Culture

Drucker’s aphorism ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ neatly highlights one of the common disconnects in business. When decision-makers see culture, strategy, and processes of continual adaptation and change as separate and detached, they introduce unnecessary risks to strategic success and leave opportunities for their competitors to enjoy.

Managing these risks warrants decision-makers get closer to culture, to develop their understanding of it in more nuanced, actionable, and strategically meaningful ways. By letting go of notions of culture popularised in the 20th century and engaging with research based on the substantial advancements pioneered since, teams will be able to not only come to grips with the naturalised “taken-for-grantedness” that constrains them but open up to opportunities their uniqueness provide.

Strategy

While the essence of strategy, making the best choices possible in the face of ambiguity and acting on these, the reality for most who are responsible for making sense of this puzzle and pulling all the pieces together is more difficult than ever.

To survive, organisations must continually learn and create new and dynamic capability.

The demands to adapt require everyone in the organisation to understand, integrate, and action strategic initiatives with degrees of considered judgement and versatility. And while reaching for a competitive position requires careful analysis and commitment of resources, achieving it is a social, political, and cultural endeavour where your people are the centre and your strategy is in everyone’s hands.

Innovation

The world is changing in complexity, at a scale and reach that is astounding. Geopolitics and technology appear to be leading this change yet, underpinning both are innovations bought about by social collaborations that can be traced, codified, and analysed in ways that contribute to our understanding of how some innovations arise and take hold, while others fail to gain traction.

Profiting from the leading-edge of innovation requires collaboration with diverse disciplines not traditionally open to crossing the chasms of their domains. It also calls for an approach to risk that is, somewhat paradoxically, both adventurous and efficient. Finally, and most importantly, it requires new ways of thinking.

Our approach is bold, our capability is different. That’s because innovation doesn’t happen by doing the same things.