Don Roman today

Don Roman R. Santos, founder of Empire Insurance Company and its sister company Prudential Bank, did not come from a family that was initially well to do. Rather, it was through various small business ventures, including fishing and agriculture which he did himself, that we have the current existence of Empire as well as the cherished memory of Prudential Bank. An interesting link to Senior Enrique's blog reveals the Don Roman Santos building as it stands today in old Manila: an antiquated reminder to the present of what simple hard work and unwavering dedication can achieve.

D&O Liability

Director & Officer liability is a pretty tricky subject, and one that needs greater clarification in our local insurance industry. If you want the subject explained in a rather thorough manner, check out this link from Insurance Scrawl. It's a quick romp through D&O, but it explains a lot of fundamentals in the process.

Insurance and iPods

A lot of young people unfamiliar with insurance see the industry as a relatively boring, old fashioned, and seemingly irrelevant one. Irrelevant, of course, to their daily lives in the sense that insurance is simply a footnote: something to apply for and forget as soon as possible. And insurance only starts to become important once you turn 18 and you start driving and you get into a car crash. Of course, buying fire insurance for your house wouldn't even make sense for most teens and young adults simply because at that age, you don't own a house. Today, kids might have another reason to get insurance aside from car wrecks.

Lloyd's of London, the world's premiere hub for insurance, is starting to offer insurance facilities for covering Direct Household Contents, which encompasses a broad range of household items, including digital devices. It simply means that for a fee, you could insure audio files you paid for when you downloaded them (such as in iTunes), as well as digital photographs you paid for from Getty. This new form of insurance, if ever it begins to be issued here, is sure to get a lot of attention simply because everyone could benefit from some form of protection covering music files (rock, house, hip hop, trance, jazz, 2step, emo, blahblah) which we spent a lot of time collecting (and even paying for, in some cases). Expect to see an Apple-fied version of this in the future (what won't they make you buy????)

Read the whole article here

Noontime Invasion!

When the bundy clock hits 12, something very special happens. Everyone puts their pens, mice, quills, rubber stamps, and whatever else they may have in their hands down. Indeed, that very sacred window of time to let one's hair down has arrived: the lunch hour! Indeed, once the clock starts playing that cheesy midi sonata to signify lunch, people start doing their own thing. A handful of people, including myself, take a quick snooze. Some hang out in the pantry. But, undoubtedly, most of the people here trot on over to the reception area to catch Kris Aquino in all her gabby glamour hosting ABS-CBN's hit game show Game KNB? The television only started working early this month, but we make damn sure it gets used the right way. For an hour, the boring hum drum of office work is interrupted by pop culture questions, general local knowledge, and classic Kris antics. The daily grind comes to a halt, and that very Filipino pasttime of laughing at other people on television make fools out of themselves takes over. 12 o'clock is a great time to live. It's the glue that keeps us employees together: this chance to laugh together at someone on television. It's the prescription that keeps the whole office officialy sane!

Renovation Complete!

Renovation Complete!
Originally uploaded by The Empire.

Tue 08/01/2006 09:16 New office Hurrah! After more than 2 months of extended patience, the new Presidential Wing is complete! All that's left is the placing of the carpet tiles which was moved tomorrow because of the administrations concern regarding the adhesive and its impact on our productivity, specifically the ill effects of unintentionally 'sniffing glue.' Kidding aside, the new office looks like a champ, and is definitely a step in the right direction for The Empire. Now if only we could have those computers that could run Windows Xp...

New office renovation!

New office renovation!
Originally uploaded by thelivefeed.

4:43 PM Thursday, June 29, 2006 I'm very happy to announce that this coming August, the Empire will add a new President's Wing to its office, in line with the expansion, revival and technological upgrades that are, I feel, currently top priority! So expect NOT to see this part of the building anymore as ugly as it is!

Lifeblog post

Lifeblog post
Originally uploaded by thelivefeed.

Thu 07/13/2006 23:21 box Whats in store? Find out in the Empire Team Building activity on july 21!

Whoever said that we'd never see an office upgrade, EVER? I'll regularly publish photos of how our tired, albeit very practical, office layout currently looks like just to let you see how different things are going to be post-renovation! Thanks to our team of brilliant designers and contractors, we'll hopefully see the rise of a new Empire before the 4th quarter of 2006 begins. Those photos were taken from my table.