CASE STUDY | CONSULTING
How an Ex-Exec Kickstarted a Solid Strategy Consulting Business with Strategy Tools
The Challenge
After over 30 years of working at corporations, Ole Sverre Spigseth decided that he wanted to branch out and start his own consulting practice in Skarnes, Norway.
Armed with three decades of experience across industries, from management consulting at KPMG to holding the Regional Director post at the Kardex Group in Europe, Ole was no stranger to the typical challenges corporations faced.
However, when he was in the process of planning out his new consulting firm, he came to the realization that while he had deep industry experience, his strategy knowledge was outdated – based on old strategic mindsets and thinking like Porter’s Five Forces.
He needed something that was suited for today’s turbulent business landscape. Something new, visual, and most importantly, actionable.
The Solution
Ole joined the Strategy Tools Global Coaches program in June 2019, which provided him with a portfolio of tools spanning different areas in strategy. From that point on, he started training his mastery of the tools (and the frameworks behind them) before being certified as a Strategy Tools Master Trainer.
“What I like about Strategy Tools was the portfolio thinking, the ecosystem thinking. A major learning I had after the Master Trainer program was not to be tool-oriented but rather internalize the tools to be able to relate to them when in discussion with clients.”
After the Master Trainer, he went on to complete the Building the Transformational Company (BTC) program, where he mastered the 10 Principles of Transformation, an end-to-end framework for large-scale business transformation.
Impact
Landing New Long-Term Client Contracts
Combining his deep corporate experience with his freshly acquired portfolio of strategy tools, Ole reached out to his network and found several companies in great need for a transformation framework.
“Two days prior to visiting a client, I emailed him the Two Lenses of Strategy and simply asked him ‘what do you think?’. I didn’t receive a reply. I turned up at the meeting and we started sketching out something that seemed like the Strategy Intro. The client told me that seeing the Two Lenses of Strategy just struck him like a sledgehammer that their company wasn’t future-oriented enough and is stuck in the day-to-day.” Ole revealed.
The discussions eventually led to a full-fledged BTC project that Ole is now currently still working on (digitally, thanks to Covid). He is also currently in discussions with several client prospects using the BTC framework.
A Supportive Network of Fellow Strategists
“As part of the Strategy Tools network, I’ve gotten a lot of great ideas and experience I can bring into my business,” said Ole.
He has also partnered up with another Strategy Tools practitioner, Hege Langaas, whom he had met during his Strategy Tools Master Training program earlier this year. The project would’ve been too large to handle alone, but with Hege, he now has a sparring partner.
A New Mindset on Problem Solving
“Having been through both the Strategy Tools Master Trainer program and the Building the Transformational Company program also taught me one crucial thing – that it isn’t about the tools, but the challenges they overcome,”
“You have to use the time to understand the challenges your client has before bringing out your arsenal of tools, rather than showcase all the great tools you have off the bat,” Ole added.
“The tool set from Strategy Tools is a good frame for the discussions in transformation or strategy sessions. It activates all people and secures a high degree of involvement.
The key is visualization. Working with the canvases and sticky notes is visual, eliminates hazy talk and is interactive. This is valid both for physical sessions as well as virtual sessions via Miro or other virtual whiteboards.”
Ole Sverre Spigseth
Owner & Consultant, Spigseth AS, Norway
Ole Sverre Spigseth has more than 20 years experience as CEO and consultant, changing, transforming, developing and scaling up small and medium sized companies in Scandinavia. He is recognized for conducting successful business turnarounds, improving efficiency and ascertaining companies’ competitive market position. His experience is from several industry sectors, mainly within B2B organizations.
Learn more about his consulting practice Spigseth AS here.