Business

A to Z of Culture and Collaboration
Reading Time: 6 minutes26 leadership behaviours that turn strategy into execution Introduction: The Invisible Advantage Strategy might set the direction, but culture and collaboration sets the speed. Every leader knows the strategic map, but few measure the invisible friction that dictates execution speed. In today’s complex world — marked by hybrid workforces, cross-functional [...]

The A to Z of Culture and Collaboration

 in Business / Customer Experience / Leadership / People  tagged Collaboration / Culture / Leadership / Team by
Stakeholder Engagement
Reading Time: 4 minutesIntroduction: Beyond the Boardroom: The Strategic Shift Stakeholder engagement has become one of the most misused phrases in modern leadership. For many organisations, it still means investor updates, community statements, and polite Q&A sessions at annual meetings. The goal is often compliance, not connection. But the world has changed. Stakeholders [...]

Shifting Stakeholder Engagement for Real Alignment

 in Business / Leadership / Project Management  tagged Business Change / Leadership / Relationship / Transformation by
A to Z of B2B CRM
Reading Time: 9 minutesBeyond Transactions to Transformation – B2B CRM For most enterprise and public sector organisations, the B2B CRM promise remains unfulfilled. It was meant to be the single source of truth for revenue growth; instead, it’s often a cumbersome reporting tool, a compliance checkbox, or a system plagued by distrust and [...]

The A to Z of B2B CRM – An Executive ...

 in Business / Customer Experience / Technology  tagged CRM / Leadership / Sales by
A to Z B2B Customer Experience
Reading Time: 8 minutesWhat really drives loyalty, trust, and value in your B2B Customer Experience? B2B Customer experience isn’t a department anymore — it’s the arena where every B2B organisation now competes. Products can be copied, prices undercut, and technologies leapfrogged, but how customers feel when they work with you determines whether they [...]

The A to Z of B2B Customer Experience (2025 Edition)

 in Business / Customer Experience / Leadership  tagged Customer Experience / Customer Services by
B2B Growth
Reading Time: 4 minutesB2B Growth slowing, but why? When B2B growth stalls, leadership teams often point the finger at market shifts, aggressive competition, or disruptive technology. Those factors matter, but in countless organisations I’ve seen, they’re not the real killer. The silent assassin of B2B growth is misalignment across functions. It doesn’t scream [...]

The Silent Killer of B2B Growth: Misalignment

 in Business / Leadership / Management / Teams  tagged Communication / Leadership / Sales. Marketing by
A to Z of Customer Alignment
Reading Time: 14 minutesIntroduction At Oak Consult, we believe that customer alignment is the difference between transactions and partnerships. That’s why we’ve built this A to Z of Customer Alignment: 26 practical lenses to help leaders, managers, and teams see alignment in action, understand why it matters, and put it into practice. Most [...]

The A to Z of Customer Alignment

 in Business / Customer Experience / Leadership / Teams  tagged Customer Alignment / CX / Success by
Purpose-driven Projects
Reading Time: 9 minutesPurpose-Driven Projects – Yes the what and the how are important, but what’s often missing is the why. Most organisations measure project success with the familiar three: time, cost, and scope (sometimes quality is added too). Deliver to budget, hit the dates, and stay within scope — and on paper, [...]

Purpose-Driven Projects: Why Mission Matters as Much as Milestones

 in Business / Business Skills / Digital Transformation / Leadership / Project Management / Teams  tagged Business / Communication / TCQ / Team / Vision by
The A to Z of Digital Transformation
Reading Time: 7 minutesOver the past decade, Oak Consult has published a series of A to Z guides covering the essentials of business: strategy, leadership, employability, risk, building winning teams, and customer experience. Each has combined timeless principles with practical guidance to help leaders reflect and act. Digital Transformation now joins that series. [...]

The A to Z of Digital Transformation

 in Artificial Intelligence / Business / Digital Transformation  tagged Digital Transformation / KPI / Success by
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhy even the best proposition underperforms when your teams aren’t pulling in the same direction — and how to fix it. We Know What We Do. So Why Isn’t It Landing? You’ve got a strong product or service. You’ve invested in development.The customer results are great. And yet… Sales aren’t [...]

Your Proposition Isn’t the Problem — Your Alignment Is

 in Business / Leadership / Teams  tagged Business / Communication / marketing / Sales / Team by
Reading Time: 7 minutesBusiness strategy is never static. What worked a decade ago doesn’t always cut it in 2025. The pace of change, the rise of digital, the climate agenda, and shifting customer expectations mean that leaders need a new lens. Back in 2014, Oak published the original A to Z of Business [...]

The A to Z of Business Strategy (2025 Edition)

 in Business / Business Skills / Leadership  tagged Business / Customer Centricity / Digital Transformation / Quality Management / Strategy by
Oak Consult, Customer Experience, CX
Reading Time: 5 minutesHelping teams build a culture that truly puts the customer first by wearing customer spectacles Introduction When was the last time your team truly saw the world as your customers do? Most organisations say they are customer-focused, but targets, processes, and politics often pull attention inward. The result is experiences [...]

Customer Spectacles: Seeing Through Your Customer’s Eyes

 in Business / Leadership / Teams  tagged Communication / CRM / Customer Experience / CX / Leadership by
Reading Time: 6 minutesYour Guide to AI Concepts, Capabilities, and Practical Uses Introduction Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept — it’s here, shaping how we work, live, and make decisions.But with the jargon, hype, and complexity, it can be hard to separate the essentials from the noise. This A–Z guide gives [...]

A to Z of Artificial Intelligence

 in Artificial Intelligence / Business / Technology  tagged AI / Artificial Intelligence / Business by
Milestones, Inch Pebbles, Project Management
Reading Time: 5 minutesIt’s fair to say that I’ve been involved in my fair share of projects during my career. Some have been market changing product launches or operational transformations and some have been must do, dull, but important projects. Others have been misguided, bonkers and failed projects. I’ve learnt from each and [...]

Effective Projects – Inch Pebbles, Milestones and Tombstones

 in Business / Leadership / Project Management / Teams  tagged Delivery / Project Management / Projects by
Christmas Future, Business, Technology, Leadership
Reading Time: 15 minutesIn the third and last in the series of Think Oak’s Christmas blog posts – The Post of Christmas Future, let’s take a look at the next 15 years in Technology, Business and Leadership and see how they might have changed by 2030. (In case you missed Part 1 and Part [...]

The Post of Christmas Future

 in Business / Leadership / Social Media / Teams / Technology  tagged 3D Printing / Artificial Intelligence / Automated Vehicles / Crowdfunding / Robotics by