If so much has changed around us, why does so much inside organisations feel stubbornly the same?

In this special episode of Strategy Hero, we bring together three voices from Season One - Fredrik Fjellstedt, Pascal Dennis and Philippe Guenet to take stock of what has actually changed in strategy over the last two years, and what has not. Since we last spoke, AI has gone mainstream, decision cycles have accelerated, and uncertainty has become a constant. Yet as we explore together, many organisations are still struggling with the same internal challenges they faced in 2023.

Rather than revisiting theory, we use this conversation to reflect honestly on lived experience: how strategy is really playing out inside organisations today, where AI is helping, where it’s actively getting in the way, and what leaders are still getting wrong when it comes to execution, engagement, and adaptability.

What We Explore

Has Anything Fundamentally Changed? We challenge the assumption that AI has transformed strategy itself, arguing instead that while tools have evolved rapidly, many organisations have yet to adapt their behaviours, structures and leadership practices.

AI: Powerful Servant, Dangerous Master: We unpack the rise of “AI slop” - polished but meaningless outputs and contrast it with situations where capable teams use AI to accelerate learning and experimentation without outsourcing judgment or intuition.

Strategy as an Infinite Chessboard: We reflect on why business strategy can’t be solved like a closed system. Unlike games with fixed rules, organisations operate on an infinite, multi-dimensional chessboard shaped by people, culture, power and constant change.

Execution, Engagement and the Human Question: Again and again, we return to execution - not as a mechanical rollout, but as a human process. Strategy only works if people understand it, accept it, and can answer the question: what’s in this for me?

As we close, one insight stands out clearly: strategy today is no longer a static plan or an annual exercise. It is a continual, living process - balancing direction with emergence, execution with creativity, and technology with deeply human leadership.

What do you do when the worst thing imaginable happens to your five-year-old, and the support you desperately need is 50 miles away?

In this episode, Simon welcomes Odette Mould, founder of Harry’s Rainbow. When her son Harry died suddenly from an asthma attack, Odette didn’t set out to build a charity - she simply refused to let other families face the same lonely void. Fourteen years later, Harry’s Rainbow is a thriving Milton Keynes lifeline offering respite breaks, peer support, and emergency grants to hundreds of bereaved children and their families.

We trace the journey from a mother’s heartbreak to an MBE at Buckingham Palace, the relentless focus on gratitude that keeps her going, and the quiet strategy that turned personal tragedy into systemic change.

What You’ll Learn

- From Heartbreak to Mission: How one family’s unimaginable loss became the driving force behind a charity that’s supported hundreds of grieving children.

- Gratitude as Strategy: Why Odette chooses to “switch a positive from a negative” every single day and teaches her children the same discipline.

- Building What’s Missing: The practical steps (and sheer determination) it took to create local, accessible bereavement support where none existed.

Odette is living proof that the most powerful strategies aren’t born in boardrooms - they’re forged in the crucible of love, loss, and an unbreakable refusal to look away.

What if the key to driving lasting transformation isn’t more tools, but more belief?

In this episode, Simon Crowther sits down with Patrick Kealey, Vice President of Global Operational Excellence and Quality at Benchmark’s Precision Technologies division. With decades of experience leading transformation across aerospace, energy, and electronics, Patrick shares how true operational excellence is built - not just through systems like Hoshin Kanri and lean frameworks, but through trust, data, and a clear vision of the future.

What You’ll Learn

Winning Hearts and Minds: Why trust, patience, and listening are essential to building credibility and inspiring change.

Data as a Storytelling Tool: How data can paint a compelling picture of what’s possible and turn resistance into belief.

Sustaining Improvement: How to build cultures that problem-solve naturally, avoiding tick-box lean and embedding transformation.

Patrick’s journey is a powerful reminder that behind every great transformation are people - people who see, believe, and act. Data may light the way, but belief is what keeps everyone moving forward.