Leadership In Strategic Planning

3 Pillars of Culture AIM Model for Culture Transformations What if we’ve been aiming at culture… but not aiming right? After two decades of research, consulting, and executive education, I’ve come to define culture through a three-facet lens—a contribution I’ve proposed to the literature: 1. Culture as North Star – Mission, vision, and values: your strategic direction and shared aspiration. 2. Operational Culture – Policies, procedures, systems, and structure: how work actually gets done. 3. Culture as Employee Experience – The emotional and psychological reality of people at work. These three facets are distinct—yet deeply intertwined. When working on culture transformation, I’ve found it helpful to distill these into a practical framework for leaders: AIM². AIM² = A = Aspiration & Alignment (Culture as North Star) I = Implementation & Infrastructure (Operational Culture) M=Motivation & Mood (Culture as Employee Experience) This model bridges the strategic, operational, and human dimensions of culture. When organizations only focus on one or two facets, culture becomes imbalanced: Too abstract. Or too mechanical. Or too emotional. But when you AIM², you aim with strategy, structure, and soul. And that’s when culture becomes a true competitive advantage. So if you're working to build a culture of innovation, collaboration, agility—or anything else—make sure you’re considering all three facets. It’s the only way to lead culture with intention, clarity, and lasting impact. #strategy #culture #leadingwithstrategy #northstar

"Culture change" is the biggest lie in organizational transformation. Here's what actually happens: You run workshops. You print posters. You train people on new values. Six months later, behavior looks exactly the same. Why? Because you've got the causality backwards. Culture follows structure. Not the other way around. Craig Larman captured this in his Laws of Organizational Behavior. The first law: Organizations are implicitly optimized to avoid changing the status quo of middle- and first-level manager positions and power structures. Read that again. Your organization isn't resisting change because people are difficult. It's resisting change because it's designed to resist change. The structure, rewards, and processes are all optimized to preserve existing power. Want to change culture? Change the structure. Want people to collaborate? Remove the structural barriers that make collaboration expensive. Want innovation? Create Product Groups with real P&L ownership and decision-making authority. Want customer focus? Merge customer-facing and product development units so everyone shares the same measures of success. Jay Galbraith's Star Model shows this clearly: Strategy, Structure, Processes, Rewards, and People practices must be in harmony. Change one without the others, and the system snaps back. Stop running culture workshops. Start redesigning your organization. The culture you want will emerge from the structure you create. #SimplificationOfficers #OrganizationalChange

SOME leaders got it ALL WRONG 🔥 Perks like pizza and bean bags? Cool, but they’re not what keeps people invested. The real glue is respect, fairness, and opportunity - the kind of fundamentals that build culture, not just vibes. 1. Respect and Fairness • Let them be heard: Make space for voices. When people feel seen, trust grows. • Keep it real: Recognition should be earned, not handed out like party favours. Reward merit - it’s what keeps the culture honest. 2. Opportunities That Matter • Growth isn’t optional: People need to see a way forward. Create space for them to level up in skills and responsibility. • Access for all: Don’t gatekeep. Give everyone the same shot to thrive. 3. Pay What They’re Worth • Respect their value: Competitive pay isn’t a bonus - it’s the baseline. Undervalue people, and you lose them. 4. Balance is Power • Flexibility is the future: Time is currency. Respect their personal lives as much as their output. • Support > Pressure: Build a culture that lets people take care of themselves without guilt. 5. Well-being is Non-Negotiable • Safety is everything: From mental health to physical spaces, make sure they know they’re protected. 6. Feedback That Hits • Guide, don’t micromanage: Feedback should empower growth, not tick a box. • Open up the floor: Honest conversations build stronger teams. 7. Empowerment Through Trust • Let them own it: Autonomy isn’t just freedom - it’s a vote of confidence in their skills. • Push for bold ideas: Back their risks with resources and belief. 8. Recognition With Depth • Make it personal: A thank-you isn’t enough. Show them you see the real work behind the scenes. • Celebrate like it matters: Forget cookie-cutter celebrations. Honour wins in ways that reflect your team’s energy. The extras are surface-level. The essence is what sticks. When you nail the fundamentals - respect, fairness, and opportunity - you’re not just building a team. You’re building culture. Something real, something lasting. 💡Reno Perry

Culture Eats Strategy, But Rituals Feed Culture We’ve all heard the phrase “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” But what’s rarely discussed is what actually feeds culture. The answer isn’t values posters or town hall speeches: it’s rituals. Rituals are the repeatable, observable behaviors that shape how people think, act, and relate. Demo days, retrospectives, learning logs; these aren’t soft touches. They’re operational infrastructure. They create rhythm, normalize reflection, and build trust through repetition. If you want transformation to stick, don’t just declare values. Design rituals that reinforce them. Because culture isn’t what you say, it’s what you repeat. And repetition builds belief. Strategy sets direction. Culture sets behavior. Rituals make it stick. #OrganizationalCulture #LeadershipDesign #TransformationTools #RitualsMatter #CultureByDesign

