Innovation Living... Small Spaces, Big Possibilities

Small Spaces, Big Possibilities

When furnishing a home and space is limited, selecting stylish yet multifunctional pieces is the way to go. Flexibility without losing aesthetics is key especially in urban dwellings. This is what Innovation Living, a Danish furniture company, has mastered since 1989. At the core of its design DNA is a tradition that highly speaks of a harmonious blend of form, function, style, and comfort. Each product is crafted with timeless elegance and durability in mind—designed not to conform to trends but to withstand the test of time. Through these philosophies, Innovation Living became a renowned sofa bed specialist globally.

        

      To continue this legacy, Innovation Living brings a line-up that highlights space optimisation through ergonomic furniture pieces. This include the Compact sofa bed series, which, as the name implies, is comprised of sofa beds that occupy minimal space when folded and serve dual purpose as a bed when expanded.

              The Modular sofas and chairs, on the other hand, are designed to “interact”  and be adaptable to the owners’ variable needs. One of the products under this category is the iconic Splitback—a modish, sculptural seating system that serves as a statement piece in the living area, while beautifully transforms into a comfy bed at night. First introduced 15 years ago, the Splitback modular sofa features innovative dual-split backrests for added comfort and versatility. Variations include Splitback Frej in solid natural oak frame, the mid-century-inspired Splitback Lauge), and Splitback Chrome, which has clean lines that radiate a contemporary appeal. 

             

Both decorative and ergonomic, Innovation Living’s Daybeds are very versatile sans sacrificing comfort. The Ghia, for instance, has a three-step elevation on each side in combination with pocket spring mattress. This allows you to lounge in the most comfortable angle. Add to that, three different leg design options such as wood, chrome, and laser that suit different tastes—from classic to industrial.
                     

  The Slyders series playfully addresses challenges brought forth by compact living. The classic Vogan may look simple not until you extract its lounging space and you’ll realise how much creativity was put into it. Likewise, the possibilities are endless with the Bragi lounger sofa, a modular seating that can be turned into a chaise longue, and offers an optional headrest and integrated side table. To make tiny spaces softer and cosier, using pieces with rounded edges help. Filuca’s gracious oval shape is as friendly and inviting as the company you keep. Plus, it turns into a spacious lounger, double bed, or as two single beds, too! Resonating traditional Scandinavian design in every sense, Frode is light and soft; natural and balanced. It’s sleek yet functional—exactly how Danish furniture should be. Infusing influences of the American Mid-Century Modern Movement, the Recast Plus’ strikes a perfect balance between simple lines and voluptuous cushions—a feature that lures everyone to sink in and relax.. The decorative buttons add a contemporary twist. With broad armrests, big soft down feather cushions, and long, uninterrupted seating surface, the Idun sofa is perhaps the most fashionable among the Slyders. It is also available as a sectional lounger—a voluminous sofa that serves as a central social hub at home.

             

 Innovation Living’s Multifunctionals combine handmade mattresses fixed to metal frames with integrated head elevation and wood slats. In this line, products are functional yet innovative. Case in point: the Minimum sofa bed, which gives an industrial touch to any room. The handmade mattresses—from pocket springs to full latex—ensure comfort at your own preference.

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 The cult-favourite Lunula also deserves a mention—a sofa that beautifully transforms into a welcoming king-sized bed—truly a space saver.

              An array of Oeko-Tex certified fabrics that match the brand’s cutting-edge designs are also available.

              With the many intelligently designed products in the line-up, Innovation Living makes living in constrained spaces possible.

Visit their showroom at 2nd Floor Design Center of Cebu, A.S. Fortuna cor P. Remedio st. Banilad, Mandaue City, Cebu.

Rico's Lechon biggest restaurant now open in Mandaue City, Cebu

Cebu's best tasting Rico's Lechon is now open its biggest restaurant in Mandaue City, Cebu located in Unit F1 Jamestown, Mantawi International Drive.

The 500 sq. m. branch will be the brand's flagship outlet with a seating capacity of 300 pax, including four VIP rooms for meetings, gatherings and special functions with family and friends. The largest room can seat up to 80 guests, while the other three can each accommodate 20 pax.

  

Rico's Lechon plates up its famous lechon in two flavors, original and spicy. Included in the menu are more Filipino favorites like Special Boneless Bangus, Sizzling Lechon Sisig, Monggos, Bicol Express, Kinilaw na Tangigue (Ceviche), Calamares, Camaron Rebosado, Garlicky Squid Balls, Sinigang, Pinakbet, Chopsuey, and Pancit Canton.

