CPA Global
CASE STUDYWe helped establish a clear understanding of how CPA Global would be positioned to achieve its strategic goals by facilitating their senior leadership teams to create a robust and actionable strategy that all involved were aligned to and believed in.
Context
Sector: Professional Services / Intellectual Property
Scale: Global organisation transitioning into a clarified strategic direction
CPA Global (part of Clarivate) recognised that they had multiple overlapping “versions” of strategy — but none that reflected their current reality or unified the senior leadership team. They needed to create one clear, resilient strategy that leaders could own, communicate consistently and execute confidently.
This work was part of CPA Global’s broader effort to align its strategy, leadership and culture around a single, coherent direction.
Challenge
CPA Global’s leadership team knew that having several competing strategy documents was undermining alignment, decision-making and execution. They needed:
one coherent strategy reflecting current market needs
alignment across senior leaders on direction and priorities
a structured way to challenge assumptions and uncover blindspots
a strategy they could confidently justify to the wider organisation
The core issue wasn’t a lack of ideas — it was lack of alignment.
CPA Global’s leadership team recognised that they were working from several different versions of strategy, none of which reflected their current realities or aligned the senior team. They needed one clear, resilient strategy that would unify leadership, guide decision-making and stand up to internal and external scrutiny.
The challenge was not simply to “write a strategy”, but to create shared clarity on their strategic horizons, agree how CPA Global should be positioned to achieve its goals, and ensure the final plan could withstand pressure-testing. Leaders needed a structured way to identify blind spots quickly, challenge assumptions, and arrive at a strategy they could confidently own and justify to the wider organisation.
What we did
Facilitated a highly engaging strategic offsite designed to help leaders think differently, challenge assumptions and build ownership over the final strategy.
Co-created strategic horizons and clarified how CPA Global wanted to be positioned in order to achieve its goals.
Ran a rigorous pressure-testing process involving inputs from across the business and external partners to uncover blindspots and strengthen the plan.
Partnered closely with leaders to refine and align the strategy, messaging and decision frameworks.
This was not a consultant-written strategy — it was a leader-owned strategy built with Quirk’s facilitation, challenge and structure.
Impact
The First 90 Days
Leaders developed a unified, well-understood strategic plan aligned to real organisational needs.
Decision-making accelerated significantly – leaders reported they were “doing in two days what used to take a week.”
Increased confidence, clarity and shared ownership across the senior leadership team.
12-Month Business Impact
(Directional but aligned to the DIVA requirement for clear outcome framing)
Directional: Stronger alignment across global leadership teams, improving efficiency in decision-making and prioritisation.
Directional: Clear, consistent strategic messaging used across the organisation.
Directional: A more resilient strategy with blindspots addressed and solutions built directly by the leadership team.
Sustained Long-Term Results
Leadership feedback highlighted that the partnership with Quirk created not just a strategy, but a repeatable way of making decisions and aligning quickly, strengthening both culture and performance.
Quirk worked with me and the team as partners, guiding and facilitating – not directing – our strategy. It was ultimately our strategy and Quirk helped us get there. We got to a solid outcome with a clear strategy, consistent messaging and a powerful framework of which we made decisions. This was only made possible because of the close partnership with Quirk. They asked us the tough questions, stimulated new thinking and really pushed us to get focused on the right things. All in all, an excellent programme of work that added huge value to our business and our culture.
Melanie Fitzpatrick
Chief People and Brand Officer, CPA Global
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