A board-approved five-year technology strategy.

The situation

The CIO was preparing his five-year technology strategy for the board. The strategy had to cover the full technology organization — and take a clear position on hard questions, including how a global payments business should respond to emerging sovereign-transaction and sovereign-cloud laws.

A credible answer required more than analysis. The strategy had to be genuinely bold, and it had to arrive at the board already carrying the support of the CEO, business-unit leaders, and the CIO's own team.

What we did

• 01Worked side-by-side with the CIO and his strategy team in structured problem-solving sessions across four pillars: talent and operating model, cost optimization, infrastructure modernization, and SDLC modernization.
• 02Developed the core strategic bets — including the company's posture on sovereign-transaction and sovereign-cloud regulation reshaping global payments.
• 03Syndicated the emerging strategy across the CIO's core leaders, business-unit stakeholders, and the CEO — pressure-testing and iterating with each group.
• 04Built the final board presentation and prepared the CIO to deliver it.

The outcome

• The board endorsed the strategy and its ambition level.
• The CIO received the go-ahead for the strategic modernization programs the strategy called for.
• Because the strategy was syndicated before the board meeting, it arrived with the CEO and business units already behind it — no surprises in the room.