Strategy session
for owners and the top team
We help owners and their teams make hard decisions and break them down into 10 weeks of work.
We work directly with owners, CEOs and senior leaders.
«The best strategy session we’ve had in 12 years»— CEO of a cosmetics retail chain
When you need a strategy session
Hands-on work with the owner and the top team that leads to decisions and an implementation plan — not sticky notes on a wall.
The business has stopped growing, but the team disagrees about why.
The owners diverge on their vision for the company.
The strategy exists in a deck but isn’t being executed.
Plenty of initiatives, but no priorities.
The team seems to be talking about the same thing, but everyone reads the decisions differently.
A big decision has come of age: growth, an acquisition, a new market or a redesign of the operating model.
What clients most often bring us
Where the company can grow further — new segments, products and markets.
The team agrees on which goals matter most and what has to give to reach them.
Dozens of initiatives become a short portfolio of priorities: what we launch, what we defer, what we take off the table.
The owner tests their vision on the team: what lands, where they push back, where they quietly resist.
What the client gets
Strategic priorities and the order in which to tackle them
Decisions and the boundaries of choice: what we launch, what we defer, what we close
Initiatives, owners, deadlines
Outcome metrics
A 10-week plan
Questions that need to be checked separately
Cases
Three strategy sessions: growth for a cosmetics retailer under pressure from national chains, execution discipline on marketplaces, and partnerships in last-mile delivery.
How to stop competing on price with the national chains
A regional cosmetics retail chain under pressure from national players. In a strategy session with a retail tour of the stores, we shifted the business from competing on price to leading on value and built a road map.
Marketplaces · E-comWhen the team thought growth was running itself
A category leader on the marketplaces lost control after a strong season. In a single working day we restored discipline and response rules for the team — with owners and deadlines.
Delivery · PartnershipsWhich partnerships actually create value
A delivery service in a market dominated by one player was looking for growth through partnerships. In the workshop we mapped the synergies, screened out ideas that looked good but were hollow, and through a negotiation game chose who to go with first.
How this differs from facilitation
We run the session as a second opinion on a management decision: we test the assumptions, ask the uncomfortable questions and help build logic that holds up in execution.
A typical strategy session
- Workshop first
- Lots of discussion
- The outcome is slides
- The facilitator stays neutral on content
The Thesis approach
- Diagnostics and interviews first
- A focus on decisions and management trade-offs: what we choose, what we sacrifice, which constraints we accept.
- The outcome is decisions, owners, deadlines and a 12-week plan
- The consultants act as a second opinion: they ask the uncomfortable questions, test the assumptions and surface alternatives the team may have missed.
How the work unfolds
A balance of theory and practice: concise, well-honed frameworks — drawing on teaching at SKOLKOVO and HSE University — combined with working through real data, team exercises and war-room decisions.
Frequently asked questions
Our clients and partners
Market leaders, state corporations and leading business schools
Let’s discuss whether you need a strategy session — or whether diagnostics should come first
Send a request — we’ll reply within one business day.
Contacts
We work directly with owners, CEOs and senior leaders.