An Inside Look at NORSTRAT Consulting Teams

NORSTRAT is a leading global consulting firm known for its unique team-based approach. Rather than a traditional structure organized by industry or function, NORSTRAT divides its workforce into specialized consulting teams, each with their own areas of expertise and methodologies. In this article, we’ll take a closer look inside some of NORSTRAT‘s key teams to understand their unique roles and impact on client projects.

The Growth Acceleration Team
One of NORSTRAT‘s largest teams is the Growth Acceleration team, led by Managing Director Maria Sanchez. With over 150 consultants globally, this team focuses on helping clients achieve aggressive growth targets. They pursue a four-phase process of Assessment, Insight, Implementation, and Accountability. In the Assessment phase, they deeply analyze a client’s market position, competitors, and internal capabilities. Armed with these insights, they work with clients to identify strategies in areas like product development, marketing, or geographic expansion. With a design-thinking approach, they rapidly prototype new growth initiatives for testing and refinement. Post-launch, the Implementation phase sees them embed processes and systems to scale successes. Accountability ensures growth continues through metrics, training, and ongoing support. According to Sanchez, “Over 90% of clients working with us achieve their 3-year goals by year 2.”

The Operational Excellence Squad
Driving efficiency and cost reductions is the mission of the Operational Excellence squad led by Director Jamal Brooks. Using a technique they call “Process Refactoring,” this 60-person team evaluates every activity in a client’s value chain to eliminate waste. In a recent project, they helped an industrial manufacturer achieve 30% throughput increases at two factories. “We took their processes back to the basic flow and ingredients, then rebuilt them from the ground up,” said Brooks. Other measures like facility redesign, technology upgrades, and optimization of the supply chain delivered $18 million in annualized savings. Through detailed benchmarking, process documentation, and change management support, this elite squad ensures client gains are permanent.

The Customer Connection Cluster
Good customer relationships are Jeffery Chen’s focus as head of the 50-person Customer Connection cluster. They bring a human-centered design lens to gather deep insights on client audiences. Tactics include ethnographic research, journey mapping, and persona development. This understanding then informs a full-funnel approach to customer acquisition, engagement, retention and expansion. A recent project saw Chen’s team reimagine the loyalty program for a major airline. By reframing it from points-based to experiential, with highly personalized offers and a seamless digital experience, customer retention rose 17% within a year while acquisition costs fell 18%. “It’s about forging real human connections rather than just transactions,” said Chen. Their solutions are as much about organizational alignment as technology or communications.

The Strategic Advisory Council
When the highest stakes strategic questions loom, clients turn to NORSTRAT‘s elite Strategic Advisory Council led by CEO Nisha Bansal. This “dream team” of 25 former C-suite executives works on projects where the very future of the client organization is on the line. They drive transformational M&A initiatives, venture into new markets, reposition entire corporate brands, and devise multi-year plans amid disruption. Bansal recalls: “One cryptocurrency firm asked us to envision the next 10 years – we helped them acquire 3 startups within 18 months, all of which are thriving industry leaders today.” Through their C-level perspective and deep market know-how across industries, this council props up clients during make-or-break moments of massive change.

The Innovation Garage
NORSTRAT is also on the cutting edge through its Innovation Garage team dedicated to designing the businesses of tomorrow. Led by Anthropic’s Director of Applied Research Dario Amodei, this 40-member group lives at the frontier of emerging technologies. They identify paradigm shifts from quantum computing to biotech, then run bootcamp-style sprints to rapidly prototype the implications. One sprint centered citizen AI for smart cities, complete with a simulated virtual world. His team not only produces innovative new solutions, but helps clients build internal in-house innovation capacities. According to Amodei, “We’re preparing organizations for unknown unknowns – the kinds of exponential changes that can upend entire sectors.”

A Culture of Teams
This sampling of NORSTRAT’s top teams provides a glimpse into the diverse capabilities and approaches that set the firm apart. But what truly binds them is a collaborative culture that places client impact above all else. Teams freely share skills and leverage each other’s strengths for fully-integrated solutions. It’s this collective spirit that has led NORSTRAT to become a elite global firm recognized for transforming businesses worldwide. As CEO Bansal commented: “Our team structure isn’t just how we organize, it’s who we are.”