Strategy & Leadership

Shape clear direction, alignment, and decision-making at every level.

Why this matters

Organisations with plenty of talent and resources still stall when nobody is clear on the direction. Teams pull different ways, decisions sit unmade, and momentum leaks away.

At Five we treat strategy as a conversation that keeps going. We work alongside executive teams to shape direction, build alignment, and develop the leadership capability to execute with confidence. Whether you're navigating growth, restructuring, or entering new markets, a shared strategic language and a committed leadership team are what make the difference.

This is where transformation starts, with leaders who know where they're going and can take their people with them.

Who you'd work with

What we do

Board and ELT Advisory

Create leaders who foster environments where the people in their care can thrive.

Executive Coaching

At Five, coaching is a strategic investment. Our approach is direct, outcomes-oriented, and grounded in our Values to Outcomes model, linking beliefs and behaviours to performance and measurable impact.

Executive Traction Labs

One day that shapes the next six months. A bespoke, one-to-one executive intensive built on deep stakeholder feedback, always paired with embed coaching to turn the clarity into change.

Futures

Take your organisation on a journey to explore a range of possible futures to shape and influence your course.

Innovation Design Sprint

Kickstart Innovation with a Design Sprint.

Leadership Lab

Our leadership action labs help leaders to identify and develop the skills, mindsets, and behaviours necessary to create a high-performance culture. We combine experiential learning with coaching support to help leaders apply their learning to real-world challenges.

Organisational Design

We help you to design new strategies, processes, metrics, ways of working, methodologies, services and structures to deliver your strategic and cultural aspirations.

Programme Leadership

Expert programme leadership for NZ organisations running complex, multi-workstream initiatives, so your strategic programmes deliver on their promise.

Strategic and Transformation Advisory

We help you to gain valuable insights and fresh perspectives at the executive table, with assessment and challenge of your existing strategies, capabilities, tactics and systems.

Strategy Design

Strategy by Five is a highly collaborative approach to strategy development that enables you and your team to envision, design, test, and activate your strategy.

Transformation

Connect your transformation to your strategy to enable organisational agility.

Our thinking

Nick Mackeson-Smith

The delivery gap: a manifesto

The gap between the strategy on the wall and the reality on the floor. Why it opens, what it costs, and what closing it actually takes.

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Paula Riano

Most New Zealand boardrooms didn't choose their AI strategy. They inherited it.

Copilot came with M365. Gemini came with Workspace. Convenience got mistaken for a decision.

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Paula Riano

The executive mirror: your team won’t adopt AI if you haven’t

Your team won't adopt AI if you haven't. Why executive AI fluency — not technical expertise — decides whether adoption actually scales.

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Nick Mackeson-Smith

You wouldn't parent like it's 1995. So why are you still leading that way?

Command-and-control leadership is colliding with AI. Why outcome-led, trust-based leadership is no longer optional for NZ leaders.

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James Kitney

Executive cloning: what if you could actually clone yourself?

Zuckerberg wants an AI to handle his internal comms so he can write code. Most leaders won't admit what they'd offload. Here's why they should.

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James Kitney

How AI turns a dashboard into an engine for enquiry

Leaders stop asking questions when the data is too hard to get at. AI changes that — turning curiosity into real-time answers without the delay or compromise.

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