Best of LinkedIn: Strategy & Consulting CW 38/ 39

00:00:00: Provided by Thomas Algeier and Frenis, based on the most relevant LinkedIn posts about strategy and consulting.

00:00:05: in CW-Thirty-Eight and Thirty-Nine, Frenis specializes in B-to-B market research for strategy and consulting teams with a focus on tech and ICT.

00:00:15: Welcome to the deep dive.

00:00:16: Our mission today, well, it's pretty straightforward.

00:00:19: Give you that shortcut to the critical strategic knowledge.

00:00:21: We're talking trends, shaping things for M&A, PE, VC, and consulting leaders, all distilled from the front lines of LinkedIn, specifically calendar weeks thirty-eight and thirty-nine.

00:00:32: Yeah, and it's an interesting snapshot because the sources we looked at, they're not about theory.

00:00:36: It's all very much focused on immediate applied action.

00:00:39: We're seeing, I'd say, three huge themes intersecting and dominating the conversation right now.

00:00:44: There's corporate resilience, how to handle these ongoing global shocks.

00:00:47: Then there's the urgent need for real AI governance.

00:00:50: And finally, the big one, geopolitics, just completely rewriting global business models.

00:00:54: OK, let's unpack that straight away.

00:00:56: It's starting with corporate resilience.

00:00:58: What's fascinating here, I think, is this tension.

00:01:01: Leaders see the problem, the uncertainty, but they're actually responding with confidence.

00:01:06: Janet Truncale observed what was at.

00:01:08: fifty-seven percent of global CEOs expect all this geopolitical and economic uncertainty to last well beyond a year.

00:01:16: But they're not freezing up.

00:01:17: They're doubling down on transformation.

00:01:18: Right.

00:01:19: That finding is is really key.

00:01:21: We saw something pretty similar in Jad Shimoli's CEO Outlook survey.

00:01:25: CEO confidence actually rising significantly up to eighty-three out of a hundred.

00:01:30: Even though, like you said, they fully acknowledge this persistent uncertainty, it feels like the confidence itself is the strategy.

00:01:37: It's a choice.

00:01:38: Aggressively adapt, reposition the organization now, rather than just, well, waiting for some return to stability that might never come.

00:01:45: But is that genuine confidence, or is it more like mandatory corporate optimism?

00:01:49: Because adapting means fixing the organization, not just tweaking financial models.

00:01:53: That's exactly where the human element really comes into play.

00:01:57: Christian Roche pointed out, For major transformations like ERP rollouts, the whole focus has to shift.

00:02:04: He highlighted three habits that are basically non-negotiable.

00:02:07: First, focus on the whole system before you jump to tactical fixes.

00:02:11: A problem here might just be a symptom of something over there.

00:02:13: Right.

00:02:14: Second, prioritize adaptive plans.

00:02:17: Not perfect, rigid ones that, you know, break the minute something changes.

00:02:21: Yeah.

00:02:21: And finally, focus on building resilience in people.

00:02:25: not just managing them through some change curve process.

00:02:27: That focus on the psychological side, that's huge.

00:02:30: Mark Dior like echoed that, didn't he?

00:02:32: Saying success now really hinges on recognizing that emotional and psychological infrastructure that's become the critical determinant.

00:02:39: After years of crisis, this pandemic fatigue everyone talks about, it's a serious operational risk now.

00:02:45: You can't transform if your people are just burnt out.

00:02:47: It's

00:02:47: exactly right.

00:02:48: Resilience needs to be structural too.

00:02:50: So, shifting to that foundational risk side, Michael Harding provided a blueprint centered on business continuity management, the art and science of it.

00:02:59: For anyone listening in an executive role, the key takeaway is that eighty twenty rule.

00:03:03: Spend eighty percent of your time really analyzing and shoring up the twenty percent of operations that are absolutely critical.

00:03:11: The things they keep the lights on.

00:03:12: And on the technical side of protecting that twenty percent, well, that's where compliance frameworks come in.

00:03:16: Erin Lange talked about the twelve steps for implementing ISO.

00:03:19: twenty seven thousand or one.

