CSOsandbox: Corporate Strategy and Operations
Strategy is changing.
CSOsandbox explores how organisations are moving beyond static plans toward living systems of decision, adaptation and governance – and what that means in practice for leaders responsible for real outcomes.
Grounded in real corporate strategy work, each episode looks at how strategy actually operates at the point where strategic outlook becomes judgement, judgement becomes commitment, and commitment becomes consequence.
We explore:
- why strategy fails even when execution appears sound
- how decision‑making, not planning, determines performance
- how governance shapes the quality and timing of strategic choices
- what new capabilities CSOs, CFOs, COOs and CEOs need as environments become more complex and fast‑moving
This is not a podcast about better planning.
It is about how corporate strategy and operations are being re‑thought and re‑formed – from a periodic process into an ongoing system of Strategic Intelligence, Judgement, Commitment and Renewal.
Built for CSOs (Corporate Strategy and Operations), CFOs, COOs, CEOs and senior leaders working at the intersection of strategy, finance, risk and organisational performance.
For essays, case material and diagrams that sit behind the conversations, visit:
https://www.phsandl.com
Episodes
31 episodes
From Plan to System: What Strategy Is Becoming (Strategy Brief #12)
Why do some organisations adapt, renew and reinvent themselves while others remain trapped by yesterday's decisions?In this episode, we explore a fundamental shift in how strategy actually works. Traditional approaches treat strategy as ...
The Strategy Failure CFOs Miss: When Governance Kills Performance (CFO Strategy Brief #11)
A retail division lost more than 80% of its revenue in key locations — and leadership couldn’t explain why.Pricing looked fine. Marketing hadn’t changed. Execution appeared intact.This is a business strategy failure that most lead...
Why Strategy Breaks: The Cost of Committing Too Early (Strategy Brief #10C)
Many organisations don’t fail because they lack insight.They fail because they commit too early — and then build governance systems that make changing course too expensive.What looks like a strategy problem is often something ...
When Strategy Breaks — and Why CFOs End Up Holding the Consequences (Strategy Brief #10B)
Most strategy failures do not begin with bad ideas. They begin earlier, when judgement collapses under pressure and premature commitment hardens into obligation.In this episode, we examine why CFOs are structurally implicated in strategy...
When the Future Won’t Wait: Why Strategy Must Become Regenerative (Strategy Brief #10A)
When the future refuses to behave like a straight line, traditional annual strategy cycles start to break down. In this opening episode of the new CSOsandbox series, Paul Hunter argues that the real purpose of strategy today is to give organisa...
The New CFO Mandate: Orchestrating the Strategy System (Strategy Brief #9D)
In this final episode of the CFO Strategy Brief 9 series, Paul Hunter brings together the ideas developed in 9A, 9B and 9C and shows how they play out in real organisations.Recognising the new mandate for the CFO as orchestrator o...
How CFOs Communicate Uncertainty with Confidence (Strategy Brief #9C)
In this third episode of the CFO Strategy Brief 9‑series, Paul Hunter builds on 9A (Systemic Cognitive Strategy Practice) and 9B (decision hygiene and organisational design) to show how CFOs can communicate uncertainty as stewards of the organi...
How CFOs Keep Strategic Decisions Clean (Strategy Brief #9B)
This episode explores how CFOs can improve the reliability of strategic decisions by addressing bias, noise and weaknesses in decision processes. Narrator, Paul Hunter, breaks down the most common cognitive traps affecting finance leaders; conf...
How CFOs Can Think Across Past, Present and Future (Strategy Brief #9A)
This episode introduces Systemic Cognitive Strategy Practice (SCSP) as a practical framework for modern CFOs to organise how they think about strategy across multiple time horizons. SCSP brings together three concurrent loops of thinking: retro...
The Strategic Governance Divide: Why the CFO has Two Jobs (Strategy Brief #8)
This third episode in the CFO Strategy Brief series explains why strategy governance belongs on the CFO’s desk — not as a nice‑to‑have, but as a core part of the job.We start with what Fortune 500 companies actually do<...
