#4 Author Insights: Alex Brueckmann, the Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author, The Strategy Legacy

Hi there. Welcome to the Masterminds of Life and Business After Insights podcast. The new series brings you insightful conversations with the brightest and provoking thinking authors. I'm Leon Eisen, inventor, serial entrepreneur and venture partner. And together we will explore the wisdom, experience, experience and perspectives of the authors who reshape our understanding of life, science and business. So subscribe to my podcast and learn the secrets of the brilliant minds. Hi everybody. Today I am really happy to host my good friend after of two amazing books, Secrets of next level Entrepreneurs and Strategy Legacy that we are going to talk about today. Strategy Facilitator advisor, keynote speaker. He is wearing a lot of hats, but you know, meet my good friend Alex Brockman. Hi Alex.

Thank you very much for the keen intro, Leon. Thanks for having me.

I'm really happy to meet you today because I know you released your new book, the Strategy Legacy. I was reading this book and I can share with you that I like it. I like it really. But not from the beginning because. Yeah, because from the be. I am physicist, you know, quantum physicist and I like the structures. You know, everything is structured or something like this. And in the beginning it just was like, you know, a lot of stuff you just throw down on me, you know. Yeah. And I had somehow to swim through all this stuff and after some time I get used to it and I found it very interesting and very inspiring. So now I understand what is its strategy facilitator. You put everything on your clients, put on them all this stuff and then you start to chop. To chop specifically something that really your clients and your. Your readers need. So that's very interesting strategy as well. So I'd like you to present yourself to tell more about yourself so our audience will learn about you and will will meet you and will become friends of you as a virtual friend of you as well. So let's start from this point.

Let's do that. Thanks, Leon. A quick answer to throwing all the things at you and my clients and then giving the structure second. That is actually on purpose. The reason for that is the. The structure as such needs terminology to make sense. That's why I put the terminology first in the book. And that's when it can feel a little bit. Oh my God, do I now have to learn a new language to understand the book? Well, it's actually the opposite. I only introduce a handful of terms so that then later on everyone can understand what they read. The reason I do this is that in the world of strategy, where I've been living in the for the past 15 to 20 years almost. There are a lot of people throwing terms around like candy for kids without even knowing what these terms actually mean. And that causes all kinds of confusions. Just imagine you sit in a boardroom and there are six, seven directors. And everyone has their own history. They come from different companies, they have read books. They all have a different understanding of what strategy is, what it means, what it contains. And if you don't clear that haze first and give everyone a toolbox that is the same so that they understand what they are actually talking about in an aligned way, it causes massive issues in organizations. You can design the greatest strategy and then derive a super plan from that strategy, only to discover then a year down the road that there hasn't been alignment in the very first place about what strategy really means and what it entails, what it is and what it is not. That's the reason I give terminology first and then the structure in the book. And that's what I've been doing for a long time now with my clients. I work mainly with Fortune 50 and Inc. 5000 companies, North America. I still have a few companies and a few clients in Europe that I work with. You probably realize in my accent that I am German. Originally. I only moved to Canada in 2020, so there are client relationships over half the world. But my main business is here in North America. And the interesting thing is the work that I do is relevant regardless of your sector, regardless of your industry. So new clients often ask me about my experience and my specific knowledge about, let's say, banking or software or anything else. And then when I tell them what I do, they realize that actually it would be a hindrance if I knew more about their industry. Because the thing is, you introduced me as a strategy facilitator, which is on purpose. I'm not a strategy consultant. I don't come in and tell you what I think you should do in your business. I work differently. What I do is I ask questions that guide you through a process at which end you will hold your strategy in your hands. And that is a strategy that you.

Created yourself mostly like any mentor is doing. So you're not consultant. You mostly mentor because mentor the guy who ask questions and guide and navigate client towards the right answer.

Yeah, there is a lot of coaching in this whole context of the work that I do. So I give the structure, I give the process, but the content comes from the people in the business. And the reason for that is very simple. There is a very good reason why they are leading the business and not me. They are the subject matter experts. There is no sense in bringing consultants into your company telling you how to lead your business because they can tell you whatever they want. They will be out the door the next minute, but you will be stuck with that, what they call a plan or a strategy or whatever they call it. If you don't create that strategy from scratch yourself, based on your knowledge and your dreams and your aspirations for your business, it's very likely that you won't have the stamina and the, and the resilience to follow through and to really implement that strategy over time. So consultants are great, but there is a place and time for consultants in a strategy process. You need to lead a strategy process yourself. Otherwise, you know, it's all about accountability in the end.

