The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership | Critical Thinking | Problem-Solving

This discussion examines how senior leaders can navigate complexity, technology, and organizational change without losing clarity of purpose. Drawing on experience across global consumer brands, logistics, and technology, Louisa Loran outlines a practical approach to leadership that extends beyond execution into shaping direction.
Key insights from the conversation:
First, career progression at senior levels depends less on exceeding assigned tasks and more on articulating distinct value. Advancement requires a clear answer to a simple question: why should this individual be selected to shape the future of the business? Without that clarity, performance remains reactive and interchangeable.
Second, leadership in change environments requires understanding how people respond to disruption. Resistance is rarely personal. Effective leaders identify who is ready to move, who needs context, and who requires time, adjusting their approach accordingly rather than forcing alignment.
Third, many professionals remain overly focused on activity rather than contribution. Busyness often reflects adherence to process rather than progress toward outcomes. Leaders must continually reassess whether their efforts are advancing strategic objectives or simply maintaining momentum.
Fourth, the ability to think independently is becoming more important as technology advances. AI can accelerate research, synthesis, and articulation, but it does not replace judgment. Those who rely on it without strengthening their own reasoning risk becoming indistinguishable from the tools they use.
Fifth, organizations frequently approach AI adoption without sufficient clarity on their identity. Efficiency gains alone are insufficient. The critical question is what proprietary knowledge or capability should be developed and retained, and what can be commoditized through external tools.
Loran also introduces four reinforcing leadership behaviors: setting a sufficiently high ambition, expanding perspective through curiosity, making clear and timely decisions, and consistently embodying the direction being set. These are not episodic actions but daily practices that determine whether leaders shape change or respond to it.
Underlying the conversation is a consistent principle: leadership begins with self-awareness. Without a clear understanding of one's own strengths and perspective, it is difficult to remain open, to adapt, or to lead others through uncertainty.
Get Louisa's book, Leadership Anatomy in Motion, here: https://tinyurl.com/3a97vt5c
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Linda Hill, Professor at Harvard Business School, discussed how leadership must adapt to enable innovation in complex organizations. Drawing on research and fieldwork across companies such as Pixar and Pfizer, the conversation reframes leadership as the work of building environments where solutions are co-created rather than directed.
Several core ideas stand out:
Leadership for innovation begins with purpose, not vision. When outcomes are uncertain, the leader's role is to define the problem and create conditions for others to contribute to solving it.
Performance depends less on individual talent and more on how talent works together. Organizations that encourage debate, surface differences, and refine ideas through iteration are more likely to produce meaningful results.
Culture is the primary barrier to scaling innovation. Many organizations generate ideas but fail to implement them due to weak decision-making, reluctance to challenge assumptions, and difficulty stopping unproductive work.
Effective leaders operate beyond their own organizations. Progress increasingly requires building partnerships and aligning broader ecosystems to access capabilities and move at sufficient speed.
Discipline remains essential. Leaders must set clear priorities, evaluate work against real problems, and create the conditions for candid discussion, including ending initiatives that are not working.
The discussion also underscores that leadership is both practical and personal. In uncertain environments, how leaders manage themselves—how they communicate, invite input, and respond to pressure—directly shapes outcomes.
For senior professionals, the implication is clear: innovation is not constrained by ideas or technology alone, but by the quality of leadership applied to turning them into reality.
Get Linda's book, Genius at Scale, here: https://tinyurl.com/4np2yc9t
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In this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic interview with the author of Madison Avenue Makeover: The Transformation of Huge and the Redefinition of the Ad Agency Business, Michael Farmer. He also wrote the award-winning Madison Avenue Manslaughter, an inside view of fee-cutting clients, profit-hungry owners, and declining ad agencies (Third Edition, 2019).
In this episode, Michael speaks about the time he worked for McKinsey, Bain, and BCG, and the differences between the three consulting firms. He also shared his advice for those aspiring to build their consulting firm and discussed the technique that helped him write his first book, Madison Avenue Manslaughter. Finally, Michael shared his experience of helping in the Transformation of a Creative Ad Agency (Huge).
Michael Farmer is Chairman and CEO of Farmer & Company LLC, a strategy consulting firm for advertisers and agencies. He also serves as Professor of Branding and Integrated Communications at The City College of New York (CCNY). He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and was previously a Director of Bain & Company.
