In this episode, I speak with Dr Marc Sniukas, creator of the Better Strategy OS — a practical, execution-focused system that helps leadership teams design, activate, and embed strategy for real results.

We explore how leaders can navigate complexity, accelerate growth, and transform their organisations using the Better Strategy OS as a structured, no-nonsense approach to strategy.

Guest Bio: Dr Marc Sniukas, Strategy Advisor | Author | Creator of the Better Strategy OS

For over 20 years, Marc has helped leadership teams at companies like BMW, DeBeers, Deloitte, HSBC, Danfoss, MTN, and more design and execute strategies that drive real growth, innovation, and transformation.

He’s the author of The Art of Opportunity (Wiley) and creator of the Better Strategy OS — a practical, proven system that helps leaders make better strategy, fast.

Marc has taught strategy at leading business schools and worked with organizations across Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East—from global giants to fast-scaling hidden champions.

Final note: If you found this conversation valuable, please share it with your network or leave a rating wherever you listen to podcasts, it really helps grow the conversation.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are for informational and discussion purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or professional advice. Listeners should consult a qualified advisor before making any business or investment decisions.

In this episode, I speak with Prof Clayton Williams, author of What Strategy Is: The 18 Fundamental Laws of Strategy, a thought-provoking synthesis that distils decades of strategic thinking into a clear, disciplined framework.

We explore the foundations behind the 18 laws, what inspired Clayton to write the book, and how leaders can use these principles to sharpen strategic clarity, avoid common pitfalls, and make more coherent strategic choices in complex and uncertain environments.

The book is available in print and on audiobook.

Guest Bio: Prof Clayton Williams, Chief Strategy & Policy Advisor | Author | Professor of Strategy & Applied Complexity Science.

Clayton Williams grew up between two worlds - the Kruger, which remains his true home and first love, and the corporate world shaped by organisations such as Mondi, Sappi, Massmart, and Liberty. His childhood was split between wildlife reserves and boardrooms, ecosystems and economics. His mother’s studies in nature conservation drew him into fieldwork early on, sparking both a love of learning and an instinct for seeing systems as living, dynamic networks.

As a teenager, inspired by the TV series JAG, Clayton set his sights on flying. He earned his pilot’s licence at 15 and ignored career counsellors who warned he would be bored. By 19, he was CEO of the flying school where he had trained; by 21, he had completed a management buyout. That early immersion in leadership shaped his view of organisations as adaptive organisms that must be cultivated, not merely managed.

Over the following years, he led several mid-cap companies through transformation programmes, worked in consulting, and spent five years in banking across a wide range of sectors. Today, he serves as Chief Strategy Adviser to a national investment institution, helping to align capital with the Netherlands’ societal and environmental agenda. He describes his work not as traditional leadership, but as strategy cultivation: building the strategic organism that can think, decide, and act coherently.

His academic journey began unexpectedly. Standing in for his then-wife at a business school lecture, he discovered a passion for teaching and research. Later, while at Nedbank, he worked closely with Dr Amy Jansen, a rigorous practitioner-academic who sharpened his thinking and introduced him to a more scientific discipline of strategy.

That collaboration planted the seed for What Strategy Is: The 18 Fundamental Laws of Strategy. Frustrated that even after winning his university’s strategy prize he still could not clearly define what strategy is, Clayton set out to build a falsifiable, scientific foundation for the field. Drawing on complexity science, thermodynamics, and information theory, his work reframes strategy as a universal adaptive process - how intelligent systems, from companies to ecosystems, collapse uncertainty into advantage.

Everything, he says, traces back to the Kruger: “That’s where I first learned that survival, whether in nature or in business, depends on sensing, adapting, and cohering. In the end, that’s all strategy really is.”

Final note: If you found this conversation valuable, please share it with your network or leave a rating wherever you listen to podcasts, it really helps grow the conversation.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are for informational and discussion purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or professional advice. Listeners should consult a qualified advisor before making any business or investment decisions.

Episode overview:

In this episode, I speak with Richard Hammond, Co-Founder and CEO of Uncrowd, an experience-analytics company that uses the Friction vs Reward (FvR) model to help organisations understand how customers choose between competing offerings. Richard has extensive experience in retail, loyalty, and customer-insight roles. He is the author of:

• Friction/Reward: Be Your Customer’s First Choice (Pearson, 2019)
• Smart Retail: Winning Ideas and Strategies from the Most Successful Retailers in the World (4th ed., Pearson Business)

He works at the intersection of behavioural insight, retail strategy, and analytics, and is widely recognised for his thinking on retail-choice dynamics. Over the years, Richard has translated the insights of his book into practical, strategic tools through Uncrowd.

Our conversation explores both the foundations of the FvR framework and how it has evolved since the book was published. We talk about real-world retail applications, common blind spots for leaders when it comes to customer choice, and practical lessons any organisation can apply to build smarter decisions, clearer value, and more effective retail strategy.

Follow his work:

• LinkedIn
• Uncrowd

Other resources mentioned:

• Gap Selling: Get to the Root of Why People Buy - a book Richard referenced as influential during our conversation, which he shared as a useful complementary perspective.

Final note: If you found this conversation valuable, please share it with your network or leave a rating wherever you listen to your podcasts, it really helps us grow the conversation.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are for informational and discussion purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or professional advice. Listeners should consult a qualified advisor before making any business or investment decisions.