Strategic Advisory & Management Consulting in Upstate New York
Most strategic plans fail because:
- They lack a robust approach to strategizing, perhaps anchoring on existing ideas, which often miss consideration of important aspects;
- Even when they have the proper vision, there is a failure in execution.
At Gato Consulting, we provide a data-driven, rigorous approach to strategy rooted in the best of academic research and top-tier management consulting practices.
Whether you are a local enterprise in the Mohawk Valley or a growing firm in Central New York, we bring the tools used by global leaders to your boardroom—delivered with the personal support of a local partner.
Our Advisory Services are just as much about advising as doing and making sure it works.
Our Strategic Frameworks
Robust | Though-provoking | Execution-ready
We offer three distinct engagement levels designed to meet your company exactly where it is in its growth cycle. These are based on our three proprietary and comprehensive frameworks.
Learn more on our specific Strategy website
1. Strategy4Action –
The Comprehensive Framework
This is the flagship product of our Advisory Services, a step-by-step guide to defining and implementing a robust corporate strategy.
The Structure: A 3-phase journey (Analysis, Strategy, Action) expanded into 12 rigorous steps.
The Goal: From go-to-market uncertainty to exploring new options and moving to a clear, actionable roadmap.
Best for: Companies facing significant market shifts or those needing a complete strategic overhaul. It includes:
- comprehensive market and competitive analysis
- identification of opportunities using multiple structured methods
- clear strategic positioning
- actionable roadmap for implementation.
Learn more: Video with an overview of Strategy4Action
Learn more: Strategy4Action – detail 0f 12 steps
2. Putting Together YOUR STRATEGY –
Plan Construction
For leadership teams that already have a clear direction but lack the formalized structure to communicate and track it.
The Structure: A 3-phase journey (Analysis, Strategy, Action) expanded into 12 rigorous steps.
The Goal: Unblock existing ideas, test them, then make them clear and anchored on credible financial projections.
Best for: Firms without internal capacity to develop a Strategic Plan; Firms preparing for a major capital raise, sale, or internal reorganization. It will result in:
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- formalizing strategic ideas into a cohesive plan
- building financial projections aligned with strategy
- ensuring internal consistency and credibility.
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Learn more: Putting Together YOUR STRATEGY
3. CHOOSING Strategically –
The Strategy Barometer
Strategy is ultimately about making choices. Here, our Advisory Services and CHOOSING Strategically serve as a barometer for assessing the validity of your current path.
The Focus: Challenging or creating the strategic choices every leader must consider.
The Goal: A Strategy that Makes a Difference, and reinforces or creates Competitive Advantage.
Best for: Teams at a crossroads who need a professional “second opinion” on high-stakes decisions. It will tell you:
- What are the Strategic CHOICES you must consider for having a Strategy
- How to make Strategic decisions that make a difference and specifically build or reinforce Competitive Advantage
Learn more: CHOOSING Strategically
The TOOLSET –
Much more than words
Our three programs utilize a proprietary toolset comprising over 120 techniques, questionnaires, discussion scripts, and forms, organized across about 50 files.
This toolset allows the immediate application of the “Strategy4Action”, “Putting Together YOUR STRATEGY”, and “CHOOSING Strategically” frameworks. Each template includes instructions and covers a wide range of Strategic tools from academia and management consulting for each step of the frameworks. The editable files provide flexibility to add topics or questions, enabling adaptation to your specific needs or format.
Learn more: TOOLSET
Why Gato Consulting for Strategy
Strategy is at the core of everything we do at Gato Consulting and our Advisory Services.
We offer a unique combination of differentiators in Central NY and the Mohawk Valley Region:
#1 - Institutional Rigor
Built on the best Academia, top-tier Consulting Firms, and Extensive Executive Experience:
Our framework is built on the teachings of Harvard’s Michael Porter, Gary Hamel, Roger Martin, and other scholars, combined with recent insights from the Wharton program on Competitive Advantage, and my experience working as a client of two of the three best management consulting firms in the World.
#2 - Extensive search for Opportunities
The Strategy4Action framework Searches for Opportunities using 23+ methods that will leave no stone unturned.:
You don’t have to be a visionary or lucky to find the best opportunities!
The Analysis and Strategy work is greatly inspired by the work of Michael E. Porter and Roger L. Martin.
#3 - Unique Crowd Wisdom Tools
Several techniques make the best use of and engage your company's best minds, not just a couple of people.
These “crowd wisdom” techniques, greatly inspired by the work of Gary Hamel, yield more ideas and help improve decisions by reducing noise and bias.
#4 - Calibration of Financial Expectations
We use Calibrating Methods in building Financial Projections – one thing is being ambitious; another is flying too close to the sun.
This will enable you to set solid goals and meet them. This will help you build credibility with your stakeholders.
My own activity in Business Valuation helps determine what creates value and what does not.
#5 - Actionable with real tools
Practical and intuitive approach to Action because even the best Strategy books don't tell you how to do it and most consultants don't have
Our proprietary toolset of more than 120 techniques, questionnaires, discussion scripts, and forms allows for immediate application of all our frameworks. And the Final Plan will be organized and implemented using Project Management Tools.
#6 - Local Engagement & Implementation
Consultant working with Your Team, locally, on-site as much as you want, and...
affordably!
Due to the hands-on nature of these Engagements, Gato Consulting primarily serves Central NY and the Mohawk Valley, especially the Greater Syracuse and Utica-Rome areas.