In an effort to provide support for Filipino entrepreneurs, Lark launched its New Normal Business Council and Mentorship Program with a webinar series called Lark Your Way to Success. The program aims to equip business owners with knowledge and know-how vital to success in the new work landscape. The webinar series, which took place throughout November and early December, featured talks by industry experts and key opinion leaders on how to adapt to the new ways of work, evolve for the future, and innovate with technology.

As the webinars have officially concluded, Lark announces the CEOs and businesses who have been selected as mentees for the New Normal Business Council and Mentorship Program. They are Joyce Yu, CEO of True Blends Tea & Coffee; and Mark Joseph David, CEO of Pal Maritime Corporation. Both mentees will be granted private coaching sessions with Lark's resource speakers, training sessions with the Lark team, as well as an additional 100GB Lark cloud storage for one year, and PHP300,000 worth of PR support.

In order to qualify as mentees, the business' CEO should have attended all three tracks of the series. The company must also have been operating for at least one year, and should have at least 10 employees. The CEO's response to the question "Why should you and your company be the beneficiary of the mentorship program?" was also evaluated, as part of the shortlisting process.

Introducing business mentee Joyce Yu, CEO of True Blends Tea and Coffee

From its humble beginnings as a cozy cafe cart in the Ateneo de Manila High School cafeteria, Joyce Yu has grown True Blends Tea and Coffee into a multi-branch coffee shop, with stores in key cities across the country. True Blends is now a top of mind destination for those in search of honest-to-goodness tea and coffee concoctions, and tasty snacks.

Joyce, who is a registered Medical Technologist, shares that she relied on her favorite Mocha Frap to keep her awake while reviewing for her board exams. When she decided to put up a business instead of pursuing medicine, it was this experience that inspired her to put up a coffee shop of her own. Using their wedding angpao as capital, she and her husband started True Blends in 2009 with just coffee on the menu.

2020 was pegged to be a year of aggressive expansion for True Blends, but their plans had to be put on hold when the pandemic hit. Instead of being discouraged, Joyce saw the need to adapt, and find opportunities amidst this crisis. One thing she did to help build resiliency among her team, whom she credits as essential factors in her 11 years of business success, was to allow them to open up their own satellite branches of True Blends in their communities.

Moving forward into a new work normal, Joyce is excited to use Lark as an all-in-one solution for her business. Admittedly not very techie, Joyce is also looking forward to learning more about the app and its features. From what she has seen and heard about Lark so far, a feature that she appreciates is the cloud storage, which can conveniently hold all their franchise-related documents in one place. By onboarding all of True Blends' franchisees into the app, their virtual collaboration can improve as well.

 

At the awarding event for the selected mentees, Joyce shared this piece of advice with aspiring business owners. "Dream big and start small. Use your skills and resources. Plan, focus, start doing it, and most importantly, pray, ask for guidance all the time."

To fellow business leaders, Joyce shared this message. "This may be a very difficult time for all of us, but it is a time to pivot, find more opportunities, not just to earn but also to help each other as a nation."

 

To learn more about the other features of Lark, visit www.larksuite.com.

Lark is available on Mac, PC, iOS, and Android. Click here to start using Lark today.

Lark strengthens its position as an ally for sustainability, growth, and success among businesses in the Philippines after completing three successful tracks of the Lark Your Way to Success webinar series. The webinars, which took place throughout November and December 2020, were well-attended by small business owners and entrepreneurs who are members of Lark's partner organizations, Junior Chamber International (JCI) Philippines, Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc. (AFFI), and GoNegosyo. Representatives from partner media organizations, ABS-CBN News Channel, Business Mirror, CNN Philippines, Esquire, Inquirer.net, UnboxPH, and Yugatech were also invited to the webinars.

Each track covered three topics, and featured industry experts and key opinion leaders who shared their professional advice on how businesses can adapt, evolve, and innovate in order to thrive in the future. These are the highlighted lessons in business growth and sustainability that participants learned at the Lark Your Way to Success webinars.

1. Businesses without a digitally-enabled workforce may be extinct by 2021

The first webinar session taught attendees the value of adapting to change, and how going digital is a key solution for this. The first speaker of the day was Joey Lim, Vice President of Sales, APAC in Lark. She discussed effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on businesses, and how a new digitally-driven work normal is the future of work.

Entrepreneur and host RJ Ledesma was the next speaker. He talked about the importance of having an entrepreneurial mindset, and the ability to find opportunity in crisis, in order for a business to succeed. The final speaker for the day was business technology coach Joey Gurango, who shared insights on the current workflow trends. According to Joey, a digital transformation is necessary right now for any business that wants to survive.

2. Connecting and collaborating is essential for business success

The second track focused on how businesses must evolve to stay afloat in the new work landscape. The session started off with a look at best practices in adopting new ways of work through local, regional, and global case studies shared by Cat Avelino, Head of Communications, Lark Philippines.

