It started with a strange email. The CEO of a mid-sized agri-processing firm I had supported years earlier wrote: “Mr Strategy, we’ve grown fast. But now, everything feels stuck. We’ve got good people… but somehow, no one knows who’s doing what anymore.” I was curious. This was a high-performing team. Or so it seemed. When I arrived, I started where I always do—diagnosis before prescription. I sat in on meetings. Read the emails. Observed the workflow. Within two days, the pattern was clear: everyone assumed someone else was handling it. It was a culture where no one took responsibility —…
Be the elephant in the boardroom, true leadership doesn’t shout.
True leaders and winners never ask for attention, they get it naturally. In the heart of Murchison Falls National Park, a lone elephant once wandered close to our safari van, no announcement, no trumpet, no need for a spotlight, everyone stopped, everyone looked, and even the lions turned their heads. Because you cannot hide the elephant, not in the wild, not in a room, not in the boardroom. And that’s the problem with today’s obsession with “visibility.” Some folks are busy raising their hands when they should be raising their standards. They want to be seen, heard, and applauded before…
The hidden power broker in corporate governance
When you access boardrooms, you see what you should not have. You learn a lot; all you need is to learn how to keep secrets. I once watched a Board Chair fumble through a 3-hour governance crisis fumbling not because he lacked wisdom, but because he underestimated the one person who could have saved him: the Board Secretary. In case you do not know governance dynamics, here is a secret: the Board Secretary is not your glorified notetaker. She’s the cartel’s lawyer, the keeper of precedent, and the architect of what gets discussed and what conveniently doesn’t. She controls the…
Who evaluates the chair? The Board’s unspoken blind spot
In most boardrooms, one critical question lingers unasked, unanswered, and often unwelcome: “Who evaluates the Chair?” Boards regularly assess the CEO. Some even evaluate themselves as a collective. But when it comes to the Chairperson, the individual who sets the tone, shapes the culture, and steers the board’s effectiveness, silence reigns. And that silence is dangerous. The chair makes or breaks the board The Chairperson is not just a facilitator; they are the heartbeat of the board. Their leadership style influences everything: from how boldly directors speak up, to how effectively the board challenges management, to how strategically it thinks. A weak…
Do not sit in the cockpit if you cannot read a map
A CEO once called me. He said, “Mr. Strategy, we want you to train our board on finance for non-finance directors.” I declined. I told him straight: “That’s not training, it’s charity.” A director who cannot read a balance sheet, interpret financial ratios, or understand the company’s financial heartbeat has no business being near the boardroom. Asking a blind man to guard the national treasury is like asking a blind man to guard the national treasury. Serving on a board is not a decorative appointment. It’s a fiduciary duty. It’s about judgment. It’s about protecting shareholder value. And guess what?…
When strategy meets culture, who wins?
The boardroom was tense. A new CEO had just been hired to lead a regional manufacturing firm that had stagnated for five years. He walked in with a 98-slide strategy deck, fresh from a Big 4 advisory team. It was clean, data-backed, and impressive. Three months in, not a single initiative had taken root. Staff ignored memos. Managers nodded in meetings and did nothing afterward. The CEO fired two department heads. Still, no movement. Six months in, he resigned. Why? Culture chewed through his strategy like a termite in a wooden pillar. Now let me be blunt. Culture always wins.…
