Empowering people to shape strategies they live

Collaborative and inclusive strategy workshops guided by Jarther+ generate greater buy-in, drive stronger outcomes.

Jarther Taylor had already enjoyed a 20-plus year career leading successful teams in Europe, the US and Australia when he doubled down on his commitment to life-long learning in 2020.

It was a small leap of faith, really. Not a gamble.

And it made a lot of sense to many of the people he’d worked with, whether they’d met in multinationals, national-market-dominating corporates or fast -moving startups. Because as a marketing leader he was well known for translating his academic smarts to success in the business world.

A decade before launching Jarther+, Jarther had boosted his credentials with an MBA while leading a large marketing team at Telstra. A couple of years later, he’d gained a Company Directors credential while leading a tech company. Then he took on a dual career as an Adjunct Professor teaching marketing and strategy to MBA students while leading a marketing team at one of the Big 4 advisory firms.

Consultant x confidant

Many of the people Jarther worked with as clients and colleagues weren’t surprised when he moved into advisory because they’d benefitted from his knowledge-sharing over the years. Though as one CEO at an international industry standards puts it, she now prefers having direct access to his insights via his boutique agency:

‘It feels like Jarther is part of our team, part of the DNA of our organisation. He also became a confidant for our leadership team,’ she explains. ‘We were looking for more of that boutique service to understand us, because we’ve always been focused on partnership. And that's what our relationship with Jarther+ really offered. In my experience, the big consulting firms sometimes try to pigeonhole you into “you're this kind of organisation and this is the way that should look like.” It never felt that way in dealing with Jarther.’

This flexible, thoughtful approach to strategy development by Jarther+ was also especially appealing to the head of marketing at a large financial services organisation in Australia.

She bluntly admits she was tired of the ‘very set templates’ from big consulting firms on how they run an engagement because she’d encountered so many of them in earlier roles when the decision wasn’t up to her. ‘Often big consulting firms have a very set template of how they would run an engagement: it's about racking up the billable hours,’ she states. ‘Whereas with Jarther, it’s not about that. He’ll do the project with you. I don't think a lot of clients even get to see the hard work he and his team do to really land that output. There’s a very solid approach to how he runs the workshops, which is also a unique point of difference, and you get a lot more value versus what you’d get if you engaged a big consulting firm.’

Credentials x credibility

Unquestionably, Jarther developed his business smarts at major tech companies, while collaborating with other very intelligent people.

He’s also someone who’s proven George Bernard Shaw got it wrong in ‘Man and Superman’ with that often quoted but rather dismissive line: ‘Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach’.

Ignore him. Well before Shaw spat his opinion of teachers, the Ancient Greek polymath Aristotle (who was a philosopher and teacher among other talents) delivered an excellent counterpoint:

‘Those who can, do; those who understand, teach’.

Aristotle’s point is that almost anyone can ‘do’ a thing if they have some basic, simple knowledge of it (like, using a hammer to hit a nail). But you really need serious understanding of how to do that thing well before you can effectively teach other people to do it well too.

Jarther’s commitments to learning and teaching academic knowledge, combined with insights from his real-world experience, are why he’s trusted by other leaders to help their teams to ‘do’ and ‘understand’ better.

Before he retired, the CEO of a national industry association brought Jarther onboard to guide the organisation through a major reset. He’d met Jarther in an earlier role and was confident his people would learn plenty:

‘Jarther has worked at all levels. He's been an Executive leader, a manager, a middle

manager. He's done the hard yards as a consultant, an academic, a teacher, the whole lot. So his experience brought gravitas to the room. He challenged us and got the team to work.’

The marketing leader at a financial services company agrees. She says Jarther+ brings a whole lot more to the table than the consultancy firms she’s previously dealt with:

‘Jarther’s approach isn't just advisory. It's actually immersive,’ she says. ‘And I think some of that comes from his teaching background. He’s highly engaging and charismatic, as well as deeply knowledgeable, which is a rare combination. He really invests fully. Whenever I’ve worked with him, he's always gone beyond scope to deliver what I needed.’

Another CEO guiding a business through transformation appreciated the depth of support from JartherPlus across several business areas:

‘Our scope with Jarther+ grew and grew because he is so good at what he does: he has an in depth understanding and a breadth of skills to deliver across a whole bunch of areas, be it leadership training to goals delivery to strategic business planning,’ she says. ‘And I think the biggest difference is his willingness to get his hands dirty while also operating at that strategic level, which is what you need in a partnership like this.’

One of the many things that sets Jarther+ apart from other advisory firms is this ability to make learning interesting and accessible, explains the CMO of a multinational technology company. And nothing is lost in translation.

She recalls how simple and complex concepts alike were explained in plain, relatable language to guide teams up steep learning curves faster:

‘Jarther does a beautiful job bringing very pragmatic and actionable real-world experience, anchored in big corporations, with a nice balance of academic frameworks to give structure to what we're doing,’ she says. ‘I think he's got a really nice ability to go, “This is the framework, or academic model, we're going to leverage, and this is how we're going to make it very real and very tangible and practical in the context of a big corporation”.’

As an example, the CMO shares her team’s experience of the Kubler-Ross change adoption curve:

‘Basically, people go through denial, anger, then they get on board with it; and so the framework makes perfect sense. But it's useful to know there is no amount of work or thinking or strategy that's going to avoid human reaction, but what we can do is manage that and get through it as smoothly and quickly as possible.’

Inclusiveness x leadership growth

The now-retired CEO of a national industry association has met all kinds of personalities who attempted to drive change, though very few who were skilled at bringing entire teams into the strategy.

‘Jarther stood out as being a personality that would bring energy, enthusiasm and a huge knowledge base,’ he says. ‘He handled people so well: he’s really patient and engaging. And he got them to where we needed to be very quickly. He is good with drawing stuff out of people, getting the adversity on the table and actually getting different perspectives.’

‘Jarther became a partner, rather than a consultant to the business: he owned the outcomes as much as we did, and actually participated. The hurt was felt by everyone, the hard work was felt by everyone, but Jarther was in there with us, doing it. At the end we had a much bigger, more effective team where people contributed more willingly, nothing was a taboo subject anymore, and people got confidence to want to achieve.’

A marketing leader who has worked with Jarther on several projects at a multinational technology company believes Jarther has a standout talent for co-creation:

‘I know “co-creation” is a popular word,’ she admits, ‘though he’s fantastic at bringing a different perspective to get the right outcome.’

Co-creation is about collaboration. It succeeds when there’s collective participation: diverse stakeholders working together to design, refine and follow through on a solid strategy.

This leader’s engagements with Jarther+ usually start with her saying, ‘I'm clear on what I'm trying to solve, I am not clear on how I'm going to solve it.’ And that will spark conservations exploring some new options.

‘Jarther will ask, “What about this? What would that look like? Does this feel right?”, while working through the process of solving a problem,’ she says. ‘He’s very flexible in his approach and delivers a lot of value. Large consultancies aren’t like that. Jarther brings a calm, considered energy and I never feel rushed in conversations with him. I always feel like he's thought something through. And I think that calmness gets a better outcome, because it gives a bit of space to really unpack what it is you're trying to say or do. He's got a vested interest, a high level of care and a lovely, warm personality.’

She also values how Jarther and his Jarther+ team help her support people actively co-create the plan for success:

‘I think it's a really important part of the process for people to know, “What I'm saying matters” and “What I'm saying is heard and considered”. Jarther makes sure voices are included without putting people on the spot. He gives people confidence and keeps us moving forward to achieve our goals.’