Jef Menguin

I’ve sat through enough SWOT sessions to know the pattern. People fill the boxes. They argue politely. They add more bullets until the font becomes tiny. Someone takes a photo. Everyone leaves with that warm, familiar feeling of, “At least

Run this when your annual planning retreat keeps producing a beautiful deck… and a weak Monday. Use it as a reality check before you book the hotel again: if your plan rewards “more initiatives” instead of hard tradeoffs, it will collapse the moment the quarter gets busy. Replace the binder with choices your team can carry into the week—what you will stop, where you’ll play, and the few bets you’ll protect with a real review rhythm.

Use this when everything feels “priority,” and your team keeps saying yes until execution breaks. The Tradeoff Rule forces one clean move: if you choose this, you stop that—so focus becomes a decision, not a hope, and your strategy survives the week.

Try this when your team keeps polishing the strategic plan, but Monday still feels the same—same priorities, same urgent noise, same “let’s add one more initiative.” A plan organizes work, but strategy changes decisions, especially the hard ones: what you choose and what you stop. Walk into your next discussion with this line: “Before we add another project, what are we choosing—and what are we stopping?” If the room can’t answer, you don’t have strategy yet—you have paperwork.

The CEO leaned back and stared at the slide. It was slide 47. Vision. Mission. Values. SWOT. Strategic pillars. A long list of “key initiatives” with timelines, owners, and KPIs—everything that looks impressive on screen and powerless on a Tuesday.

Most government strategic plans in the Philippines are long, detailed, and unread. This article shows why—and offers a simpler way forward using the 6M Framework, so agencies can create strategic plans that comply, engage people, and serve as real playbooks for winning.

Can your employees recite your company’s mission statement? Most can’t. In many Filipino companies, the mission statement is a single line buried in the handbook, recited during orientation, then forgotten. Some leaders even confuse it with the vision, mixing up

Discover why corporate culture decides if your strategic plan succeeds or fails. Learn how Filipino leaders can align culture with goals for real results.