#strategic-thinking

#strategic-thinking

I'm a director on the global strategy team at Freshworks, where I drive high-priority strategic initiatives that shape the company's growth, investment decisions, and execution, including on AI adoption. Previously, I spent nearly a decade at PwC advising Fortune 500 companies across healthcare, financial services, and technology on growth strategy and digital transformation. As part of my role, I led the upskilling of over 50,000 employees on automation tools.

A safe anchor point for many senior engineers has always been technical mastery. You see a problem. You design some architecture. You work in a team to crank out some code. You build a complicated system, roll it out at scale, rinse and repeat. This is a happy place for many engineers. Naturally, you think in order to progress, the journey should in theory look something like this. You expect to be rewarded as you take on more technically challenging problems, climbing the ladder.

Reactive mode is where strategic thinking goes to die. In my time as the founder of ButterflyMX, I've learned that the longer you operate like this, the more you become a bottleneck, not a builder. Your team stays dependent, your vision stalls, and worst of all, your time stops being your own. This post is about taking it back and becoming the kind of leader your company actually needs.

My goal wasn't to create a 30-page matrix filled with boxes and jargon. I wanted to create something actionable, flexible, and grounded in reality.

"Curiosity isn't just a personality trait for many designers: it's a strategic tool great design leaders use to cut through uncertainty."

James was known for his composure in crisis and passion for learning, earning him the role of vice president of technology. However, his exact reputation began to hold him back.

In a world of SuperShifts, planning for the most probable future is no longer enough. We need approaches that embrace complexity, expand foresight, and prepare us for disruptions.