Ellery's Essays

It’s a…What Is It, anyway?

Subic Bay at Luzon island, the Philippines, is a former United States naval base. In its heyday from the 1950s to the 1970s, it was the Americans’ largest military facility in the Western Pacific.

Subic Bay served as a logistics hub and port for the US Navy. Together with the nearby Clark Air Base, Subic served as the Americans’ projection of military power in Southeast Asia.

In 1991, after the Mt. Pinatubo eruption, the Philippines and the United States did not renew the lease treaties of both Clark and Subic. In a matter of months, the Americans left and turned over ownership of the bases to the Philippine government.

The Philippines immediately declared Clark and Subic as ‘freeport zones,’ in which authorities granted tax incentives to firms doing business in the former bases. Factories and duty-free stores sprouted at Subic and Clark as a result.

Subic Bay, more than thirty (30) years later, had become a….what? One cannot figure out what Subic had become. The former naval base has a deepwater port which loads & unloads merchandise for export & import. It has companies, big & small, with manufacturing & logistics operations. It has shops selling duty-free products. It also has recreational places, such as a golf course, safari, an aquarium, scuba dive spots, a horseback-riding ranch, a rainforest, and a beach. There are also several hotels, residential condominiums, a yacht club, as well as private enclaves.

Subic had become a mix of so many things, such that one couldn’t figure out what it was. Was it an industrial free-trade zone? A duty-free shoppers’ paradise? An eco-tourism site? A very large resort?

And because it tried to be so many things, Subic had no one identity. It was like a person who had multiple personalities—no one knew which was real.

Subic didn’t draw crowds and instead had become a sparsely populated place. Business was mediocre at best. Locators who manufactured and did logistics there did not really expand. New investments year to year weren’t too much, nothing to boast much about.

Nearby Clark was a bit luckier. Thanks to its growing airport, people identified Clark as a viable alternative versus Manila for travel to and from Luzon island. Subic, however, remained almost anonymous as people were clueless about what the former naval base was or could be.

The lesson from Subic was that when one markets a place, one should develop an identity for it. One shouldn’t promote it as several things. Subic is a free industrial zone; it’s a duty-free shoppers’ locale; it’s an eco-tourism site; it’s a recreational area; it’s a private get-away-from-it-all residential place. When one says it’s all these, one gets the impression it’s trying hard and it becomes none of the above.

What is Subic? Time won’t tell. Only people who have stakes in it, if there are any, will.

Find Ellery

What is the Problem in the First Place?

I went to a branch of a local drugstore to buy a small bottle of mosquito repellent lotion. The branch didn’t have any stock but the nice lady behind the counter checked her computer and told me to go to another branch which was a short five (5) minute walk away. I went to the other branch and yes, there were small bottles of mosquito repellent lotions available. I picked up a bottle and then shopped for another item: shaving cream. There was no stock but the nice lady behind the counter of this drugstore branch said there were some available in the branch where I came from.

What’s the lesson I learned here? Buy all the available items you’re looking for before going to another store. Haha.

Why is it that some stores would have plenty of one product and none in another? It’s easy to pin blame on the manufacturer who sold the product. Maybe the sales representative was remiss in checking stock availability or the manufacturer’s logistics department hadn’t been delivering pending orders?

The large corporation that owns the drugstore has a central warehouse that receives products and distributes them to all its branches. Could it be that the drugstore corporation wasn’t efficient enough to stock all its branches with the complete line-up of products?

There’s also the possibility that a customer bought plenty of one (1) product at one drugstore branch and left none for the rest of the day. It’s what managers would call a spike in demand.

Some supply chain managers would recommend building up inventories at branches to avoid stock-outs. Inventories, however, come with a cost, in the form of cash tied up on unsold products on a drugstore’s shelves. Executives don’t like cash being tied up especially if it can be used elsewhere such as high-interest returning investments.

Information technology (IT) managers could suggest installing an integrated information system which would flag out-of-stock incidences to the drugstore’s logistics planners in real-time. Supply chain managers could swiftly deliver items using smaller trucks or even motorcycle couriers. Transportation expenses might rise though.

All these possibilities sound well and good, and many companies do apply the ideas above. But what was the problem in the first place?

If perhaps it were the owners of the mosquito repellent lotion company who noticed the lotion being out of stock at the drugstore branch, they maybe would throw a fit as they call the sales and the supply chain departments to investigate and restock the branch.

Executives & managers tend to fast-track solutions to issues without first defining what the problems are. But is there really a problem? Does the drugstore chronically run out of stock in its branches or was that stock-out of mosquito repellent solution a one-time event which doesn’t happen often? What products are always out-of-stock? How much is the drugstore losing from stock-outs?

And there perhaps lies the bigger question: how are stakeholders addressing their supply chain issues? When does an issue become a problem, and when does a problem become a crisis needing a lot of attention?

These are questions which could keep supply chain managers, if not executives, awake at night. Answers won’t come, however, by grabbing for solutions. They come after clarifying the problem.

When stakeholders know what the problem is, when it becomes clear what the root causes are, solving problems becomes more straightforward.

Find Ellery

Praising Unsung Heroes

National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) administrator Jared Isaacman praised the United States space agency’s workforce for the success of the Artemis II mission which brought four (4) astronauts to orbit around the moon and back for the first time since the Apollo missions in the 1970s.

Mr. Isaacman’s praises were noteworthy given all the media attention and accolades to the four (4) astronauts, who many called heroes.

How many times have I and a few operations professionals attended annual sales conventions of corporations and saw chief executive officers (CEOs) heap praises and give rewards to sales & marketing people for successful business results of brands & products. Apart from all the credits, the salespeople also receive hefty commissions for meeting monthly revenue quotas.

Meanwhile, other departments like operations, accounting, R&D, and human resources receive little or no recognition and get nothing extra. It’s already significant that I and those few operations professionals even get invited to those conventions (some years I’m not even asked).

Before and after every such convention, executives would scold operations for any failure to deliver pending sales orders. There also would be hardly any acknowledgment to accountants who submit reports before deadlines. I’ve seen executives even fire company agents who were unable to collect from customers who intentionally delayed payments.

Despite whatever large savings in expenses other departments were able to attain, executives would just say that it was part of their jobs to reduce costs. The same executives would add that the people who did any hard work for lower costs probably made up for it via overtime.

Meanwhile, the executives praise the sales & marketing people when revenue targets are met, and they provide the support structure of bonuses & commissions. In fairness, executives do pounce on sales & marketing people to build business and reap higher revenues. Unfortunately, they do the same for every other department but without a similar support structure.

Is it any wonder then that employee turnovers in such corporate organisations are high? The turnover might not be apparent or even is concealed when executives opt to outsource operations, accounting, and human resources administration to third parties. The morales of people whether in-house or outsourced suffer, nonetheless.

I congratulate NASA’s Isaacman for not forgetting the contributions of hundreds of the space agency’s staff for the success of the Artemis II mission. Hopefully, executives would not only emulate Isaacman in their own organisations but also go a little further by setting up structures & systems of support for the departments that aren’t as visible as astronauts who go to the moon.

Find Ellery

How Do Supply Chains Fit into Your Firm’s Priorities? (Wrong Question)

Supply chains are the lifelines of the products & services of enterprises. Hence, executives should manage their enterprises’ supply chains to ensure they will meet strategic goals.

Nice answer. Wrong question.

Supply chains don’t fit into the priorities of enterprises. It’s the other way around. Enterprises must fit into the supply chains they are linked to, to enable the enterprises to meet their strategic goals.

Supply chains are made up of relationships forged via pacts between enterprises. Enterprises are not the centres of the supply chain worlds. Executives negotiate contracts and transact with other enterprises to buy merchandise, engage services, and sell to customers. The supply chain is not subservient to any one enterprise.

Many executives, however, don’t share this line of thinking. They would prefer to assert dominion over their vendors & customers than to collaborate and form pacts.

Walmart, the very large North American retailer, for example, insists vendors comply strictly to the corporation’s quality & delivery protocols. Vendors who don’t comply or violate Walmart’s rules are either penalised or threatened with termination.

Walmart also had set up a network of distribution centres to complement its huge warehouse stores in North America. Walmart, thus, asserts its influence over the consumer goods supply chain from vendors to customers.

