Strategy that survives contact with reality
Strategy is the pursuit of viability and advantage. Not a document. Not a planning cycle. It is how an organisation makes sense of its environment and acts to shape it.
We help senior leaders develop strategy that works, design organisations that can deliver it, and build leadership ready for complexity and uncertainty.
The problem we solve:
Most strategy fails because organisations misunderstand what strategy actually is.
They treat it as a document to be produced, a vision to be declared, a plan to be rolled out. When reality shifts, they have nothing to guide them except last year's slides.
We see the same patterns:
Aspirational detachment: The organisation's story has drifted away from what it actually does. Purpose statements that no one believes.
Strategy as an event: Annual planning cycles that produce documents, not capability. Strategy that sits in a deck while the real decisions happen elsewhere.
The control reflex: When uncertainty rises, leaders centralise and tighten. More governance, more reporting, less ability to respond.
Structure that blocks delivery: Decisions concentrated where the information isn't. People at the edge are waiting for permission instead of acting.
Leadership overwhelmed by complexity: Senior teams are firefighting, stretched thin, unable to step back and see the bigger picture.
The result: organisations that are busy but stuck. Reacting instead of leading. Fragile when they need to be viable.
Why Us:
We bring rigorous thinking from systems theory, military strategy, and complexity science. But we don't expect you to speak that language. We translate it into practical decisions, observable behaviour, and structures that work.
What makes us different:
We don't start with an idealised future and work backwards. We start with what the organisation actually does, what the environment is actually doing, and what you are structurally capable of changing now.
That means honest diagnosis, not comfortable narratives. Strategy grounded in reality, not aspiration. And change that sticks because it's built on what's true, not what looks good in a presentation.
Let’s talk
If your organisation is stuck reacting instead of leading, we should talk.
Develop strategy that works
Strategy is not a document. It is how your organisation makes sense of its environment and acts to create viability and advantage. We help you build strategy as a living capability: clear on intent, grounded in reality, and adaptable as conditions change.
This means starting with what the organisation actually does, not what it wishes it were. Understanding the environment as it is, not as last year's plan assumed. And building the discipline to keep strategy connected to reality, not locked in a slide deck.
How we help you:
We work alongside senior leaders to fix what's actually broken.
Design structure that delivers
Most restructuring moves boxes on a chart. The real issue is how decisions flow, where authority sits, and whether people can act without waiting for permission.
We diagnose what's actually blocking delivery and design structures where decision-making happens, where the information is, and where coherence is maintained without centralising everything, so the organisation can respond at the speed reality demands.
Build adaptive leadership
Leading in complex environments means operating with incomplete information, competing priorities, and conditions that keep shifting. It cannot be reduced to competency frameworks alone.
We help senior leaders develop the judgement to act decisively in the face of uncertainty, create the conditions for others to do the same, and hold the organisation together when the pressure rises.
Strategy Meets Reality Podcast
Where leaders rethink how strategy works in the real world.
Conversations with senior leaders, strategists, and practitioners who have experience in executing strategy in a volatile and unpredictable world.
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