We're Excited to Help You

Shane Evans • October 25, 2024

Positive ROI | Professional Progress | Peace of Mind

That's one cool pineapple, right? I don't look nearly as cool in sunglasses but that IS how my hair looks in the morning.


We've just launched as a business advisory practice and are eager to help business leaders like YOU around the world find some personal and professional relief AND move the needle in the business at the same time.


As anyone with a job can attest, there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done. The urge to pull your hair out can be all too frequent. At least for those leaders with some budget authority, individuals like myself can be a major source of relief. How?


For one, it couldn't be easier to get started: a simple cash payment gets me working for you, today even. No lengthy HR hiring and onboarding processes to follow. No internal permissions or approvals required. No salary + benefits on the books indefinitely that your department and the organization cries about. Just a cash transaction within your budget authority and you've got a new, personal business ninja to throw shurikens at all your corporate headaches. And, you can fire me any time.


More importantly, you gain an individual who is personally committed to helping you achieve the outcomes you care about. I work for you and you alone. I'll help you define your vision, put together a plan to make it happen, and execute it. Sounds simple right? It doesn't need to be complicated.


You're busy working IN the business. Too busy to complete much work ON the business. You try your best to balance priorities and may have made some progress on one or more of the initiatives you personally care about or have been tasked with completing, but there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day for you to fight fires and transform the department/enterprise. You need help, and that's okay, because we love to help leaders like you achieve your business goals, so you have more time for your personal ones.


Think about your biggest business headache or priority for a moment: what is it costing the organization each day/week/month that it remains unresolved?


Here's the winning outcome when you accept help:

  • Positive ROI: you invest company money in paying me, to help you solve a problem that returns greater value than it cost to produce. Your boss loves you.
  • Professional Progress: you finally start making meaningful progress on the initiatives that matter to you, helping the business transform and earning you the professional recognition you deserve. You feel accomplished.
  • Peace of Mind: by getting ahead on what matters, you decompress your workload, regain some peace of mind and hopefully some calendar time, so you can spend some time with the family, play a bit more golf or tennis, or tackle another business challenge that really helps get you ahead. The choice is yours. You feel more calm and relaxed.


In other words, you'll feel as happy and cool as that pineapple!


Let's talk! You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain.


Ingram Solutions

Shane Evans

Founder & Business Advisor

Let's Talk

Strategic Agility: A New Routine

By Shane Evans • December 27, 2024
"Strategic Agility: A New Routine" advocates for making strategy a regular practice rather than an annual event. It emphasizes the benefits of weekly or bi-weekly strategic thinking exercises, which keep organizations agile and prepared for uncertainty. The article champions scenario planning as an accessible, high-impact exercise that enables teams to explore potential futures and adapt accordingly. By practicing strategy regularly, leaders build "strategic fitness," much like the physical health benefits of consistent exercise. This routine ensures organizations stay proactive, aligned, and ready to respond to challenges and opportunities.

Bulletproof Your Strategy

By Shane Evans • December 27, 2024
To future-proof a strategy, organizations should test and refine it using proven exercises. Backcasting identifies steps to achieve desired outcomes, while premortems uncover potential failure points. Forecasting, trend analysis, and horizon scanning predict changes and assess their impact. Scenario planning explores alternative futures to challenge assumptions, and war games or crisis simulations test strategy under extreme conditions. Finally, contingency planning prepares detailed responses to specific risks. Each method strengthens your strategy, ensuring it remains resilient and adaptable in a changing environment. Success favours the prepared—invest in bulletproofing your strategy today.

Bringing Strategy to Life

By Shane Evans • December 27, 2024
Developing a strategy is just the start—execution is where success happens. This article outlines the key steps to bring your strategy to life. First, identify Strategic Projects to address gaps between your current capabilities & your strategic goals. Next, align performance management systems to reward behaviors that support your strategy, ensuring metrics like speed or quality reflect new priorities. Implement tools like the Balanced Scorecard to track objectives, KPIs, & measures, enabling data-driven adjustments. Communication is critical: use the ADKAR model to guide employees through the change process, building awareness, desire, & knowledge, while reinforcing the strategy with aligned rewards. Finally, share your strategy with customers and stakeholders to inspire confidence & build accountability. With alignment across projects, people, & metrics, your strategy becomes actionable, empowering individuals to achieve collective success & ensuring your organization thrives in its strategic direction.

