Keeping a positive mindset: New deadlines for nomination WE continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the biggest challenges that the world has ever faced in the past 50 years. It may be timely to recall that the Chinese word for “crisis” is composed of two characters, one signifying “danger” and the other “opportunity.”

Effects of crisis

In this context, it is imperative to understand fully the adverse effects of this crisis on the economy and people’s livelihood, the health and safety of everyone, and our accustomed freedoms.

But we also have to find new opportunities in the “new normal” for businesses to turn around to profitability, for public governance to quicken its delivery of services and assistance especially to the poor, and for all sectors to take united action in protecting lives and restoring livelihood. 

For Lopez Group employees in particular, the pandemic ushers in opportunities to do good, to be on the side of truth, to keep faith with corporate values and culture. It urges us to exercise more resilience and agility as we work from home and explore new ways of doing things. We get exposed to the power and value of digitalization. We also get introduced to the conduct of meetings via Zoom, Google Hangouts Meet, Cisco Webex Meetings and other productivity-enhancing meeting apps.

Q&A via Zoom

The Lopez Achievement Awards (LAA) program management team has prepared for the option to conduct the Q&A and deliberation sessions with the screening committees and panel of judges, as well as the executive committee deliberation, via Zoom. There may be other IT-based methods in the future for us to advance the LAA to its culminating event.

The LAA presents a great opportunity for us to live by our corporate culture and our true north which comprises the Lopez Values:  pioneering entrepreneurial spirit, business excellence, unity, nationalism, social justice, integrity, and employee welfare and wellness. 

We live in extraordinary times where innovation, imagination, risk taking and entrepreneurship, and new ways of seeing and doing things will spell which businesses may eventually prosper and which ones may run aground.

Visionary leadership

Now, more than ever, we need to be proactively on the lookout for opportunities for breakthrough innovation, strategies and processes to provide quality products and services to customers under the new normal.

For the visionary leadership of the Lopez Group, setbacks are always temporary and provide learning opportunities to make the organization even stronger and more attuned to its customers and the business environment.

In line with this positive mindset, the LAA will continue to be the Lopez Group’s way of affirming the extraordinary achievements of individuals and teams at the conglomerate level. Hence, we are calling on all nominators and executives to be the “champions” needed by the exceptional performers and “unsung heroes” in your respective organizations by nominating them and giving them the chance to be recognized and counted among the “best of the best” of the Lopez Group of companies. Let the crisis bring out the best, the leaders and the heroes in us.

Extended deadlines

Deadline for submission of LAA Excellence Awards nominations has been extended from May 29 to August 5, 2020. Likewise, the deadline for submission of nominations for the Unsung Hero Award has been extended from June 5 to August 12, 2020. Finally, the LAA awards ceremony has been rescheduled from October 14 to December 17, 2020.

Nominate now! Also, watch for the launch of the LAA website soon.

For inquiries, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . You may also contact the LAA program management team: Karen Ventura (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ), Ayie Volpane (AAVolpane@ fphc.com) and Ross Hamo Jr. (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ).