For Your Organization

I've put this site together as a brief introduction to me, Jonathan Strong, by way of a snapshot of my career highlights and some of my accomplishments. Here's a quick summary:

Originate and foster breakthrough innovation and success rethinking strategy, leadership, governance, process and technology to achieve and surpass business objectives. Leader and partner to management at all levels helping startups and Fortune 100’s innovate, perform, grow and excel while balancing risk and opportunity. Strategic perspective, broad and deep experience, reality-based hands-on approach with quantifiable results. For some more background and detail, please read on...

There's Nothing Like Experience

Hoping to grab the attention of a jaded audience, people may coin catchy names for their processes, and some have gone so far as to label themselves "black belts" in their fields. However, as easily as a student can earn a relatively meaningless "black belt" from a strip-mall martial arts school, these "black belt consultants" are, more often than not, junior practitioners who have taken a few courses and been "certified" by their employers. As any true martial arts practioner knows, being a "black belt" means that you have had enough varied experiences so that you begin to understand your challenges - and initiate your response - on a truly intuitive level.

A key differentiator is that an experienced practitioner has typically seen a challenge from dozens of perspectives, and has developed a conceptual model of the underlying nature of the problem that will still hold true even if the issue presents itself in many different guises. The novice may be able to deal with the same problem - but only if it fits within the narrow conceptual model that has been derived from scant experience. If all problems always appeared in the same way, broad and deep experience would be far less important. But that is simply not the case. My experience lets me recognize and solve business and technology challenges quickly, knowing in advance what the outcome will be.

Another attribute of the true "black belt" is that, while being extremely competent, we recognize the fact that we are always learning. Each and every experience informs and teaches us, and further refines our conceptual models of the challenges faced by organizations.

What Kind of Experience?

From hands on architecture, design and programming, through project and program management, product creation and management, building and leading IT organizations as a CIO and CTO, and creating and running his own consulting team for several years, my experience spans multiple industries and functions. Common to every role and endeavor, however, is the guiding principle that the value associated with the desired outcome is known, and can be seen and recognized by the stakeholders. Some of the roles and challenges I can tackle for you or your organization, based on serious experience and skills, include:

• Assess an organization, program, project or product
• Research a market, map out your customers, and understand the competition
• Plan, create and/or manage your new or revised organization, program, project or product
• Be your CIO, CTO, Chief Innovation Officer, strategic consultant or project director or strategic project manager