Walmart, however, does not rule over all vendors and customers. Some vendors won’t sell to Walmart, and not all consumers shop at its stores. There are products not sold at Walmart’s shelves. Walmart also competes with other large retailers like Sam’s Club, Costco, and Target who have respective large customer bases. As much as it may try to, Walmart does not hold 100% sway over the consumer goods supply chain.

Walmart does negotiate and forge contracts or pacts with vendors, especially large ones like P&G. Collaboration in many cases is the norm. And it is by working and being flexible with suppliers that Walmart remains successful. Domination may work some of the time but collaboration for win-win partnerships is the ideal.

Still, executives attempt to have supply chains adapt to their companies’ cultures rather than their companies adapt to the realistic intricacies of supply chains. It works to some extent, but it won’t work to the full. Somewhere down the line, enterprises end up collaborating and making deals.

No one enterprise dominates an entire supply chain. Some would try. Some would partially succeed. But they eventually don’t.

Enterprise executives shouldn’t ask how supply chains can work for them. They should ask how they could work better with supply chains.

Find Ellery

What Is Your Masterpiece?

Twenty-eight (28) out of Vermeer’s known thirty-four (34) masterpieces were exhibited at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum in 2023. My sisters & I immediately bought tickets as soon as they went for sale.

In March 2023, we travelled to Amsterdam and the Rijksmuseum to see Vermeer’s paintings. Relatives and friends were amazed that we would go all the way to Europe from our home country, the Philippines, to see the works of a European painter. Some of our relatives & friends didn’t even know who he was.

As we stepped into the gallery to see the first painting displayed, The Little Street, we knew right there and then it was worth the travel to see the Vermeer’s paintings in person. No matter how best photographs from the Internet or from any professional cameraman could claim to be, nothing could match the quality of a painting seen with one own’s eyes.

The Little Street
photographed at Vermeer Exhibition, Rijksmuseum,
March 2023

The rest of Vermeer’s paintings elicited the same reaction. Many found the exhibition magnificent.

Johannes Vermeer wasn’t wealthy when he passed away in 1675. It was only in the middle of the 19^th century that a French art critic, Théophile Thoré-Bürger, re-discovered his artworks and re-introduced him to the art world. Vermeer became even more famous when his painting, The Girl with the Pearl Earring, became the subject of novels and movies at the turn of the 21st century. Millions of people had gone to see and admire the masterpiece since 1999.

Girl with the Pearl Earring
Photographed at the Mauritshuis, The Hague, July 2018

But did Vermeer consider his paintings as masterpieces? Was it his ambition to paint for accomplishments to be appreciated?

Many artists before and after Vermeer’s time painted for a living. Johannes Vermeer was no exception. Despite his fame, there is not much known about him but many who have researched about him believe Vermeer struggled to earn a living for himself and his family.

Artists from Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and Vermeer painted and contributed their art not out for the sake of fame but for enterprise. Rich families and a then powerful and wealthy Catholic Church commissioned artists to sculpt and paint for their mansions and cathedrals. The artists valued the recognition but more so to obtain more work and commissions. Artists, like any normal people then and now, had to work hard for a living.

At first, I saw the great works of European artists as inspirations to make masterpieces of my own. I asked myself, “what would be my masterpiece?” What would be a crowning achievement in my life, one that would stoke admiration even long after I am gone from this world?

Many self-help gurus tell us to define goals and work to achieve great things. But as I delved into the lives of great artists and other famous persons from history, I learned that most, if not all, did not set lofty aims to deliver immortal masterpieces.

Many artists painted or sculpted because they liked, if not loved, to do so. Vincent Van Gogh, for example, painted because it brought him solace from his personal and health issues.

Great artists became so because they loved what they do and the work gave them comfort, on top of commercial benefits. Masterpieces are the results of jobs well done. They are not the ends but the means in pursuing whatever one’s personal goals are.

Johannes Vermeer likely painted more to bring bread to his family than to make a name for himself via his masterpieces. The masterpiece he probably wanted was one where he and his family would be economically secure. He wasn’t totally successful even though his works brought him fame centuries later.

