S3E12 - Expert Panel: What Still Works and What Must Change in Strategy Today

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.