Yeah. You know, there is some problem with all this stuff because usually people working in the company, there is a saying, you can work in the company or on the company. Right. And usually people having skin in the game, the duck side of the skin of the game process, they lose their ability to think out of the box because, you know, low thermodynamics. You cannot change the system from within. You have to have another dimension to see all the system together, to have some bird view of the system and to change it. So that's why I think strategist, what is doing or mentor or coach or come to the company, I think it's forbidden to touch something that really creates skin on the game. You have to have the fresh view on the company and follow the specific structure, how to move this company to success. And this is interesting because my favorite, favorite strategist, Professor Michael Porter, I was reading a lot of books, or maybe all books he wrote. The strategy is the set of decisions towards specific goal. So I think the main issue how to, how to make this set of decision. And what I understand from your book, you even extended these to more elements to more components of such decision making. So this is what I would like.

To talk about 100%. Yeah. Michael Porter calls it decisions towards a goal. Roger Martin calls it choices that you make to achieve a goal. In the end, it's exactly that. You need to say yes to a handful of things and no to a million others. And that's what strategy is all about. It's about clarity and direction. Where do I want to be in the future and what are the tough choices that I make to get there. And strategy is. And you, you hinted to it, Leon, already strategy is an important, probably the most important element for any business to grow and to deliver value for clients. But it's not the only one. Strategy needs to be part of an ecosystem. And when I say ecosystem, what I mean is there are more elements that define an organization's identity than just strategy. And if we take a look at that, that's basically the core structure or the core visual that I use in my book, which I call the nine elements of organizational identity. Sure, strategy plays a core role, a center role. That's why it sits in the center of these three circles. But it's not the only one. If you look around, you see countless examples of companies that were too focused on strategy and that neglected other elements of organizational identity, namely, the impact that they have with their business. And when I say impact, what I basically say is two things. Everyone has been talking about purpose for so long, but only a very small number of companies actually turned their purpose into tangible results. Most of the companies, they, they talk, but they don't do. And when we, when we actually dare to do, we can create way more than just a financially successful company. We can create businesses that become something truly valuable in society as such. For example, a home to employees, where they thrive and become more than just employees that do their job. It can become something where we feel that, as you said, where we have skin in the game also as employees, not only as leaders, where we truly belong, and where we can shape something that we feel is worth it. One of my favorite examples is the company Patagonia, who has been over decades putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to environmental protection. And when we take a close look at what that means to create impact based on your purpose, we realize very quickly that the vehicle to take your purpose and put it into impact and create real tangible results, the vehicle to do that is your business strategy. So there is a very, very strong link between what you want to become, what you do to become that part, and then to create tangible, measurable results. An example of that would be if you say, I want to be a company that is well respected in my community because not only do I provide jobs, but I also am deeply involved in the community, etc. That's a purpose statement, right? That's what you want to do. And you can even say, I'm perfectly positioned to do that because I have a very specific set of skills. And those skills I want to not only use to make money, but also to do good, doing well while doing good. So then you create a business strategy around that. And what you then see is something that you can measure in Society in your community. And that is the difference between impact and purpose. Purpose are words. Impact are results. And that is just one example out of those nine elements of organizational identity that strategy is connected to. Other examples would be your principles, so your values and your guidelines, how you basically lead people in your organization. And when I talk about values, I'm not talking about those poster child values that you write on the wall in your lobby when people walk in and be like, that's our big values. I'm really talking about values in action. So not some generic values that everyone should actually claim to be their values. Things like courage, honesty. You know, those values that you read on every company website, those are, must have values. Those aren't company values. Without those values in place, you are not a legit member of society. You are a crook if you're not honest, if you're not courageous. I mean, that's not what a company needs to do.

This is done. We don't have to.

Exactly.

This is exactly, just should be, this is this zero point to start from.