00:03:21: The takeaway there seems to be, look, there are no real shortcuts to compliance.

00:03:25: The only shortcut is using a proven standard approach so you avoid the common really expensive mistakes.

00:03:30: Yeah.

00:03:31: Commitment, resources, they're not optional.

00:03:33: They're just prerequisites for security resilience.

00:03:35: And

00:03:35: before we move off resilience, maybe a quick look internally, at the consulting world itself, which is driving a lot of this transformation work, Niha Cabra had an interesting synthesis on why ex-consultants often make successful CEOs.

00:03:50: It's those habits they learned from day one, right?

00:03:52: Top-down communication, that discipline of brutal synthesis, getting to the core point fast and always thinking impact.

00:03:59: That translates directly to executive leadership.

00:04:02: But then on the flip side, Luke Smyers pointed out a major inefficiency within consulting.

00:04:08: that kind of undermines that impact focus.

00:04:10: He mentioned cross-selling often just becomes this reactive monthly scramble for more revenue.

00:04:16: basically improvisation, not a deliberate planned portfolio optimization design.

00:04:21: That

00:04:21: concept portfolio optimization design that's critical.

00:04:24: if you're in PE or a consulting firm listening to this, it means intentionally mapping out your services to perfectly align with your client's life cycle, their potential value moments, making sure each engagement naturally leads to the next value add service.

00:04:37: So designing growth in, not chasing it down reactively.

00:04:40: Exactly.

00:04:41: Growth has to be designed into the model, not scrambled for at the end of the month.

00:04:44: Okay, here's where things get, well, really interesting, connecting back to that systemic risk idea.

00:04:49: AI governance.

00:04:50: The sources we saw show this space is undergoing a massive, almost immediate shift.

00:04:55: And it's because of one specific thing, the rise of agentic AI.

00:04:59: That's it.

00:05:00: Dr.

00:05:00: Bernhardt-Garris shared insights on this.

00:05:03: These agentic systems, AI that can autonomously pursue goals.

00:05:08: coordinate tasks, they're fundamentally challenging our traditional management structures.

00:05:12: A clear majority, I think it was sixty-nine percent of experts surveyed, believe we need entirely new governance approaches right now.

00:05:20: Governance can't just focus on static inputs anymore.

00:05:23: It has to monitor these real-time autonomous decision paths.

00:05:27: And the urgency of getting that governance right?

00:05:29: Well, it's highlighted by a statistic that frankly sounds alarming.

00:05:32: Mark Byershader delivered this finding.

00:05:34: Ninety-five percent of GNI pilots deliver zero measurable P&L impact.

00:05:38: Zero.

00:05:39: If you're an M&A or PE evaluating a company's AI strategy, that failure rate, that should set off alarm bells.

00:05:44: And it's not because the models themselves are broken, the failures are almost entirely organizational.

00:05:49: The sources point consistently to a critical lack of governance, orchestration, alignment.

00:05:54: when AI goes from being a, you know, helpful co-pilot to an active actor in the organization.

00:06:01: Well, the organization has to be ready to manage that.

00:06:03: We're seeing this bottleneck everywhere.

00:06:05: Thomas Conerman noted, even where Gen AI could unlock maybe thirty percent efficiency, like in the auto supply chain, still sixty-eight percent of projects just stall out at the proof of concept stage.

00:06:14: They can't scale.

00:06:15: So if the tech is basically ready, but the governance isn't, how do you fix the organizational structure to catch up?

00:06:23: Well, Jay Clean proposes a pretty compelling solution, basically consolidate the worlds of privacy, data governance, and responsible tech.

00:06:30: Bring them all together into a single, ideally automated digital trust office.

00:06:34: And he suggests it should probably be led by the chief privacy officer.

00:06:37: It's about simplifying synthesizing capabilities from frameworks like NIST's AIRMF and really future-proofing governance for massive scale.

00:06:44: Okay, if that's the ideal structure of this digital trust office, what are the biggest roadblocks to actually implementing that?

00:06:51: Because it sounds like a huge cross-functional turf war just waiting to

00:06:55: happen.

00:06:55: That's usually it.

00:06:56: Siloed accountability is a big one and just a lack of real executive buy-in.

00:07:01: Evan Benjamin highlighted a related issue.

00:07:03: He was questioning why ethics and compliance professionals are often absent from board discussions on this.

00:07:09: Especially when, you know, the DOJ is emphasizing boards must develop compliance expertise, particularly around digital risks.

00:07:16: You absolutely need that expertise and mandate right at the top to drive something like a digital trust office down below.

00:07:23: Despite all these hurdles, the actual use of AI, the operational adoption, it's still exploding globally.

00:07:28: Oh, absolutely.

00:07:29: Luca Rampini cited insights from open AI showing usages, well, very practical.

00:07:34: It falls into three main patterns.

00:07:36: There's asking that's about half, forty-nine percent, things like advice, research.

00:07:41: Then there's... Doing forty percent actual task-oriented work like coding drafting emails that sort of thing and then expressing which is about eleven percent.

00:07:50: So AI is getting deeply embedded in how work gets done even while we're struggling to govern the overall strategy

00:07:56: and this whole discussion about strategy and risk.

00:07:58: It leads us right into the biggest external shock.

00:08:00: Everyone's planning for geopolitics.

00:08:02: Yeah Inevitably.

00:08:03: Absolutely.

00:08:04: That's the third major thread we saw.

00:08:07: How geopolitical volatility is just forcing a complete rewrite of global trade and manufacturing

00:08:12: rules.

00:08:13: Asupash Patti's takeaways from the Yale CEO Forum basically confirmed it.

00:08:18: Geopolitics, AI, and the economic outlook.

00:08:21: Still the top three strategic priorities for CEOs everywhere.

00:08:25: And the fragmentation that results, it's intensely complex now.

00:08:29: Benjamin Looters presented findings characterizing geopolitical risks as NAVI.

00:08:34: That's nonlinear, accelerated, volatile, and interconnected.

00:08:38: NAVI.

00:08:38: Yeah.

00:08:39: And it's the I, the interconnectedness, that really demands this faster, more agile response.

00:08:43: The tariff change over here now has these nonlinear, totally unpredictable ripple effects everywhere else.

00:08:48: which demands a fundamental shift in how companies approach their supply chains.

00:08:53: Meagan Martin-Schunberger identified, I think, five key trends shaping global supply chains right now.

00:08:59: Things like the uneven rollout of tariffs, the extreme tightening of rules of origin, and she noted this massive strategic shift.

00:09:06: Firms are now explicitly choosing agility and resilience over just finding the lowest cost place

00:09:11: to make something.

00:09:13: That's a huge departure from what, thirty years of globalization thinking.

00:09:18: It really is.

00:09:18: And if you're shifting supply chains, you absolutely have to talk about enforcement.

00:09:23: KPMG's analysis pointed towards a potentially huge overhaul in customs enforcement, specifically targeting transshipments.

00:09:30: You know, goods routed to avoid higher tariffs with a potential risk of a massive forty percent tariff.

00:09:35: That detail is vital if you're on an M&A or a diligence team.

00:09:38: So customs isn't just like paperwork anymore, it's strategic.

00:09:42: Far from just paperwork.

00:09:44: Georgia Mavropoulos added that customs is actually an often overlooked source of competitive advantage now.

00:09:50: The new edge in global trade, she argues, will come from smarter customs practices integrated right into sourcing, even product design choices, not just handled by some broker at the border after the fact.

00:10:02: Let's maybe look at semiconductors.

00:10:03: It feels like the perfect case study for this geopolitical pressure cooker.

00:10:08: JTUSU highlighted seven forces reshaping that industry.

00:10:11: Geopolitics, obviously, but also huge energy demands, the impact of quantum computing coming down the line.

00:10:17: And you see the capital flowing in response to this push for digital sovereignty.

00:10:22: Tiago Devesa gave a concrete example.

00:10:24: Cross-border mega deals in semis, they've sharply shifted away from China towards the U.S.

00:10:28: really since twenty twenty two.

