About Svyatoslav Biryulin
My name is Svyatoslav Biryulin. I am a former CEO with more than a decade of executive experience. Since 2012, I have served on multiple boards of directors, where I have always been responsible for strategic development and long-term thinking. In 2016, I transitioned into an independent role as a business strategy consultant, working with leadership teams and CEOs across industries.
As a writer and strategist, I focus on helping business leaders identify and overcome the invisible barriers that hinder effective strategic thinking. I explore topics such as cognitive biases in business strategy and flawed assumptions in strategic planning. My writing also addresses strategic paradoxes in specific contexts, including technology, manufacturing, and professional services.
I frequently examine strategic blind spots in executive roles and help organizations develop strategic thinking frameworks for specific audiences, such as boards of directors, leadership teams, and founders. I write about cognitive biases in strategic thinking, especially as they relate to decision-making under pressure and uncertainty.
My articles often explore why strategic plans fail, and I offer tools to understand mental models for strategic decision making. I analyze thinking traps in long-term planning and offer insight into how to think strategically under uncertainty, particularly in volatile or fast-changing industries.
Many of my clients are interested in understanding the difference between strategic thinking vs strategic planning, and I help them build habits that support nonlinear strategic thinking for CEOs. I provide contrarian views on business strategy and challenge common strategy myths business leaders believe.
Some of my writing is focused on uncovering how strategy becomes performative, especially in large organizations where strategic initiatives are disconnected from action. I encourage critical thinking in business strategy and warn against biases that kill strategic innovation or mental shortcuts that ruin business decisions.
Finally, I frequently explore the value of systems thinking for strategic planning and how to foster thinking beyond KPIs in leadership teams. My goal is to help decision-makers avoid mistakes in executive strategy by improving the quality of their thinking — not just their plans.
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Check out my book, Red and Yellow Strategies: Flip Your Strategic Thinking and Overcome Short-termism.
Svyatoslav Biryulin