Wednesday, October 10, 2007

A Place for Engineers - O&B's Mission & Vision

(blogging when I should be working)

While I was taking engineering in college, I knew and dreaded what lay ahead of me after graduation - a career of not engineering! In the Philippines, the prospect of actually doing innovative design and development work is rare. Engineers become glorified technicians, plant managers, or even sales people.

Coming from a family that encouraged me to be an entrepreneur, I dreamed about creating a company where innovative Filipino engineers would be able to happily pursue innovation. Graduation came and "practicality" set in, and I took jobs that were anything but innovative.

Fast-forward to after I discovered programming... After some time in the software industry, I realized that my original dream was reachable, at least for the field of software engineering. After all, the only assets you needed to do R&D in the software field were computers, unlike in other engineering fields where R&D facilities would cost enormous amounts.

Fast-forward again, to the time of Orange & Bronze... This is the beginning of what I dreamed - a company where engineers are happily pursuing the things that fulfilled them. But I'm hoping that it doesn't stop with software engineers.

Right now, there are a good number of Filipinos who dreamt of becoming innovative engineers and scientists, but are doing something not quite as exciting. A friend of mine took Molecular Biology in college and did research at the university for a while, but probably sensing no good career path, she took her MBA and now works in a bank.

I'm hoping that after O&B succeeds in becoming a strong and sizable company that provides a fulfilling environment for software engineers, it can play a part in stimulating other areas of Philippine engineering and science. I would someday (hopefully within my lifetime) like to see flourishing Filipino industries in such things as robotics, biotechnology and materials science.

This, in so many words, is the mission and vision of Orange & Bronze.

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