Today’s guest is Adam Zalisk, Chief Strategy Officer at Amplify — a pioneer in K–12 education since 2000. Today, Amplify serves more than 10 million students across all 50 U.S. states, delivering next-generation curriculum and formative assessment in ELA, math, and science.

In this conversation, Adam reflects on what changes when strategy becomes a formal role inside a growing organization. Rather than treating strategy as a static plan, he frames it as a set of clear commitments tied to an explicit end state — and explains why ambiguity around those commitments is often what causes companies to struggle as they scale. He also introduces a practical framework for understanding why strategy offices emerge in the first place, helping leaders distinguish between different strategic needs and translate strategic thinking into real organizational traction.

Things we’ll cover:

• How Adam defines strategy in growth-stage companies
• The four distinct reasons organizations create a strategy office
• What leaders are actually looking for when they say, “we need strategy”
• How a strategy office avoids becoming an internal order-taker
• Where strategy functions most often lose — or earn — credibility

This episode is a practical guide for CSOs navigating growth, ambiguity, and rising organizational complexity. If you’re wrestling with focus, alignment, or execution as your organization scales, this conversation will sharpen how you think about the role — and the impact — of strategy.

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Today’s guest is Michael Drexler, Chief Strategy Officer at Brightstar Capital Partners, a private equity firm that invests in closely held, middle-market businesses and helps them scale into professional, process-driven organizations.

Michael’s career spans leadership roles across investment banking, global strategy, and private equity—from Barclays to the World Economic Forum, and Brightstar Capital Partners—giving him a rare perspective on how strategy functions evolve as companies mature from founder-led to institutional scale.

In this conversation, we unpack lessons from Michael’s career leading strategy functions and explore how the head of strategy role transforms along a company’s growth journey.

Things we will cover:

• How strategy evolves from a “chief of staff” role in founder-led companies to a full-fledged internal consulting function
• The mindset shift from advising a single CEO to influencing a broader leadership team
• How to build and sustain an effective strategy team—including Michael’s “2-to-4-year rotation” and “no bad news for two weeks” rules
• Why private equity firms view internal strategy functions differently—and how to reposition your team in a PE environment
• Michael’s four-step framework for prioritizing projects that’s “never failed him once”

From developing consulting-style skillsets inside corporations to balancing neutrality among competing executives, Michael brings clarity and practicality to what it means to be an effective CSO.

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In this episode, Cisco’s Chief Strategy Officer Ammar Maraqa joins host Kaihan Krippendorff to discuss how one of the world’s largest technology companies is evolving its strategy to lead the next wave of AI and digital infrastructure.

From building AI-ready data centers to fostering intrapreneurship through Outshift, Cisco is reimagining how strategy, innovation, and execution come together. Ammar shares lessons from his experience leading Cisco’s strategy organization and shaping its innovation portfolio across build, buy, partner, and incubate pathways.

Topics Covered

• Cisco’s strategy for the AI and digital infrastructure era
• How the Strategy Office connects long-term vision with execution
• Building AI-ready data centers and enabling digital resilience
• The meaning of agentic AI and its impact on enterprise productivity
• How Cisco’s Outshift incubator drives internal innovation
• Cisco’s approach to build, buy, partner, and incubate innovation
• The difference between a “push” and “pull” model in corporate strategy teams
• Why resource allocation is the truest test of strategic clarity

Key Quotes

Resources Mentioned

• Cisco Outshift (https://outshift.cisco.com)
• Cisco’s Digital Resilience framework
• Outthinker Networks (https://outthinker.com)

• Learn more about Outthinker's community of chief strategy officers - https://outthinker.com/
• Follow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/outthinker-networks