#22—Google’s Chief Strategist Neil Hoyne: How Great CSOs Build Decision Systems That Scale

Neil Hoyne joins Kaihan Krippendorff to unpack why most strategy failures aren’t caused by a lack of data — they’re caused by organizations asking the wrong questions, setting the wrong standards, and rewarding the wrong behaviors.

Neil is Google’s Chief Strategist and the bestselling author of Converted. In this conversation, he shares how he thinks about strategy as an incremental discipline: keeping the business alive today while moving it into a stronger position tomorrow.

They explore how leaders unintentionally turn metrics into theatre, why “more measurement” often becomes a coping mechanism, and how to set decision standards that match the speed of your competitive environment. The conversation also examines where AI can amplify strategic confusion, and how CSOs can keep strategy anchored in what customers actually value.

Things we’ll cover:
How Neil defines strategy as survival + positioning
Product-led vs customer-led models (and the role marketing plays in each)
Customer lifetime value and what it changes in enterprise strategy
Why common metrics aren’t comparable (even when they share the same name)
The “manipulation test” to reveal weak KPIs
How leaders override data — and how to design better decision standards
Why AI adoption fails when strategy is unclear

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• Learn more about Outthinker's community of chief strategy officers - https://outthinker.com/
• Follow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/outthinker-networks