The board asked about AI. You answered with pilots.
72% of CEOs call AI a top priority. Fewer than 15% have changed core strategy. The gap between those two numbers is where the next margin point goes.
ReadTwo years into the hold, and the plan is stale.
The value-creation plan was right on the day of the close. Nobody re-tested it. Now the sponsor wants the number and the CEO wants the room.
ReadFive months to plan. One competitor move to make it wrong.
The average mid-market planning cycle runs about five months. The market does not schedule around it.
ReadThe plan a firm wrote. And your team received.
When executives build the strategy, they own the results. When someone else builds it, they own the excuses.
Read78% of mid-market companies run strategy without a method.
Too big to be agile. Too small for the big strategy firms. Most run the most important process in the company on instinct and a template.
ReadA thirty-year horizon and a three-year problem.
Family-owned companies plan for generations and get caught by the decade. The long view is a strength until it becomes a reason not to decide.
Read40% of your locations are below system average. The gap is strategic.
Franchisors treat underperforming units as an operations problem. Most of the gap is decisions the unit was never equipped to make.
ReadTwo books
MOVE: AI-Powered Strategy for a Fast World
Routledge, 2025. Seven tools, one page — and how AI now fits in the room.
Order on Amazon
Making Big Decisions Better
Routledge. The original. How to set and simplify business strategy. The foundation that became MOVE.
Order on AmazonEight insight papers
You need a strategy. Not an AI strategy.
72% of CEOs call AI a top priority. Fewer than 15% have changed core strategy. AI is a capability, not a direction.
Read the paperWhere strategy + AI is heading
Three waves. Wave two is now. The companies that move first separate permanently.
Read the paperLess time planning. More time executing.
AI compresses five-month planning cycles to weeks. The executive team gets months back in market.
Read the paperThe speed imperative
Decision velocity is the competitive advantage. Right decisions, made quickly, with visible strategic logic.
Read the paperThe CEO's first 100 days
A listening tour isn't a strategy. A system that produces clarity, credibility and momentum before the window closes.
Read the paperThe mid-market strategy gap
Too big to be agile. Too small for the big firms. 78% rely on internal teams with no method.
Read the paperWhat PE firms know that corporate boards don't
Hold-period discipline forces focus. Five things sponsors demand that most boards never impose.
Read the paperWhy every franchisor needs localised decision making
40%+ of franchise locations underperform the system average. The gap is strategic, not operational.
Read the paperFrom the archive
Earlier pieces from the previous site.
143 pieces by Tim Lewko and Scott Newton, 2012 to 2026, kept as written and dated.
Browse the archiveIn the media
Tim Lewko on strategy and the mid-market. Watch
Tim Lewko on strategy and value creation. Watch
A full conversation on MOVE® and AI-powered strategy. Watch · Spotify · Transcript
Global recognition for advancing strategic management. Watch
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