Board Strategy & Governance
Facilitation and Education
Most boards don't have a strategy problem. They have a decision problem. The strategy exists, it has been presented and nothing moves, because no one has named the constraints the room is avoiding or missing.
I am Prof John Hale. That is the work. I facilitate board strategy retreats, governance days and director education for corporate, statutory and member-based boards across Australia.
Strategy Retreats
Usually 2 days, where directors and executives work through three questions: where to play, how to win and what stops this organisation acting on the answer. I design it with the chair, run the room and leave you with a one-page strategy note the board can act from.
Governing Strategy
By changing the process, not the papers. A full day of board education including pre-mortems, red-teaming and testing the assumptions recommendations depend on. Boards mostly receive strategy. The ones that govern it have methods for interrogating it, and the confidence to use those methods without it becoming adversarial.
AI Strategy & AI Governance Workshops
It is not whether to adopt AI. It is whether the business model still holds. AI is dismantling the economics of whole industry and professional categories. The board's job is to see which assumptions in the current strategy quietly depend on conditions that are changing, and how to govern the workforce and information risks that follow.
What I run
Board Retreats
Two-day sessions for the board, or the board and executive team together.
Investment: $25K AUD โ includes pre-session director interviews, facilitation and post-retreat Strategy Note.
Governing Strategy
Improves how the board frames choices, tests recommendations and uses the information it is given.
Retained advisory or project fee.
Board Workshops
Director workshops on strategy, ethics, fiduciary responsibility or AI-driven business models.
Investment: $10K AUD.
Where this comes from
- Panel Chair, Queensland Government Mentoring for Growth since 2016, more than 100 panels, and chair of the program's 20th anniversary.
- Chair of Rojan Investments 2024โ2026, and a director from 2018.
- Advisory board member at Permo-Drive Technologies, from early stage through to exit.
- Chairman and licensee of Rainbow Children's Centre, carrying personal statutory accountability.
- Board governance training for NSW Sugar Milling Co-operative on ethics, fiduciary responsibility and key financial ratios.
- Strategic resilience workshops designed and led for the Flight Centre, Smit Lamnalco and Forwood Enterprise boards and C-suites, as well as local government councils and state government boards.
- Treasurer elect of an ARIA Body Corporate Committee.
- Author of four books on strategy. MBA (Strategy), Melbourne Business School.
- Visiting Professor and Educator across five global business schools including QUT Executive Education, Melbourne Business School, Bond University and Singapore Management University.
Core governance capabilities
- Board Strategy Facilitation
- AI Disruption & AI Governance
- Board Decision Processes
- Director Education
- Strategic Resilience & Organisational Health
How it works
A conversation with the chair or company secretary about what is actually needed.
A design proposal setting out the session shape, pre-reading and intended outcomes.
Delivery, followed by a written strategy note within a week.
Boards I have worked with
"John Hale from HCG facilitated our Board and Executive Strategy Retreat. Then at a personal level, he cut quickly through to the core issues and then supported me in establishing simple yet valuable habits to manage my life more effectively, habits that I continue to use in my daily life years later.
His insight and skills provide solutions for personal as well as corporate growth. John operates at maximum integrity and comes highly recommended."
Christopher Dean
Founder and Chairman, Thursday Plantation
"John's Strategic Mindset presentation and facilitation at our annual offsite retreat was extremely well received by our Global CEO Group and Board. We look forward to inviting him for future events to build on this work."
Kerry-Anne Walker
Global Events Leader, Flight Centre Travel Group
Talk to me about your Board
I reply within two business days.
Start a conversationOr email john@halecg.com ยท phone +61 407 301 200