Strategy Is a Decision-Making System, Not a Document
Strategic planning is not about producing a document that is completed, presented, and eventually forgotten. It is about creating a shared direction and a decision-making framework that leadership can return to as the organization grows, conditions change, and new opportunities emerge.
A strong strategy helps leaders answer essential questions: Where are we going? What will we prioritize? What will we choose not to pursue? Where should we focus our resources and capabilities? And how will we know whether we are making progress?
Cristiane approaches strategic planning as a collaborative leadership process. Using her proprietary Five Axes framework, developed through more than 20 years of work with organizations across different industries and contexts, she guides leadership teams through five interconnected dimensions: identity, positioning, people, operations, and results.
Rather than applying a standard planning template, the process begins with the organization itself — its context, ambitions, capabilities, challenges, and opportunities. Leaders examine assumptions, confront trade-offs, establish priorities, and translate direction into measurable objectives.
Co-creation is central to the methodology. When leaders actively participate in building the strategy, alignment and ownership develop throughout the process rather than being addressed only after the plan is complete.
Depending on the scope of the engagement, the work may include a Strategic Roadmap, Strategy Map and Balanced Scorecard (BSC), KPIs, OKRs, Business Plan development, and a 90-day execution plan with clear ownership, milestones, and measures of progress.
Each element serves a different purpose while contributing to the same management system: strategy establishes direction, the BSC connects objectives and performance measures, OKRs translate priorities into focused outcomes, and the 90-day plan moves the organization from intention to execution.
The plan is not the end product. The real outcome is a leadership team with greater clarity, alignment, and discipline to make better decisions and execute them consistently.
Right for You If…
- Your organization is entering a new stage of growth and needs greater clarity about where to focus
- Your leadership team needs stronger alignment around direction and priorities
- Your company has grown organically and now needs a more structured approach to strategy and execution
- You are a founder preparing the organization for its next stage of growth
- Your family business is navigating an ownership, leadership, or generational transition
- Your organization needs clearer objectives, performance measures, and accountability
- Your company is preparing for expansion, restructuring, acquisition, or a significant partnership
- You already have a strategic plan, but execution and follow-through remain inconsistent
The Process
Discovery & Context Mapping
We start with the organization itself: its context, ambitions, capabilities, challenges, and opportunities, and the strategic decisions already in motion.
Leadership Alignment Sessions
Facilitated sessions bring the leadership team into alignment on the current reality, the organization’s identity, core challenges, and the direction the business needs to move.
Strategy Co-Creation
Using the Five Axes framework, we co-create a 3–5 year Strategic Roadmap with your team, examining assumptions, confronting trade-offs, and establishing priorities: a strategy leaders own and can articulate.
Planning Structure & 90-Day Execution Plan
We translate direction into measurable objectives through the Strategy Map and Balanced Scorecard (BSC), KPIs, OKRs, and Business Plan development as the scope requires, plus a 90-day execution plan with clear ownership, milestones, and measures of progress.
Deliverables & Outcomes
Strategic Roadmap
3–5 year directional plan with clear priorities and the choices, objectives, and initiatives needed to move the organization toward them.
Strategy Map & Balanced Scorecard (BSC)
The logic of the strategy made visible, with objectives connected to indicators and targets so leadership can link longer-term direction with ongoing execution and review.
KPIs & OKRs
Performance measures aligned to the strategic direction, and OKRs that translate selected priorities into focused, measurable outcomes over shorter execution cycles.
Business Plan
A structured document covering the strategic, organizational, market, positioning, and operational logic of the business, built on the strategy your team co-created.
90-Day Execution Plan
First execution cycle with clear ownership, milestones, and measures of progress so the strategy moves from intention to execution.
Leadership Alignment
A leadership team with greater clarity, alignment, and discipline to make better decisions and execute them consistently.
The Cristiane Barreto Difference
For more than 20 years, Cristiane Barreto has worked alongside leaders and organizations across Brazil, the United States, and international markets, helping them navigate growth, change, leadership challenges, and strategic decisions.
That experience shaped the Five Axes Framework, her proprietary methodology for understanding organizations as interconnected systems rather than a collection of isolated functions.
Developed and refined through engagements with more than 200 organizations, the framework brings together five dimensions that influence an organization’s ability to move from intention to execution: identity, positioning, people, operations, and results.
The methodology combines structured analysis with facilitated strategic dialogue. Rather than bringing a predetermined answer into the room, Cristiane works with leadership teams to examine their context, challenge assumptions, clarify choices, establish priorities, and translate direction into measurable objectives and actions.
The result is not simply a strategic plan. It is greater clarity about where the organization is going, what matters most, what choices must be made, and how progress will be measured.
