Strategy + Leadership = Success

The most successful organisations have a clear view of where they want to be in the future and how they’re going to get there. Whether you are in the UK or overseas, we can help your organisation develop the winning strategy and high-level leadership skills it needs to achieve its most ambitious vision for the future.

“An organisation without a strategy is like a ship without map or compass.”

All organisations (whether businesses, charities, schools or government departments) need a strategy in place that explains how they are going to exploit the opportunities, and overcome the obstacles, that our complex and ever-changing environment creates to achieve their ambitious vision for the future.

However, thinking strategically and developing an effective strategy are not that easy; if they were, all organisations would have an effective strategy in place and few of them would ever fail. This is where we can help. By working with you to develop a completed strategy and/or running bespoke programmes to upskill your own strategy-making and leadership teams, we can help your organisation excel in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. Scroll down to find out more about us and for a quick overview of the services we provide.

Craig Lawrence Consulting - strategy consultants helping you achieve your ambitious vision for the future

Who are we?

Strategy consultant Craig Lawrence CBE, founder of Craig Lawrence Consulting Ltd

Craig Lawrence CBE is a Fellow of both the Institute of Consulting and the Chartered Management Institute. He has a proven record of developing highly innovative strategies that exploit opportunities to deliver outstanding results; he set up his consultancy because he was struck by just how many organisations struggle to do the same.

Since setting up his consultancy in December 2020, Craig and his team of experienced associates have worked with a wide range of clients in many sectors, helping them develop the strategies and high-level leadership skills that have enabled them to excel in today’s complex and ever-changing environment. You can see some of the organisations we have worked with at the bottom of this page; you can also find out more about Craig at this link, including his service as a Major General in the British Army and his role as the lead for the teaching of strategy and strategic leadership at the UK Government’s ‘strategy school’ in London.


Our approach to strategy

What is strategy?

We recently produced a short (12 min) presentation that answers two questions: the first is ‘what is strategy?’; and the second is ‘what are the defining characteristics of effective strategy?’ The presentation, which is the first of a series and which you can watch by clicking the button below, provides a useful introduction to how we see strategy and why we believe that developing effective strategy can be so challenging.

A short presentation by Craig Lawrence answering the questions 'what is strategy' and 'what are the characteristics of effective strategy?'

Thinking strategically and developing effective strategy

The Quick Guide to Effective Strategy by Craig Lawrence

Our approach to developing strategy represents international best-practice and has been refined over many years of working at the strategic level with clients across a wide range of sectors, both in the UK and overseas. At its heart are fourteen high-level critical thinking questions, which are dispersed over five thematic stages. Each high-level strategic thinking question is supported by supplementary questions that add granularity, as well as by a range of tools and techniques that can help answer the questions and bring rigour and structure to a strategy’s development. Our approach is described in The Quick Guide to Effective Strategy, which we published in March 2023.

Originally intended as a ‘how to’ guide for those who needed to know how to develop an effective strategy, the book, which is receiving excellent reviews, is also proving popular with those who want to improve their ability to think strategically, as well as with those who want to understand the strategy making process better, such as a company director (executive or non-executive), charity trustee, government official or school governor, and want to ensure that the way their organisation approaches the development of strategy reflects best-practice. This is not just because they want their organisation to succeed but also because they have a legal responsibility to act in their organisation’s best interests and allowing it to develop bad strategy falls a long way short of this as some of the examples in the book illustrate.


Our approach to training and education

All of our strategy, strategic thinking and leadership development programmes are designed using the Systems Approach to Training (SAT). Recognised as international best practice, this proven approach meets the demanding standards of ISO 9001 and ensures that clients get cost-effective solutions that meet their exact requirements.

You can find out more about the services we provide, and see some of the organisations we have worked with, below. Please get in touch if you’d like to find out more about how we can help you, your people and your organisation achieve the most ambitious vision for the future.

