Strategy Sprint for Mid-Sized Start-Up

THE CLIENT

Worldly equips future-forward brands and manufacturers with powerful supply chain intelligence.

Helping them to take actions that ultimately transform how products are made, marketed, bought, used, and recycled. 

Relied on by more than forty thousand brands and manufacturers across the globe, Worldly proudly hosts and supports leading sustainability assessments and methodologies for the apparel, textile, and footwear industry.

PROJECT SCOPE

Worldly’s newly formed 20 person Leadership Council needed to co-create an FY26 strategic direction and storm and norm quickly—building the shared leadership habits needed to plan and execute together across functional lines. They asked The Group Forward for a six-week engagement that blended discovery, leadership development, and strategic planning—culminating in a two-day off-site and a comprehensive hand-off package that included a draft strategic plan and supplemental planning resources.

How the Six-Week Process Unfolded

  • We held 5 focus groups across every function to surface “Bright Spots” (i.e.,things that are going well) and “Healthy Tensions” to address. We anchored the retreat design in these insights—rooting the work in lived experience, surfacing adaptive challenges, and creating a shared lens for addressing them as they emerged.

  • Using the insights as a springboard, we guided the Leadership Council through strategy design, persona definition, priority trade-offs, and fast-cycle leadership-development modules on trust, purpose alignment, and mutual accountability.

  • Within 48 hours we converted retreat outputs into a draft FY 26 strategic plan, a step-by-step executive-team approval protocol, and a toolkit for translating priorities into OKRs and an Annual Operating Plan.

3 Ways We Moved Worldly Forward

  • 1. Turned Insights into Alignment—Fast.

    Opening with Bright Spots and Healthy Tensions gave every leader a shared understanding and a common language about adaptive issues, accelerating alignment on what to protect, debate, or re-imagine.

    Results: The first-ever Council quickly converged on shared outcomes and priorities, sparking new collaboration across functions.

  • 2. Wove Leadership Development into Strategy Work.

    Short, high-impact modules on mutual accountability, grounding in purpose, and extending empathy were embedded in the strategy agenda that guided leaders to define outcomes, craft strategies, and weigh trade-offs—turning healthy tensions from friction into focused action.

    Results:  Interactive sessions surfaced real trade-offs, diffused tensions, and drove clear decisions without draining energy.

  • 3. Bridged Strategy to Execution in 72 Hours.

    The post-retreat package—draft strategic plan, exec team feedback protocol, and AOP toolkit—now positions Worldly’s leaders to finalize the plan, assign owners, and cascade OKRs on schedule, all in-house.

    Results:  A hand-off package—draft FY26 strategy, approval protocol, and AOP toolkit—has the exec team on pace to lock the plan and OKRs within two weeks.

“Cornelius was an exceptional facilitator—expert, thoughtful, and efficient. He expertly guided our Leadership Council through a highly engaging and productive two-day strategic planning session, helping us balance big-picture thinking with tangible outcomes. The energy, structure, and tools he brought to the process sparked meaningful cross-functional collaboration and left us well-prepared to take the next steps with clarity and momentum.”

— Stephanie Bastin-Wells, CHRO