The most expensive pile of paper in the company

In most companies there is a folder somewhere with a strategy in it. Well researched, neatly visualised, developed by a well-known consultancy. And in most cases: unread since the kick-off meeting.

This is not an isolated case. Strategy processes do not fail because of bad ideas. They fail because there is a gap between the finished slide and the first real step in the organisation that nobody closes.

Why this gap opens up

Classic strategy consulting ends where things get uncomfortable. The concept is in place, the presentation has been given, the mandate is fulfilled. What happens afterwards – resistance in middle management, conflicting goals between departments, the perfectly ordinary day-to-day business that tries to stifle every change – is no longer part of the assignment.

Yet that is exactly where it is decided whether a strategy becomes a result or a folder on the shelf.

What banking transformation since 1990 teaches about this

In the restructuring of Volksbank Wien, the task was not to write a plan and hand it over. The end result was the early repayment of the state’s equity stake. That was not a slide. That was implementation work from 2019 to 2022, in which the strategy had to prove itself against reality almost every day.

The difference from a classic strategy project: responsibility for the result, not just for the concept.

What this means for your company

You do not need a fourth consulting service called “strategy consulting”. You need the right answer to the question of where your company stands right now:

Is a concrete change on the horizon – a restructuring, a realignment, a moment of crisis? Then, as an interim manager, I take on operational responsibility and implement, rather than merely recommend.

Is it about a profound change – new structures, new processes, a new culture? Then, as a transformation & change adviser, I accompany the entire journey, from the first analysis through to embedding the change.

Do you need an experienced, independent voice that thinks things through with you before a decision is made? Then Sparring & Advisory is the right framework – ongoing, as a sparring partner on equal terms, without consultant jargon.

In all three cases, strategy is the starting point. But it is never the product. The product is the result.

Straight talk to finish

If someone sells you a strategy without responsibility for its implementation, you are buying a risk: the risk that it stays on paper. Anyone who has been responsible for transformations in banks over decades knows that the value does not lie in the analysis, but in the last step, which most people never take.