Business Strategy for a Digital World: More Than Just Tech
At Cranswick Consulting, we often hear leaders talk about their "digital strategy"—but fewer ask the more pressing question: What’s your business strategy for a digital world?
During a transformative chapter of my career working on a global digital task force, one senior leader cut through the buzzwords with a powerful insight:
“Digital strategy is not enough. You need a business strategy built for a digital world.”
That thought has stayed with me ever since.
Digital transformation isn’t about simply bolting on the latest tech. It’s about rethinking the entire business model—aligning purpose, people, processes, and platforms to adapt to rapid changes in customer behaviour, competition, and technology.
The Evolution of Strategy in a Digital World
- From profit-first to purpose-led: Leaders are shifting focus from scale to sustainability and impact.
- From competition to ecosystems: Success now hinges on integrated, agile networks, not isolated products.
- From intuition to insight: AI and data analytics are now central to decision-making.
- From transactions to experiences: The subscription and experience economy has redefined customer loyalty.
- From static plans to adaptive models: Businesses must now iterate, learn fast, and pivot quicker than ever.
In short, digital tools should serve your business vision, not become the vision. A future-ready strategy embraces continuous innovation, empowers people, and builds long-term value.
Real-World Case Studies: Premium Retailers Embracing Digital
Premium retailing is now everywhere you look, and indeed it has “become the new normal”. But consider for a moment how your business could stay ahead of the pack by having a really clear strategy for how digital services and innovation can be at the heart of a very human business …
How many of these case studies resonate with you ?
The White Company – Seamless Omni-Channel Luxury
From its beginnings as a boutique mail-order brand, The White Company has grown into a premium lifestyle retailer by integrating its customer experience across all touchpoints:
- Unified CRM gives store staff access to customer preferences.
- In-store tablets allow associates to order out-of-stock items for home delivery.
- Customers receive a consistent luxury experience online, in-store, and via mobile.
Lesson: When digital supports the human experience, it elevates, not replaces, premium service.
www.thewhitecompany.com
Cheaney Shoes – Craftsmanship Meets Digital Concierge
Joseph Cheaney & Sons modernised its approach without losing its heritage craftsmanship:
- Introduced virtual appointments that now supplement in-store consultations.
- Created deep educational content online to support informed purchases.
- Enabled real-time inventory visibility and in-store reservations.
Lesson: Technology used with intent can protect tradition while enhancing access and relevance.
www.cheaney.co.uk
The Pig Hotels – Digital Tools, Human Touch
The Pig Hotels, a collection of boutique country hotels across the UK, has created a standout brand by blending rustic luxury with tech-enabled personalisation:
- Their booking engine integrates with CRM data to personalise offers based on guest history and preferences.
- Email marketing is driven by guest segmentation and behavioural insights, offering timely promotions that align with special occasions or previous stays.
- Social media acts as a digital concierge, showcasing local produce, on-site sustainability efforts, and behind-the-scenes stories that align with their brand values.
- Importantly, their website offers a “digital extension” of the in-hotel experience, evoking tone, design, and ethos before guests even arrive.
Lesson: Hospitality businesses can enhance, not dilute, their guest experience by using technology to deepen the emotional connection with their brand.
www.thepighotel.com
Ready to future-proof your strategy?
At Cranswick Consulting, we help leaders and their teams build adaptive, purpose-driven strategies that thrive in today’s digital and volatile world. Whether you're redefining your customer experience, unlocking value from AI, or scaling omni-channel capability, we’ll help you develop a strategy that’s fit for the future.
📩 Get in touch: jason@cranswick-consulting.co.uk
🌐 Visit: www.cranswick-consulting.co.uk
“You can’t read the label from inside the jar”
You can’t read the label from inside the jar
Why External Perspective Is Valuable When Navigating Change
Change is inevitable—but progress is optional. In today’s fast-paced business environment, change comes at companies from every direction: evolving customer expectations, digital disruption, regulatory shifts, and economic uncertainty. Navigating that change isn’t just about reacting—it’s about adapting with clarity, confidence, and control.
One of the most underutilised yet powerful tools to support this is the external perspective.
Why Look Outside?
When you're close to a challenge, it's easy to miss the obvious. Teams can become siloed in their thinking, protective of legacy processes, or simply too busy delivering today to question tomorrow. That’s where an external voice becomes invaluable.
At Cranswick Consulting, we work with leadership teams across automotive retail, technology, and services who are facing market turbulence, cultural transformation, or the need to evolve their strategy. Time and again, we’ve seen the benefit of introducing independent thinking to challenge assumptions and uncover blind spots.
“You Can’t Read the Label From Inside the Jar”
It’s a phrase often used in coaching, and it rings true in business strategy. An external consultant or coach brings neutrality, objectivity, and a toolkit of approaches honed across different sectors. More importantly, we bring permission—permission to pause, reflect, reframe, and take action with intent.
Whether it's workshopping a new go-to-market plan, reshaping organisational culture, or resetting leadership behaviours, our role is not to have your answers, but to help you ask better questions.
Without Perspective, Change Fails
Many transformation projects stall not due to poor ideas, but because teams aren’t aligned, outcomes aren’t clearly defined, or the urgency isn’t felt equally across the organisation. An external guide helps to connect the dots—linking purpose with people, and vision with action.
In a recent engagement, we supported a mid-sized automotive group redefining its growth strategy. By creating space for honest dialogue and facilitating sessions across operational, sales, and leadership teams, we helped unlock a renewed sense of shared ambition—and a clear plan to deliver it.
What We Bring
At Cranswick Consulting, we offer more than just advice. We offer:
- Facilitated strategic workshops that engage and align leadership teams
- Executive coaching that brings clarity in complex moments
- Industry insight drawn from decades in senior roles across the UK automotive ecosystem
- Challenge and support in equal measure
Change is a Journey—Let’s Map It Together
If your business is preparing for its next chapter—whether that’s recovery, growth, or innovation—don’t go it alone. The right external perspective could be the catalyst that turns potential into performance.
Explore how others have benefited from this approach: visit our case studies section at www.cranswick-consulting.co.uk/case-studies to learn more.
Some steps you could take with us, on the pathway to change…
Ready to see your business differently? Let’s start the conversation.
Email jason@cranswick-consulting.co.uk or connect via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-cranswick
Explore more at www.cranswick-consulting.co.uk
Progress is rarely a straight line…
Progress is rarely a straightforward line…
At first glance, the top half of this image is what we all hope for, a smooth ride, a direct line, a clear plan from start to finish.
And then… reality kicks in.
The bottom half tells the truth no strategy document ever fully captures:
Potholes. Setbacks. Storms. Detours…
Moments where you feel like you’re paddling a boat instead of riding a bike. And yet, it’s in those very moments that growth happens.
The Myth of Linear Progress
In leadership, in business, in life, we’re often conditioned to believe that if we follow the right plan, success will follow in a predictable pattern.
But that’s not how people work. It’s not how teams evolve. It’s not how cultures shift.
Progress isn’t linear. It dips, it loops, it stalls. Sometimes it even retreats before it advances. But none of that means it’s broken. It means it’s real.
Resilience Is Built in the Valleys
On my journey to being an executive coach, I’ve seen first-hand that the most powerful breakthroughs don’t happen at the start or the finish—they happen in the trenches:
When a leader finally admits they don’t have all the answers.
When a team chooses trust over speed.
When the storm forces clarity.
These aren’t setbacks—they’re crucibles. They forge resilience, clarity, and character. They help you build “bouncebackability”
And once you’ve made it through those, the wins don’t just feel earned, they are.
Coaching for the Climb
Part of what I do as a coach is help people reframe the struggle. To stop seeing the dips as diversions, and start seeing them as development.
Because if you expect the journey to be bumpy, you’ll bring better gear, you’ll build stronger legs, you’ll prepare your team not just to ride, but to endure, adapt, and emerge stronger.
The Call to Reflect
If you’re in a dip right now—keep going. You’re not off-course, you’re on it.
Let the rough patches build your resilience, your resourcefulness, and your resolve. And remember: no one builds muscle coasting downhill.
Ready for the next part of your journey?
If you’re looking for a coach to help you (or your team) navigate the next climb, dodge the unexpected, and build the resilience to go the distance—let’s connect.
Book a discovery call or get in touch via jason@cranswick-consulting.co.uk
I’ll meet you wherever you are on the map.
Jason Cranswick
Executive Coach | Founder, Cranswick Consulting
Being more Yoda…
There’s a type of leader many of us grew up admiring. Cloaked in invincibility. Leaping into chaos. Fixing problems with charisma and speed. The Superman archetype: save the day, fly off, job done.
But leadership, real, sustainable leadership, isn’t about swooping in. It’s about sitting still.
It’s about being more Yoda.
The Wisdom in the Waiting
Yoda doesn’t rush. He observes. He listens. He waits for the right question before offering the right challenge.
In executive coaching, that’s gold dust. The instinct to “fix” things fast is powerful—but often counterproductive. By slowing down, by resisting the urge to provide instant answers, leaders create the space for others to find their own.
