After years studying private foundations on the East Coast, our team embarked on a new investigative journey in 2022. The topic remained the same: private philanthropy. Except now the focus was on an altogether different philanthropic ecosystem — that of the West Coast.

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Many smaller nonprofits question if in their daily struggle for survival, and amidst their taxing workload on the frontlines of social change, there's indeed time (and a need!) for critical reflection and milestone celebration.

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Strategy and planning are not the same thing. In fact, they are completely different activities. Related, sure. Mutually reinforcing, sometimes. But the same? Absolutely not. Throwing the word “strategic” before planning doesn’t marry the two concepts.

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We’ve yet to crack the formula for time travel, but our services can help leaders understand critical business issues more comprehensively, and respond to them with agility, grace, and good judgment. 

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Industry incumbents and new entrants alike are therefore wise to make internal benchmarking a more regular practice – if only to ensure that reacting to markets and competitors is not the only trick they have up their sleeves when formulating a successful differentiation strategy.

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These examples are just the tip of the iceberg, but my main point should be abundantly clear by now: the number 3 played, and continues to play, an outsize role in the way humans conceptualize the world around them, whether in business or elsewhere.

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For strategic management to be effective and value-adding in the 21st century, three conditions have to be met: it has to be evidence-driven; it has to occur episodically; and, under the rediscovered rules of stakeholder capitalism, short-term gains have to be subservient to long-term impact.

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A return to the silo mentality of closed innovation models is not advisable – not if your goal is to maintain or achieve a competitive advantage. To better manage the risks involved in the solicitation of outside knowledge, we can offer relief to innovation-driven organizations in 4 important ways.

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