I’m in Manila this week for a Nuffnang Philippines Board Meeting and also to say hi to our Nuffies in the Philippines.
A Board meeting is a meeting that the company’s directors have together every now and then to get updated on what the company is doing and where we’re going moving forward. This is the board of Nuffnang Philippines Inc.
Nuffnang Philippines has been doing really really well. In 2010, revenue for it grew 250% and it has doubled almost everything from its staff count to its blogger base. It’s actually really exciting seeing Nuffnang Philippines really take off. I remember when we first started it off in July 2008. Nuffnang Malaysia and Singapore were only about one year old then.
Ming and I decided to take a gamble… we took whatever money we had (almost emptying our bank accounts) and invested it all into Nuffnang Philippines and later on Nuffnang Australia. Both companies today are profitable and are growing really fast so I’m very thankful how we’re so lucky. If our investments had failed, things might have turned out differently for us.
I spent the entire day yesterday in meetings. From the board meeting to just meetings with some the Nuffies here in Philippines.
Meetings with the Nuffies to me are never boring. One thing I always fear about having lots of meetings in a company is where they become like those Dilbert comic strips you always see… where meetings are just a waste of time.
Today the whole Netccentric Group that includes Nuffnang, ChurpChurp, Nom Nom Media, Ripplewerkz and others have some 80-90 full-time staff. As a result of that we have lots of meetings going on all the time and I always try to make sure they’re quick, to the point and if I can help it… fun. I can’t stand long meetings where we take 3 hours to discuss and agree on something that would normally only take an hour.
So far this week, the only relaxing time I got is after work where we go for good meals and a night out. On the first night, Jay and Eric brought me to this really nice restaurant.
It was one of those restaurants where they would bring you a big blackboard to show you what the specials of the day were.
The last time I saw that was in this little quaint restaurant in Paris many many years ago.
Lunch the next day was in this nice Chinese restaurant near our office with the entire Nuffnang Philippines team.
On the second night we had some People food! The Nuffies brought me to this Persian restaurant where they had kebab and rice.
It was really cheap. One set of rice and kebab was only like RM10 each.
It was then also that the Nuffies made me eat the most disgusting thing I’ve ever had in my life. Ladies & Gentlemen, first let me ask you what this looks like.
Sliced chicken? Well you couldn’t be more wrong. That my friends… is “ox brain”.
The Nuffies made me ate that. It tastes exactly like how I imagined brain to taste like. A little sour maybe… and the texture… gosh.. it was mushy and … soft.. like….. just thinking about it again just makes me sick already.
They made up for it though. After the dinner the Nuffies took me to this really nice Jazz bar where we kicked back and listened to some nice music.
Took some pictures with some of the Nuffies with us that night.
Here’s Trixie and Jel.
Rendhl, me, Trixie, Jel and Marcelle.
And here’s Judd and Carlos.
After each long night though I go back to an empty hotel room to sleep. I used to try to save a lot on hotel rooms when traveling for business. I once stayed in this really crappy hotel just to save a couple hundred bucks because I was thinking hey… since I’m only going to be there to sleep why spend more?
Well I realized that I was wrong. After a long day’s work in an overseas place, going home to a crappy hotel room just makes you feel miserable. So since then I made sure I stayed in good places whenever I traveled for business. Every night in Manila now I go back to this beautiful hotel lobby.
And sleep in this not too big but comfortable room.
So good night Manila 🙂
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space