Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Strategic Simplicity® #27

If your roadmap keeps expanding, it’s not a planning problem. It’s a signal that the real priority hasn’t been identified yet.


© 2025 Praveen Puri

Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Strategic Simplicity® #26

Most transformation initiatives don’t stall from lack of effort—they stall because no one has identified the constraint everyone is working around.


© 2025 Praveen Puri

Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Shades of Roger Bannister

Until this past Sunday, nobody had run an official marathon in under 2 hours (someone did this in 2019, but it wasn't following official marathon rules).  But, in Sunday's London Marathon, both the first and second place men's winners did it.  Besides talent, part of it was incremental advances in training, nutrition, and technology (they both wore the new Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, which are very light weight, cost $500, and are designed to last only 1 race).  Also, they were lucky with the weather.

But, now, we are probably going to see more people run sub-2 hour marathons.

Fun fact: the first modern marathon record was set in 1908 by American Johnny Hayes.  If he had run on Sunday, his record-setting time of 2h 55m 18s would have meant that he would have finished outside the top 2000 finishers.

I guess this is another example of how Alan Weiss says you can't coast because plateaus erode.


© 2025 Praveen Puri

Sunday, April 26, 2026

Warriors on the Battlefield

Warriors meeting on the battlefield. Don't worry- they become friends once the get to know each other!




© 2025 Praveen Puri

Monday, April 20, 2026

How my concepts of Strategic Simplicity® and my CLOUD Framework Work Together


A client recently asked me about the relationship between my signature approach, Strategic Simplicity® and my CLOUD Framework.

I first reminded her that I am an executive advisor, but specialize in one thing: identifying the key changes that lead to dramatic improvement. So, I don't provide generic strategic planning, executive coaching, or leadership training. I call my highly effective, surgical approach Strategic Simplicity®. It's a powerful scalpel to cut through the noise and informational overload of today's Attention Scarcity era.

If, during a session, my client is feeling overwhelmed by a large, complex transformation, or isn't sure which part of their organization we should apply Strategic Simplicity® to, then we can use CLOUD to scope out what we will focus on.

CLOUD stands for Change, Language, Operations, User, and Decisions.  These are all process areas where applying Strategic Simplicity® can yield high leverage, and dramatically improve the business.

© 2025 Praveen Puri

Fintech AI and A Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Here are two recent case studies from my executive advisor practice. On the surface, they appear wildly different, both in content and scale.  But process-wise, they are the same, since I'm a process consultant, and my specialization is identifying the key changes that result in dramatic improvement.

Success Story: Fintech AI Triumph

A fintech CIO faced a $5M AI project stalled by scope creep. 

Using CLOUD, we phased the rollout, aligned with business goals, streamlined processes, simplified interfaces, and clarified decisions.

As a result, the client saved $400K and cut timelines by 20%.



Bridge Over Troubled Waters

A park district had a booth charging a fee to cross a scenic bridge into a wildlife area. The problem was that the line to cross really backed up.

I advised them to set up 3-4 stations back near the parking lot to take their cash and give them a token. At the bridge, they simply collected the token to allow crossing.

As a result, a bottleneck was eliminated, and long lines ceased to be an issue.



© 2025 Praveen Puri