How a Unified Direction Changed the Game for a Growing Portfolio
With the right conversations, even complex organizations can move forward with focus and confidence.
Customers needed more than great products. They needed a clear message—and a reason to believe the parts added up to something bigger.
About the Client
An investment group managing a portfolio of innovative tech companies, seeking a more unified direction to accelerate growth.
Their big question
“How do we create a unified direction so our companies stop competing for attention and start building confidence—inside and out?”
The Backdrop: Smart Investments, Mixed Signals
A team of sharp investors had built a strong portfolio of promising tech companies, each with unique IP and market edge. The idea was straightforward: acquire strategically, stay lean, and let innovation drive growth.
But as the portfolio grew, so did the confusion.
Each business was moving independently. The parent company had no shared identity, and customers weren’t sure what connected the companies—or what the parent company actually stood for.
Internally, leaders worked hard but pulled in different directions. Teams used different terms to describe success. Strategy lived in slide decks but didn’t show up in day-to-day decisions.
What looked strong on paper was losing traction in the real world.
The Starting Point (What Was Really Going On)
This wasn’t a capability issue, but a coordination issue.
There was no shared definition of what success looked like across the businesses. Instead of working together, teams kept their heads down and stayed in their own lanes. Progress slowed, energy was wasted, and opportunities were missed.
Meanwhile, a quiet assumption had taken hold: that the strength of the technology would speak for itself. But customers needed more than great products. They needed a clear message—and a reason to believe the parts added up to something bigger.
Eventually, customer feedback started to show a pattern:
“We like what you’re doing—but we don’t quite get how it all fits.”
That hesitation was costing time, trust, and deals.
CATALYST FOR CHANGE
Customer feedback started to show a pattern:
“We like what you’re doing, but we don’t quite get how it all fits.”
That hesitation was costing time, trust, and deals.
The Engagement
That’s when the leadership team paused—and brought in Go to Market Impact (GTMI) for support.
Rather than jump into a reorg or rebrand, we started by helping them slow down and asked key questions.
Using the De-Risk System for Impact®, GTMI brought leaders from across the businesses into a series of focused, practical conversations. We didn’t ask for elevator pitches. We asked:
- What do you believe in?
- Who do you serve?
- Why does your work matter?
We used real language—no buzzwords, no jargon. Everyone got a chance to understand how their work connected to the broader goals.
GTMI engaged all key leaders—both at headquarters and within each business unit—through every step of our De-Risk System for Impact in order to identify key elements of their strategy and identify the risks. Leaders then collaborated to identify the unique problems each business faced individually and, more importantly, the collective challenges they could overcome as a unified entity.
The engagement helped the team to articulate how they differentiated from competitors. They then pinpointed the players who needed to take action for the strategy to succeed.
Soon, the group began to see the same picture—and talk about it the same way.
Turning Point (“Aha Moment”)
As conversations unfolded, the leadership team began to describe the company’s direction not in terms of business units or product lines, but in terms of customer needs, purpose, and outcomes. They started using the same language—without needing to rehearse it. There was a noticeable shift in how decisions were made. Instead of asking who owned what, teams asked whether something moved them closer to the strategy they had agreed on together.
That clarity began showing up in meetings, in planning sessions, and in day-to-day operations. A strategy that once lived in slide decks was now shaping real decisions. Redundant efforts came to light, and leaders had the confidence to make thoughtful calls about what no longer fit. Some businesses were transitioned out—not because they failed, but because the team could now see clearly what aligned and what didn’t.
Customer conversations changed too. Sales teams no longer had to overexplain or fill in the gaps. The new message was straightforward, credible, and compelling. Clients began to respond with growing confidence, as the improved clarity addressed long-standing hesitations. What had felt scattered began to move in sync.
Momentum came from finally pulling in the same direction with confidence. And once that happened, things that used to feel complicated started to feel manageable. Strategy turned into something people could actually use. This new clarity helped foster greater ownership and more aligned decision-making among teams. Most importantly, the company began operating with a more unified sense of purpose.
The Results: From Mixed Messages to Market Alignment
In the months that followed, that clarity began to show up everywhere. A simplified, shared articulation of the strategy emerged—clear enough to guide both daily decisions and board-level planning. The board no longer had to navigate competing interpretations of what mattered. The direction was shared, and that shared direction made it easier to say yes to the right opportunities—and no to the wrong ones.
Sales teams found it easier to tell a cohesive message, and prospective clients responded with greater understanding. Customers no longer struggled to see how the pieces fit together.
Cross-portfolio coordination improved, and teams began to spot ways to streamline shared services. Redundancies were spotted and addressed. And some businesses, once seen as vital, were thoughtfully let go—not out of failure, but because the team now had the clarity to recognize what truly fit the future they were building.
The business began operating with a more unified rhythm and internal trust, laying the groundwork for stronger market positioning. With shared clarity, decisions came more easily. One realization began to take shape:
“We’re no longer just a portfolio of promising bets, but a business with a shared direction and a clear path forward.”
THE IMPACT
Leadership teams began using a shared strategy that guided both daily choices and long-term planning.
Customers gained a clearer view of how the portfolio companies connected, building confidence and trust.
The business operated with a stronger sense of purpose and momentum across its portfolio.
Why It Worked
By engaging all the business units in practical, step-by-step conversations, they were able to identify where their assumptions didn’t line up—and where shared clarity could reduce risk. Talking through the strategy in plain language helped surface both disconnects and opportunities. From there, teams were able to focus on solving the right problems, together.
Navigating a pivotal shift? Start with clarity. Let’s talk about what alignment could unlock for you.