Strategy is not a document or a plan. It is a disciplined sequence of leadership moves. Many leaders jump straight to planning and execution. But strategic leadership requires a deeper progression. My friend and Strategy.Inc cofounder Timothy Timur Tiryaki, PhD structures this progression into seven steps in his forthcoming book "Leading with Strategy." I find that sequence both practical and intellectually honest. Unlearn. Strategic work often begins with subtraction. Questioning inherited assumptions about markets, growth, leadership, even success itself. Without unlearning, we simply optimize yesterday. Rethink. Strategy is no longer just competitive positioning. It is reimagining how value is created through culture, business models, and transformation. That requires systems thinking, not isolated initiatives. Discover. Leaders need a North Star. Purpose, identity, and inner compass are not soft elements. They are directional anchors that shape real choices. Design. Strategy becomes architecture. Coherent choices, aligned systems, and clear logic. Not fragmented projects, but an integrated whole. Deepen. The hardest part. Navigating paradoxes and tensions instead of resolving them too quickly. Mining conflict for insight. Staying with complexity long enough to learn. Execute. Clarity must move. Strategy only exists when it changes behavior, resource allocation, and daily decisions. Evolve. Foresight is disciplined preparation. Especially in an age shaped by AI, leaders must cultivate the capability to anticipate and adapt. What I appreciate about this framework is that it connects reflection with action, identity with performance, and thinking with doing. Strategic leadership becomes a meaningful practice, not just a title or ritual. === Tim's book, "Leading with Strategy" launches on March 3 and can already be preordered through the usual channels. If you are serious about strengthening your own strategic leadership, this book deserves a place on your reading list.

Everyone loves to talk about the strategy behind M&A deals. But the thing I’ve learned watching FMCG leaders up close? Deals don’t fail because of bad strategy. They fail because of people. It’s never the financial model that breaks first — it’s leadership misalignment. I see it happen all the time in FMCG — especially in Private Equity backed environments. The model looks perfect on paper: → Acquire a few fast-growing brands → Roll them into a global portfolio → Drive efficiencies, cost synergies, market expansion But then the integration starts — and suddenly things look very different. Because what the spreadsheet doesn’t tell you is: → The founder isn’t used to quarterly board meetings with EBITDA pressure → The CMO is still running a startup playbook in a scaled organization → The CEO doesn’t align with the go-to-market model in a new geography → The commercial leaders can’t navigate two different company cultures merging overnight And this happens more than most will admit. In fact — Bain & Company data shows 70% of M&A deals underperform expectations. And culture is one of the top 3 reasons. In the FMCG space — where brands carry legacy pride and deeply embedded ways of working — leadership integration is no longer “important.” It’s non-negotiable. Great M&A outcomes today don’t just come from smart strategy. They come from: → Leadership teams that trust each other faster than the market moves → Leaders who can flex between entrepreneurial scrappiness and corporate discipline → People who know when to protect brand identity — and when to evolve it And here’s what I tell my clients: If leadership alignment is not your #1 risk mitigation strategy in M&A — you’re not just betting on growth. You’re betting on luck. The smartest investors I work with in FMCG? They’ve learned this the hard way. They’re doing culture diligence as seriously as financial diligence. They’re assessing leadership “integration readiness” before the deal closes. They’re hiring talent not just for operational excellence — but for the ability to navigate ambiguity, pressure, and transformation. Because the future of FMCG M&A won’t be won by the best strategy. It will be won by the best people. Drop me a message — I’m always up for a conversation on building high performing teams. #FMCG #ExecutiveSearch #PrivateEquity #MergersAndAcquisitions #Leadership #CultureIntegration #ConsumerGoods #HiringStrategy

This is serious. Many #executives love the strategy conversation, but disappear when it is time to own the outcomes. When execution fails, the story quietly becomes “delivery struggled” instead of “decisions upstream created impossible conditions.” #Projectleaders then inherit the mess: unclear priorities, conflicting sponsors, shifting scope, and invisible politics. They are expected to rescue the strategy in real time, yet they were shut out of the room where the strategy was shaped. That is not leadership. That is a broken system. The scary truth is that this divide is expensive at a global scale. The Project Management Institute has reported that organizations waste about 9.9 percent of every dollar because of poor project performance and that the cost of poor value delivery runs into the trillions annually.  𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐭, 𝐰𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐬. What makes it worse is the taboo. Too many leaders are afraid to admit they do not actually know how to close the strategy-to-execution gap. So we do the corporate performance ritual: new slogans, new dashboards, new PMO names, same disconnect. Let us do something different. Let us get honest and learn together. Share one practical move you have seen work to close the divide. For example: decision rights that are public, #sponsors held to outcome metrics not status updates, project leaders included in strategy design, one shared value scoreboard, or a governance rhythm that forces cross-functional alignment. Drop your best idea in the comments. I will pull the strongest themes into the next post in this series. #FolaElevates #StrategytoExecution #StrategicProjectIntelligence

I’m hearing more and more global development organizations eyeing mergers and acquisitions as payment freezes trigger an industry shakeout – but what strategic framework should you use to evaluate deals when your survival depends on getting it right? Abt Global's Kathleen Flanagan cuts straight to the core: "The number one thing about what you do, whether you pick a JV, whether you pick an acquisition, is what is your strategy as an organization?” She broke down with me, Christopher Hirst, Chris LeGrand and Kevin Murphy 3 strategic approaches that work in today's constrained environment: - Buy client access: Abt's Australian acquisition targeted direct pipeline to Australia's development funding – faster than building relationships organically - Acquire missing capabilities: Their recent tech company purchase brought specialized skills that would take years to develop internally - Scale for financial returns: Expanding operations to achieve the scale needed to qualify for larger procurements and reduce cost per project One example? It might sound counterintuitive, but Abt acquired a technology firm with zero international development experience, betting the company would be "super excited to leverage their capabilities into the development sector" through Abt's existing health programs. This reflects the sector's broader evolution. As traditional funding shrinks, organizations are making cross-sector bets and acquiring non-traditional capabilities to diversify revenue streams. The bottom line for leadership teams: stop chasing deals that just make you bigger. Start with brutal clarity about whether you're buying time, access, or capabilities you can't build. #GlobalDevelopment #MergersAndAcquisitions #Finance #USAID