Anastasiia Shevchenko
Company without strategy is wasteful. Strategy without execution is theory.
0.93. Not 1.
It usually starts with a conversation about the challenge. I ask you to tell me what you find relevant — industry, organisation, status quo, resources, bottlenecks. Up to two meetings.
Then I'll ask for reading material (strategy docs, operating model) and/or a week embedded in daily work, to develop practical understanding rather than theoretical. NDA if it makes sense.
I come back with two or three hypotheses I'd build if we continue. This is the decision point for both of us. If we see eye to eye, we continue. If not, no harm done.
About a third of the way in, I ask for an operational right-hand — someone who knows the organisation, the red tape, the policies. Ideally someone I can hand over to as the work proves itself.
My involvement is usually 3.5 months to 3 years.
The work tends to come from three kinds of company.
Startups — when the idea is still being shaped. The work is closest to building alongside, almost a CPO function. I love this kind of work, but it asks for deep embedding rather than a clean engagement shape, so it has to be the right fit on both sides.
Scaleups — companies that have survived the startup years and are now in the messy, money-burning phase where everyone is doing everything. They're usually looking for clarity. A north star, a portfolio decision, or a culture change that stops the everyone-does-anything pattern.
Corporations — the old product is dying or dead, and the company needs to build something new. The internal culture can't generate it, and hiring full-time talent feels like a problem they don't know how to manage. The engagement is usually about building the new thing without disrupting the existing one.