What is your masterpiece?

Find Ellery

Her Problem Was Worse Than Mine

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) employee told me to come back with several documents before the agency would give my business firm access to the forms on its electronic payment portal.

I already submitted the application for the new forms via the BIR’s registration portal, I said. And it was already approved, I told the BIR employee.

The BIR employee said the issue wasn’t the access but that there was another form I needed to apply for.

But why do I need to apply for another form when I’m using the same one to submit and pay for the same tax, I replied to the employee. The employee just said I needed to do it.

I gave up arguing.

After two weeks of preparing the paperwork, I submitted the documents he asked for. The BIR received the documents and told me to come back after five (5) days to get the new certification of registration (COR) updating my company for the new forms. Five (5) days later, when I went to the agency’s office, there was no one there. Come back next week, the security guard at the office gruffly said.

The good news was that the BIR updated my company’s access to the agency’s payment portal so my business could already submit the new forms I was applying for. I only needed to get the new COR which formally would certify that my business was obligated to submit the new forms. A COR is vital whenever the BIR would audit my business.

The BIR has online portals to make it easier for taxpayers like me to register and pay taxes. It benefits the government more than it benefits me and my business. Yet, the agency makes it hard for me and many taxpayers to use the portals as it requires so much paperwork and legwork.

I thought about broadcasting my experience on social media but when I saw a businesswoman posting about a nightmare she had in filing and paying her capital gains tax for a property she sold, I decided to just count my blessings.

The businesswoman was lucky in that her social media post went viral and caught the attention of the BIR commissioner. She met with the BIR leadership who promised to take steps to improve the agency’s systems.

Some people encounter bad experiences with the governments they fall under. Sometimes they via their complaints catch the attention of leaders. Unfortunately, there are many others with stories like mine who don’t.

Being a Philippine citizen doesn’t give me privileges. It just gives me more work to do.

Find Ellery

Arguing for Adversity vis-à-vis Risk

The built-in artificial intelligence (AI) program on the word processing software advised me to replace the term, adversity, with risk. Risk, the AI app said, is a more familiar term than adversity.

I didn’t agree and I kept writing ‘adversity’ into my essay.

Risk is the likelihood an unfavourable event shall occur. Adversity is an unfavourable event or entity which represents a barrier, obstacle, or setback to any progress towards one’s goals.

In short, risk is not a synonym of adversity. They are not one and the same in meaning.

The AI program is right in that risk is used more widely than adversity, especially in the context of business and operations, which I do a lot of writing about.

But I write to share insights.

Organisations manage risks but they had not been very successful in anticipating adversities. Managers identify risks from what they know and assess. Adversities, however, stem from uncertainties, if not from the unknown.

People may not be as familiar with adversity than with risk, but it is the former which disrupts one’s operations.

One could calculate risks but not anticipate adversities.

Find Ellery

Another Year, Another Disruption

It’s March 2026, and just when I thought I could settle down and focus on my business after the usually gruelling annual routines of renewing permits and wrapping up the accounting records of the previous year, another disruption to my well-laid plans looms in the horizon.

January of every year is predominantly about renewing permits with and paying steep taxes to governments of Philippine cities where my family businesses are registered. February is when I submit withholding tax reports to the Philippines’ Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), which is no better in red-tape bureaucracy than the city governments.

March is when I would try to focus back to the basics of managing my family business, as in planning new projects.

But as soon as March of 2026 had begun, the Middle East erupted into war and local media announced that fuel prices will be going up by a lot—a way, way lot.

That means higher prices in the offing which means higher costs and expenses. I once again find myself scrambling to reshape strategy for my business.

Disruption is the new normal.

In March 2019, also after I was done with the same annual routines from the previous months of January & February, my household together with many others had no water for several days. The water company stopped supply which it said was due to falling reservoir levels (the real reason was outright incompetence). The disruption was enough to cost my and many businesses some significant amounts of expenses and some lost sales.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I and a few million businesspeople, were optimistic for the year 2020. It was a new decade and there were new technologies to tap. Opportunities were knocking. But when March 2020 came, there were lockdowns, shutdowns, and everybody’s thoughts for a prospectively profitable year disintegrated.

