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Toronto Copes with COVID-19 Via Webinars; Alumni Respond to Pandemic in Philippines
Clubs News
As the COVID-19 quarantine extends through the spring and summer, the HBS Club of Toronto is producing webinars to keep alumni connected and informed about the impacts of the pandemic, as well as how to cope with chaos.
To help club members begin to reframe the way they think about these uncertain times, the club tapped one of its own members, Neil Pasricha (MBA 2007), bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, and You are Awesome, for a webinar called Cultivating Calm During Coronavirus Chaos,held on May 31.
“Neil has led a number of sessions for the HBS Club of Toronto,” says the club’s president, Kazi Ahmed (MBA 2011). “That got us thinking about what he could share that might help people cope during this pandemic. When we reached out, he immediately said yes.”
Pasricha, who thinks, writes, and speaks about intentional living, gave the 80 attendees a set of simple coping strategies to remain positive, find rest, and let go of the idea of rushing back to whatever life was before everything changed. “The corporate speak right now is around moving along, moving along, getting ‘back to normal,’” says Pasricha. “That approach sweeps most deeper human emotions under the rug. Loneliness, anxiety, and mental health challenges are spiking. There is a lot of mourning and guilt, too. Survivor’s guilt, parenting guilt, not-working-as-hard-as-I-want-to-be guilt, and feeling the loss of how things used to be.”
Pasricha also gave some leadership advice, as well as tips for individuals to develop a positive outlook. “The best thing leaders can do is have frequent, casual check-ins where they simply say ‘Tell me more’ over and over again. Give the offering of your humanity.
“I offered three ways people can build resilience during these times,” he says. “First, start each day with a two-minute morning practice to ground and center your minds. Write down and answer these: “I will let go of...”, “I am grateful for...”, and “I will focus on…” Next, drive social connection by taking a real lunch break. For example, take a Zoom yoga class with a friend, or check in with a mentor/mentee, or enjoy tuna melts with your family downstairs. Finally, go untouchable from all news media and social media after dinner and before breakfast. Think of it like intermittent fasting—but for your brain.”
Citing a recent study linking the COVID-19 crisis to exacerbated mental health issues in Canada, Boris Tsimerinov (PLDA16, 2017), says “cultivating calm is important at a personal and organization level, as never before.”
Coming at close to 9 weeks into the lockdown, Ahmed says Pasricha’s talk was perfectly timed. “It was exactly what people needed, myself included. We had a short Q & A after his talk, which turned out to be a fairly deep and personal discussion around the struggles people have had during quarantine. People were very engaged, and seemed to get a lift out of it.”
The HBS Club of Toronto has created a webinar series titled “COVID-19 – The Canadian Perspective” in partnership with one of its corporate sponsors, Cleveland Clinic Canada, to give alumni a broad Canadian perspective on the pandemic and it impacts.
The April 20 webinar was the club’s first, and featured Dr. Talia Varley, the physician lead of Advisory Services at Cleveland Clinic Canada, as the keynote speaker. The event was sold out, with 80 alumni members in attendance.
Moderated by the club’s VP of Alumni Relations Boris Tsimerinov (PLDA16, 2017), the discussion focused on differences between the state of the COVID-19 crisis in Canada, the US, and the rest of the world. The webinar touched upon most recent clinical and therapeutic developments, COVID-19 myth-busters and potential best practices of Canadian non-medical businesses. The best practices discussion was based on Cleveland Clinic Canada’s experience serving numerous Canadian enterprises through its Medical Director Program.
“The webinar really gave us a physician’s viewpoint, a look at business side of health care, the state of testing in Canada, and how Canadian hospitals handled surges and so on,” says club president Kazi Ahmed “It was a great opportunity for our club to strengthen our relationship with the Cleveland Clinic.”
According to the club’s board chair Craig Miller (MBA 1984), these webinars have enabled the club to better understand the nuances of virtual event production, which will help as it begins implementing more online programs. Another Cleveland Clinic webinar with the latest updates took place in June, and the club just launched a series of virtual meetups. The first was a virtual Women’s Dinner, organized and hosted by Heather Stark (MBA 1999) and Suzanne Kwok (MBA 2015).
The World Trade Center Manila was converted to a COVID-19 treatment facility.
The Essential workers undergo COVID-19 testing at Ayala Land's Seda Hotel.
Due to its geographic proximity to the equator and the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines has long had its share of deadly typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other natural disasters. As such, “helping people through times of crisis is second nature to Filipinos,” says Alicia Morales (AMP 186), co-president of the HBS Club of the Philippines. It’s no surprise, then, that more than a few HBS alumni have been stepping up to aid in the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Morales recently asked club members to share stories of how they are leveraging their networks, leadership strategies, corporate resources during this unprecedented global crisis to aid their communities with testing and treatment facilities, medical supplies, food, and other essential commodities. They’re doing everything from providing critical funding to donating space for medical services, as the ICCP Group did when it offered its property, the World Trade Center Manila, and worked with the Ayala Group to convert it into the first isolated COVID-19 treatment facility in the Philippines.
“Most of the HBS Club of the Philippines alums here have become role models and have set a high standard of private-public sector collaboration,” says Morales.
Here are a few of their efforts:
Jaime A. Zobel de Ayala II (MBA 1987) Chairman and CEO, Ayala Corporation:
“Due to the pandemic, the Ayala Group has shifted to a proactive and solutions-oriented approach to the challenges we now face. It has viewed the crisis as an important transition for the company in its support of customers, partners, and the community at large. We have worked together to survive this crisis and have proudly contributed, as a group, over $110 million—through employee support, business operations waivers, and monetary and in-kind donations as a response to the COVID-19 crisis in the Philippines.”
