CSOsandbox: Corporate Strategy and Operations
This channel serves as a knowledge platform for the accumulation, development and dissemination of contemporary thinking in Corporate Strategy, Strategic Intelligence and strategic decision-making, informed by the systems-based and dynamic practice approach known as Third Wave Strategy.
The channel explores how organisations develop understanding, strengthen strategic judgement, preserve strategic memory and navigate uncertainty in increasingly complex and connected environments.
Topics include:
• Corporate Strategy
• Strategic Intelligence
• Strategic Decision-Making
• Governance and Leadership
• Strategy Implementation
• Organisational Renewal
• Organisational Performance
• Managing Uncertainty
The channel also supports the development of stratāpulse, a Strategic Intelligence Operating System for organisational learning, adaptation and continual renewal.
Learn more at: www.csosandbox.com www.phsandl.com/strategicintelligence
CSOsandbox: Corporate Strategy and Operations
When Strategy Blindness Becomes a Governance Failure (Strategy Brief #7)
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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. Drawing on research across the Fortune 500 and Australia’s ASX 50, it shows how disclosure calendars, legal frameworks, and board practices lock strategy into episodic cycles, leaving boards excellent at cost, capital and compliance but effectively blind to the ongoing formation and renewal of strategy itself. Through cases including Ford’s EV write‑down, Boeing’s 737 MAX, GE’s long decline, and Australian exemplars like BHP and Commonwealth Bank, the episode illustrates how untested strategic assumptions, weak scenario discipline, and absent “green shoots” portfolio governance destroy value at scale.
The episode then reframes the CFO as “necessary friction” in governance: the question‑holder who surfaces uncomfortable strategic risks early, the assumption‑challenger who insists on scenario work and decision triggers for big bets, and the visibility‑enabler who sponsors strategic‑intelligence systems that make regeneration capacity visible to the board between earnings seasons and AGMs. It concludes with three practical actions for CFOs: changing the questions asked in board strategy sessions, commissioning a regeneration governance assessment, and building or acquiring strategic‑intelligence capability (such as Power BI–based platforms) so boards can govern strategy formation and renewal, not just retrospective financial outcomes.
Research referred to in this episode is based on the following:
Access to the White Paper and associated citations upon which this podcast is based can be found at https://www.smiknowledge.com/resources.
Strategy Brief explores how CEOs, CFOs, boards and executive teams make better strategic decisions in uncertain environments.
Each episode examines the relationship between strategy, governance, leadership, organisational performance and long-term renewal through contemporary business stories and practical executive challenges.
Topics include:
- Strategic decision-making
- Governance and leadership
- Strategic Intelligence
- Organisational renewal
- Managing uncertainty
- Strategy implementation
- Executive judgement
Built for CEOs, CFOs, directors and senior leaders responsible for making consequential decisions.
Explore our Strategic Intelligence resources, especially our pages on Strategic Intelligence: https://www.phsandl.com/strategicintelligence
