Personal Statement: Why I Founded 3Fold Collective

Early in my consulting career, I asked a Global Director: “How do we know our strategies work?”

Their response—“Why do we care? We’ve already been paid.”—stayed with me. It was a stark realization of a pervasive issue in the business world: strategies are often judged by their design, not their outcomes. Despite decades of research and millions invested, 70% of strategic transformations still fail.

That moment marked the beginning of a two-decade journey to answer a broader question: What does it take to make strategy work?

I started my career researching behavioral and organizational economics, inspired by a thought I had while looking down at Chicago from an airplane: if every lighted window represents an idea, could we aggregate those ideas to achieve more than the sum of their parts? Could we make 1+1=3?

This question inspired a transition into management consulting, where I worked with global firms assessing investment opportunities and integrating new acquisitions. I began analyzing organizational dynamics, translating sociological insights into strategies for pre- and post-acquisition integration. Yet, despite the planning, strategies remained disconnected from real-world outcomes.

To bridge this gap, I pivoted to execution—spending over a decade at a Fortune 500 organization. There, I ran controlled experiments, launching new business divisions and leading transformations across revenue and support functions. These experiences led me to understand that successful strategies are not just about systems or plans—they require overcoming human resistance to change.

Change is hard, and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution because every person—motivated by unique desires and fears—interacts differently with change. But by applying modern techniques, like social network analysis, I could dramatically improve the odds of success.

This realization inspired me to found this firm dedicated to bridging the gap and unlocking human potential through a blend of research, experience, and hands-on work. It’s the only way I’ve found to turn on all those lights and prove that 1+1 can, indeed, equal 3.