Rico's Lechon Mandaue will be offering new dishes, anmely Grilled Pork Belly, Grilled Daing na Bangus, Ginataang Laing, Chicken Binakol, Beef Ampalaya, Sizzling Adobong Pusit, Buttered Mixed Seafoods, Seaweed Salad, Sisig Fried Rice, Chorizo Fried Rice, Sinigang na Bone-less Bangus, Sinigang na Baka at Baboy, and Seafood Sotanghon.

The restaurant is committed to delivering that experience of making diners feel at home in contemporary classic interiors designed to showcase the "Old Cebu with a twist". It also houses a Lechon Fullfillment Center for whole lechon orders and take out counter for pasalubong such as their in-house sauce, sukalami. Aside from food favorites, merchandise such as shirts, mugs and umbrellas are also available.

Rico's Lechon in Mandaue will be its second outlet in Cebu, the other in Mactan Promenade. It will soon reopen its Axis Entertainment Avenue, Escario next month. It can be found in five locations in Metro Manila, at Bonifacio Global City, Glorietta 1, Tiendesitas, UP Town Center, and SM Mall of Asia.

Founded in 1997 and turning 22 this August 2019, Rico's Lechon serves traditional Cebu lechon roasted to perfection and mixed with garlic and leeks "dahon ng sibuyas". Rico's Lechon received the award for TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence in 2016 to 2018 and was the recipient of the Silver Stevie Award at the fourth Asia-Pacific Stevie Award in Tokyo, Japan in 2017. Rico's Lechon ships nationwide to locations that has direct Cebu flights.

Share your Rico's Lechon experience on social media with the hastags #DaBestGyud and #RICOmeback. For more information, visit ricoslechon.com or contact 253-4650 or 0917-823-8263. For updates like and follow @RicosLechonOFFICIAL on Facebook and Instagram.

How Reskilling Prepares People for Automation

Fear of technology is crippling Filipinos from fully appreciating the convenience of automation. To address this fear of the inevitable change, a new trend in fast-paced industries has emerged--reskilling.

Reskilling is an initiative in which employees learn new skills to improve their capabilities and enhance their current professional track. For Filipino companies, this could be the difference between building more efficient and innovative operations and being left behind with the times.

At the business roundtable event held at Seda Ayala Center in Cebu last July 18, Salarium CEO Judah Hirsch opened this discussion to innovators and business leaders in Cebu. According to Hirsch, the fear of automation can easily be solved by reskilling employees.

“Reskilling works to everyone’s advantage. For the company, it means enhancing the current and trusted workforce you have by taking away automatable tasks and letting them focus on their true expertise and on newly developed skills,” shared Hirsch. “For the employees, not only do they get to learn more skills, they will become even more competent and competitive as professionals.”

Such is the case for human resources, an area that Hirsch’s Salarium aims to address. Consider the monthly needs of every company: administrative tasks, attendance monitoring, coordinating with employee needs, filing paperwork, and interviewing potential recruits. These are the most commonly known duties of HR professionals. Except for the last one, a misstep can immediately equate to drawbacks from other departments.

Imagine payroll being even a day late and those who are enduring petsa de peligro will immediately rally outside the department bunk. In the Philippines, these tasks are still done manually by many companies, hence the lingering possibility of delays in processing.

In reality, HR is more crucial in two tasks: hiring potentials and maintaining the power house that is already within the company. These take more than simple paperwork. They put HR as the front-liners of the company, embodying its values, and assessing whether candidates are a hit or miss.

With Salarium, a payroll processing software that keeps tracks of all the company’s manpower movements, HR need to spend less than half the time it used to for any administrative need.

This was the case for Donna Campogan, the finance officer for engineering and construction support firm TecSurge.

As with any disruptive tech company, TecSurge’s team in the Philippines aims for efficient operations with a lean team. Donna shares that when they started using Salarium to process all manpower related documents and tracking systems, the software literally unburdened them.

“We used to do all these HR-related processes for two days, complete with filed overtime. Now, we’ve cut that to half a day,” she reveals.

Donna also notes that the beauty of Salarium is that she no longer has to modify anything. Once their needed reports, documents, and tracking requirements are programmed into Salarium, they only need to select which function they had to make reports or submissions for.

Salarium was even more beneficial to the employees. In Cebu, Salarium’s payroll disbursement method is a convenient electronic wallet that makes transactions, shopping, and online banking easier for employees.

“They pay everything through SALPay, especially since fund transfers and online shopping are now so easy and even more convenient,” adds Donna.

She also emphasizes how helpful Salarium is to both the finance team and the employees when it comes to loans. A number of their employees need help with loans and cash advances, which could be conveniently catered to using Salarium.

Even with all the unburdened tasks from her role, Donna asserts that she has never once felt like her role was diminished. “I don’t think automation services like Salarium take away jobs—they take away the unnecessary stress of it!” she emphasizes, citing how efficient and more accurate their operations have become. “The team is lean, but now it feels like the work we are doing is more meaningful because we get to examine our department and see where else we can improve.”