00:10:30: We're seeing these massive of new fabs being built TSMC in Arizona, Samsung down in Texas.

00:10:35: And this reflects that strategy.

00:10:36: Sarah Martin's gums of verse, where you see Gulf sovereign wealth funds using their capital to literally become architects of global AI infrastructure, really pushing that digital sovereignty agenda.

00:10:46: OK, shifting gears slightly, moving into the operational side.

00:10:50: The LinkedIn content we curated on go to market strategy, it highlights this necessary pivot toward, well, extreme discipline.

00:10:58: What really stands out in the GTM space for our M&A, PE, and consulting listeners right now?

00:11:04: I think the pervasive theme, and it's clearly driven by economic headwinds, is precision over volume.

00:11:10: For anyone with BDB size or consulting firms in their portfolio, the sources stress this again and again.

00:11:16: Buyer committees are shrinking.

00:11:17: They demand simpler more value dense sales motion.

00:11:21: Less complexity.

00:11:21: Exactly.

00:11:22: Operationally, the entire focus has pretty much shifted from high volume net new customer acquisition to deep expansion retention and just ruthless turn prevention within your existing accounts.

00:11:33: Grotes now has to be mined, really, from the base you already have.

00:11:36: So this isn't just a sales team issue.

00:11:38: It's about RevOps, GTM engineering, creating the systems that support that retention focus.

00:11:43: What does that convergence look like on the ground?

00:11:44: It means data quality is just, it's not optionally more.

00:11:48: It's the absolute non-negotiable prerequisite for any AI uplift, any strategic decision-making.

00:11:54: Operators are now insisting on clean inputs, robust governance, precise targeting right down to the account level.

00:12:02: So the convergence you mentioned, RevOps, GTM-Obs, GTM Engineering, it's happening around designing resilient systems.

00:12:08: systems with clear ownership, aiming for decision-oriented instruments, tools embedded right in people's routines, rather than just flooding executives with yet more dashboards they don't look at.

00:12:19: And this kind of circles us right back to that internal crisis maybe facing consulting firms trying to sell all this transformation.

00:12:25: Derek Gibbs was pretty blunt about it.

00:12:27: He noted the industry faces a classic innovators dilemma.

00:12:31: They sell transformation, but they're struggling to transform themselves.

00:12:34: And the result is their expertise is actually decaying faster than they can accumulate it.

00:12:39: Gives pointed out that, you know, six month old expertise in AI deployment or GTM optimization, it's effectively obsolete already.

00:12:46: Wow.

00:12:46: That high speed obsolescence is a massive threat to the whole legacy consulting model.

00:12:50: And the GTM Insights seem to confirm this.

00:12:53: The early winners in this really precise AI-enabled GTM world.

00:12:58: They aren't necessarily the partners with the most years under their belt.

00:13:01: They're the ones willing to experiment, to learn a completely new playbook basically every week.

00:13:06: That readiness to iterate fast, as Gibbs put it, it's becoming a great equalizer for smaller, maybe more agile firms.

00:13:13: So wrapping it up, this deep dive, it's really shown a consulting, M&A, and PE landscape defined by, say, three key pillars.

00:13:20: First, strategic adaptation, with a real focus on human resilience.

00:13:24: Second, the urgent need for rigorous governance, especially for these autonomous, agentic AI systems.

00:13:30: And third, this fundamental capital-intensive rewiring of global trade.

00:13:34: all driven by geopolitical forces.

00:13:36: If you enjoyed this deep dive, new episodes drop every two weeks.

00:13:39: Also, check out our other editions, specifically focused on private equity, venture capital, and M&A.

00:13:44: Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into the latest strategic intelligence.

00:13:48: And yeah, reminder to subscribe for more insights tailored right to your field.

00:13:52: And maybe a final provocative thought to leave you with.

00:13:55: Given that consensus that the world doesn't wait, what's the one foundational piece of your organization's infrastructure?

00:14:01: Maybe it's data quality, maybe governance structure, maybe key talent.

00:14:05: What's the one piece that's currently hindering your speed of response to that next inevitable shock, whether it's geopolitical or technological?