266
recommendations: 85 gaps, 36 inconsistencies, 60 omissions
17
critical risks identified and categorized
2 million PLN
less per year in targeted grants – the cost of drifting without a clear direction
01 Context – who was the client and what did they see as the problem
A public sector research institution. Seven units. Seven strategies.
Each written without consulting the others.
The client saw the problem from a technical perspective: divergent documents require consolidation ahead of the new 2026-2030 financial perspective. The need was real – an external deadline forced action. The solution seemed obvious: gather the strategies, compare them, and standardize them.
No one asked why seven units had been writing in different directions for years.
02 The Cost – How Much Did Inaction Cost
Two levels of risk. One routine, one catastrophic.
- Routine: the targeted grant decreases by 2 million PLN year over year. Every month without a coherent direction is another argument for the funding institution that the organization doesn’t know what it wants.
- Catastrophic: a 30 million PLN project dependent on a single political decision – with no contingency plan. Not because someone neglected risk management. Because the organization lacked the tools to even identify such a risk.
03 Diagnosis – what was really the source
At the North Star workshop, each of the six participants wrote down their version of the organization’s key goal. Six completely different sentences emerged. An organization that already had seven ready-made strategies could not articulate in a single sentence where it was headed.
The problem wasn’t the 7 divergent strategies. The 7 divergent strategies honestly revealed that the organization had never had a common language to discuss goals, risks, and priorities.
„Working with you, we finally feel like we have a conversation partner with whom we can figure things out, with whom we can bounce our ideas off – and thanks to that, we can do certain things by the book and in a professional manner.”
It wasn’t a discovery of gaps in the documents. It was a discovery that the documents were a symptom – and the source was the lack of a single sentence that everyone would understand in the same way.
04 Decision – what the client decided after the diagnosis
- First decision: halt work on the document and first develop a shared North Star. A single sentence that everyone understands in the same way. Not as a compromise – but as an actual common ground.
- Second decision, politically more difficult: conduct a risk workshop for the entire organization before anything is implemented. Not because the procedure requires it. Because 30 million zlotys dependent on a single political decision is a risk that must be named and have a contingency plan – before it becomes a crisis.
- What was abandoned: working on a document without a common language. Consolidating seven texts without first agreeing on a direction. Implementing a strategy without a risk map.
05 Effect – what changed
- 266 implementation recommendations – sorted, categorized, and assigned to owners.
- 17 critical risks identified and categorized.
- A unified strategy for 2026-2030 incorporating the perspectives of all seven teams.
- A change not reflected in the numbers: coordinators no longer work in isolation. Before the workshops, each unit operated independently, disconnected from other departments – every change required building consensus from scratch. After the workshops, the organization had a common reference point and tools it could implement on its own on a daily basis.
„The next planning cycle doesn’t require external support – it requires repeating what already works.”
All it takes is
One Step
If your company also knows what it needs – and has been working on it for months with no results – it might be worth checking whether it’s addressing the right problem.
The Founders’ Diagnosis is a 3-hour session with the founders of Louder Higher, after which you’ll receive a report within 72 hours. Cost: 4,500 PLN.
Testimonials
Grzegorz Górski
CEO Footballcode.eu
Excellent collaboration in the context of business strategy. Insightful analyses and well-thought-out solutions. Thanks to their life and business experience, as well as their collaborative approach, I can confidently say that working with Louder Higher was time well spent!
Anna Gamrot
Co-founder What The Nut
Working with Louder Higher takes your approach to business strategy to a whole new level. There are no “golden rules” from a position of superiority or ready-made recipes for success. Instead, there is a careful process in which, step by step, they discover what is best about the company – its resources, ideas, and potential. As a result, the strategy is not an artificially “pasted” plan, but a natural development of what already works and has the power to bring real business results.
Michał Dyba
MyWam Sp. z o.o.
Kuba’s advice is pure practical wisdom. His insights helped me achieve my goals faster than I expected, and I know that after his training, I’ll go even further than I planned. The process was intense, but very focused. It’s great that, as a client, I’ll be able to continue benefiting from his knowledge and the professionalism of his team. I recommend him to everyone (except the competition)!
Case Studies
They came for a communication strategy. The left with a decision to rebrand.
They came with seven different strategies. The left with a clear direction.
They came for a communication strategy. The left with something they really needed.
They knew how to sell in their own market. Poland? They started from zero.
They came for sales tools. The left with a sales process that was 60% shorter.