At the end of the day, employees may benefit more to feel relief than fear when faced with a disruptive piece of technology like Salarium. Employers can help their manpower feel more confident in not working for but with technology, because they are ready and reskilled to do more in their professional roles.

Bo’s Coffee Launches First Advance Ordering BOTTY System in the Philippines

Bo's Coffee, the award-winning Philippines Coffee Chain with over 100 stores in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, launched the Philippines' first Messenger-based Advance Ordering system called BOTTY at Bo's Coffee Capitol last July 25, 2019, together with institutional and media partners.

This development comes at a time when the company is evolving its user experience through technology. BOTTY serves as a complementary medium to expand Philippine coffee's reach. The Bo's Coffee Advance Ordering BOTTY system is Philippine coffee at your fingertips.

"As we reach our 25-year mark, we want to cater to the fast-paced lifestyle of our customers. We want to make your daily coffee runs simpler, faster, and more accessible, so you have more time for more important things in life - your passions, your advocacies, and your relationships." said Steve D. Benitez, President and CEO of WS & Landin Inc., the corporation behind Bo's Coffee. "We celebrate this innovation as a first of many developments towards digitizations."

Bo's Coffee Advance Ordering BOTTY system also has a secure and cashless digital system in partnership with PayMaya. "While the system has Cash Payment options, the cashless payment options through PayMaya, credit and debit cards (Visa and Mastercard), allows our customer to really skip the line. In a developing world like ours, we have to do all we can to optimize our efforts and save time." said Bo's Coffee COO, Rachel Fallarme.

With the cashless option, customers can now park curbside in strategic stand alone branches, pick up their coffee, and continue on with their day. Soon, other online payment options will be available such as GrabPay and GCash. Bo's Coffee is also integrating delivery services to the Advance Ordering BOTTY experience through Grab Express.


Here's the Simple Steps to Order:

The new Bo's Coffee Advance Ordering BOTTY system is linked to over 46 Bo's Coffee Branches nationwide, 19 of which are strategic branches throughout Cebu such as Capitol, Banilad Town Center, Filinvest Cyberzone, Ayala Center Branches, SM Branches, SM Seaside, and Mactan Domestic and International Airports to name a few.

BOTTY System Developer Cary Cee was also present at the Bo's Coffee Advance Ordering BOTTY launch. Initially founding and developing the system with the Singaporean market in mind, Gee decided to bring the BOTTY system to the Philippines through Bo's Coffee when he saw similar pattern in the Singaporean and Philippine consumer market, both of which are fast-paced, in need of personalization while skipping the queue, and has a good percentage of the market using Messenger instead of downloaded apps.

To experience the Bo's Coffee Advance Ordering BOTTY system, just go to https://facebook.com/BOsCoffeeGetBOTTY/ or type in Bo's Coffee Advance Ordering on your
Messenger.

Oakridge launches Oakridge IT Center 3 building

Oakridge Realty Development Corporation (ORDC) launches its third I.T. Center builing to its ever-growing commercial property inventory. The Cebu-based property developer that owns and manages Oakridge Business Park unveils the Oakridge IT Center last July 12, 2019.

As Cebu's newest Grade A building, Oakridge IT Center 3 adds another 14,000 square meters of leasable space to Oakridge Business Park. With its modern design that mixes functionality with sophistication, the Oakridge IT Center 3 allows progressive minded businesses to thrive in a environment that values a dynamic balance between work and family.

OITC 3 features 12 floors with high ceiling and wide-open spaces and is fully equipped with top-of-the-line fixtures, amenities and technological systems, as well as a three-level podium parking. It is poised to be a PEZA accredited building that will cater to both foreign and local business establishments.

Oakridge Business Park is a distinct address that seamlessly merges business and lifestyle, located along A.S. Fortuna Street, Mandaue City. Its proximity to both Mandaue and Cebu cities makes it accesible to main business districts, airports, seaport, residential areas, and nearby hospitals.

The masterfully planned business park caters to the discerning clientele with food and retail establishments and a number of office and commercial spaces. It also features two large-scale event venues: the Oakridge Pavillion and the Oakridge Horizons.

It is home to the Oakridge Executive Club, Cebu's first prestige business club that provides a venue for executives to conduct their meetings in "comfort, convenience and class" without having to leave the business park.

Oakridge Business Park is a sanctuary within the city that offers diverse dining, retail and lifestyle choices as well as personalized business opportunities and event celebrations, all set in its refreshing green and open spaces that's distinctly Oakridge.

In 2018, Oakridge earned the distinction of being the 2018 Destination of the Year during Gawad Linaw Awards of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI)