The Chief Strategy Officer Podcast

Today’s guest is Adam Zalisk, Chief Strategy Officer at Amplify — a pioneer in K–12 education since 2000. Today, Amplify serves more than 10 million students across all 50 U.S. states, delivering next-generation curriculum and formative assessment in ELA, math, and science. In this conversation, Adam reflects on what changes when strategy becomes a formal role inside a growing organization. Rather than treating strategy as a static plan, he frames it as a set of clear commitments tied to an explicit end state — and explains why ambiguity around those commitments is often what causes companies to struggle as they scale. He also introduces a practical framework for understanding why strategy offices emerge in the first place, helping leaders distinguish between different strategic needs and translate strategic thinking into real organizational traction. Things we’ll cover: How Adam defines strategy in growth-stage companies The four distinct reasons organizations create a strategy office What leaders are actually looking for when they say, “we need strategy” How a strategy office avoids becoming an internal order-taker Where strategy functions most often lose — or earn — credibility This episode is a practical guide for CSOs navigating growth, ambiguity, and rising organizational complexity. If you’re wrestling with focus, alignment, or execution as your organization scales, this conversation will sharpen how you think about the role — and the impact — of strategy. Learn more about Outthinker's community of chief strategy officers - https://outthinker.com/Follow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/outthinker-networks

Neil Hoyne, Google's Chief Strategist and bestselling author and Wharton faculty, explains strategy as survival plus positioning. He contrasts product-led and customer-led models. He warns how shared metric names mask different calculations and shows tests to reveal weak KPIs. He also tackles when leaders override data and why AI adoption fails without clear strategic foundations.

Adam Zalisk, Chief Strategy Officer at Amplify, leads strategy for a K–12 edtech scaled to 10M+ students. He reframes strategy as a clear end state plus commitments. The conversation explains four reasons organizations create strategy teams. It covers how to turn commitments into organizational processes, build credibility, and decide what strategic work to accept or decline.

Michael Drexler, Chief Strategy Officer at Brightstar Capital Partners with roots in investment banking and global strategy. He explains how strategy shifts from founder-led advising to a formal in-house consulting function. He covers influencing broader leadership, building rotation-driven strategy teams, maintaining neutrality, and a practical four-step project prioritization framework.

In this episode, Cisco’s Chief Strategy Officer Ammar Maraqa joins host Kaihan Krippendorff to discuss how one of the world’s largest technology companies is evolving its strategy to lead the next wave of AI and digital infrastructure.From building AI-ready data centers to fostering intrapreneurship through Outshift, Cisco is reimagining how strategy, innovation, and execution come together. Ammar shares lessons from his experience leading Cisco’s strategy organization and shaping its innovation portfolio across build, buy, partner, and incubate pathways.Topics CoveredCisco’s strategy for the AI and digital infrastructure eraHow the Strategy Office connects long-term vision with executionBuilding AI-ready data centers and enabling digital resilienceThe meaning of agentic AI and its impact on enterprise productivityHow Cisco’s Outshift incubator drives internal innovationCisco’s approach to build, buy, partner, and incubate innovationThe difference between a “push” and “pull” model in corporate strategy teamsWhy resource allocation is the truest test of strategic clarityKey Quotes“We’re helping customers build AI-ready data centers — the infrastructure that will power the next generation of digital workers and intelligent systems.”“Cisco has always viewed the startup ecosystem as an extension of our own R&D. We don’t have a monopoly on good ideas.”“A successful strategy team isn’t the strategy police. It’s when people across the business pull you in because of the value you bring.”Resources MentionedCisco Outshift (https://outshift.cisco.com)Cisco’s Digital Resilience frameworkOutthinker Networks (https://outthinker.com)Learn more about Outthinker's community of chief strategy officers - https://outthinker.com/Follow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/outthinker-networks

In this special in-person conversation recorded at Adobe’s global headquarters, Kaihan continues his discussion with Malte Bernholz, Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Incubator at Adobe. In Part One, on our sister show Outthinkers, Malte explored the macro trends transforming creativity, technology, and business in the age of AI. Click the link below to watch part 1 if you havent already.  https://youtu.be/pYoIvvb0SGc  Now, in Part Two, we go deeper—inside Adobe’s strategic engine—to learn how this global innovator designs its own future. Malte shares: How Adobe has reorganized around three audience groups—business professionals and consumers, creative professionals, and marketing professionals—to better align innovation with customer needs How his team leads corporate strategy and incubation, balancing “looking around the corner” with accelerating high-priority initiatives How the Adobe Incubator fosters entrepreneurship within the company, empowering small internal teams to build the next generation of product – and the early outcomes of that work, from Firefly Boards to Project Pulsar and beyondPart one on OUTTHINKERS: https://youtu.be/pYoIvvb0SGcLearn more about Outthinker's community of chief strategy officers - https://outthinker.com/Follow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/outthinker-networks

