Salarium Takes Startup Perks to the Next Level by Sending Employees to See the World

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Working in a startup is not for the faint of heart. It is only for the ambitious and bold. The pressure is high, the expectations are immensely great, deadlines are short and drastic changes come more often than bathroom breaks. Despite this, most millennials would prefer a role in a cool tech startup rather than becoming another employee number in a stodgy corporate company. Why is that so? Startups provide exciting work environments - a fridge full of beer, a fancy espresso machine, fast computers with large monitors, free lunch, movie nights out and more. Salarium, one of the Philippines’ up and coming SaaS & Fintech Startups, takes the perks game to the next level by sending employees on an adventure to see the world.

When Salarium employees celebrate their anniversary, and every year thereafter, they are given a 5-day mandatory vacation to any place in Southeast Asia that they wish to visit. The company pays for everything hotel, flight, including the employee’s plus one. Few companies offer such a reward to staff but Salarium did not hesitate to give this amazing perk to their employees.

“We thought very hard about an incentive that would be impactful to employees. We wanted to provide something that employees would look forward to while leaving a positive impact in their lives. Also, we wanted to give an experience as an incentive so it cannot be simply given to someone else. There is a tendency in Filipino culture to share what you have with the family so a cash incentive would simply be split up amongst family members instead of being fully enjoyed by the person who earned it,” says Judah Hirsch, CEO & Founder of Salarium. 

Go Go Cafe of Cebu: A Truly Inspiring Story for Everyone

Wazzup Pilipinas!

An added destination to my trip in Cebu was at the Go Go Cafe owned by Go Morita, a Japanese who now lives in Cebu and is also popularly called the Tonkatsu man. He has recently partnered just about three months ago with a Filipino to setup his own restaurant in the province of Cebu.

It was so inspiring to learn that just after a few months of peddling his own creations infront of IT Park of Cebu, the construction of his restaurant was already in the works.

I went to Cebu mainly for the Sinulog 2016 festivities, but he caught my attention when he was featured at a popular local TV network.

The timing was perfect because I was on my way to Cebu for that weekend and finding out a story like his brought me to courageously look for his restaurant somewhere at P. Remedios street in Banilad.

The restaurant was simple in design yet attractive already. The big signage of Go Go Cafe was very evident and catchy. His logo represents a running man in the middle of which Go Morita explained was running towards the cafe. This was because his food was so hard to resist that people may want to rush ahead just to catch his food still available at the cafe.

What's Up with All the Wazzup?: When Brands Claim Rightful Ownership, or Not!

Wazzup Pilipinas!

I don't really get it why someone will make a fuzz out of something so obviously insignificant. When you're really a great brand, people will find you no matter how many other brands try to imitate you. When there's an almost identical branding, people might make a mistake at first, but eventually they'll recognize their mistake and bounce back towards their preferred brands.

When we don't really have an exclusive ownership of a brand name, we can never restrict anybody else to use it (regardless of how closely similar it is). Just as how so many brands have used "Green" as part of their names, they will only stand out differently or above the rest if they are the "Green" people really want or need.

Branding is the tricky part when almost all forms of promotions have been used. Most people are wise enough against gimmicks and other marketing tactics but there are still the masses who are often brainwashed subconsciously when they are offered something they can easily relate to.

Tapping into the inner most desires of the people is everyone's intention to make a name for themselves. It takes the better brand to come up with a product that would really instigate an improved society and eventually change the world.

With regards to the blogger who is complaining about why there's another domain name similar to his blog, well I could ask him to reminisce to the good old days when he was a member of the Wazzup Pilipinas Facebook group where he also attends events we organize. 

When I created my blog, I was unaware of his blog's existence.