By Rey Marquez and Gab Saqueton
Few would dare apply Super Ditch to the annual strategy sessions — but we did, and it changed the conversations.
In any organization, strategy sessions can easily be weighed down by information overload. Too many slides, too many details, and too little time left for the choices that truly matter. At AEV Corporate Strategy, we knew we had to change that. This strategy season, we brought clearer focus to our most important conversations, stripping away the noise and spotlighting the issues that shape the future of our portfolio.
At the heart of this shift was more intentional and stronger collaboration with our Strategic Business Units (SBUs). In the lead-up to the sessions, the Corporate Strategy Team (CST) engaged with SBUs to connect their priorities with the broader goals of the portfolio. Each SBU had the space to surface what mattered most in their own context, while CST helped ensure these conversations were anchored on how individual goals come together to shape the Group’s direction. As a result, SBU presentations were more targeted, and the dialogue moved more naturally from business-level priorities to portfolio-level decisions.
The sessions themselves were designed with simplicity at the core. Non-essential agenda items were removed, and time was redistributed to focus on a smaller number of high-impact discussions. Presentations were shorter and sharper, giving way to richer dialogue and more sustained debate. This format created a session that was lighter in volume yet deeper in value, enabling leaders to spend less time absorbing information and more time engaging in the portfolio decisions that carry the highest stakes.
The AEV Corporate Strategy Team with Chief Strategy Officer and Transformation Head John Rubio.
“This year, we proved that strategy is not about running through slides or longer sessions, but about making clear choices, and getting alignment. By aligning with SBUs early and simplifying the conversation, we created space for real dialogue and decision-making,” said Wilbur Young, VP for Strategy.
This shift showed that a focused and collaborative approach to strategy can guide how AEV leaders run other critical conversations, ensuring they are streamlined, insight-driven, and anchored on the decisions that matter most.
A critical enabler of this transformation was the use of NotebookLM, a GenAI-powered tool that captured and synthesized discussion points in near real time. Used within a secured environment, it provided concise summaries and highlighted recurring themes across conversations, turning raw dialogue into structured knowledge with impressive speed and accuracy. The Board appreciated how the team synthesized the discussion with clear takeaways captured before the session even closed, and Directors praised the improved formatting and flow, noting how it elevated both the quality of the conversation.
More than just a better meeting, this year’s Strategy Season reflected a deeper cultural shift: the way we run strategy conversations is becoming as important as the strategies themselves. By pairing discipline and collaboration with smart technology, the Corporate Strategy Team showed how sharper methods can elevate both the quality of debate and the clarity of decisions. This is the kind of agility and decisiveness that AEV must continue to build as it steps fully into its role as an active portfolio manager—making strategy not just an exercise in planning, but a discipline that drives real impact across the Group.
As AEV continues its Great Transformation, moments like this show what’s possible when simplification meets innovation. This is not just the future of strategy, it is how Aboitiz will lead.
