Julian FalkChief Strategy Officer · Essays & perspective

Strategy2 min read

The portfolio question beyond each business plan

An enterprise can approve individually persuasive business plans without creating a coherent portfolio.

I ask what the businesses contribute to one another and where the organisation has a defensible reason to invest.

Continue the essay

The enduring idea

Strategy should make a consequential choice clearer. I examine assumptions, alternatives and capability demands, then help the organisation connect its chosen direction with capital, ownership and a disciplined plan to learn.

A philosophy in practice ↗

The journal

Further reading.

  1. 02

    Portfolio2 min read

    Scenarios should reveal a decision

    A set of future narratives is useful when it changes how a leadership team acts today.

  2. 03

    Scenarios2 min read

    Resource allocation is where strategy becomes visible

    Priorities that do not change budgets, leadership attention or capability investment may remain statements of intent.

Portfolio reshaped
₹6,200 Cr
Exits, entries and partnerships
New growth businesses
4
Incubated to independent scale
Strategic partnerships
15
Across three continents
Strategy horizon
2030
Approved by the board, funded and tracked

Beyond the page

The record behind the perspective.

In the boardroom

  • Meridian ConsolidatedIndependent Director · 2022 — Present
  • The Futures Policy InstituteFellow and Advisory Board Member · 2019 — Present

Recognition

  • Strategy Leader of the YearCapital & Governance Quarterly · 2024
  • Deal of the Year — PartnershipThe Corporate Development Awards · 2022

In conversation

  • “Making the portfolio choices most boards postpone”Capital & Governance Quarterly · 2025
  • “Scenarios the board can actually use”The Boardroom Review · 2024
  • “Episode 115 — Strategy is a choice, not a deck”The Leadership Ledger podcast · 2023
Turned our strategy from an annual document into a set of decisions we actually made.
Olivia GrantChair, Meridian Consolidated
The full record ↗

Continue the conversation

Ideas are tested in conversation.

For board, advisory and speaking invitations, and for readers who want to take an argument further.

  • Board appointments
  • Advisory roles
  • Speaking invitations

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