The second speaker was entrepreneur, business consultant, and columnist Francis J. Kong, who shared some dos and dont's for managing teams and resources remotely. He explained how crisis can make us both better and bitter, and how it can also push us to evolve faster. The last to speak were content creator and COO of The Canton Club, Camille Co, together with Charlotte Co. They explained why it is necessary to listen to the needs of consumers, and how true connection and collaboration can yield positive results.

3. Business leaders must lead by example when embracing new ways of work

Innovation is indispensable for success in the future landscape of work, and the third track of the Lark webinar series emphasized this. Regional Lark Product Specialist, Andeed Ma started off with a talk about how businesses can make technology work for them in moving towards the future of work, and how Lark is an example of a great tool to use for this purpose.

Digital entrepreneur Carlo Ople spoke next, on the topic of managing ang measuring employee engagement and collaboration while working remotely. According to Carlo, it might be best to focus on each remote employee's key performance indicators (KPI) rather than on-screen time when assessing productivity. The final talk was by automotive journalist, events host and CNN Philippines Anchor, James Deakin. He stressed the need for new normal leaders to lead by example, particularly when it comes to learning how to use digital tools, and showing employees how easy they are to use for work.

At the end of the webinar series, two businesses owners who joined the sessions were selected as mentees for Lark's New Normal Business Council and Mentorship Program.


The chosen CEOs are Joyce Yu of True Blends Tea & Coffee and Mark Joseph David of Pal Maritime Corporation. Both will be granted a mentorship program by Lark, along with an additional 100GB Lark cloud storage for one year, and PHP300,000 worth of PR and marketing support.

To learn more about the other features of Lark, visit www.larksuite.com.

Lark is available on Mac, PC, iOS, and Android. Click here to start using Lark today.

Hosting small virtual discussions and gatherings is simple, with the right platform that accommodates the video call duration and participant count that you require. Sometimes, though, you need to make meetings or online events accessible to larger audiences for activities like webinars, company-wide virtual conferences, and even recognition ceremonies.

Online collaboration tool, Lark, offers a Video Call function within the app that can accommodate up to 100 participants with no time limit. From Lark Video Call, it is possible to livestream a meeting to reach hundreds more, both on and off the app. Just recently, the Lark team itself was able to use this livestream feature for a series of webinars aimed at helping businesses in the Philippines overcome challenges presented by the new ways of working. Each session featured industry leaders as speakers, and was well-attended by top local media and members of respected business organizations in the country via Lark livestream, synced on YouTube.

Screenshot with Cat Avelino and RJ Ledesma, speaker and host of the Lark Your Way to Success Webinar

Livestreaming a meeting to reach more people on Lark

To begin, ensure that your Lark desktop or mobile apps are updated to the latest versions. The host must be logged in to Lark to launch the meeting, and also to enable livestreaming from within the video call control bar.

When livestreaming is enabled, all meeting participants will be required to give their consent, as a layer of protection, before the actual streaming can begin. Participants will also be notified when the livestream ends. While a meeting is successfully being streamed, participants with see a green LIVE icon on the upper left corner of their screens, along with a viewer count.

Viewing a livestreamed Lark event

To view a livestreamed event, you simply need to sign in to Lark on your browser, and open the livestream URL. For optimal viewing, the recommended browser to use for accessing Lark livestreams on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices is Google Chrome.

A livestream link is generated once the host selects Start Livestreaming from within an active meeting's control bar. Meeting hosts can also generate a livestream link in advance through a calendar event. This is helpful when you want to send an invitation ahead of schedule. Anyone with this URL can watch the livestream from their browsers, once the event starts.

The meeting host can also opt to sync a livestream from Lark to other platforms, such as Facebook and YouTube. This allows a virtual event to reach wider audiences, including social media fans and followers, and even personal networks. Anyone with access to the YouTube and Facebook links may view the livestream on their corresponding mobile apps or through a browser.

Livestream viewers can watch the video meeting, along with any shared screens during the session. The meeting host may select from a variety of screen layouts for the livestream, for optimal viewing on both desktop and mobile.

Sidebar, the default layout, is ideal for remote training and online events. Gallery View shows up to 9 participant videos at the same time, and is great for webinars and discussion groups. Full Screen is best used for classes and presentations, with the speaker's video taking up the entire screen. 

Using the Live Chat feature

Activating the Live Chat feature during a livestream allows viewers to send their messages, comments, and questions in real time. This way, messages are seen by meeting participants right away, and may be addressed and answered immediately as well. In order to send messages in the Live Chat, livestream viewers need to be logged in to Lark on their browsers.

To regulate the contents of the Live Chat, viewers may report inappropriate or spam messages. The meeting host will be notified that a message has been reported, along with the username of the person who reported the message, and the username of the person being reported. The host can then take appropriate action - Delete the message, ban the user from posting anymore messages in the Live Chat, or ignore the report.

Through Lark's livestream feature, you will be able to reach thousands, even millions of people, online. This is a great way to connect and communicate with employees and team members on a large scale, and also reach out to potential clients, customers and partners to help grow your business. To learn more about the other features of Lark, visit www.larksuite.com.

