Strategy consulting

One decision, named in the first paragraph.

Strategy work for an independent is rarely a five-year vision. It is a company that must choose a market, a price, or a product to stop. If the proposal does not name the decision, it is a research brochure and the client will feel that.

One decision in the first paragraph

Write the choice as a choice. Stay in the public-sector tenders or leave them. Keep the service line that the founders love and the staff resent, or close it. Open a second city, or make the first city actually profitable. Clients who receive three 'strategic pillars' know they have not been listened to.

Say who will make the decision at the end. A strategy document that is 'for the leadership team' often has no owner. Name the person who has to be able to say yes or no, and the meeting where that happens. That meeting is the end of the timeline.

Research is not the product

You will need facts. The product is still the decision, with the reasons and the things you ruled out. Put the interviews and the market checks inside the timeline as the means, and cap them. An open-ended discovery is how a four-week decision becomes a three-month essay.

Implementation of the decision is a later brief. Offer to write it when they have chosen. Do not hide a transformation program inside a strategy fee. The client who wanted a choice will feel sold to, and the client who wanted implementation will feel under-scoped.