LOPEZ ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS (LAA): Finally Getting an LAA Jacket

“Get me those nice looking jackets.”

This was my personal marching order to the select team of Corp Comm officer Dolly Pasia and Quality officer Net Saysay when we embarked earlier this year on our mission to win an LAA for our company First Balfour, Inc. The jackets I was referring to is the prize, together with an elaborate trophy given to the winners.

What is the Lopez Achievement Awards? 

The Lopez Achievement Awards (LAA) aim to recognize and reward outstanding team or individual achievements that are exemplary in nature, contribute to business objectives and exemplify the Lopez Group values.

There are six categories for the LAA: Business Management, Customer Focus, Operations Management, Human Resource Focus, Corporate Image-Building and Public Responsibility. An entry can be nominated in one or more categories, depending on the nature of the achievement and results.

Teams may be composed of members from a single company or from different companies. For the individual, the impact of the achievement must extend beyond his/her employer company.

All regular employees of Lopez Group companies may nominate Award candidates, except for members of the Panel of Judges and Program Management. Nominations can come from both profit and non-profit organizations within the Lopez Group.

It was our second time to nominate one of our projects in First Balfour.  The first one, last 2011 for the 2010 cycle, did not prosper beyond the elimination round.  For the 2011 cycle, we submitted a nomination for our project management team that handled the Texas Instruments Bump Building Expansion Project in Clark.  We entered our nomination in the Customer Focus category.   This time, we were a bit more optimistic of our chances given that this project has received a recognition    award already from the client.  Moreover, we got a repeat order in Clark from the  client (Texas Instruments).      

  

So it was that our nomination survived the elimination round and come October 10, 2012, ours was among 14 semifinalists  (out of 40 nominations)  invited to the Lopez Achievement Awards ceremony at the Rockwell Tent.  The ceremony was special as this year is the 10^th year of the LAA. Lopez Group top brass (Chairman Emeritus Oscar Lopez, Chairman Federico Lopez and ABS CBN Head Gabby Lopez) were present and ABS CBN talent (Vina Morales, Daddy’s Home and Tippy Dos Santos) provided world class entertainment. 

Finally, the winners were announced.  All in all, 11 winners plus 1 special award were announced. Our First Balfour nomination was one of them.  

First Balfour project manager Nelson Cartagena receives LAA trophy

Customer Focus: 

ØTask Force 499, Sky Cable Corporation: Plan 499 Winning the Hearts of the Filipino Family and Changing the Cable TV Landscape

ØTexas Instruments Bump Building Expansion Project Management Team, First Balfour, Inc.: Above and Beyond Customer Expectations

Operations Management: 

ØPGPP Hybrid Project Team, Green Core Geothermal, Inc.:  Successful Retrofitting of a Non-Performing LVRP into the SGE Systems of PGPP-1 Unit-1  

  

ØSteam Saviors, Energy Development Corporation:  S.O.S. – Save Our Steam

Corporate Image Building: 

ØQESH and External Affairs Department, First Gas Power Corporation: Sowing the Seed of Environmental Stewardship in Batangas

ØDZMM Radyo Patrol Sais Trenta, ABS CBN Corporation:  DZMM SilveRadyo

ØEDC Global Reporting Initiative Team, Energy Development Corporation: Measuring EDC’s Triple Bottom-Line Impact

Public Responsibility: 

ØABS-CBN Regional Network Group, ABS-CBN Corp.: Choose Philippines – Sharing More than Just Discoveries

ØDZMM TLC, ABS CBN Corp.: Teaching Learning Caring

ØKrusada, ABS CBN Corp.:International Recognition and National Impact Through Social Awareness

ØBayaniJuan Calauan, ABS CBN Foundation:  Rebuilding the Philippines...One Community at a Time

Special Awards:

ØGina Lopez, ABS CBN Foundation Managing Director

Lopezlink front cover

FB winning team at page 5

Congratulations to all the LAA winners.

Finally, I got an LAA jacket.  Feels good  to finally wear one.  

Feels great to be part of a team.

Thanks Dolly and Net for getting me the LAA jacket