Leadership and strategy development by Craig Lawrence Consulting Limited

Our Services

Strategy Development

Strategy-making can be confusing and difficult but Craig Lawrence Consulting can help you develop a winning strategy

We offer a complete range of strategy development services. For instance, we can provide an interactive presentation to help you think about how to approach your strategy-making. This is ideal for a management board or team strategy ‘Away Day’. Or we can work with you to develop a complete strategy. Our approach is entirely scalable to meet your needs.

Leadership Development

Craig Lawrence Consulting can help upskill your team so they can lead the development of strategy

We believe that high level leadership requires a different skill set to that at the lower levels. Therefore, we offer a series of presentations and workshops to help you explore these differences. We also design and deliver leadership development programmes to help you upskill your team and close your capability gaps and provide executive mentoring.

Training and Education

Developing strategy in the Cayman Islands with Craig Lawrence Consulting Limited

We can help you provide the training and education needed to develop your organisation’s ability to think strategically, as well as it’s strategy-making and high-level leadership skills. We also provide a range of more general course design services, from the initial analysis to confirm your training needs through to designing and delivering a completed course.

Other Services

Craig Lawrence interviewing Ollie Ollerton at Tring Book Festival

The other services we offer include executive mentoring, chairing panel discussions, conference and seminar facilitation, wargame and premortem facilitation, peer review of academic articles and expert advice to media projects.

Some of the organisations we have worked with

Craig Lawrence worked with one of the divisions in Odgers Berndtson to develop a new strategy for their expanding business
Craig Lawrence delivered a masterclass on strategy and strategy-making to the RAF's Tedder Academy of Leadership
Craig Lawrence delivered a strategy masterclass for this London NHS Trust to help them think about how to implement their new strategy
Craig Lawrence delivered a course on strategy making for the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service in February 2022
Craig Lawrence is a Senior Research Fellow for RAND Europe and also supports the STRATEXes they deliver for RCDS as a senior mentor
Craig Lawrence was the Senior Military Education Advisor for a project delivered by Crown Agents in Iraq. He also presents on Crown Agents strategy courses
Craig Lawrence worked as part of a team from UDSS to help the Kenyan National Defence College (NDC) improve the design and implementation of their flagship strategy course
Craig Lawrence works with UDSS to deliver executive level training in strategy-making and to develop strategies for selected clients
Craig Lawrence delivered a strategy and strategy-making masterclass for the team at UKHSA
Craig Lawrence provided course design support to RCDS and occasionally mentors aspiring strategic leaders on the College's strategy exercises (STRATEX)
Craig Lawrence presented a masterclass on strategy and strategy-making to the Bangladesh National Defence College
Craig Lawrence worked with Vedette Consulting to help them develop their current strategy. He is also an Associate Partner of the company
Craig Lawrence is working with the Royal Bank of Canada to deliver strategic leadership and strategic thinking modules as part of the bank's Leadership Academy
Craig Lawrence provided advice and support to a team from Naked TV scoping a documentary about Britain's Gurkhas
Craig provided advice to Rare TV to help them develop a proposal for a Gurkha themed reality TV programme
Craig Lawrence is working with Laura Jo Foot Care to develop the strategy to launch the new 'Podi Pouch' product
Craig Lawrence works with Dods Training to deliver Strategic Thinking and Systems Thinking courses
Working with Dods Training, Craig Lawrence delivered a strategic thinking course for HMRC in Aug 2023
Craig Lawrence does occasional overseas work with TAG International

Disclosure: we only endorse books, articles, reports and reviews that we personally recommend. If you purchase anything we recommend using one of our links to an Amazon product then please note that as an Amazon Associate, Craig Lawrence may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases, though there is no extra cost to you. The words that Amazon requires us to state on this page are: “as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.” You can find out more about Amazon’s Affiliate Program at this link.


Craig Lawrence Consulting Limited is registered in England and Wales under registration 13999213.

Our registered address is: Windover House, St Ann Street, Salisbury, SP1 2DR