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ACG Strategic Insights
Strategic Intelligence That Drives Results
Welcome to ACG Strategic Insights — trusted by 9.8+ million current and aspiring leaders worldwide for strategic intelligence that drives results. Our daily publication delivers actionable insights across strategic leadership, technology & innovation, financial strategy, business strategy, and executive development, combining cross-industry expertise with real-world consulting experience.
From emerging market dynamics and proven leadership frameworks to technology innovation and executive development strategies, ACG Strategic Insights provides the strategic perspective that enables confident decision-making in an increasingly complex business environment. Learn more about ACG Strategic Insights or subscribe below to join millions of leaders who rely on our daily intelligence.
Financial Strategy
Capital markets intelligence, regulatory developments, financial leadership trends, M&A activity, funding strategies, and economic indicators that impact strategic financial decision-making.
The SaaS Spend Crisis: When Technology Becomes Financial Quicksand
The Hidden Cost of Invisible Waste: Where Your SaaS Budget Actually Goes. Mid-market companies spend 4-8% of revenue on software subscriptions, yet use only half their licenses. This dashboard reveals the patterns executives miss—unused entitlements draining millions, duplicate tools solving identical problems, and auto-renewals perpetuating yesterday's decisions. Red flags don't appear in vendor invoices. They emerge when you finally measure what you're actually using versus
Jerry Justice
10 hours ago7 min read
IP Strategy for Mid-Market Companies: The Value You're Leaving on the Table
Unlocking Hidden Value: The Missing Piece in Your IP Strategy. Most mid-market companies overlook the intellectual property already within their walls—proprietary processes, customer insights, and specialized methodologies worth millions. The lightbulb moment comes when leaders recognize these intangible assets as the strategic pieces that complete their competitive advantage. What intellectual property is your organization leaving on the table? Most mid-market executives bel
Jerry Justice
1 day ago9 min read
When Competitive Advantage Expires
The Strategic Refresh Curve: Companies that proactively refresh their competitive positioning before market erosion (upper curve) maintain sustained relevance, while those clinging to single advantages (lower curve) experience inevitable decay and diminished market position. Your company spent two years building what executives believed was an unassailable market position. The differentiation was clear, the value proposition sharp, the competitive moat seemingly wide. Eightee
Jerry Justice
2 days ago9 min read
What January's Execution Reveals About Next December's Results
The opening move determines the endgame. In chess and in business, January's strategic decisions shape the trajectory of the entire year ahead. The ledger doesn't lie. By the time January's statements close, you already know something critical about how the year will end. Not because the first month predicts revenue or market conditions, but because it reveals something more telling: your execution capacity. January carries a quiet honesty. The calendar has turned, expectatio
Jerry Justice
5 days ago8 min read
The Budget Variance Conversation That Actually Drives Performance
Strategic budget variance reviews transform when leaders shift from defending past decisions to shaping future resource allocation. The most effective CFOs facilitate collaborative dialogue where variances become strategic signals rather than performance scorecards. The final days of January often bring a familiar ritual to executive suites across mid-market and Fortune 1000 companies. Financial controllers distribute spreadsheets filled with variance indicators. Department h
Jerry Justice
Jan 288 min read
Operational Leverage – The Growth Multiplier Most Companies Miss
The Leverage Multiplier in Action: Small strategic inputs—standardized processes, clear decision frameworks, and scalable systems—turn into exponential output gains. Companies that design operational leverage before growth arrives don't work harder as they scale. They work smarter, converting each dollar of revenue into disproportionately higher profit while competitors add cost in lockstep with sales. Growth reveals what leaders truly designed. Revenue rises, demand acceler
Jerry Justice
Jan 277 min read
The CFO Transition Timeline That Protects Shareholder Value
Protecting Shareholder Value Through Structured Transition: The four-phase CFO transition timeline transforms a vulnerability window into a demonstration of governance strength and institutional resilience. Why CFO Transitions Test The Enterprise Few leadership changes expose an organization's internal strength quite like the departure of a chief financial officer. The CFO sits at the intersection of capital strategy, risk management, and operational truth. When that role goe
Jerry Justice
Jan 235 min read
Customer Concentration Risk: The Double-Edged Sword of Landing That Dream Client
When a single pillar bears too much weight, even the strongest structure becomes fragile. Customer concentration risk turns your biggest win into your greatest vulnerability—reducing strategic options, compressing valuations, and leaving your business exposed to forces beyond your control. The question isn't whether your anchor client is strong enough. It's whether your foundation can survive without them. Customer concentration risk rarely announces itself as a problem. It u
Jerry Justice
Jan 2210 min read
The Technology Investment Decision Framework That Prevents Regret
Technology governance demands more than oversight—it requires understanding how every system, decision, and investment connects to create competitive advantage or costly complexity. Every year, leaders face recurring tension during budget season. The pressure to modernize feels relentless, driven by the fear that falling behind a competitor's digital capabilities marks a slow path to irrelevance. Yet the data tells an uncomfortable story about how this capital gets deployed.
