Strategists are the people responsible for the planning, execution, and assessment of an approach. A strategist is like a pillar for a company and therefore needs to think outside the box integrating inputs from market competitors, startup entrants, changing trends, emerging technologies, and employee attitudinal shifts. A strategist like Heather E. McGowan devises winning strategies for individuals and organizations to gain a durable advantage and an edge over their competitors in the market.
By synthesizing often disparate research and data, strategists like McGowan connect the dots often not seen by others offering novel solution options. Where is the white space not yet claimed by a competitor, how do we engage our people in meeting this unmet need, in pursuit of this unknown, how will the limited resources be utilized are all the kinds of questions answered by a strategist. A strategist must perform their job with energy, creativity, wisdom, purpose, and care to generate the best results for the organization, the individual workers, and the market or markets they serve. They are individuals who have the ability to create a vision of something that does not yet exist and communicate that vision such that the rest of the team is engaged and motivated to make the proposed notion a reality.
Strategists like McGowan assist teams in imagining the future environment in which they will collectively thrive while developing their own individual capacities—essentially becoming the next best versions of themselves. Through persuasive engagement, they help employees reach both their organizational and personal goals.
Like an artist who creates a masterpiece out of raw materials, a strategist creates a unique role, goal, and vision of an organization that energizes others. They help a business in identifying its new target markets and provide reasoning why an organization’s future customers will choose to support it over any other existing competitor. To ensure that everything serves the organization’s purpose, a strategist may alter everything from the entity’s systems, rewards, structures, and partnerships, as well as the services and products that are offered by an organization. Just like a mentor who gives direction to his followers, a strategist demonstrates how each employee can contribute to the nobler, greater objective thereby engaging their sense of purpose and desire to express themselves through a connection to the organization’s mission. They show them how to nurture and grow their talent and energy to live their purpose while acting in ways that help the organization achieve its objectives.
A strategist like Heather Elizabeth McGowan helps individuals discover and develop their talents, passions, and creativity that may otherwise be being held back by the culture of an organization or due to personal roadblocks or perceived limitations. McGowan is well-known around the world for giving speeches at more than 75 events each year for companies in education, finance, consumer goods, government agencies, and media.
She has gained the reputation of a strategist, advisor, futurist, author, and keynote speaker because of her contributions to the corporate world. Born on 17th April 1971, in Boston, Massachusetts, McGowan attended Norwell High School. After completing her BFA in Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design, McGowan stepped into the professional world as a designer at Safety 1st, which is an organization known for making the “Baby on Board” sign. She continued to design for a number of other brands in the medical, sporting, and consumer goods industries before starting her consultancy services.
After earning her MBA from Babson College, she worked in boutique investment banking and management consulting and advised Stephen Spinelli Jr., the current president of Babson College, on the establishment of the Kanbar College of Design Engineering and Commerce at Philadelphia University, which is now part of Thomas Jefferson University. The new college’s undergraduate business curriculum, organizational structure, and curriculum were all developed by McGowan’s vision.
Soon, she became an adjunct professor at the Swinburne University Centre for the New Workforce in Melbourne, Australia, through which she contributed to research on the changing nature of work, specifically the elusive concept of tacit knowledge. Through both her speaking and consulting work McGowan has assisted leaders in preparing their teams and organizations for the post-pandemic workplace. McGowan’s messages are optimistic and engaging encouraging her clients and audience members to persist in the face of uncertainty guided by their own sense of purpose and desire to use their talents to create a positive impact in the world.
Her views about the upcoming age of work, which emphasize continuous learning, are transforming organizations and mindsets worldwide. The sessions led by McGowan have assisted leaders and employees in preparing for and adapting to jobs that do not yet exist, brightening these workers’ prospects. Her vision for leadership is resulting in a humanization of the workplace where human talent is an asset to develop rather than a cost to contain.
McGowan because of her contributions was named among the world’s Top 50 Female Futurists of 2020 by Forbes and the Top 10 Female Speakers of 2021 by Big Speak. Her book, The Adaptation Advantage: Let Go, Learn Fast, and Thrive in the Future of Work (Wiley 2020), was ranked among the best business books of 2021, and was listed third among business books on Amazon. Her most recent book: The Empathy Advantage: Leading the Empowered Workforce (Wiley 2023) is a finalist for the Next Big Ideas Book Club for the month of March, was noted in
Business Chief: 10 Best Business Books by Women to Read in 2023, was a best seller in Porchlight books for the month of March. McGowan has been quoted or excerpted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Inc Magazine around her two most recent books, both of which capture the zeitgeist that has alluded to many others.