You Need a Strategy.com
Everyone is busy. Almost no one is strategic.Your competitors are copying each other. Your industry is chasing trends.Meanwhile, you're working harder than ever and wondering why it's not translating.The problem isn't effort. The problem is direction.A strategy isn't a vision board or a 5-year plan. It's a clear-eyed answer to one question:"Given where we are, what's the most powerful thing we can do next?"That's what we help you find.[Let's find yours →]
Most businesses don't have an execution problem.
They have a clarity problem.
You've tried the website. You've hired the marketing agency. You've read the books.And yet the gap between where you are and where you want to be refuses to close.That gap has a name. It's called the absence of strategy.Strategy isn't a plan. It's the decision about what you will — and won't — do.At You Need A Strategy, we work with founders and business owners who are smart, capable, and stuck. We help you cut through the noise, find the one or two levers that actually move your business, and build a clear path from here to there.
What working with us looks like:Diagnostic Clarity — We examine your business from the outside in. You'll understand exactly why certain things aren't working, often within the first conversation.A Strategy You Can Actually Execute — Not a 60-page document. A clear, prioritized roadmap your team can act on Monday morning.Independent Perspective — We have no software to sell you, no preferred vendors, no quota. Our only incentive is your results.Asymmetric ROI — One strategic insight can be worth more than 12 months of tactical effort. We've seen it happen repeatedly.[Book a free 30-minute strategy call →]
No pitch. No pressure. Just an honest conversation about where you are and where you want to go.
What We Do
We employ the S.T.A.R. Strategies Methodology to drive business success. The approach consists of four key components: Strategies, Tactics, Actions, and Resources, Responsibilities, and Results.Plan the Work - Work the Plan* Strategies: Our methodology starts with the development of global plans and objectives that drive the corporation, its divisions, and products.* Tactics: Next, we implement ground-level tactics with attainable objectives, defined assignments, and budget allocations.* Actions: We believe that ideas are a dime a dozen, which is why we focus on turning those ideas into realities through specific actions.* Resources, Responsibilities, Results: Our approach includes careful consideration of the resources needed to implement the plan, including talent, technology, time, and money. We also place a strong emphasis on empowering our team and assigning clear responsibilities. The end goal is to achieve measurable results that drive success.By using the S.T.A.R. Strategies Methodology, we combine the power of data and analytics with a focus on feelings, perceptions, and positioning to increase the chances of success.
Michael Levinson, Chief Strategist
I’m an Independent Director and Strategic Advisor based in Toronto. I bring operator level judgment shaped by two arenas that rarely overlap: building and scaling travel and hospitality technology businesses, and chairing a statutory regulator through a real crisis.As Chair of the Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO), I’ve helped lead governance through COVID 19 disruption, oversight scrutiny, and a Value for Money Audit by the Auditor General, with a focus on consumer protection, stability, and decision making under uncertainty.Before governance and strategic consulting became my main lane, I spent 18 years building digital platforms in travel and hospitality, including BookDirect and CrewStay. I’ve worked through full cycles: early product and distribution integrations, enterprise stakeholders, and the unglamorous operational reality of running and turning around hospitality assets.I’m selective about board and advisory work. I’m most useful to founder-led and family-owned companies that want independent governance, clearer risk and accountability, and help navigating disruption, including AI and regulation-driven change. I’m especially interested in for-profit board roles where the upside is tied to long-term value creation.
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