From code to C-Suite: How I got into strategy

I realise I have answered this question in so many conversations, but never written it down.

I started my career in software development in the 90s. It was a heady time, with the advent of client server computing, object-orientation, and, of course, the internet.

By the time of the dot.com boom, I as already rising through middle management into more senior roles, eventually running the software development capability for a very well funded startup online bank based in Cape Town, South Africa.

At the same time I was doing my MBA.

Well before the dot.com crash, I realised that, while the question I was being asked was "can you build it?", the more important question was "should you build it?"

It turns out I was exactly right. A lot of dot.com business that could be built shouldn't have been.

What followed, of course, was the crash.

But I had already made the transition for technology into strategy. I started by pointing out that the startup bank I was working for was trying to replicate a model from the UK into South Africa. I pointed out that the markets were very different, and therefore, so was what would and wouldn't work. I was tasked with remediating the problem. (Which I did.)

My journey into strategy initially led me away from technology and deep into financial services.

However, it quickly became apparent that lots of the problems and opportunities in financial services were very technologically oriented. So things tied together quite neatly.

It is also how I came to found StratNavApp.com. It was born out of a personal realisation that digital transformation was impacting almost every aspect of life, but the practice of developing and executing business strategy remained stubbornly unchanged. Most organisations I encountered relied on little other than Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Excel.

There had to be a better way!

And, of course, as AI slowly emerged (even when it was still machine learning rather than Generative AI) it became evident that the digitisation of strategy was fundamental to its continued evolution. And StratNavApp.com was ideally placed to capitalise on it.

So my story is essential one of technologist turned strategist turned technologist!

If you found that at all interesting, please feel free to follow my continuing journey on: