You’ve Tried Strategy Before.
It Went Nowhere.

YOUR TEAM NODDED ALONG. NOTHING CAME OF IT.
WAS IT YOUR STRATEGY, YOUR EXECUTION, OR YOUR PEOPLE?

You sat through days of strategic planning — maybe you hired a consultant, maybe you ran it yourself — and walked away with a deck full of insights and a roadmap nobody followed.

That result isn’t inevitable.

Most strategy efforts fail because they skip the hard part: getting capable executives aligned on what's actually true about your business, what you're really choosing, and who's genuinely accountable for making it happen.

I facilitate strategy sessions that force those conversations. No theater. Just your executive team, in a room, working through the decisions you've been circling for months. Leaving ready to move.

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The SME-Smart Approach: Strategy that Fits

Most strategy approaches are designed for Fortune 500 companies, then awkwardly scaled down for SMEs. I do the opposite—design specifically for how SMEs actually work.

Sharp, Focused Questions

Not "let's define our strategy," but "here are the 3-5 critical questions we need answers to." Every minute of strategy work attacks a specific decision you're facing.

Surgical Use of Data

Heavy reliance on existing knowledge, surgical additions only where they matter. For each question: what do we really need to know?

Executive Alignment First

Your team in the same room, having the right conversation. SME success depends on executive alignment more than perfect analysis. Get your team synchronized, then move.

Built for Speed

Design for learning while executing, not for certainty before acting. Two-day sessions produce sharper results than 12-week engagements because we optimize for speed, not false precision.

Why Facilitation?

You have three options for strategy development. Each serves different needs.

The telling difference:

Do you want strategy done for you or with you?

DIY Strategy

Your team locks themselves in a room and tries to figure it out. Works when you need quick directional decisions on familiar territory.

Doesn't work when: Group dynamics derail conversation, biases go unchallenged, debate circles without resolution, or you need someone to call out hard truths.

Strategic Facilitation

An expert guides your team through intensive, structured conversations to extract the insights already within your organization, supplemented by targeted analysis only where needed.

Works when: You have capable executives who know your business cold, but can't access that knowledge effectively through normal dynamics. You need someone to orchestrate the conversation, challenge assumptions, prevent groupthink, and push through to real decisions.

Traditional Consulting

Hire consultants to analyze your business and recommend a strategy. Works when you lack strategic experience entirely or need extensive market analysis.

Doesn't work when: Your team will resist external recommendations, you know the answers lie within your organization, or you need widespread buy-in for execution.

A Case Study: When Owners and Operators Can’t Align

Family-owned hospitality company. Three sibling owners, only one active in the business. Strong executive team running operations. Everyone capable. Nobody aligned.
The executives were hesitant to make bold moves without knowing what the owners actually wanted. The owners—two of them not immersed in daily operations—couldn't articulate strategic positions they felt confident about. Strategy conversations circled. Nothing landed.
Their 2019 strategic plan had devolved into a tactical to-do list. COVID disrupted what little momentum existed.
After covering strategy fundamentals in the morning session, I moved everyone to a room arranged like a talk show set. The three owners sat as "guests." The executive team was the "audience." I was the host.
This format gave executives permission to ask questions they'd never pose in a boardroom: What's your actual risk tolerance? Do you want to own assets or just manage them? If two of you don't work here, why should we care what you think?
It gave owners permission to be vulnerable about what they didn't know—and to articulate what they cared about most.
When we got to defining strategic initiatives, I asked: "Who wants to own this?"
Uncomfortable silence.
Then one executive volunteered. Not because it was in her job description. Because she believed in it and saw how it connected to her own growth. Others stepped forward, claiming initiatives outside their functional roles.
That's when you know it worked. When people fight for accountability instead of avoiding it.
- Revenue aspiration: $250M (from current baseline)
- Five strategic pillars with clear sequencing: foundation first, then growth
- Target customer definition that actually differentiated them
The owners and executive team now speak the same language. They're not wondering what each other thinks anymore. They're executing against a strategy they built together.

Marja is one of the best listeners I have encountered. She is able to take in information, synthesize it, then play it back in a way that feels very empowering to the person/team. She also does this in an incredibly authentic and inviting way, which helps to elicit more input from the team, such that the session ends up feeling like a great conversation, rather than her as the facilitator pulling teeth to get thoughts from the audience.

—Chief of Staff, Healthcare
Trust her. She brings the whole package. Organization, communication and hard work. She will listen to you and then organize the issues, make a plan and hand it back to you. She is amazing!

—CEO, Healthcare
Marja understood very quickly the goals of the organisation and the requirements of the workshops she facilitated and organised the senior leaders of the company to execute the goals. If you need to crystallise complex issues that your company faces then Marja will help you do this.