And that’s where the real development happens.
Skillset, Mindset, Toolset
Yoda doesn’t hand Luke a lightsaber and say, “Go.” He trains him. He unpicks the fears. He builds capability, belief, and discipline.
As leaders, we have the same responsibility:
Skillset – Are we teaching people how to do the job better?
Mindset – Are we helping them believe they can do it?
Toolset – Are we giving them the frameworks, processes, and feedback to grow?
Coaching is not about doing it for them—it’s about making it possible for them to do it for themselves.
Stoic Strength in a Noisy World
In today’s workplace, noise is everywhere, WhatsApp pings, Inbox overload, Teams bombardment. The relentless pressure to be “on.” Amid this, being the calmest person in the room is a superpower.
Yoda’s presence isn’t loud—it’s grounding.
Leaders who develop this kind of stoicism aren’t passive. They’re powerful. They help others regulate, focus, and rise. They model a leadership style that’s less about visibility, more about value.
The Alternative to Burnout Leadership
Here’s the truth: Superman gets tired. Rescuing everyone, every time, is unsustainable. And it’s a leadership ceiling—because if the team always needs you to succeed, you’re the bottleneck, not the blessing.
Yoda-style leadership scales. It empowers. It turns followers into leaders. And over time, that’s the legacy that matters.
So, how do you start being more Yoda?
You pause before answering.
You ask questions instead of giving directions.
You hold space, not just airtime.
You train, trust, and let go.
And maybe—just maybe—you begin to feel the Force of what happens when a team learns to believe in themselves.
👇 Ready to lead like Yoda?
If you’re part of the automotive ecosystem and want to unlock your team’s true potential—without always wearing the cape—let’s start a conversation.
Book a no-pressure discovery session or reach out directly via jason@cranswick-consulting.co.uk.
Let’s stop saving the day—and start shaping the future.
Jason Cranswick
Executive Coach | Founder, Cranswick Consulting
From the Pitch to the Boardroom: My Journey to Executive Coaching
Seeing the space …
In rugby, the moment the whistle blows, you see everything you need to know about a team. Not in the passes or the tackles, but in the space between. How they regroup, how they respond, how they rise.
Many years ago, coaching young people as an RFU-qualified coach taught me early on that leadership isn’t barked from the sidelines or stepping over the white line to take over when it’s not going to plan, it’s built in the quiet, personal moments of reflection and grit.
Years later, that same lesson would echo through the glass-walled meeting rooms of Volkswagen Group UK, where I had the privilege of supporting Dealer Principals as they faced high stakes and hard truths. The pressure was real. But so was the potential.
These experiences—on muddy pitches and polished showroom floors—form the foundation of how I coach today.
The Pivot Point
The decision to become an executive coach wasn’t a single moment of revelation. It was a series of nudges. Building teams with resilience and spirit, strategy sessions that became breakthrough moments. Situations and challenges where people didn’t need a manager, they needed a coach.
My Executive Coaching qualification journey is helping sharpen the edges. A recent SWOT analysis reinforced what colleagues had often said back to me:
Empathy with edge – the ability to connect deeply, but not let comfort get in the way of truth.
Strategic clarity – seeing around corners, helping others simplify complexity into decisive action.
High-stakes calm – developed under floodlights and fast-moving markets alike.
Integrity of intent – putting people before process, but always having the cones marking the playing area.
These aren’t soft skills—they’re critical assets in a sector like automotive, where the stakes are high, the change is relentless, and the room for error is narrow.
Who I Coach and Why
I will work with individuals across the automotive ecosystem—Dealer Owners navigating transformation, OEM leaders building new cultures, Innovators challenging legacy systems, and 3rd Party Service Providers reshaping the customer experience.
And while their contexts differ, the themes are shared:
Clarity in complexity
Courage in conflict
Growth in discomfort
What I bring to the table is not a magic formula. It’s presence. A deep understanding of the business and its rhythms. And the ability to help leaders stretch without snapping.
The Invitation
If you’re part of the automotive world and feeling the weight of leadership—or the restlessness of untapped potential—let’s talk.
I don’t offer one-size-fits-all programs. I offer coaching that fits you, your world, and the future you’re building.
Because leadership, like rugby, is not about always knowing the next move. It’s about knowing yourself well enough to make it count.
If you like the idea of coaching within your business then give me a call on 07867 486356 or email me on jason@cranswick-consulting.co.uk
Jason Cranswick
Executive Coach | Founder, Cranswick Consulting