Strategic Agility Across Borders: Breaking Down the New Rules of Global Business
In an era where strategic transformation has become continuous rather than finite, business leaders need fresh perspectives. Growth Ensemble co-founder and CEO Meredith Carson’s recent session with Executive MBA students at the Indian School of Business Leadership Development Club tackled critical questions about organisational agility, global market entry strategies, and sustainable leadership in a VUCA environment.
In this blog post, she shares her key thoughts from an interesting and engaging session.
What’s Strategic Transformation…Today?
One of the first topics we tackled was the evolving nature of strategic transformation in today's world. The days of setting a big audacious goal with linear milestones now feel like ancient history (even if that "ancient history" was merely five years ago). Pre-COVID, pre-Trump 1.0, and pre-AI as we know it, strategic transformation had more of a clear endpoint: you knew where you wanted to go and plotted the steps to get there.
Niket Kumar Phuria, from ISB and Growth Ensemble co-founder and CEO Meredith Carson
Today, we encourage a new starting point, which is to focus on having a profound understanding of organisational essence - your brand, your values, and team capabilities. This foundation serves as a stable core amid constant change, providing an axis, when conditions swirl unexpectedly.
Today's strategic transformation isn't a destination but a continuous journey characterised by:
Organisational flexibility: embracing agility, adaptive leadership, cross-functional communication, and change management
Deep business ecosystem awareness: No company is an island! Today's supplier might be tomorrow's client or joint venture partner, build and maintain your organisation’s network thoughtfully
Sincere growth mindset culture: fostering resilience and adaptability at all levels
The Strategy-Execution Gap
Many organisations craft brilliant strategies on paper but struggle with implementation. The most serious blind spots I've witnessed in my career include top-down directive approaches without team consultation and the absence of proper change management.
This execution gap often stems from middle management misalignment. These middle managers can become powerful blockers when not properly engaged, as they control day-to-day implementation realities. One might say "yes" to leadership but then default to "business as usual" with their team, allowing inertia to prevail. This pattern is especially common in hierarchical cultures yet often remains an issue even in organisations with flatter structures.
Navigating Global Markets
Working across APAC, MENA and other markets has taught us, at Growth Ensemble, that cultural understanding cannot be overstated.
When contemplating entering new markets like India for example, we spend significant time on the ground first. Every interaction becomes a data point - understanding the culture, infrastructure challenges, and even traffic patterns. This immersion is essential before attempting to implement any market entry strategy.
And while strategy defines where you want to go, tactics determine how you'll get there. Different markets can have entirely different roadmaps to accomplish the same goal. The way an Egyptian market may deliver results may differ markedly from a neighbour such as Saudi Arabia due to variations in infrastructure, culture, and consumer habits. This is even more pronounced in highly culturally pluralistic markets such as South-East Asia.
Fostering Intrapreneurship
The concept of intrapreneurship - entrepreneurial thinking within established organisations - generated significant interest among the ISB students. I shared my experience bringing digital and social media practices to Action Global Communications, which eventually led to a global practice rollout. This opportunity later positioned me for a role at Omnicom Media Group, where my team spun off an internal global startup that set new global standards and best practices.
When fostering innovation, we advise:
Start with brief business plans presented to open-minded leadership: don’t leave it all to the team, remember leadership needs to be open-minded to ideas, even nascent ones, for an intrapreneurial culture to grow
Test new ideas internally before taking them to clients
Pilot with clear success criteria to measure outcomes
Leadership Means Clarity, Balance & Purpose. Not Brute Force.
Perhaps the message that resonated most strongly with the audience - which also included a number of founders - was challenging the "rise and grind" mentality. True leadership isn't about hustle at all costs - it's about clarity, balance, and purpose. This mindset shift is essential for sustainable leadership.
Clarity and balance are important when it comes to leadership
As we wrapped up our session, I shared a final point, regarding lessons learned and self-talk when stepping into a leadership role: If you don't understand something, don't assume you're lacking intelligence. Instead, consider instead that the concept may need clearer communication… analyse it from that perspective, don’t be afraid to ask for more clarification, and go from there.
The energy and engagement from the ISB students were truly inspiring. Their thoughtful questions reflected their readiness to lead with both intelligence and empathy - precisely what our VUCA world needs. There was so much more we covered, ranging from women in leadership to mental health for male leaders but that would necessitate a hugely long post. Feel free to reach out to me for further discussion on these subjects.
As we continue our journey connecting South-East Asia and the GCC, I look forward to watching these future leaders transform our global business landscape.
I would like to thank Niket Kumar Phuria, the ISB team and students for such a fulfilling session. Thank you for having me.
To learn more about The Indian School of Business, visit their website here: https://www.isb.edu/en.html