Guillermo D. Luchangco (MBA 1967) Chairman, The ICCP Group:
“The ICCP Group has offered its property, the World Trade Center Manila, one of the largest event facilities in the Philippines, to be converted into the first temporary health care COVID-19 facility with a 500-bed capacity called WTC: Heal as One Center. The Ayala Group, through AC Health, and multilateral agencies funded and facilitated the conversion.”
Aurelio Montinola (MBA 1977) Chairman, Far Eastern University (FEU):
“To assist our medical front-liners, we set up the gym of FEU Alabang with a 50-bed capacity for the outsourced health care workers of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), a COVID-19 testing lab.”
Eugenio Lopez III (MBA 1980) Chairman Emeritus, ABS-CBN
Carlo Katigbak (AMP 176) President & CEO, ABS-CBN:
“ABS-CBN Corporation, the Philippines’ leading media and entertainment company, has taken a multi-pronged response to the global COVID-19 pandemic—using its resources to help the government address the needs of the Filipino people while ensuring the safety and well-being of the employees, staff, artists, and journalists of the network. Together with its foundation, the company has raised US$6.8 million from donations to purchase food supplies for families affected by the quarantine, deliver 110,000 surgical masks, 46,000 N95 masks, and other personal protective equipment to 72 hospitals, and provide free meals and snacks to thousands of front-liners with the help of partners and donors.”
Federico R. Lopez (MBA 1989) Chairman and CEO, First Philippine Holdings:
“During this crisis, First Philippine Holdings (FPH) has provided stop-gap measures to support low-income communities with basic provisions until the government could mobilize its own resources and strengthen social cohesion. FPH has donated a seed amount of $1 million. “FPH has provided temporary hospital facilities for the Medical City and the National Kidney Institute, particularly staff housing, to free up space within the hospital premises for COVID-19 treatments. At quarantine capacity, FPH is working with the Philippine Ports Authority to create a 2,000–quarantine bed facility by converting pier terminals and passenger ships. FPH has committed to provide $2 million to this effort. Finally, in collaboration with the Philippine General Hospital, FPH is set to increase their laboratory capacity from 150 tests per day to as many as 4,500 per day, assuming a 3-shift schedule. Massive testing is considered to be a cornerstone of the national COVID-19 response strategy.”
Jaime I. Ayala (MBA 1988) Founder and CEO, Hybrid Social Solutions, Inc. (HSSI):
“In the war against COVID-19 in rural areas of the Philippines, 500,000 volunteer village health workers go house-to-house to promote new behaviors and monitor symptoms. They man quarantine control points 24/7 and attend to patients that need to be isolated at village health stations. Many operate without light at night and lose communications when they cannot charge their phones. HSSI is distributing PPE and solar equipment to these front-liners in 12 provinces.”
Angie G. Flaminiano (AMP 196) President, NutriAsia, Inc.:
“In alliance with Project Ugnayan, a collaboration effort among 59 private business establishments, NutriAsia donated $2 million to assist indigent families in the most affected cities and municipalities in the country. Likewise, we led the distribution of our local vitamin C-rich drinks to health workers in more than 80 hospitals. NutriAsia also distributed over 60,000 face masks across the Philippines to aid our trade partners—store merchandisers, cashiers, baggers, security, and other store personnel.”
Vicente Co (OPM 26) President, Philippine Plastic Industry Association
“We converted our plastics plant into a manufacturing facility for Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and partnered with a logistics company to deliver these to hospitals in need. Our operations initially produced 10,000 PPEs within a few weeks. Nobody was ready for this pandemic—not the developed nations, and certainly not a third-world economy like the Philippines. We never built an industry for PPEs, much less medical-grade ones. But it was the only thing standing between life and death for our frontline health workers. In the bidding war for scarcely available protective gear around the world, we never had a chance. We had to find a local solution.”
Maria Carolina Dominguez (AMP 182) President and CEO, John Clements Consultants Inc.:
“In this time of crisis, we are helping by donating PPEs to protect our front-liners, and food to those who have been greatly affected by the lockdown. While we have been honored to help raise funds for that, we don’t want to stop there. We have teamed with an award-winning, world-class learning solutions company, CrossKnowledge, to create a Leading through the COVID-19 Crisis portal. The material in this portal has been organized into six key topics: The Crisis Economy, Leadership Skills in a Crisis, Leading Your Team, Managing Yourself, Managing Cash Flow, and Reimagining the Future. For each of these topics, we have curated material from global thought leaders that will help organizations get on top of this crisis and propel them into an exciting and rewarding future.”
Joseph Yap (MBA 1976) Philippine Ambassador to Singapore; former President & CEO Isabelle Gotianun Yap, MBA 2016D Filinvest Group:
“To assist the government, the Filinvest Group, through its Filinvest City Foundation, has pledged to donate $2 million worth of Personal Protective Equipment to front-liners, ventilators and PCR testing equipment to hospitals, provided a temporary shelter at The Palms Country Club for the health workers of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), and used the Filinvest Tent as one of the mega-quarantine centers. Filinvest Development Corporation’s (FDC) most important project thus far was making data available to the country’s key decision makers. The company approached the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to fast-track a dashboard for the Inter Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID) and sponsored the data warehouse and data analytics needed to provide timely and accurate information to key decision makers.”
Arthur Tan (Amp 185) Vice Chairman and CEO, Integrated Micro-electronics Inc.:
“Ayala-led Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI) seeks to bring down the cost of nursing COVID-19–afflicted patients back to health by manufacturing alternative ventilators and other breathing aid solutions in the Philippines. This is in support of the Philippine government’s call for the local sourcing and manufacturing of COVID-19 solutions.”
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