Is a gap between strategic planning and execution actually common at board level?

Very. Protiviti and Broadridge's 2024 Global Board Governance Survey found 85% of board members and C-suite executives rate strategic planning and execution as a top board priority, yet 29% don't believe their organisation has an effective process for it. C-suite respondents (61%) are notably less confident than board members (75%) that the process can even adapt to market changes.

How many companies actually rate themselves as good at strategy execution?

Fewer than half. Harvard Business Review's 2022 research found 60% of companies rate themselves as weak on strategy execution, meaning most leadership teams already know this is a live problem and not a hypothetical one.

What's the classic evidence that strategy formulation and strategy execution are different skills?

Robert Kaplan's Balanced Scorecard research, still one of the most-cited findings in the field, found roughly 90% of organisations fail to execute their strategies successfully, despite having formulated genuinely sound plans.

Why does the board think execution is on track when management doesn't feel that way?

This is a known, measured pattern rather than just a communication gap: the same Protiviti/Broadridge research found boards are consistently more confident in the strategic process than the C-suite who has to actually run it, which is often the first sign the plan isn't decision-ready at the operating level.

What does 'strategic planning and alignment' actually involve in practice?

Board-ready prioritisation and roadmapping, decision rights that stop every call escalating to the CEO, and, where relevant, post-merger or cross-cultural alignment work when two leadership groups need to operate as one team.

How long does an engagement like this typically run?

It varies with scope. Some engagements are a focused strategic-review sprint measured in weeks, while others are a longer installation of decision rights and operating rhythm across a leadership team. The first conversation is about scoping to your actual constraint, not a fixed package.

Do you work with our existing leadership team, or bring in your own people?

Your existing team. The work is designed to build capability into the people already running the business, not to insert an outside team that leaves a gap when the engagement ends.

What does success actually look like at the end of this?

A leadership team with a shared, decision-ready plan and clear decision rights, so hard choices get made once instead of relitigated every quarter, plus a roadmap the team owns and can keep running without ongoing outside input.

Is a gap between strategic planning and execution actually common at board level?

Very. Protiviti and Broadridge's 2024 Global Board Governance Survey found 85% of board members and C-suite executives rate strategic planning and execution as a top board priority, yet 29% don't believe their organisation has an effective process for it. C-suite respondents (61%) are notably less confident than board members (75%) that the process can even adapt to market changes.

How many companies actually rate themselves as good at strategy execution?

Fewer than half. Harvard Business Review's 2022 research found 60% of companies rate themselves as weak on strategy execution, meaning most leadership teams already know this is a live problem and not a hypothetical one.

What's the classic evidence that strategy formulation and strategy execution are different skills?

Robert Kaplan's Balanced Scorecard research, still one of the most-cited findings in the field, found roughly 90% of organisations fail to execute their strategies successfully, despite having formulated genuinely sound plans.

Why does the board think execution is on track when management doesn't feel that way?

This is a known, measured pattern rather than just a communication gap: the same Protiviti/Broadridge research found boards are consistently more confident in the strategic process than the C-suite who has to actually run it, which is often the first sign the plan isn't decision-ready at the operating level.

What does 'strategic planning and alignment' actually involve in practice?

Board-ready prioritisation and roadmapping, decision rights that stop every call escalating to the CEO, and, where relevant, post-merger or cross-cultural alignment work when two leadership groups need to operate as one team.

How long does an engagement like this typically run?

It varies with scope. Some engagements are a focused strategic-review sprint measured in weeks, while others are a longer installation of decision rights and operating rhythm across a leadership team. The first conversation is about scoping to your actual constraint, not a fixed package.

Do you work with our existing leadership team, or bring in your own people?

Your existing team. The work is designed to build capability into the people already running the business, not to insert an outside team that leaves a gap when the engagement ends.

What does success actually look like at the end of this?

A leadership team with a shared, decision-ready plan and clear decision rights, so hard choices get made once instead of relitigated every quarter, plus a roadmap the team owns and can keep running without ongoing outside input.

Consulting Services

Strategic Planning & Alignment

Turning a strategy deck into a plan the leadership team actually owns, shared direction, clear decision rights, and the hard choices made once instead of relitigated every quarter.

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What this covers

Board-ready strategic prioritisation and roadmapping

Post-merger and cross-cultural leadership alignment

Decision rights that free founders and CEOs from every escalation

Results

What changed, in the engagements' own numbers

Pulled directly from the case studies below, nothing here isn't said again in full underneath.

45%

Founder time spent on operational issues decreased by 45% within 6 months

Proof

Inside the work

Real engagements, the constraint, the intervention, and what changed.

Optus: strategic prioritisation

Alignment System

Constraint

A large telecommunications operator needed to cut operational and organisational inefficiencies fast, but had no shared view of which initiatives actually mattered, momentum was spread thin across too many priorities.

Intervention

Ran an accelerated strategic review, surfacing a shortlist of high-value initiatives with material capacity savings and building a continuous-improvement roadmap the management board could act on.