Exactly. So we need to be very, very specific on what our diamond values are. I call them diamond values because they are really hard to alter even under pressure. They need to be at the core of your being. So when, when you create a business strategy, have those diamond values in mind, have them front and center, and ask yourself, how does my business strategy reflect those diamond values? Do I put my money where my mouth is? Do I invest in those things that truly matter to me? And strategy has this unique position in an organizational ecosystem where it touches all these other elements from values to impact, and then on the other end, also to, okay, if that's the strategy, do my people actually know how to do these things? Most likely not. Because with every big strategy comes change. And change needs to be managed. And change means I need new skills. If I don't need new skills, if I already know everything that I need to know to implement a strategy over the next three years, then the strategy is likely not worth the paper it's written on because it's already in my comfort zone. A good strategy is a stretch. It says, I know exactly where I want to be. I don't know how to get there yet. I don't even have the right skills to get there. But I know on the process, in the process, I will learn these skills and I will enable myself and my teams and my entire company to get there over time. So it's all about understanding what do we need to learn to implement strategy successfully. And that's when it comes down to capabilities. And why do we need those capabilities? Because strategy doesn't implement itself. It's the people in the organization who implement strategy. So that means they need to understand how they contribute to success. And that is incredibly motivating if you understand how your role contributes to the bigger picture. That's just, that's just crazy how motivational that can be for people. But it also means I need to be able to tell them and have a conversation with them so that they understand how their individual targets play into the, into the biggest strategy, how they pay into the bigger strategy. And that means I need to understand how to set targets for my people that are meaningful. And so in order to implement those targets, they need specific skills. You see, everywhere I go it links back to strategy. And that's why I derived this model of the nine elements of organizational identity, because it beautifully captures how strategy is the centerpiece of an organization's identity and how it can help you shape each of these elements.

Yeah, that's amazing. And I like what you said. Impact is result and purpose is just the work I was thinking about recently of this company, like some concept, how to make business, how to make life better. And I talked about all these vision and mission like ideology behind. Because concept is just what, how, where all the why this is a concept, but ideology behind this create all their system and integrate all the system and push towards the goal because people share the same thinking, same ideology, same vision. And this is very important. So strategy could be separated into main things. First, think where you're going, that belongs to ideology. And second thing, how you, you go in there and sometimes when I'm working with young startups, they do things totally randomly and this is a big problem. Recently it's interesting, recently I met one startup and I asked them, do you want any mentorship? Maybe you try to learn something. They said, now what we need to raise money. So my question, how to deliver this understanding to entrepreneur who is close, who doesn't want to understand this? He's not there yet. He's in the level where I don't know what I don't know. You know, there are four levels of competency. He's in a level of unconscious and competency how to grow this entrepreneur and let him know that he really needs to learn in order to succeed.

That is a great question, Liam. And I strongly believe there are two different approaches. There is the approach that other people take where they try to convince them that mentorships and coaching convincing platforms there.

It'S A different approach?

Yeah, it's. It's almost impossible. There are some that. Because they don't know what they don't know, but are still open to, to learning who will listen to you and who will then see the value that a facilitator, a coach, a mentor can bring.

This is the second level. Yeah, this is the second level. Conscience and competency. They understand something wrong and at this point they start to think about learning something.

Exactly. But honestly, my approach is a little different. It takes a lot of energy to convince people of something that they either don't see, that they don't see the value in, or that they actually don't believe in, or they don't know exists. So I don't have that energy and that time to do that. And typically that's also the reason why I, for example, I don't do sales, I don't sell my services. My entire business comes to me. It's completely from the outside in. And the reason is that the people that approach me, they already know what they don't know, and they already know that they need someone from the outside to help them through a process. For example, for various reasons, at that moment, people are ready to work with you. You don't need to convince them that they work with you. And those are the clients that achieve tremendous results when they hire external parties, be it consultants, be it facilitator, be it coaches. The companies that are ready to listen to people from the outside are companies that are in a state of learning. They understand that they don't know everything. They understand that as leaders, they need to be conscious enough of the fact that if they don't listen, no one will listen in the organization. So they lead by example. And honestly speaking, it's a lot of fun to work with these companies because they are ready, they are ready to go, they are ready to learn and to grow. And on the other hand, I completely stopped thinking about how can I convince someone that I see that needs help. You can't convince someone they need to have that light bulb moment themselves. Unfortunately, many only have it once they have sunk their first or second company. When we talk about entrepreneurs, they need to hit the wall. But then some of them, most of them, walk away from being entrepreneurs. But those who don't, those who start again, they will take that learning and use that learning when they build their third, their fourth business. That is where learning happens. When you reflect on why things worked or why they did not work. And if you work with companies that are mature enough to know that they don't know everything. That's the right level. That's the fun part. And those are companies that have tremendous growth. I mentioned in the beginning that I work with Inc 5000 businesses. Those are the 5000 fastest growing companies in the United States. And at the same time I also work with Fortune 50 organizations. And they are so different. A Fortune 50 company gets their relevance from stability. Now they have reached a certain size, they have reached a certain footprint. It's about maintaining and not shrinking and ideally growing. And for and their relevance comes from stability. The relevance of an Inc. 5000 company does not come from stability. It comes from the exact opposite. It comes from pioneering, from doing things the first time, from growth through innovation, daring to go where no one else has gone before. And that is so fascinating because these two businesses or these two types of businesses, they both value external input, but for very different reasons. So for me, it has been one of the greatest pleasures of my work that I can work with in both of these environments, both high growth and organizations that have already reached a certain size and significance.

