Best of LinkedIn: Strategy & Consulting CW 20/ 21

Consulting firms accelerate from use-case pilots to enterprise-scale AI, demanding an engineering-first mindset and six cross-functional “power skills”

EY and NVIDIA unveiled the EY.ai Agentic Platform, signalling a shift toward proprietary ecosystems that fuse consulting IP with hyperscale compute

AI-driven cost management emerged as a quick-win lever, automating data intake, variance analysis, and scenario modelling to unlock material savings

Firms are retraining talent for the Age of AI – blending research design, coding literacy, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving to sustain margin expansion

Knowledge-management engines now integrate generative models, turning legacy slide banks into searchable, context-aware insight libraries

Boards stand-up Tariff Command Centres to move from reactive compliance to proactive margin defence and price-setting advantage

Strategy teams stress-test sourcing footprints against evolving trade rules, hybrid cyber-geopolitical threats, and multipolar supply-chain chokepoints

Retailers treat tariffs as competitive levers – dynamically re-balancing assortment, pricing, and near-shoring to weaponise agility

Tax incentives, rather than tariffs alone, prove decisive in repatriating high-value pharma manufacturing to the United States

CIOs embed geopolitical risk dashboards into continuity plans, ensuring asset protection and data-resilience under divergent regulatory regimes

C-suites adopt forward-looking risk playbooks – linking radar-screen scanning to trigger-based action plans for faster cycle-time decisions

The traditional “Three Lines of Defence” model is recast for velocity, shifting from audit policing to real-time advisory guardianship

Thought pieces emphasise that relentless execution, not grand strategy decks, sustains momentum once disruption strikes

Thought-leaders rebrand ESG as “Sustainomics” – linking decarbonisation to profitability metrics and action-oriented roadmaps

High-fidelity sustainability data is now non-negotiable; gaps in measurement increasingly translate into market-valuation discounts

Procurement chiefs bake responsible sourcing into category charters, converting compliance into differentiated customer promise

KPMG UK’s “Reframing Sustainability” campaign reframes ESG from reporting obligation to long-term value creation and risk mitigation

Purpose-driven storytelling gains traction in real-estate ESG, coupling emissions targets with community-impact narratives to unlock investor appetite

A new State of the Consumer Products report calls for decisive portfolio pruning and innovation sprints to regain relevance

Procurement functions confront supply-chain fragmentation; strategic partnerships and agile contract structures emerge as competitiveness multipliers