—CEO, Manufacturing
Marja consistently lead with empathy while maintaining the highest level of professionalism. Her approach makes tough conversations productive rather than painful. Marja demonstrated exceptional observation skills, accurately diagnosing team dynamics and tailoring interventions that fit real-world constraints. Her honesty and transparency build trust, ensuring stakeholders feel informed and respected throughout the process. She remains unbiased and fair, prioritizing outcomes that benefit the organization and its people rather than personal agendas.

—CMO, Sports & Entertainment

How it Works

I can promise you there aren’t generic, “industry-standard” frameworks with me.

Every business is unique and I fully tailor my approach to your needs. The core process often looks like this:

1

Interviews

I meet your team. Together, we bring more definition to the problem we’re aiming to solve. And, I start to see where the sticky parts might be.

2

Preparation

Together, we craft the details of the facilitated session. I bring you ideas and you give me feedback. May also include coaching your team to create the needed factbase.

3

Facilitation

I guide you and your team to solve your problem, drawing out contributions from all, shining light in the corners we’ve been avoiding, fostering fruitful debate, adjusting as needed to get to results.

4

Synthesis

I pull it all together, so you know exactly what you’ve decided and why. We’ll work together to create a clear written document in your preferred format for your chosen audience.

5

Ongoing Support

I’ll stay involved as much as you want as you transition from deciding to executing. From additional workshop-style sessions to individual thought-partnership, I’ve got your back.

Strategy facilitation for SMEs typically ranges from $30K-$80K depending on complexity, team size, and scope. Far less than traditional consulting, far more effective than pure DIY.

What Makes Me Different

After 10 years at McKinsey working with Fortune 500s, I realized SMEs need fundamentally different strategy approaches. I've spent the last 5+ years designing processes specifically for mid-market companies.

I understand both worlds. I know what large firms do and why. And I know exactly where to simplify, accelerate, and adapt for SMEs.

SME-Specific Expertise

Strategy content is just one piece. The harder skill—and where most strategy efforts fail—is orchestrating productive conversation among capable executives.

I manage the energy, navigate the dynamics, prevent groupthink, challenge assumptions, and drive to real decisions. It's not just running a meeting. It's high-stakes group decision-making.

Facilitation Mastery

A private label manufacturing client insisted product innovation was their critical differentiator. Then couldn't stop blaming low-cost competitors for their growth troubles. I wouldn't let them have it both ways: If your product is truly differentiated, low-cost competitors aren't displacing it.

They didn't like hearing that. But they got to where they needed to be: a clear and TRUE articulation of who they actually are and how they actually compete.

You're not hiring me to make you comfortable. You're hiring me to help you make the best possible decisions for your business.

Brutal Honesty

Frequently Asked Questions

You'll see the highest return when:
- Your team is growing and decision-making needs to be pushed down, but lacks alignment
- You have more opportunities than resources and need sharp prioritization
- Growth is flattening and you need to identify your next phase of value creation
- Market disruption is forcing you to address a shifting landscape
You can probably wait if:
- You're pre-product-market fit and need to stay in rapid experimentation mode
- Your business model is working and you're in pure execution mode
- You've just completed a strategic process within the last 18 months
Traditional consulting: They analyze your business, recommend a strategy, hand you a deck.
Facilitated strategy: I guide your team to develop the strategy together, with your executives' knowledge at the center and my expertise shaping the process.
The output might look similar. The buy-in, ownership, and likelihood of execution? Night and day different.
That's incredibly common. Most failed strategy efforts fall into one of three traps:
1. Pure DIY: Capable team, but group dynamics prevented good decisions
2. Consultant-Driven: Great analysis, but your team didn't own it and couldn't execute
3. Too Broad: Tried to boil the ocean instead of focusing on your critical few decisions
Facilitated strategy solves all three: expert guidance on process, your team owns the content, ruthless focus on what actually matters.

For strategy facilitation, in-person is strongly preferred—especially for the intensive executive session. The quality of conversation, ability to read the room, and momentum toward decisions is markedly better face-to-face.
Preparation and follow-up work happens virtually. But for the core strategy sessions, plan on gathering your team in one place.
Your team is ready when:
- Executives are willing to have hard conversations
- Leadership recognizes gaps in current strategy (or knows they need one)
- There's genuine openness to changing course if the facts suggest it
- You can commit 2 full days of exec team time
Your team is NOT ready when:
- The CEO has already decided and just wants validation
- Internal politics make honest conversation impossible
- You're looking for someone to do strategy TO your team, not WITH them

Strategy That Respects Your Time, Resources and Advantages

You didn't build your business by waiting for perfect information. You built it by making smart decisions with good-enough data, then adjusting as you learned.

Your strategy process should work the same way.