Strategic Agility & Transformation
Resilience by Design: Strategy That Bends, Not Braces
What do you fear? It’s a loaded question, and one meant to make you pause and step back from the work in front of you right now. Fear arises when uncertainty is high and there is something to lose. The greater the responsibility you carry, the more there is at stake: your reputation, your aspirations,…
Read MoreEfficiency vs Extraction: A Tuning Fork for Organizational Performance
Some time ago, I had the opportunity to work with a CEO who by all accounts had done everything right. Inheriting an organization whose G&A and OpEx overshadowed what was considered an acceptable profit margin, she had spent the better part of 18 months taking it apart to rebuild lean. She consolidated redundant roles, flattened…
Read MoreWhy The $1M Consultant Couldn’t Fix Your Problem
You brought in the big firm. The one with the name everyone recognizes. They sent a partner and two senior associates to the pitch meeting, shook hands with your board, and promised a “comprehensive strategic roadmap” that would position your organization for the next five years. The proposal was polished. The fee was significant. The…
Read MoreThe Four-Year Rule: Why Strategic Plans Fail Before the Best Ideas Ever Reach Them
I have a personal theory about how change actually moves through organizations. It’s not scientific. It’s not peer-reviewed. But it has been pressure-tested by thirty-plus years of watching really smart people try to introduce really good ideas into rooms that weren’t ready for them. I call it the Four-Year Rule, and it goes like this.…
Read MoreShared Vision: The Discipline Behind Team Execution
Michael Phelps didn’t just train in the pool. Every night before sleep and every morning upon waking, his coach Bob Bowman would give him the same instruction: Put in the videotape. Not a real videotape. A mental one. Phelps would visualize every detail of the race he was about to swim — from the blocks…
Read MoreFrom Risk Register to Strategic Intelligence: A Framework for Risk-Informed Strategic Planning
By Erin Sedor | Black Fox Strategy There is a document sitting somewhere in your organization right now that contains more strategic intelligence than your last three board presentations combined. It’s not a market analysis. It’s not the latest consultant’s report. It’s your risk register. And nobody is reading it that way. In most organizations,…
Read MoreAI Won’t Make You Obsolete But Fear of It Might
By Erin Sedor | Black Fox Strategy | 9 min read Every time I open my computer, I see stories about AI and what it is — or mostly is not — doing to advance humankind. It’s like a drumbeat that just keeps getting louder. AI is coming for your job. AI will replace you.…
Read MoreThe Growth Paradox: What You’re Not Building Is Eroding Your Strategy
By Erin Sedor | Black Fox Strategy Every CEO knows what growth looks like on the outside. Market expansion. New revenue streams. Customer acquisition. Headcount. These are the numbers that get celebrated in board meetings and reported in press releases. And they should be—external growth is the visible proof that an organization is gaining ground.…
Read MoreDefine Risk Appetite Before It Defines Your Strategy
By Erin Sedor | Black Fox Strategy You know the story. Drop a frog into boiling water and it jumps out immediately. But place that same frog in tepid water and slowly raise the temperature, and it stays put. It acclimates. It adjusts. It tells itself the water is fine. Until it isn’t. I use…
Read MoreStrategy Dies in the Space Between Your Senior Leaders
By Erin Sedor | Black Fox Strategy You’ve got the strategy. You’ve got the talent. You’ve done the offsite, built the plan, and set the targets. So why isn’t it working? Here’s what I know: strategy doesn’t die because it was poorly designed—although plenty of it is. And it doesn’t die because the people weren’t…
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