By Cleofe Uy Catuday
Was it just a few weeks back when I kept talking about how the year was to end and how time has flown so fast? Now we sit on the month end of January and soon we can tick 1/12 on our new calendars when we have not even gotten used to writing 2024 when signing documents.
Generally, here in our country, just in the first three weeks, major festivals have passed, Ati-atihan, Feast of the Black Nazarene, Sinulog Festival and the Dinagyang Festival happening over this weekend. These all spelled a large gathering of crowd, merry-making and a lot of different expressions of how people miss these kinds of activities.
Personally, this month, our lovely Shobe turns 16 and I can’t believe how she’s grown into a young lady in a blink. Always thankful to God for the blessing of having her in our lives. Memories of the carefree toddler will remain in our hearts and how she’s blossomed to a fine lady we are proud of is truly a gift. I am sure parents share the same sentiments when they see right before their very eyes, the changes that envelope their children year on year, physically and in terms of levels of maturity.
In the corporate world, the first month was swift. Targets for the month, for the quarter and for the year are on the roll! It’s either you nail it or you miss it! The adage that time is of the essence is on our faces. Urgency and prioritization are essential, yet early preparation and a great amount of effort will always help. We see a lot of movement in job descriptions and work responsibilities.
Even in my own organization, new departments are created, and big changes are implemented. These are all because of the changing demand of the market and the fluidity of customer behavior and preferences. We all need to be agile and embrace the changes and a great deal of resilience and tenacity will be required. Some people take it positively while others don’t. Sometimes, even fallouts and resignations happen. But we will always keep on trying to experiment, explain the best way we can, where directions will take the company to and what will yield the better if not the best productivity and results.
I always remind myself and the people I work closely with that while we embrace change, we do have to muster the courage of developing self-awareness, a great amount of grit here is required. There are several skills on the rise. Digitization and the usage or advocacy of AI artificial intelligence to speed up some areas of work, veering away from what we all have been used to doing and the manner we have been doing things for decades. The big question is how willing an employee is to adjust to the skills required for their jobs as these are set to change in the next few years.
But no matter how these new skills will propel and keep us abreast of the changing times, we cannot rule out the fact that the mastery of human skills will be intact. In our homegrown hotel management brand, we recently created a new Commercial Division with a three-pronged pillar and focus: Distribution and Revenue Management, Sales and Strategic Partnerships as well as Marketing Innovations. All in the desire to boost sales acquisition and marketing reach across Omni channels. All these three-focus areas will need some attention on digital and online reach, but the fact remains that meaningful relationships that’s bound on trust and respect will remain basic to keep things going. While we embrace the changes, we need to keep the human skills.
Let us not look at the many changes and equate them with uncertainty. Afterall, God has assured us not to be anxious about anything, for he is in control. I heard a pastor say this last night and allow me to share when a man was faced with a situation, he was not sure how to handle, “Bring it on dear LORD, I cannot wait to see your greatness in the midst of my uncertainty.” May faith always carry us through amid the changes we all have to embrace.