Five Axes Framework
A proprietary methodology that examines strategy through five interconnected dimensions: identity, positioning, people, operations, and results, creating a broader view of the organization and the relationships between direction, capabilities, execution, and performance.
200+ Organizations
More than two decades of consulting experience and engagements with over 200 organizations across different industries, organizational stages, and markets have contributed to the continued development and refinement of the methodology.
Multilingual Delivery — EN | PT | ES
Engagements and materials can be delivered in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, supporting leadership teams operating across countries, cultures, and languages.
Cross-Sector Perspective
The methodology is designed to work across organizational contexts rather than around a single industry. Cristiane’s experience includes professional services, family businesses, healthcare, transportation, retail, and other service and business environments.
Common Questions
What is the difference between a Strategic Plan and a Business Plan?
A Strategic Plan defines the organization’s direction and the choices required to move toward it. It establishes priorities, objectives, measures of progress, and the capabilities and initiatives needed to execute the strategy.
A Business Plan organizes the business concept and its strategic and operational logic into a structured document. Depending on the purpose, it may address areas such as the business model, market context, positioning, target audiences, organizational structure, operations, growth direction, and implementation priorities.
Cristiane’s work focuses on the strategic, organizational, and operational dimensions of the Business Plan. Financial modeling, valuation, and financial projections are not included in this service.
How long does a Strategic Planning engagement take?
The timeline depends on the organization’s size, complexity, scope, and number of stakeholders involved.
A typical engagement may take approximately 4–12 weeks, combining leadership sessions, analysis, strategic discussions, development of the planning structure, and validation of priorities and measures.
The objective is not to prolong the planning process unnecessarily, but to create enough depth for meaningful decisions while maintaining momentum toward execution.
Who participates in the Strategic Planning process?
Typically, the core leadership team participates directly in the process.
The appropriate group depends on the organization’s structure and the decisions being made. In some engagements, additional leaders or key stakeholders may contribute during specific stages to provide operational knowledge, market perspective, or organizational insight.
Cristiane structures participation intentionally so that the process combines strategic authority with relevant organizational knowledge.
What is the Five Axes Framework?
The Five Axes Framework is Cristiane Barreto’s proprietary methodology for analyzing and developing organizations through five interconnected dimensions:
Identity — Positioning — People — Operations — Results
Rather than treating strategy, culture, leadership, operations, and performance as separate conversations, the framework examines how they influence one another.
The objective is to create greater coherence between who the organization is, where it chooses to compete and create value, the capabilities it needs, how work gets done, and the results it intends to achieve.
How are the Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Map used?
When appropriate to the engagement, the Strategy Map and Balanced Scorecard (BSC) help translate strategic direction into a coherent set of objectives, relationships, indicators, and measures of progress.
The Strategy Map makes the logic of the strategy visible, while the BSC provides a structured way to connect objectives with indicators and targets.
They are used as management tools, not simply as reporting instruments, helping leadership connect longer-term direction with ongoing execution and review.
Where do OKRs fit into the process?
OKRs may be used to translate selected strategic priorities into focused, measurable outcomes over shorter execution cycles.
They do not replace strategy. Strategy establishes direction and choices; OKRs can help teams concentrate execution around specific priorities within that direction.
Whether OKRs are appropriate depends on the organization, its maturity, and the management system already in place.
What makes this different from traditional strategy consulting?
The distinction is not based on providing a different template. It is based on how the strategy is built and how the organization is engaged in building it.
Cristiane facilitates the process with the leadership team rather than developing the strategy in isolation and presenting it afterward.
Leaders participate in diagnosing the current reality, examining assumptions, discussing trade-offs, establishing priorities, and defining measures of progress.
This creates stronger ownership of the decisions and helps connect strategy development with the people who will ultimately be responsible for execution.
Does the Business Plan include financial projections?
No.
Cristiane’s Business Plan work focuses on the strategic, organizational, market, positioning, and operational dimensions of the business.
Financial modeling, valuation, budgets, and financial projections are outside the scope of this service and should be developed with the appropriate financial professional when required.
When necessary, the strategic assumptions developed during the engagement can provide context for the organization’s financial team or advisor.
Is this available for organizations outside Greater Orlando?
Yes.
Engagements are available both in person and remotely, allowing Cristiane to work with leadership teams across the United States, Brazil, and other international markets.
The format is defined according to the scope of the engagement, location of participants, and needs of the leadership team.
How do I know if my organization is ready for Strategic Planning?
Strategic planning is most valuable when leadership is prepared to make choices rather than simply document aspirations.
That means being willing to examine the current reality, question assumptions, establish priorities, discuss trade-offs, define what will and will not receive attention, and take responsibility for execution.
Before beginning an engagement, Cristiane assesses the organization’s context, expectations, leadership involvement, and readiness for the process.
Because strategy requires choices — and meaningful choices require leadership commitment.