Connect with Michael here: https://www.farmerandco.com/
Get Michael's book here: https://www.amazon.com/Madison-Avenue-Makeover-transformation-redefinition/dp/1911687646
Madison Avenue Makeover: The Transformation of Huge and the Redefinition of the Ad Agency Business. Michael Farmer.
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Jim Hemerling is Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group's San Francisco office and a leader in the firm's People & Organization and Transformation Practices. He has been the leader of BCG Greater China and is a Fellow of the BCG Henderson Institute. His work with clients and his research focuses on holistic human-centric approaches to organizational transformation. Jim is a co-author of BCG's new book - Beyond Great: Nine Strategies for Thriving in an Era of Social Tension, Economic Nationalism, and Technological Revolution.
Global companies remain hamstrung by organizational forms that leave them mired in bureaucracy and slow to respond to changing needs. To grow in the volatility of the 21st century, firms must go beyond the familiar matrix structure and reconfigure themselves in more flexible ways. COVID-19 and its myriad effects on ways of working will force leaders to rethink how they build teams and acquire, upskill, and retain talent.
Hemerling and his colleagues launched a study of dozens of global companies to determine successful leadership strategies and found that, though seemingly obvious, the best leaders put people and their needs first, rather than regarding them as resources to exploit.
Hemerling and coauthors write about these topics in Beyond Great: Nine Strategies for Thriving in an Era of Social Tension, Economic Nationalism, and Technological Revolution (October 6, PublicAffairs). BCG's first major book in years, it will redefine strategy in the post-COVID era.
Extending their research far beyond the expected Silicon Valley players, Hemerling and his coauthors at BCG looked at over fifty companies and interviewed hundreds of CEOs across sectors and geographies.
The trends:
By 2030, companies around the world will have some eight-five million skilled jobs unfilled—a gap that will exact a severe economic toll;
In a 2018 BCG survey of 366,000 people from two hundred countries, ranked "good work-life balance" as much more important than "financial compensation"
Over 40 percent of hiring managers anticipated that nontraditional educational criteria—like a coding "boot camp"—would soon be just as good a credential as a college degree when evaluating candidates.  
For incumbents to thrive amidst these challenges, they must deploy new strategies that touch every part of their business, from value propositions and global supply chains to leadership and social responsibility goals. A huge part of this is leadership and the future of work—how to retain employees, attract top talent, and navigate tension when global forces are changing attitudes about work and life.
Examples of innovative leadership:
Deemphasizing hierarchy encourages employees to take ownership of projects and propel them forward without bothering to seek approval from bosses;
Exploiting the gray area of informal conversations that typically take place between colleagues allows employees to break free from their daily work and innovate;
Gamifying candidate screening and identifying talent via online competitions and hackathons to appeal to a new generation.
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Marc Canal, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, examines how long-term economic progress is built and what current shifts in AI, demographics, and productivity mean for senior leaders. He explains that consulting is less about analysis than it appears and more about trust, judgment, and the ability to frame relevant questions. Building a small number of strong relationships is more valuable than broad exposure, particularly when developing a client base.
Organizations, he notes, are inherently messy. What appears structured from the outside is the result of distributed decisions and constant adjustment. The role of leadership is not to eliminate this complexity, but to bring enough structure to make effective decisions. A key differentiator is the ability to connect macro trends such as technology, demographics, and geopolitics to specific business choices. This broader perspective is often undervalued but increasingly expected by clients.
On AI, Canal emphasizes that most skills are not replaced but reshaped. Writing, analysis, and coding become shared capabilities between humans and machines, shifting the premium toward judgment and application. Two areas stand out: relationship-based leadership skills and practical AI literacy. He also cautions against over-reliance on AI in core thinking processes. Insight often emerges through iteration, particularly in writing, and this discipline remains essential.
Drawing on his research, Canal argues that a future of sustained global prosperity is achievable. Historical growth rates suggest that lifting living standards broadly is feasible, but not automatic. It requires continued investment in productivity, technology adoption, and human capital.
The discussion closes with a consistent theme: progress depends on choices. Leaders who combine long-term perspective with disciplined execution are best positioned to shape outcomes.
Get Marc's book here, A Century of Plenty, here: https://tinyurl.com/mryykcxc
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