In today’s episode, we speak with Oreste Donzella, former Chief Strategy Officer of KLA, a global leader in semiconductor process control and inspection. Oreste brings over three decades of experience in the semiconductor industry — a sector that quietly powers every technological advance we see today. You know, every strategist planning for AI's future is charting a course on assumptions about computational power, cost curves, and technological capability. But few are examining the foundation on which all of it rests: semiconductors. Without understanding where chip technology is headed—and the geopolitical forces reshaping its landscape—you're navigating without checking what lies beneath the waterline. Oreste is a veteran strategy officer with decades navigating the complex semiconductor stack, and here we explore the dynamics shaping foundational technologies—from manufacturing processes to geopolitical tensions—so you can better anticipate the forces that will enable or constrain your AI ambitions. In this episode we get into: Why AI’s rise is really a story about semiconductors — and how the industry’s “emotional revenge” is unfolding. The hidden complexity of the semiconductor supply chain — and how a few specialized companies shape global innovation. How geopolitics, national strategies, and power consumption are redefining the industry’s future. The movement toward modular, heterogeneous chip design — and what it means for strategy leaders in every sector. Oreste’s model for the three timeless pillars of great strategy execution: Collaboration, Innovation, and Execution. Oreste’s perspective reminds us that strategy doesn’t live in isolation — it operates often within vast, interconnected systems. And those able to think at the systems level, able to understand how they are evolving, will be the ones able to understand where value is truly pooling and therefore where to play. Learn more about Outthinker's community of chief strategy officers - https://outthinker.com/Follow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/outthinker-networks

What does a banana have to do with data strategy? In this episode of the Chief Strategy Officer Podcast, we sit down with Claudio Finol, Chief Strategy Officer at Fyffes, one of the world’s oldest and most recognized produce companies. Fyffes bananas, pineapples, and melons may be a familiar sight in your grocery store, but behind the scenes the company is navigating some of the most complex strategy challenges of our time—climate change, global supply chains, digitization, and the disruptive power of data. Claudio shares how Chief Strategy Officers across industries can learn from agriculture—a sector as old as civilization—about using data to push Michael Porter’s productivity frontier, transform traditional business models, and even create new revenue streams. From John Deere’s reinvention into a data-driven platform company to the strategic tension between optimizing your core and monetizing aggregated data, this conversation uncovers lessons every CSO should hear. Things We Will Cover in This Episode:- How Fyffes is blending tradition with transformation in the global produce industry. - Why data is no longer just supporting products—it is becoming the product. - Michael Porter’s productivity frontier and its relevance in the AI era. - How companies like John Deere turned data into a competitive advantage and 95th-percentile growth engine. - The two strategic paths with data: optimizing the core vs. creating new data products. - What CSOs must do today to prepare their organizations for digitization, AI, and data-driven business models.  Why ListenIf you’re a Chief Strategy Officer, innovation leader, or executive thinking about the future of business, Claudio’s insights will challenge you to rethink what business you’re really in. Whether you’re managing physical products, digital platforms, or services, this episode shows how data strategy, AI readiness, and organizational culture can define the competitive frontier in the years ahead. Learn more about Outthinker's community of chief strategy officers - https://outthinker.com/Follow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/outthinker-networks

Rachel Credidio, Chief Innovation Officer and former Chief Transformation and People Officer at Aster Group, shares how she embedded restorative practices to reshape culture. She discusses using voice, fair process, and accountability to reduce conflict. She explains practical tools like learning circles, policy changes, and storytelling to scale inclusion and sustainable innovation.

In this episode, we sit down with Todd Cassler, Chief Growth Officer of Cerity Partners, to explore the growing role of corporate venture capital (CVC) as a strategic tool for driving innovation and growth. With decades of experience in asset and wealth management as a chief strategy and growth officer, Todd is a trusted partner with a front-row seat to how Fortune 500 companies are using CVC not just to diversify financially, but to shape their strategic futures.   Things we cover in this episode:  - Why CVC programs often fail without CEO and board-level buy-in  - How to design a governance model that avoids being pulled back into “business as usual”  - The hidden benefits of CVC, from M&A pipeline generation to competitive intelligence  - What it takes to align siloed innovation efforts with core business objectives  - How to measure the strategic—not just financial—value of your venture investmentsLearn more about Outthinker's community of chief strategy officers - https://outthinker.com/Follow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/outthinker-networks