Know whether your strategy will hold up before the next shock hits
STRATEGY ADVISORY FOR CEOS OF $5-100M COMPANIES
Most companies build plans, not strategy. The choices underneath are often weak or untested.
HSS brings a disciplined, partner-led strategy that survives real-world pressure. Find out where you stand.
THE PROBLEM
Strategy shouldn’t collapse under pressure
Are your priorities shifting faster than your strategy can keep up? Is your team aligned on what matters, or just on what is urgent? Do you have a strategy that's been tested against real uncertainty, or one that only works on slides?
If you're not sure, you're not alone. Many midmarket CEOs inherit “Strategy Debt” and never get the space to fix it. We provide that space.
Most leaders reach out when one of four “Friction Points? threatens their mandate.
WHEN CEOS ASK FOR HSS ADVICE
MOMENTS OF DRIFT
You’ve lost a cornerstone customer, or your planned progress has stalled. You need to right-size strategic goals for execution and re-engage your high-performing talent.
THE M&A GAP
You must drive to your enterprise valuation target and prevent value leakage by aligning disparate cultures while shielding the organization from integration-driven burnout.
NEW CEO TRANSITION
You inherited a strategy you didn't build. Expectations are high, and you need to align the team to your vision without breaking what works while the board patiently waits for results.
DISRUPTION RESPONSE
You’re facing margin compression, customer churn, or your competitors seem more agile, or new ones appear. You need a business model pivot and new revenue sources.
CLINICAL DISCIPLINE FOR HIGH-STAKE CHOICES
Most leadership teams are managed by "urgent" fires. We provide the architecture to manage using Strategic Logic. Our work is grounded in four proprietary frameworks designed to move your organization from comfortable ambiguity to a state of Collective Conviction and Control (follow links for more details).
The Strategy Arcade: We use high-intensity simulations to find the breaking point of your strategy before the market does.
Governance Insights: We replace static "annual plans" with an early-warning system that dictates exactly when to pivot.
Choice Logic: Strategy is not an additive process of "brainstorming." It is the clinical discipline of subtraction: deciding what not to do.
Sensing Frameworks: We interpret the hidden signals and "playscripts" across your strategy ecosystem.
THE HSS VALUE PATH: FROM CALIBRATION TO CONTROL
Every engagement starts with understanding ground truth. We only go as deep as the challenges require. Each modular phase stands on its own.
Prime
(Calibration)
A two-part clinical diagnostic for the CEO and leadership team. Leave with alignment, insights, and a strategy readiness assessment.
(1 Day).
Sprint
(Clarity)
Identification of key strategic problems, the needed Logic of Choice, and light validation of strategy. Provides a CEO logic summary and strategy cascade.
(1 Month).
Build
(Confidence)
Process to validate choices with evidence and stress-test them in the Strategy Arcade, delivering a board-ready execution system.
(1 Quarter).
System
(Control)
Quarterly resets, leadership reviews, monthly, and continuous signpost tracking to ensure strategy remains a living discipline.
(1 Year).
STRATEGY WORKSHOPS FOR CEO GROUPS
A high-intensity, half-day session where 8–12 CEOs from different companies pressure-test their own strategies. Using the Strategy Arcade and other diagnostic tools HSS brings to private engagements, you will leave with sharper choices, a clear view of your blind spots, and direct input from a room of peers
MARK HAAS, MANAGING PARTNER, HSS
The problems change. The underlying challenge rarely does: seeing your real options before pressure forces the decision.
Strategy is a high-stakes capital and talent allocation decision. It requires an objective fiduciary, someone who prioritizes clinical truth over internal politics. Mark Haas provides 40 years of experience advising CEOs, boards, and executive teams through their hardest choices.
The Professional Standard
Certified Management Consultant (CMC): Mark adheres to the highest global standard (ISO) of technical and ethical performance in the consulting profession. He is a former Chair and CEO of the Institute of Management Consultants USA and received a Lifetime Achievement Award.
20 Years as an Ethics Officer: Mark served as the Ethics Officer for IMC USA for two decades, investigating and adjudicating ethics cases for U.S. management consultants. This unique experience allows him to establish a high-integrity “safe harbor” environment where leadership teams can surface hard truths and confront "fatal flaws" without the friction of internal politics.
Proven Impact: His clients range from high-growth startups to $100M nonprofits and federal agencies, including the NIH, AMA, Volunteers of America, and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The HSS Philosophy
Strategy is not a static document, but a Living System of integrated and evolving choices. This perspective is designed to move leadership teams from Polite Consensus to Collective Conviction, ensuring that Strategic Intent survives the complexity of execution and the volatility of the market. Value is not the work products, but a new way of thinking and working.
TESTIMONIALS
Mark has an incredible wealth of knowledge of organizations, their dynamics, and how to improve their operations, productivity, and teamwork. In less than a year, he has reenergized and revamped us to a level that amazes us all. Our membership has increased dramatically, the programming is incredible, and our vision and focus for the future are well-crafted and visible.
James Bullard
Director, CACI
STRATEGY SNAPSHOT
Weekly insights from HSS on taking your strategy from calibration to control, including special situations and governance issues.
NOT SURE WHERE TO START?
Most CEOs who reach out aren't sure whether they need strategy help or execution help. That's fine. That's exactly what the first conversation is for.