It’s back! The biggest finance & investment event of the year — iCon2015!

Our annual conference will be this May 30, 2015 at the SMX in Mall of Asia. Joining me in this empowering conference for this year are:

Marvin Germo – one of the most sought after stock market experts and will talk about stress-free investing in the stock market. Marvin is the author of 2 best-selling books on stock market investing and one of the most visible investment advocates.

Mike Manuel – the Chief Investment Officer of Sun Life in Asia. Mike is an accomplished fund manager for over 2 decades and his team manages one of the largest funds investment funds in the country. He will be speaking on growing trends in investments and how to properly invest for the future.

Efren Ll. Cruz – one of the fore runners of the financial advocacy in the Philippines and has 3 decades of experience in the various facets of investment and financial industry. He is a best-selling author, columnist and one of the most in demand finance trainers in the country. Efren will give us a presentation on investment management.

Chinkee Tan – Mr. Chink+ and the wealth coach of the masses! He is ann award wining media practitioner, best seller of multiple books and one of the most active personalities that encourages Filipinos to be financially empowered. Chinkee will give a talk on the value of entrepreneurship in growing your wealth.

Francis J. Kong – the country’s number one motivational speaker, multi-award winning media practitioner, best-selling author of over 10 books and truly an inspiring coach. Francis will give a powerful and life-changing talk on “beyond investing”.

Aside from our powerful platform speakers, we will have a special session during the lunch break with Dr. Alvin Ang, PhD on the impact of the ASEAN integration on investing and Jess Uy on growing trends on global investing.

I will be speaking on balancing finances and investments and will do an overview of growing trends that will affect investing.

iCon 2015, just like the earlier previous conferences is not only power-pack, informative  and insightful, it is also empowering!

For inquiries, please click HERE or send a message to [email protected] or 0917-8482974

The country’s top motivational speaker, a strong force for leadership learning and my mentor Francis Kong will be running his new program for 2015 — Level Up Leadership!

The programs are Francis Kong are beyond valuable, they are life-changing!

Level Up Leadership with Francis Kong

Steve Jobs once said, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

If you’ve previously attended a leadership program, now’s the perfect time to update and upgrade your leadership skills, continue to grow and become a better leader.

Start the year right and join one of the most prominent inspirational  speakers in the country, Francis Kong this January 21 and 22 at EDSA Shangri-La.

Level up and become a person of influence in ways you have never imagined.

For details, visit http://www.inspireleaders.com.ph/

Since I’ve been posting a outlooks daily, I felt this is an opportune time to do a series break and post some form of an outlook but bot an economic or financial one. There are many factors that affect performances of an economy an industry and a corporation and the here’s what the country’s leading motivational speaker, writer & consultant Francis J. Kong has to say…

Clues or Clueless by Francis J. Kong

The latest CES (Consumer Electronics Show), an annual event held in Las Vegas that features the “hot electronic/digital gadgets” to watch out for this year gives us a clue as to what to expect for the year. Most of the products featured deal with wearable tech.

But here is the problem. All the Smart watches and the fitness tracking device (I wear one myself) is already a saturated market with so many players in the game but the promised demand is not there. It seems that the clue to the new year and what to expect is at the same time clueless as to what would happen this year. One TV news anchor says these companies do not seem to know what to do and are clueless.

Many company leaders are also clueless. They do not know why good people are leaving.  Managers stick to old management behaviour and wonder why there is very little engagement happening between managers and their direct reports. Meanwhile Generation Y hops from one company to another.

Here is what I see for this year…

Many companies registered growth last year but failed to make their targets due to natural calamities both natural and man-made.
Failure to hit targets means no incentive trips, no fancy perks  and people need all the inspiration they can muster in order to reach this year’s goals.Leaders should work double time inspiring the team to do their best and hit targets.

Talent acquisition and talent retention will become major challenges.
HR practitioners are aware of this…well most of them do anyways while others are facing the difficulty of dealing with their bosses who still embrace last century management mindsets and are totally clueless as to how to deal with the dynamic millennials entering their work place.

Leadership Gaps continue to permeate.
Employee engagement is a desired outcome and in many internal studies and surveys, this area needs major improvements.

Creativity and Innovation rules!
Ideas are the currency of the future. Leaders need to generate creative ideas through their people but would they be willing unless they are inspired? The first half of last year was rosy. Growth was phenomenal. I see this year as another year of growth but leaders need to grow their people so they can grow the business. But the tricky part here is for leaders to first grow themselves so they can lead their people more effectively.

This year will carry challenges and growth will not be handed to us on a silver platter. We all just have to work a little harder.

One of the most prominent public speakers in the country, Francis Kong, is the founding member and Director of Inspire Leadership Consultancy. He has extensive experiences in manufacturing and retail and founded one of the most popular clothing companies.

Francis Kong’s extensive work experiences have given him enough credibility making him one of the most sought-after speakers here in the Philippines. He has written 10 books, “The Early Bird Catches the Worm” which now has been translated into the Korean language and “One Day at a Time” which has been given a most favorable review by Channel News Asia of Singapore.

Currently Francis Kong has a daily Radio Program entitled “Business Matters”, which was given a Year 2007 special citation by the CMMA (Catholic Mass Media Awards). Aside from his daily radio program he also writes for the Business Page of Philippine Star every Saturdays and Sundays. He regularly guests every Thursday morning at ABS-CBN’s morning show Umagang Kay Ganda. He conducts some of the best programs of Inspire.