amid growing popularity of bandwidth-intensive devices.

The telecommunications provider started to address clamor for improved mobile coverage in Ayala Alabang in 2011 by investing significant capital expenditure to install additional cell sites and improve connectivity within the village. Ayala Alabang currently houses three Globe cell sites.  

Given the size of the village, seven to eight more cell sites are needed to further enhance connectivity inside the village, said Emmanuel Estrada, Globe Head of Network Technologies Strategy.

“There are approximately 4,000 houses constructed of high grade materials and almost 30,000 residents inside the village. Households situated farther from base stations could experience poor mobile coverage as cellular signal and quality diminish with distance.  In addition,  there are  about 9,000 full-grown trees that could pose a challenge to providing deep indoor coverage for our customers in the area,” Estrada said.

He further noted that mobile data explosion amid growing access to internet connectivity, which requires more bandwidth than traditional voice and text messaging services, demands the establishment of more cell sites to ensure and deliver superior mobile data services especially indoors. In that way,  customers can access popular social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter on their smartphones in the comfort of their homes.

To squarely address subscriber requirement for higher bandwidth capacity, Globe is ready to implement tailor-fit solutions that would boost cellular coverage that would benefit the entire AAVA community, Estrada said.

Such solutions include the use of outdoor distributed antenna system (ODAS), which makes use of a specialized lamp posts built with radio signal transmission capability, as well as the use of cell sites disguised as palm trees or other aesthetically designed cell sites to blend with the surrounding areas such as those deployed in Urdaneta Village in Makati.

Exclusive villages that have approved or shown openness in allowing the installation of cell sites within their communities include Dasmarinas, Urdaneta, Bel-Air, San Lorenzo and Forbes Park. In Dasmarinas Village in Makati, homeowners allowed the installation of ODAS in the upscale subdivision. The ODAS technology is a network of small cell sites, instead of typical macro cell sites with shared equipment connected through fiber optic links. The solution makes use of a specialized lamp posts with radio signal transmission capability deployed along sidewalks. 

Globe Telecom: nurturing the right talents, The Globe Way

Globe Telecom Vice President for Leadership and Talent Management Tina Palmario-Sioson recently was a resource speaker at a recent forum on talent development held at the Shangri-la Hotel in Makati.

To the leaders of Globe Telecom, much of the company’s encouraging performance over the past several years could be attributed to the contribution of high potential and engaged employees amid company efforts to strengthen its talent development programs.

Strongly believing that employee engagement will further drive company growth and performance in the future, the leading telecommunications company is bent on developing key talents within the organization into future leaders of the company.  “Our objective is to build a surplus of leaders so that Globe is ready for the future whether for business sustainability or for new areas that we are resolved to conquer next,” said Tina Palmario-Sioson, Globe Vice President for Leadership and Talent Management at a recent forum on talent assessment.

Globe Telecom’s talent development program is anchored on The Globe Way, which espouses the telecommunication provider’s culture, values and ideals based on the premise that “people make the difference”.

Such thrust has prompted the company to develop an integrated leadership development approach such as the iLeadGlobe. The program is selective with eligibility criteria relevant to the participants that are handpicked by the leadership team through a stringent talent review process. The series of interventions include the Executive Development Program for the next generation of senior and business leaders. This program is meant for seasoned talents who have exhibited strong performance, demonstrated the company’s leadership competencies and have the potential to become the next generation of senior leaders.

The Young Leaders program, on the other hand, is an integrated leadership initiative that aims to engage and develop the company’s key talents into future business leaders. This program aims to holistically develop leadership skills over a period of approximately four months through a series of learning interventions such as modular training sessions, real-life projects and continuous learning through coaching and mentoring. The Emerging Executives program, meanwhile, is for mid-career talents for evolving hidden gems in the organization.

                "Even with the positive performance of the company over the past several years, we believe that things will get better and better, what with the network and IT transformation that we have implemented. The company’s thrust towards customer centricity would not have been possible without all the people at Globe,” said Sioson.

In addition to its iLeadGlobe program, the telecommunications provider has partnered with the leading business schoolsand opened programs for the employees interested to develop their business competence.  The company is also assessing and honing its employees by providing them with more job based development opportunities in order to future-proof their careers.

In parallel, the company launched Careers@Globewhich addresses the needs for professional growth of the rest of employees in the organization. The principle is anchored toward a joint responsibility between employee and superior with the employee taking a more proactive stance in taking charge of charting his career. Employees are given access to tools to help them assess their skills, capabilities, strengths and development areas. These are used for better career discussion of the employee with his superior, Sioson added.