576: Bain Senior Partner Sarah Elk on Doing Agile Right (Strategy Skills classics)

576: Bain Senior Partner Sarah Elk on Doing Agile Right (Strategy Skills classics)

Sarah Elk, Senior Partner at Bain & Company and global leader of its operating model work, brings a clear, pragmatic lens to why so many large-scale change efforts fail to stick. Drawing on decades of advising multinational organizations, she diagnoses the structural and behavioral traps that cause transformations to stall, and shares the disciplines that make change durable.

Elk emphasizes that transformation is not a one-off program but an enduring capability that must be “led from the top and embedded in the culture.” She cautions against outsourcing responsibility to a program office:

“If the CEO is not leading it and the leadership team isn’t engaged in the change, you might get something done, but it will erode quickly.”

Key Insights from the Conversation:

Clarity on Non-Negotiables

Many failed transformations lack a shared definition of the “non-negotiables” in the new operating model. Without them, execution becomes fragmented.

“You have to be crystal clear on what’s standard and what’s flexible.”

Outcomes Over Activity

Successful change efforts anchor to measurable business results, not just activity metrics or generic benchmarks.

“It’s not about hitting 80 percent of a checklist. It’s about whether you’ve moved the needle on the outcomes you care about.”

Leadership Alignment Is a Continuous Process

Alignment isn’t built in a single offsite; it requires ongoing dialogue, joint problem-solving, and confronting decisions that challenge entrenched interests.

“You need the leadership team acting as one—every week, every month—not just at the kickoff.”

Manage Change Fatigue

Overloading the organization erodes momentum. Sequencing initiatives and celebrating visible early wins tied to strategy helps sustain energy.

“People get tired. You have to show progress and give them space to breathe.”

Governance, Incentives, and Talent Must Evolve Together

Elk warns that without parallel changes to systems and structures, “behavior will revert to what it was before.”

The discussion reframes transformation from a high-profile event into a muscle organizations must build and maintain. For executives seeking change that endures beyond the initial push, Elk offers a blueprint grounded in operational rigor, leadership accountability, and cultural realism.

Get Sarah’s book here: https://shorturl.at/Tyotz

Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos

Here are some free gifts for you:

Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach

McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf

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137: Blair Sheppard, PwC global strategy head and author. On four urgent global crises and their strategic solutions

137: Blair Sheppard, PwC global strategy head and author. On four urgent global crises and their strategic solutions

In today's episode of the Strategy Skills podcast, we have a conversation with Blair Sheppard, Global Head of Strategy and Leadership for PWC. Blair shares his views of looming global crises driven by wealth disparity, technological disruption, the polarization of people, and declining trust in society’s institutions. Blair Sheppard is also the Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, where he taught for thirty-three years. He was the principal force behind opening Duke's campus in China, and the founder and CEO of Duke Corporate Education. Blair is a regular speaker at high-caliber international forums including the Global Solutions Summit, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, and Slush. He was born in Hamilton, Ontario (Canada) and lives in Durham, North Carolina (US). In his new book, TEN YEARS TO MIDNIGHT: Four Urgent Global Crises and Their Strategic Solutions, Blair sets out why that timeline is so crucial, what the most urgent challenges are and the key elements of a solution. The world faces four crises: A crisis of prosperity, with rising inequality, poor life choices for young people, the squeezed middle class and a mass of people on the brink of retirement but lacking the savings to sustain them;  A crisis of technology, as our economic system drives innovation but fails to manage unintended negative consequences which pollute key elements of life support, from our atmosphere to our news; A crisis of institutional legitimacy, as traditional institutions try to maintain their existing structures in the face of major global forces, and find themselves buckling and warping rather than adapting; and, A crisis of leadership, as those who should help us manage these crises instead focus on narrow priorities rather than leading the world towards holistic solutions. Get access to sample training from our advanced programs here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo We use affiliate links whenever possible (if you purchase items listed above using our affiliate links, we will get a bonus).

11 Mars 20211h 10min

136: Rethinking M&A (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #18)

136: Rethinking M&A (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #18)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

9 Mars 202138min

135: Apple disrupts a decades-old value chain migration (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #17)

135: Apple disrupts a decades-old value chain migration (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #17)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m. (#17), a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

1 Mars 202138min

134: How to stop blaming Covid and start building revenue growth, with Kent Billingsley

134: How to stop blaming Covid and start building revenue growth, with Kent Billingsley

Welcome to the Strategy Skills podcast, from FIRMSconsulting.com. Today we have a very interesting guest, Kent Billingsley, who is going to talk about sales and the revenue side of management consulting. And about using the tools and techniques that he developed in his consulting career which he now applies in almost any kind of industry. We rarely talk about sales. So we thought it will be nice to do a podcast where we dive into this topic. Get Kent's book "ENTREPRENEUR TO MILLIONAIRE: How to Build a Highly Profitable, Fast-Growth Company and Become Embarrassingly Rich Doing It": https://amzn.to/3dU6aPN

26 Feb 202158min

133: The single biggest strategy shift for the next few decades (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #16)

133: The single biggest strategy shift for the next few decades (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #16)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m. (#16), a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

22 Feb 202140min

132: Apple car & Amazon's core strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #15)

132: Apple car & Amazon's core strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #15)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m. (#15), a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

15 Feb 202135min

131: Defense is not a strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #14)

131: Defense is not a strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #14)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m. (#14), a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

8 Feb 202132min

130: How to create a career strategy for an executive (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #13)

130: How to create a career strategy for an executive (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #13)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m. (#13), a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

1 Feb 202137min

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