Define Your Strategy

By Shane Evans • December 26, 2024
The article introduces the Strategy Compass, a concise, one-page tool designed to simplify strategy formulation for leaders and individuals. It breaks strategy into key components: Winning Aspiration, Where to Play, How to Win, What We Have, What We Do, Objectives with KPIs, Strategic Projects, and Assumptions & Risks. Each element helps organizations clarify goals, align efforts, and measure progress effectively. Two examples illustrate its versatility. For Nike, the compass highlights its focus on premium sportswear, leveraging innovation and global branding to dominate key markets. For a personal goal, such as running a marathon, it maps out a clear training plan, progress metrics, and contingency measures. The Strategy Compass demonstrates that strategy doesn’t need to be intimidating or complex. With its structured approach, leaders can align their teams, drive accountability, and execute plans—whether for global success or personal achievement.

Transformative Outcomes

By Shane Evans • November 25, 2024
Case studies from Apple, Gillette, and Starbucks show how subtle but strategic shifts in packaging and marketing transformed commoditized businesses into premium, value-driven brands. Apple moved from selling products to managing an ecosystem, Gillette shifted to lifecycle partnerships via subscriptions, and Starbucks created an experience around coffee. Lessons for Shipmanagement: By reframing services as asset lifecycle partnerships—integrating fleet optimization, long-term planning, and consulting—ship managers can differentiate themselves, escape price-based competition, and justify higher fees. They should focus on selling expertise and value over the vessel’s lifetime, rather than transactional operations.

Strategic Asset Manager

By Shane Evans • November 25, 2024
This article proposes reimagining ship management as strategic asset management to escape commoditization and elevate its value proposition. Ship managers would act as lifecycle partners, optimizing fleets, advising on procurement, and managing vessels for long-term profitability. Offering enhanced services like fleet analytics, lifecycle consulting, and new-build advising would justify a shift to value-based pricing tied to performance or asset value. By demonstrating expertise, leveraging data, and building trust, ship managers can transform into indispensable partners. This model promises cost savings, asset value maximization, and deeper client relationships, positioning ship managers as strategic leaders rather than commoditized operators.

The Silent Drain

By Shane Evans • November 20, 2024
Shipowners face hidden costs and risks by neglecting asset management principles. Reactive maintenance, siloed operations, and misaligned strategies lead to inefficiencies, regulatory penalties, and diminished asset value. For example, unplanned downtime costs $260,000 daily, while fuel inefficiencies and compliance issues add millions in losses over a vessel’s lifecycle. Asset management transforms operations by integrating maintenance, lifecycle planning, and sustainability goals, enabling savings, regulatory compliance, and enhanced reputation. By adopting a proactive, data-driven approach, shipowners can boost resilience, profitability, and long-term value, ensuring they thrive in today’s volatile maritime landscape.

Breaking the Cycle

By Shane Evans • November 20, 2024
The shipmanager-shipowner relationship is often transactional, resulting in inefficiencies, fragmented strategies, and diminished vessel value. Asset management offers a transformative solution by aligning operations, maintenance, and lifecycle goals. Shipowners benefit from higher vessel performance, lower costs, and regulatory compliance when working with asset management-driven shipmanagers. Shipmanagers, in turn, can become indispensable partners by leveraging predictive analytics, ensuring lifecycle continuity, and breaking away from cost-driven competition. This approach creates trust, long-term partnerships, and shared success, emphasizing the need for a paradigm shift in shipmanagement practices.

Asset Management

By Shane Evans • November 20, 2024
Asset management is a proactive, strategic approach to maximizing the value of everything a business owns or relies on, from equipment to people and property. Unlike the reactive “business as usual” mindset—marked by inefficiencies, silos, and costly downtime—asset management aligns decisions across the organization to reduce waste, improve resilience, and unlock hidden value. For example, it can cut maintenance costs by 30%, lower fleet fuel consumption by 15%, and reduce wasted office space by 25%. By shifting to asset management, businesses move from firefighting to thriving, saving money, reducing risks, and building a foundation for sustainable growth.

Speak Their Language

By Shane Evans • November 19, 2024
Tailoring communication to auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning styles can enhance understanding, engagement, and buy-in. Auditory learners respond to sound-related language, visual learners to imagery and detail, and kinesthetic learners to touch and movement. Identifying someone's style involves observing their word choices, behaviors, and preferences for listening, seeing, or doing. If unsure, use subtle questions or blend all styles in your communication. Leveraging metaphors, analogies, and anecdotes further deepens connections by tapping into universal emotions. By adapting your approach to your audience’s learning style, you can build trust, inspire action, and achieve greater success in any setting.
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