A consulting business can cope with this fast-changing world if it has the ability to strategize. One way to strategize is to plan in a discussion with the presence of a team members with excellent and smart opinions.

M&A has its mission and vision since 1993. And its existing mission and vision has directed M&A to mold and help organizations through the services it has rendered. M&A has served a lot of organizations namely; cooperatives, private companies, foundations, government agencies and microfinance institutions. And because M&A has evolved through the years it has now the urge to update, hence, the tag line: “Facilitating solutions, achieving goals”.

M&A Resource Training Center held a Strategic Planning last November 25 to 26, 2011. The strategic planning was facilitated by Mr. Vic Porpio who is one of the Project consultants of M&A, with the presence of Mr. Cosme Pacana-President, WordSpring Foundation Inc., Ms. Fatima Pacana-Executive Director, WordSpring Foundation Inc., Ms. Matet Peliño-Project Consultant, Mr. Khass Llacuna-SEO, WordSpring Foundation and Mr. Glenn Palacio-Web and Graphics design specialist.

The team set the said planning to facilitate an open discussion and to have the chance to exchange thoughts and ideas. The event could be considered as a way for M&A Resource Training Center to improve and upgrade the strategies.

During the discussion, the team members have different opinions but it didn’t matter because it helped each other to generate ideas. The discussion was a way to make things better.

The issues tackled during the discussion were the following; M&A’s Mission and Vision; what are the things to consider, views and beliefs to be discussed and details to be systematized.

To form the MISSION and VISION, Mr. Vic Porpio facilitated and organized the collection of ideas and thoughts of the team. Thereafter, the team deliberated the collected ideas and decided to pick the best words to form the mission and vision. The premise of the MISSION and VISION was balanced by considering other factors, like economy, spiritual, business and social responsibility.

Mr. Vic Porpio stressed out that MISSION and VISSION must be reviewed once in awhile so that the company wouldn’t be out of race nor outdated.

The team members exchanged thoughts and suggested their ideas, but they had one thing in mind-which is the significance of what they are doing. Their goal is to come up with a stable and attainable mission and vision.

Personally, the event was like having a perfect learning, just to see how deities with excellent ideas participated in the strategic planning. And on how they’ve done it, was just amazing!

I realized that, if a business strives for success and doesn’t have strategy, a business wouldn’t be successful. And if a business doesn’t see the significance of its mission and vision then nothing on that business can be called as success. Indeed, if M&A adapts and reinvents its strategy, then surely M&A can compete with this fast changing world,

In my first job after graduating from college, my mentor’s first strong advice was to focus more of my attention on people motivation while learning operational tricks. It was difficult for me to fathom the wisdom of that guidance until the time my mentor was no longer there to assist me. I experienced multiple problems; from material quality, unexpected equipment breakdown, lose control of parameters, timely delivery of products and the likes.

After thorough evaluation, I’ve realized that those problems existed because they were allowed to happen by the personnel of my team. This event enlightened me on the essence of my mentor’s first advice. This prompted me to look intensely on how to motivate Filipino workers.

It is true, as written by most management books, that motivation is a direct function of personal needs. Each person has distinctive motives. Motives can be classified into two groups, the selfless and selfish motives. The weight of each motive in the person is usually deeply rooted in the person’s being. They are primarily or most often developed during the early stage of his life which points to the family.

The selfish motives, which generally refer to our economic, socio and political desires, are usual day-to-day issues dealt by Filipino families. Children who grew up with limited economic resources are strongly motivated to acquire them as they grow up. Children who had not been developed socially are shy and tend to lack confidence. While those who were overly sociable may tend to develop “KSP” (A Tagalog acronym for: Kulangsa Pansin. In English, it means, needing much attention)

Children who grew up with a feeling to have power over others will eventually continue to have that power as they grow up. These motivators are not bad at all. However, human instinct drives us to have more and more of these motivators which will lead to abnormal personalities. Persons with abnormal personalities are really difficult to motivate. You will even judge them unfit to belong to an organization, to some extent.

The selfless motive, which refer to spiritual fulfilment, is the stabilizing motive. This motive is not related to religion but rather on the noble reason for man’s existence. A child who grew up with strong spiritual foundation, is capable of balancing the selfless needs which will prevent abnormality on personal behavior.

In the final analysis, motivating is basically removing personality abnormalities and/or enhancing or increasing the person’s reason for being.