Wow. Amazing. I totally share, I totally share your approach and understanding of this business because I spent a lot of time working in the healthcare industry, specifically medical device wearable medical device industry. And what I what I just saw very interesting stuff as more patient sick as less he want to find how to treat himself or has any discipline to treat himself. So that's why wellness, it's something like stability maintenance as you said, or growth renovation. This belongs to people who are doing wellness, who are looking forward to maintain their health, who are looking forward to grow their muscles. They use all possible innovations strategies to do it and take sick patients, ill patients. They don't have any strategy, they don't want to do anything. Maybe because of this they are sick because it comes from unconscious level as well. So everything understandable and everything clear that it's much better working with stable companies and companies who are looking for to grow than to initial or early startups who don't know how to make things. But what I also interesting stuff. Every day I got some mails, promotional mails from coaches, from consulting companies. So they are looking for to sale, they do sales promotion, why they're looking for to do it. And they're doing this because it's competition or because they couldn't create some aura around their business like you did. So what's the reason? What do you think?

This is a difficult question. And there are probably different reasons for every company who does what they do. But generally, if we strip it down to the core businesses thrive that have a clear value proposition. If I am searching for something and I look out into the market, I check out websites. If I look for a consultant or a facilitator, I Google strategy facilitator in Vancouver. And you would probably find a few people and then you would read those websites. And strategy facilitator is just a label. The question is, how do you fill that with life, with content? And when people check out your website and they read, for example, your blog or they listen to your podcasts or whatever it is, they want to feel that you understand what they are going through. You don't need to understand their business. You want to. They want to read about themselves in your blog articles, for example. So it comes down to creating value for a specific target group. And when that target group is looking for you, they see that value. They see how you speak their language. They see. They experience you without even experiencing you, just from the content and your appearance, how you show up in the web and what you put into the world on a constant basis. And of course, there are different ways of making sales and growing your business. If you take McKinsey for example, this is a different ball game than a small local consulting company. Right. So everyone needs to figure out what works best for them. And for some, in my case, it works best to create content that my target group, my clients find valuable. And when the time is right, they will reach out to me. For other businesses, their entire business model is based on volume, not on quality. So you can do both. But don't ever compete on price. If you start to compete on price, you're basically dead. That's a downward spiral you will never escape.

Yeah, there is a huge competition on price as well. Yeah, you're totally right. I think it was an amazing, amazing interview and podcast. Thank you very much, Alex.

Thank you, Leah, for having me. I really appreciate it.

If you have some final couple of sentences to our audience about why they need you, why they have to read your book, just some like a conclusion and how you specifically you can help them to grow.

I thank you very much for that opportunity. I actually don't think I want to work with everyone, so I can't clone myself. So there is already too much work on my desk. And I do have a family that I enjoy spending time with. So I think the best way right now of understanding my thinking is to read the strategy legacy. It gives you already everything that you need. It gives you a framework and a process to implement the framework. And there is also on my website, you can already sign up for the next book, which is called Creating the Strategy Legacy. And in that book, I literally give you all the exercises, templates, questionnaires, assessments, everything that you need to run these processes without me. So it's a collection of all the exercises and resources that I created over the past 15 years. So once you read the Strategy Legacy and Creating the Strategy Legacy, you can do this yourself. You don't need me for that. And I think this is my gift to the world. This is something that I see as the value that I can share with everyone, with every young business, with every young entrepreneur. But it's also applicable if you are a board director and you are overseeing a Fortune 50 company. I've been doing this same work with the same tools, with the same processes across the world, across companies, across industries. And I really believe in sharing my work at this point in time, because I know there is too much work out there anyway. There is more work than a single person can handle. And I believe if I can share my content, if I can share the valuable exercises and resources that I created over time with more people, we can create more, better companies out there.

This is exactly how you duplicate yourself.

I hope so.

Amazing. Thank you, Alex. I'm really happy to host you today, and I think our people will be very interested to hear you, to learn from your books, to learn from your experience. And thank you very much.

Appreciate it. Thanks, Leo.