COVID was virtually a two-year disruption and when it waned in 2022, I and many others though we could finally look forward to a much better 2023.

But then Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. That ensuing war disrupted ocean cargo and air travel. Prices went up. Plans were thrown out the door.

By 2025, I and again many other businesspeople were already getting used to disruptions. The Americans announced see-sawing tariffs which made everyone unsure of what and how much goods from other countries to sell or buy. Prices went up again including wages which made it harder to hire and retain workers.

And in March 2026, there was war in the Middle East and fuel prices, et al, were going way up. Another disruption I or other businesspeople did not really expect.

I thought I was already desensitised to disruption and had been overconfident that I could anticipate any new one. But here I am surprised by the turn of events.

During COVID, leaders expounded on a new normal to look forward to. They perhaps thought it would be a world of new technologies boosted by automation and artificial intelligence.

Instead, here I am together with countless businesspeople, roiling from one disruption after another, year after year, still getting surprised. (Is it me or do disruptions seem to happen frequently in March?)

What’s the lesson I have been learning?

Change is the only constant in business, and it doesn’t necessarily originate from me or others. It happens whether we like it or not and in consequences I am not necessarily privy to beforehand.

Find Ellery

My Health Routine is My Responsibility

It’s 5am, another Monday morning. I could use another hour of sleep, but I must get up if I were to make this day and the upcoming week productive.

So-called experts (i.e., rich people who have more money & time to spend than I do) say people should get up early in the morning so that they would have more time for themselves.

Other experts as in sleep scientists disagree. They say humans should sleep a continuous eight (8) hours a night to ensure health of mind & body. Humans need sleep to flush waste from their brains & bodies, in which if they don’t, would potentially lead to illnesses and mental-health problems.

I decide to opt for the former and rise from bed. My to-do task list shows the need to be busy that Monday and in the ensuing days. I cannot afford to not meet deadlines or not finish tasks.

Besides, I believe I got my decent night’s sleep, even though I was in bed for only six (6) hours. My argument to the sleep scientists is I dreamed. When people dream, they reach their rapid-eye-movement (REM) cycle, which is the core of healthy sleep. I don’t remember what I dreamt; the point is I did, so I rationalise that I had a good night’s sleep.

Health experts insist that people should eat right, get enough sleep, and exercise to be physically fit. The trouble is health experts themselves continuously debate & revise what diets, sleep schedules, and physical exercise regimens people should be doing. Some would say I should be a vegetarian, while others would say I should focus on protein-rich food. Should I sleep eight (8) hours or be satisfied with reaching REM regardless of the number of hours I’m in slumber? And should I invest in strenuous exercise or be happy with a few minutes of strolling every day?

My daily schedule includes morning exercises consisting of lifting weights three (3) days a week, and short walks within my residence. I eat three meals a day and though I tend to overeat sometimes, I avoid sweet desserts and sugar-rich beverages. Together with my six (6) hour sleep cycle, that in a nutshell comprises my daily self-health maintenance routine.

Is it enough? Should I do more? Should I change any of it?

My criterion for the effectiveness of my daily routine is how productive I end up. If I get to consistently finish tasks and meet challenging deadlines, then I would tend to believe I must be doing something right. If I’m not meeting goals, then I may need to make changes.

My life is my responsibility. Reading what other experts say gives me knowledge and maybe some good ideas. But I dictate what I will finally do. No one tells me what to do except me.

Find Ellery

No Need to Learn a New Language

Relatives and friends tell me I should learn to speak Chinese.

I am an ethnic Chinese who lives in the Philippines where I am fluent in the national language, Tagalog. I also am adept in English, which is my first & primary language. But I don’t speak Chinese; I never learned to.

I agree fluency in Chinese would have been a plus, but I’ve not done too bad with Tagalog and English.

There may have been lost opportunities for not learning to communicate in Chinese. But I believe my mastery in English had given me an edge in crunching contracts with clients and in debating technical & legal jargon with service providers & suppliers.

It would have been nice to be fluent in Chinese, but I don’t see the pressing necessity to learn.

I’m satisfied with the languages I know.

Find Ellery