When Strategy Blindness Becomes a Governance Failure (Strategy Brief #7)
This episode of the CFO Strategy Brief explores how “strategy blindness” at board level turns into a governance failure, and why most large corporations still treat strategy as an annual ritual rather than a continuous, governable system. Drawi...
Why Most Reinvention Efforts Don’t Last (Strategy Brief #6)
CFOs are being asked to do more with less, certify numbers faster, and form a view on AI while defending margins that no longer look defensible. Yet the real opportunity is not another efficiency program; it is to use the finance vantage point ...
Why Strategy Now Depends on Better Collaboration Systems (Strategy Brief #5)
In this episode of the CFO Strategy Brief Series, we explore a critical shift for finance leaders: moving beyond digitising old processes to architecting AI‑enabled Corporate Collaborative Systems – a foundational design for the corporation of ...
Can AI Actually Improve Strategic Thinking? (Strategy Brief #4)
In this episode, we explore how Systemic Cognitive Strategy Practice (SCSP) enables leaders to apply multiple forms of thinking—prospection, inspection, retrospection, and more—simultaneously. Rather than working in isolation, these modes...
Why Strategy Tools Don’t Fix Decision-Making (Strategy Brief #3)
In this episode we explore how Enterprise Strategic Performance Management (ESPM) is transforming the role of the most trusted adviser to the CEO, the CFO’, from financial overseer to strategic leader. As organisations face increasing complexit...
What Strategy Looks Like in Concentrated Markets (Strategy Brief #2)
In Australia’s tightly held markets, competition isn’t about slashing prices, it’s about strategic orchestration. “The Duopoly Diaries” unpacks how dominant players in sectors like groceries, construction, and aviation build enduring ...
Why Strategy Needs a Different Kind of Leadership (Strategy Brief #1)
The traditional role of the CFO is undergoing a transformation, as suggested in this thought-provoking podcast. The narrative challenges conventional notions by advocating for a paradigm shift in the CFO's responsibilities. Interestingly, this ...
Disruption and reinvention in the automotive sector: Is Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) missing the mark?
As depicted in the thumbnail Jaguar is in the process of the developing a new car, coupled with a new production platform oh, and by the way, coupled with a reinvention of the company Jaguar Land Rover. In the promotion of this new car Jaguar h...
Reimaging the future at Mattel
Listen to an insightful exploration of the innovative strategies employed by Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz, as we analyze his approach through the lens of the Strategic Management Institute's Third Wave Strategy. Discover how Kreiz not only implemented...
Defining the difference between restructuring and transforming – and why it matters
While advances in technology continue to evolve other global forces have entered the equation (geo political unrest, climate, consequences of Covid) more recently. Nearly all have contributed to a loss of equilibrium in global markets and by de...
Strategy as a Bites: Organisational Learning as an Eco System
An overview of Organisational Learning as an Eco System - a support commentary to the webinar posted separately. In this podcast specific elements of organisational learning are discussed. the main message however is:1. &nb...
Video Bite: Strategy as an Integration of Social and Technical Trajectories
A taste of what is covered in the webinar with the same name uploaded separately.
Video Bites: Third Wave Strategy Practice
In this era of great volatility, Third Wave Strategy provides a strategic management platform that enables the integration, alignment and systemisation of all forms of strategy practice. It is characterised by a systemic and integrated approach...
Video Bites: Making the Role of the Chief Strategy Officer Your Own
Scant research has been undertaken into the role of the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), that is, the determination of what a CSO does. As specialists in strategy practice, the Strategic Management Institute (SMI), the research arm of Paul Hunter ...
Video Bites: Strategy whisperers and nudgers: Evolving the corporation from within
High potential executives (high pots) can be found in every corporation. Their presence, although generally overt is valued. So much so, they are feted with personal development opportunities that may ultimately include a sponsored stint at an ...
