Aspiring marketers from different schools and universities have gathered together in Sales Rain’s Mandaluyong site last March 2, to participate in the prestigious interscholastic competition; Marketing Genius 6.
A sense of friendly rivalry filled the atmosphere of Sales Rain’s Mandaluyong office last Saturday, February 23, as PUP’s Junior Marketing Executives commence the fourth installation of the prestigious academic competition Executives’ List 8.
Sales Rain’s Mandaluyong site was flooded by Filipino K-Pop fans last Saturday, January 19, to showcase the Hallyu fever in the country and to celebrate South Korean boy band iKON member Donghyuk’s 23rd birthday.
Sales Rain opens the year with a successful event held last Saturday, January 12, in its well-acclaimed Mandaluyong office.
Ending the year of 2018 with a bang, Sales Rain proudly shares its acquisition of its second Ortigas site in the heart of Pasig CBD.
As firm believers of sustainable environments creating a bright future for its inhabitants, Sales Rain have always hoped to provide the country’s young generation with an ecosystem that can give them a wonderful childhood; And over the years the company has teamed up with several schools and organizations across Luzon in helping kids from different cities and provinces have the kind of surrounding that they deserve.
Whenever offices are reorganized, most workers view the process as nothing else but a nuisance interrupting their daily work and for what exactly? They’re not really sure. Design firms and experts have long discussed the benefits of changing up work environments, claiming that when people are able to circulate freely and had more opportunities to engage with different sets of coworkers, they become more communicative, collaborative, and creative.
Even world-famous managers believe so too; when Steve Jobs was designing the new headquarters for Pixar, he designated large central bathrooms in the building’s atrium, rendering employees to walk a couple of distances to use them creating unplanned “collisions” that would later on spark innovations. Several studies have backed it up but the financial return rate of such investment had been hard to prove – until recently.
A professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Sunkee Lee, came across a “natural experiment” within a large South Korean e-commerce company that was moving into a new office. In their old building, six Merchandising teams tasked with sourcing and marketing flash deals for various products were seated in one area while six other merchandising team sat in another, separated by a common entrance. And though the company wanted both groups to be in one location altogether, space constraints would render nine of them to be in one open area and three in another with a common entrance between them. Both areas are identical in terms of its decoration, lighting, equipment, distance between teams and their respective workstations, as well as proximity to management – there’s no denying that it was pretty similar with those of the old headquarters and employees had no choice where they would sit.
Lee looked at over 38, 435 deals done by 60 merchandisers over 200 days – 120 days before the big move and 80 days after – and found that those merchandisers in the area that contained more teams sourced over 25% more deals from new suppliers, on average, than all merchandisers had sourced before the reorganization. The thing was, the deals didn’t come from collaboration, they were a mark of change in the quality of the employees’ work. Lee identifies the change as a shift away from “exploitation” or the repetition of offers to “exploration” – the formulation of new ideas. More importantly, the daily deal revenue of each employee sitting with a previously unknown colleagues was 40% higher, on average, than that of their average prior to the move.
The aforementioned increase in creativity and the jump to exploratory ideas was statistically significant for those whose experience sourcing deals within the organization. They were above the median and had no social ties to most of the members of their new workspace. Lee explains that once a person learns enough about the area they specialize in, exposure to new peers would help them enhance their creativity. He adds that physical proximity promotes trust and the exchange of knowledge between new colleagues.
In addition to this, the change of surrounding seemed to boost the employees’ performance compared to the other switches the company has made. Moreover, the effect brought upon by the relocation was quick.
Sunkee Lee’s study is one of the first to use a before-and-after setup to examine how a change in a office seating arrangement affects individual innovation and sales performance. But it became part of a long line of research suggesting that where we seat can do significant effects on how they work together. Another prominent example of this is MIT professor Thomas Allen’s study on communication among engineer in the R&D facility of a multinational company during the 1970s. His finding, popularly known as the Allen curve, shows the dramatic drop in dialogues between employees who sit apart. Though most of the earlier research focused on businesses, the aforementioned phenomenon happens in other arenas too. A 2015 study said that members of the US Senate who will sit in close proximity with one another are likely to support each other’s legislation, regardless of their party affiliations.
And though majority of today’s organizations have left closed-door offices behind in exchange for open spaces for communal workspaces, few have gone as far as routinely changing office seating arrangements. Lee still suggests that such interventions is of big help to organizations who live by knowledge sharing and innovation.
And in any case you want some help in keeping things fresh, hit us up!
Sales Rain’s IBM Plaza has proven itself to be versatile offices, thriving in the ever-changing nature of the workplace industry. Initially opening with over 421 seats within the 26th floor of IBM Plaza, the site has grown to feature three fully-owned floors.
There was a time in our life when our idea of learning stuck within the four walls of the classroom and though the adults around us would always tell us for the rest of the duration of our younger years that it doesn’t necessarily end where school stops, it will take us a while to realize that they’re actually right.
In our lifetime, there’s a large chance that we would come across people or certain individuals that just love to learn. Acquaintances that would take up another course right after their first ones or workmates who are earnestly working hard to pay for their master’s degree and then there’s that one person whose education doesn’t rely on the traditional method.
They’re the ones we call lifelong learners – people who crave for knowledge that they can apply in real life, day by day. They would read books depending on whatever they are going through at the moment with the idea that it would help them come up new solutions to their current problems. They would use today’s technology to learn new things through different courses found both online and offline and they are always out to find more opportunities to grow – these are lifelong learners, individuals with an everlasting yearning for edification. Some are born with this kind of hunger, while there are some that develop it as they engage themselves with new ways to earn knowledge.
It may seem extensive to a large majority of us but it’s quite the investment, bringing to the table more than what is being asked from us.
Medically speaking, aside from its grey matter, the brain contains muscle – that like any other muscle, needs to be exercised for it to be stronger. But aside from this obvious advantage, it carries with it helping hands in other fields.
According to a study on the benefits of lifelong learning from the year 2012, the aforementioned habit helps sharpen the mind, increases confidence, enhances interpersonal skills, expands career opportunities as well as impacts that ability to effectively communicate with other individuals.
Whenever we learn, we develop our knowledge base – breaking old patterns or routines and resulting to an increased confidence in creating. It rids us of the feeling of complacency and in turn pushes to enhance our skills as well as add more to our metaphorical tool box. In addition to this, it’s also good for our health. Though admittedly, it may not cure critical diseases like Alzheimer’s, it still helps in slowing down its progression. Something as small as reading for a short period of time everyday can also alleviate stress levels.
But in order to become a student of life, you must train your brain to have a constant yearning for new things to learn.
Whenever we kick start a new habit and easily notice changes, the more we are prone to doing it again and again. So in order for our brains to have an everlasting yearning for learning, we must train it.
Start by creating an objective for your learning. Say for example, your objective maybe to develop a new skill or to reduce your stress levels. After doing so, start small by setting up a 15-minute read two to three times per week – this method is applicable for those who aren’t naturally keen on learning. It helps to break down information into bite sized pieces so they won’t have a hard time sticking to the habit. And lastly, make it fun. Learning doesn’t have to be a chore, you have every opportunity to make it more engaging like turning it into a game.
The world can be your greatest teacher – and not just academically speaking. When you stick by the right group of people, they can educate you on different fields, including life itself. And if you’re looking for a community filled to the brim with students of life, look no further. Just talk to us today and we’ll introduce you to them!
