Why a compact
Nobody Can See Three Years Out, So Commit to the Next Twelve to Eighteen Months
Three-year plans have become fiction, and each function ends up running its own version of the strategy. A Growth Compact keeps the three-year view as a thesis, tested and revised when its assumptions break, and commits the team only to the stretch it can actually see.
A charter is granted by an authority. A compact is made between parties who bind themselves to each other, so it works only when the team can challenge the CEO's targets.
What it answers
Four Questions Anchor Every Commitment
- 1 · Ambition
What do we want to achieve?
A North Star three years out and the CEO's stakes in the ground, tested by the team, then raised, held, or lowered.
- 2 · Today
Where are we today?
A shared baseline from the company's own evidence, including where leaders already disagree.
- 3 · Trajectory
Where are we going?
The three-year thesis: how AI and the market reshape the industry, with its assumptions and tripwires.
- 4 · Path
How do we get there?
Four or five multi-functional growth imperatives, each with moves, one owner, and metrics, plus what the company will stop doing and a dedicated AI budget.
How it works
Two Days in the Room to Build It, One Day to Refresh It
- Before
Background preparation
AI-drafted pre-reads, a day of homework, and a one-hour interview with each leader.
- In the room · 2 days
Thesis, then commitments
Day one agrees the thesis and tests the targets. Day two sets the growth imperatives, owners, metrics, and the stop list.
- After
Detail and confirmation
Imperative owners build milestones, resources, and quarterly metrics; the team locks the Compact and sets the refresh date.
Nobody restarts planning. Each refresh, quarterly or twice a year, tests the thesis, updates the growth imperatives, and resets the owners, usually in a single day.
Where AI fits
AI Runs Through Every Growth Imperative, Never as Its Own Workstream
A shared assumption base
One pre-read separates what is reliably true about AI over 18 months from what is contested and what is hype.
Build, sell, run
Each executive answers from their own seat: what changes in what we build, how we sell, and how we run the business.
A gate on every imperative
An imperative passes only when it answers build, sell, and run. "Nothing changes" is allowed, but visible.