Lark is available on Mac, PC, iOS, and Android. Click here to start using Lark today.

Just the perfect tool to use in today's situation where most of the working class are rather choose to work at home. With this, it's time to elevate your remote working experience with Lark, the ultimate collaborative suite for online and offsite work.

Recent months have seen major changes in the way businesses operate. A work from home setup has become ideal for many, in the interest of everyone's health and safety. Because of this, the ability to work remotely is now seen as necessary in order for businesses to continue.

This brings a real need for team collaboration tools that work seamlessly. People may view the email and social apps they are presently using as sufficient for business, but oftentimes find themselves engaging in discussions over chat more than getting actual work done. Using multiple apps could also result in time lost trying to locate documents, files, and information.

An all-in-one suite, such as Lark, can help streamline online collaboration, and boost productivity in the process. With a superior tool like this, no time is wasted switching between apps. With Lark, every document, message, schedule, and email is easily found in one place.

Here are the essential work tools that Lark makes available for your team to use:

• Lark Messenger for quick and easy work communication
• Lark Video Call with unlimited video call minutes for up to 100 participants
• Lark Docs allows everyone to edit the same file at the same time with free 200 GB of storage
• Lark Calendar for easy scheduling of tasks and meetings
• Lark Mail, a redefined email experience, integrated with other essential work tools
• Lark Workplace where you can download 3rd party apps to use in your workspace
 

 

For video embed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajo5v1zxrHE&t=55s

With the free generous offering of unlimited minutes on Lark Video Calls, your meetings can run for however long or short you need them to. Up to 100 attendees can join in, making this a great tool for face-to-face virtual meetings and conferences, for teams both big and small.

Lark ensures the safety and privacy of all its users through an AWS certification, compliant with the strictest rules in cloud computing. This way, all your conversations and files remain secure as you work online. And, because Lark is completely free, you can download and begin using this next-generation collaboration suite immediately.

To adapt to the changing times, the way work must also change. As Lark's Vice President of Commercial, Asia, Joey Lim has said, "Gone are the days where you need to physically be in the office to collaborate with teammates, now you can connect from anywhere. With the rise of powerful mobile devices and collaboration tools that are mobile friendly, employees can now instantly connect and collaborate remotely with teams from around the world anytime."

To learn more, visit http://bit.ly/LarkPHPR2. Lark is available for download on Mac, PC, iOS and Android, click here.

With the new normal we are living now, people and businesses tend to evolve and adapt in this situation in order to move forward. More and more businesses have shifted to remote working arrangements for employees and teams. Working from home has gradually become the new normal - an adaptive measure allowing businesses to continue operations, with reduced risk to the health and safety of their workforce. Thus, creating a growing need for tools and apps that enable efficient virtual collaboration, in the absence of face-to-face interaction.

Lark is the next generation collaborative suite that integrates multiple essential functions into a single platform, eliminating the need to juggle between apps while working. Signing up for a free account on Lark equips your team with the necessary tools to boost their productivity from anywhere.

With Lark Messenger, team members can instantly exchange information with one another. Emojis make messaging fun and interactive, and allow for quick reactions within the team chat, reducing noise by eliminating multiple replies to the same message. The team calendar may be viewed within the chat window, making it easy to check everyone’s schedules and reduce unnecessary notifications for team members in the group chat, all in one place. And more one-click translations are also available in Lark Messenger, eliminating the language issue for cross-country collaboration, if any.

Pulling up a group chat or accessing a video call from a Lark Calendar event is easy to do as well. This smart calendar also features a multi time zone view, to avoid scheduling confusion among team members around the world.

A free Lark account gives users UNLIMITED Video Conferencing with advanced screen sharing capabilities. You can share editable content within the video call window, allowing real time revisions and additions to documents during virtual meetings. Its new live streaming feature opens up even more possibilities for online collaboration, allowing larger audiences to join in and view broadcasts.

Lark also offers a wide range of advanced video conferencing features optimized for remote working environments, including blurring your background, touching up your appearance and reducing background noise and the sound of keyboard typing.

Lark Docs enables multi-user collaboration on online spreadsheets and documents. For easy reference, you can simply tag other Lark docs, team members, and even chat groups within a document. No more time wasted searching through folders for what you need. Lark's powerful universal search feature allows you to locate information from within your organization's unlimited chat history, documents and calendar events instantly. With 200GB cloud storage included in a free Lark account, there is more than enough room to store your work files, images, and videos.

Finally, access other productivity and monitoring tools by connecting external apps through Lark Workplace. Some add-on features provide customizable attendance and approval workflow.

Lark Workplace also supports a wide range of third-party integrations, including project management tools such as Asana and Jira, analytics monitoring through Google Analytics, and CRM solutions such as Salesforce and Zendesk.

Available on Mac, PC, iOS and Android, teams can continue working together flexibly and effectively inside and outside the office with Lark.

Watch this video to see how you can use Lark for your business.


To learn more about Lark, visit www.larksuite.com.