Outcomes

A clear, board-ready shortlist of high-value priorities replaced a scattered initiative list
Capacity freed up for the work that actually moved the business
A continuous-improvement roadmap the leadership team owns going forward

“Stuart is a natural leader with an extraordinary ability to drive initiatives, motivate, develop and empower others by creating a safe environment where they can be themselves.”
VP, Operations & Strategic Delivery, Optus

Investment bank · APAC · post-merger

Confidential engagement

Constraint

By the time Stuart arrived, the post-merger integration had already stalled: two legacy leadership cultures pulling in different directions, decision rights unclear, and execution grinding to a crawl on every front at once.

Intervention

Installed a unified Leadership Operating System, shared direction, clear decision rights, and one operating cadence across the combined executive team, untangling the stalled integration on several fronts in parallel rather than one workstream at a time.

Outcomes

One leadership team, one operating model, the merger stopped feeling like two companies, resolving the deadlock the earlier approach couldn't move past
Decisions that used to stall for weeks now get made in the room
Integration milestones back on track, with board confidence restored

Financial services · securities market · migration

Confidential engagement

Constraint

A high-stakes securities-market migration carried significant regulatory and stakeholder complexity, multiple external parties, compliance obligations that couldn't slip, and competing internal priorities. The leadership group had no shared definition of 'done,' so different stakeholders were quietly working to different finish lines, and the real risk was a compliance miss or a stalled handover nobody noticed until it was too late.

Intervention

Built genuine alignment before building the plan, one shared direction, clear ownership for every workstream, and a needs-led approach that tackled the hardest, highest-risk constraints first instead of the easiest wins, so the plan held up under regulatory scrutiny rather than just looking tidy on a slide.

Outcomes

A diligent, evidence-based path through a complex migration
Stakeholders aligned on priorities and trade-offs
Leaders equipped to hold the standard under pressure

Scale-up · founder-led leadership team

Confidential engagement

Constraint

Every decision still ran through the founder, the leadership team could execute, but couldn't decide without them, and the business had quietly capped its own growth at the founder's bandwidth.

Intervention

Installed clear decision rights and a structured operating rhythm so the leadership team could resolve issues without escalating everything to the founder, freeing the founder to lead as CEO rather than firefight as operator.

Outcomes

Founder time spent on operational issues decreased by 45% within 6 months
Decision turnaround time on key issues reduced by 52% in 3 months
Engagement scores for the leadership team improved by 18 points over 9 months

Mid-market scale-up · strategy refresh

Confidential engagement

Constraint

Growth had come from saying yes to almost everything, the customer and work mix had drifted toward low-margin, non-core business, and nobody had stepped back to ask what the business should actually be selling.

Intervention

Led a strategy refresh that sharpened customer and work selection, clarifying which segments and which work the business should pursue, and which it should walk away from.

Outcomes

Gross margin improved by 4.3 percentage points within 12 months
Win rate in target segments increased from 32% to 47% in 9 months
Revenue from non-core, low-margin work reduced by 36% over 12 months

Proof

What leaders say

Real leaders Stuart has worked with — across telco, financial services, healthcare, supply chain and high-growth firms.

Calm, collected and in control

"Stuart oversaw a major RFP for Optus Wholesale, calm, collected and professional throughout, and he kept the panel on the original timelines with excellent control of the vendors the whole way through. I'd happily work with him again on any initiative."

Matt Pankhurst

Director, Mobile Fleet Products · Optus

Gets things done

"Stuart led a large and complex digital transformation our companies delivered together. He always looked for the best solutions even when there were challenges, and went out of his way to build trust, which was key to getting things done. I'd welcome working with Stuart again."

Keith Meier

Chief Financial Officer · Assurant

Navigates complex change

"Stuart and I partnered on an innovative digital program of change to redesign the repair and upgrade experience for our customers. His professionalism, drive and determination are second to none, and he navigates complex and ambiguous change landscapes with ease."

George Colinard

National Operations Director · JnJ Supply Chain

Conscientious and highly skilled

"Stuart is a conscientious, highly-skilled leader with deep insight into the securities-market industry, an expert in needs analysis, planning and execution, with the ability to find creative solutions to complex problems."

Rakesh Vengayil

Chief Operating Officer, Asia Pacific · Global financial services

Simply one of the best

"Stuart is one of the best program managers I've worked with. Not only does he display all the skills of a good program manager, he also has a technical background that allows him to question solutions and quotes. Stuart thrives on a challenge, is honest, reliable and always has a positive attitude."

Susanna Lui

E2E Business Analyst · Optus

Builds high-performance teams

"Stuart builds high-performance teams and effectively executes strategy by delivering successful programs, keeping everyone aware of progress, status and risks along the way."

Ibrahim Dani

Director, Business Delivery (PMO) · Enterprise delivery

Frequently asked questions

Talk through your situation

A first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing, bring the real constraint, not a polished brief.

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