When every devision had a different definition of success, forward momentum became impossible. We helped a 900-person retail organization align around a single direction, and build the governance to keep it that way.
This retailer had grown through acquisition without ever building a unified strategic foundation. By the time we engaged, the organization had momentum–but no agreed upon direction to aim it.
The problems weren’t new. Leadership had recognized them for years. What was missing was a process to surface and resolve the disagreements underneath them.
Each division operated on its own growth plan with its own resource requests. Every cross-functional conversation became a negotiation– and every allocation decision reopened the same unresolved debates.
Previous planning cycles had produced documents, not conviction. Strategies sat in decks nobody references, with commitments nobody was accountable for following through on.
The presenting issue was execution–projects stalling, decisions slow. But the real problem was upstream: no shared definition of what the organization was trying to become.
Structured interviews across leadership, division heads, and managers revealed the disagreements weren’t about priorities–they were about identity.
A structured workshop series focused on genuine decisions: which markets, what experience to deliver, and what the organization was explicitly choosing not to do.
Each division’s priorities anchored to shared enterprise goals with explicit tradeoff logic that leadership agreed to in advance.
A quarterly review rhythm embedded with internal capability to run it–so the work continued after we left, led entirely by the client’s own team.
Leadership aligned on shared goals with explicit tradeoff logic–ending years of divisional conflict over resource allocation.
A quarterly strategy review rhythm implemented and run independently by the client team for over a year since the engagement ended.
Each division’s plan restructured to link directly to shared objectives, eliminating the primary source of cross-functional friction.
Strategic planning embedded in how decisions get made–not handed off as a document, but practiced as an ongoing organizational discipline.
Competing divisional plans consolidated into one unified framework.
Client-led implementation rate after the Gunter Group engagement ended.
From engagement start to full organizational adoption.
The Gunter Group didn’t come in with a pre-determined answer. They spent the first few weeks asking questions, and that’s exactly what we needed. We had been solving the wrong problem for two years.”– VP of Digital Commerce Specialty Retail Company
Case Study
Case Study
Case Study
We help leadership teams cut their ambiguity, align around what matters, and build the momentum to transform their business.
