Gladwin International & Company
Compass
The CSO Assessment Architecture
A proprietary eight-dimension evaluation model built from 80+ CSO and strategy leadership placements — measuring the competencies that distinguish a management consultant from a strategic leader who shapes enterprise direction, drives portfolio decisions, and creates optionality.
Eight Dimensions
The CSO Strategic Foresight Framework
Strategic Foresight
Reads macro trends, geopolitical shifts, and market discontinuities before they arrive. Builds scenario-planning capabilities that give the enterprise time to act, not just react.
Portfolio Architecture
Shapes the corporate portfolio — which businesses to build, acquire, divest, or incubate. Balances risk and return across the enterprise with an owner's mentality.
M&A & Corporate Development
Leads end-to-end deal strategy — target identification, strategic rationale, due diligence orchestration, and post-merger integration planning. Comfort with ambiguity and pace.
Competitive Intelligence
Builds systems for tracking competitive dynamics, market share shifts, and emerging threats. Turns intelligence into actionable strategic responses.
Innovation & New Ventures
Creates pathways for organic growth beyond the core — new business incubation, venture building, strategic partnerships, and adjacency expansion.
CEO & Board Partnership
Trusted strategic counsel to the CEO and board. Facilitates strategy offsites, frames board-level decisions, and ensures strategic alignment across the leadership team.
Execution Translation
Bridges the strategy-execution gap. Converts long-range plans into quarterly OKRs, resource allocation decisions, and accountability frameworks that business units can execute.
Capital Allocation Logic
Partners with the CFO on capital deployment — growth capex vs. dividends vs. acquisitions vs. buybacks. Brings strategic logic to financial decisions.