BUILD · 90 Days
Build the strategy.
Make it defensible.
Four months to a complete, validated strategy with a 12-month operating plan. Built with your leadership team. Stress-tested before the market does it for you. Board-ready when we're done.
validated strategy
with leadership
at completion
When BUILD Fits
Three situations where a real strategy is the work.
You need a defensible strategy for the board or investors.
The board has asked for a clear strategy. An investor needs to see one. The strategy you have is either out of date or never had the rigor to survive scrutiny. You need a complete, validated, board-ready package built on real evidence and tested logic.
The market or the company has changed and the strategy hasn't caught up.
A material shift happened. New competitors, regulatory change, technology disruption, leadership transition, post-merger integration. The strategy that worked is no longer the right one, and you need to build the new one with the discipline the situation demands.
You've done the diagnosis. Now you need the build.
You ran a SPRINT, or you already know what the real problem is. The clarity is there. What's missing is the validated strategy itself: the choices made, the trade-offs explicit, the operating plan built, and the team committed.
The Rhythm
Four months. Four phases. One real strategy.
BUILD runs in a 4-month cadence with regular working sessions and structured analytical work between them. Each phase produces a finished output that the next phase builds on.
Frame
Define the strategic problem with precision. Map the choices the team must make. Surface the assumptions each one rests on. Establish the criteria for what a good strategy looks like for this organization.
Decide/Commit
Make the strategic choices. Commit to a where-to-play and how-to-win. Build the validated business model. Test the logic against real evidence. Trade-offs are made explicit and signed off by the team.
Stress-Test
Pressure-test the strategy through structured stress test sessions. What breaks it? What would competitors do? What signals would tell us we're wrong? Refine the strategy until it survives the stress.
Operationalize
Translate strategy into a 12-month implementation plan with priorities, sensing signposts, and accountabilities. Package the work for the board, the team, and the operating cadence going forward.
What You Get
Five deliverables.
One complete strategy.
BUILD produces the full set of artifacts a CEO and board need to commit, communicate, and execute on a strategy. Each one is built to be used, not filed.
Strategy Cascade (To-Be)
The complete strategic logic from winning aspiration through where-to-play, how-to-win, capabilities, and management systems. Each level connected to the next and explicitly tested.
Validated Business Model
A working business model showing how the strategy creates and captures value. Tested against real customer evidence, market dynamics, and operational capacity.
12-Month Operating Plan
The strategic priorities translated into actionable initiatives, with accountabilities, timelines, and signpost milestones. Designed to drive quarterly leadership reviews.
Stress-Test Documentation
The stress-test sessions documented: the assumptions tested, the failure modes identified, the refinements made. Provides an audit trail giving the strategy credibility under scrutiny.
Board-Ready Package
A complete strategy presentation designed for board approval. Crisp, defensible, and built to answer the questions the board will actually ask, not the ones the team hopes they will.
Each BUILD includes a Strategy Arcade session: a structured scenario exercise where the leadership team plays the strategy against shocks, competitors, and surprises before launch. It surfaces weak assumptions while there is time to fix them. Read more about Strategy Arcade.
What BUILD Isn't
BUILD is not a strategy diagnostic.
It's the build itself. BUILD assumes you know roughly what the problem is and that you're committed to producing a validated strategy. If you need to clarify the problem first, that's SPRINT. If you need a fast read on whether deeper work even is required, that's PRIME.
If you already have a sound strategy and need ongoing execution discipline, that's SYSTEM.
BUILD FAQ
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CEOs who already know the real problem and need a complete, validated strategy with an operating plan they can defend to a board or commit to with confidence.
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A future-state strategy cascade, a validated business model, a 12-month operating plan, stress-testing through scenario sessions, and a board-ready package.
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A structured scenario session where the leadership team plays the strategy against shocks, surprises, and adversaries before launch. It surfaces weak assumptions while there is still time to adjust them (read more).
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Yes, when the CEO already has clarity on the problem and the team has the right context. Some BUILDs start with a one-week diagnostic instead of a full SPRINT.
Ready to build a strategy that holds up?
BUILD is the engagement for CEOs ready to commit to a real strategy with the rigor to survive board scrutiny and market pressure. The Fit Call is where we figure out if BUILD is the right starting point.