Jerry Justice
Jan 218 min read
The Working Capital Crisis Hiding in Your Growth Numbers
Growth creates distance between revenue and cash flow. The question isn't whether your business is expanding—it's whether the bridge connecting top-line success to actual liquidity can bear the weight. The Growth Paradox Every Executive Faces Growth is the primary metric by which we judge organizational health. It validates strategy, energizes teams, and signals market relevance. Board decks glow with upward lines, and leadership momentum feels justified. Yet beneath those nu
Jerry Justice
Jan 209 min read
Pricing Power in a Margin-Squeezed Market
The companies expanding margins in today's squeezed market didn't get lucky. They built pricing power through deliberate architecture across value definition, structural design, and customer intimacy. Master these pillars, and price becomes secondary to the outcomes you deliver. The phone calls come in waves. "Our suppliers raised prices again." "Customers are pushing back harder than ever." "We can't keep discounting to win deals." CFOs watch margins compress. Sales teams br
Jerry Justice
Jan 168 min read
M&A Market Shifts in 2026 Reveal Opportunities Behind the Headlines
M&A deal volume and value trends reveal the market bifurcation reshaping strategic opportunities. While global deal values surged to $4.8 trillion in 2025—a 36% jump from 2024—transaction volumes tell a more nuanced story. The divergence between quantity and quality reflects a flight to premium assets, where prepared companies with recurring revenue models, defensible technology advantages, and credible management teams command multiples that increasingly separate winners fro
Jerry Justice
Jan 138 min read
The Coordination Costs Your Operations Team Isn't Tracking
When leadership reviews dashboards in the boardroom while teams operate in fragmented silos across time zones, the gap between reported efficiency and actual performance widens. The cost of this disconnect doesn't show up on quarterly reports—but it shows up in your margins. Your operations team wrapped their quarterly review. Cycle times improved. Material costs stayed flat. Labor productivity hit targets. Every dashboard glows green. Yet your margins tell a different story.
Jerry Justice
Jan 128 min read
The January Board Presentation That Determines Your Year
Your January board presentation sets the expectations, metrics, and narrative that will define every conversation for the next twelve months—make it count. Walk into your January board meeting with last quarter's results and a promise to "do better," and you've already lost control of the conversation for the next eleven months. The directors sitting across that table aren't just reviewing December's numbers. They're forming judgments about your strategic clarity, your grasp
Jerry Justice
Jan 98 min read
The Cash Flow Blindspot That Kills Profitable Companies
The three-metric dashboard elite CFOs monitor every Monday morning: Days Sales Outstanding, Operating Cash Flow vs. EBITDA, and Net Working Capital trends reveal the cash flow blindspot before it becomes a crisis—transforming leaders from reactive to prepared. January opens with optimism. Q4 numbers are finalized, year-end reports circulate, and boards see familiar signals of progress. Revenue trends upward. Margins appear steady. EBITDA tells a reassuring story. Yet this is
Jerry Justice
Jan 67 min read
Series Blog #8: When Your Competitor Goes All-In on AI - Competitive Positioning Through Strategic Timing
This is the eighth blog in The Executive's AI Playbook series. We've examined AI fundamentals, hidden costs, trust challenges, talent strategies, governance frameworks, and CEO risks. Now we confront the question rising across boardrooms - what do you do when your competitor makes their move first? Competitive positioning shaped during accelerated change often determines industry standing for years to come. Reading the Signal Behind a Competitor's Move You're in a quarterly
Jerry Justice
Nov 19, 20257 min read
Series Blog #6: The AI Risk Register That Keeps CEOs Awake at Night
The AI risk matrix executives can't ignore: Reputational damage and cybersecurity vulnerabilities rank highest in likelihood and impact across all industries. From healthcare's diagnostic errors to finance's algorithmic bias, each sector faces distinct threat profiles that demand tailored governance frameworks. The Conference Board reports 72% of S&P 500 companies now flag AI as a material risk—up sixfold since 2023. The question isn't whether your AI initiative will face the
Jerry Justice
Nov 17, 20257 min read
Series Blog #5: AI Governance That Won't Gather Dust
Most AI governance frameworks end up like the dusty binder on the left—comprehensive documents nobody reads. Winning organizations use active systems like the dashboard on the right, where governance lives in real-time workflows, catching issues before they reach customers. The difference? One inspires compliance through fear, the other enables innovation through clarity. Welcome to the fifth blog in The Executive's AI Playbook series. This week, we've examined when your com
Jerry Justice
Nov 14, 20258 min read
Series Blog #4: The AI Talent Divide - Two Paths, One Winner
The AI talent divide in action: centralized hubs of elite specialists versus distributed networks of AI-fluent employees. Your choice determines whether innovation bottlenecks at the center or scales across your entire organization. This is the fourth installment in The Executive's AI Playbook series. We've examined the promises and pitfalls of AI transformation, explored where to begin your journey, and tackled the ROI challenge. Now we face perhaps the most consequential d
Jerry Justice
Nov 13, 20259 min read
Series Blog #2: The Hidden Costs of AI Your Budget Overlooked
In the first installment of The Executive's AI Playbook , we examined how AI promises to reshape business operations while creating new strategic challenges. Now we shift from promise to price. The initial capital expenditure for AI is a simple line item. The true price is found not in your IT budget, but in the less tangible, yet far more disruptive, changes required across your organization. Your CFO approved the software license. Your board nodded at the implementation tim
Jerry Justice
Nov 11, 20257 min read
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