Start a Cross-Industry Strategy Consultancy

1. 1

   Niche by problem, not by industry

   The foundational move (the generic launch mechanics live in the consulting-business card; this card is the positioning): claim a recurring problem type that crosses industries, like scaling operations past founder capacity, untangling cross-functional gridlock, or pricing transformation. Your industry breadth becomes the credential for the problem instead of a liability against specialists.

2. 2

   Make analogical transfer the named method

   The documented wins in Dee's research (Formula 1 pit crew technique redesigning hospital ER handoffs, military logistics improving disaster relief) are the sales story: you explicitly hunt solutions in industries the client never reads. Build a personal pattern library: for each domain you know, write down the five problems it solved brilliantly and where those solutions might transfer. That library is your firm's IP.

3. 3

   Lead with a fixed-price diagnostic

   Wicked, multi-domain problems are exactly where clients have already burned money on single-lens consultants, so sell the diagnosis as its own product: a two-to-four-week engagement mapping the problem across functions, with a written synthesis and options. It is low-risk to buy, shows the cross-domain read in action, and prices the implementation engagement that follows.

4. 4

   Teach the thinking as part of the deliverable

   Mental-model and decision frameworks (the Munger-style latticework from the research) belong inside your engagements: leave the client's team better at cross-domain reasoning, not just holding your report. Decision audits, assumption-mapping workshops, and forecast calibration sessions productize the advisory layer and justify retainers.

5. 5

   Or become the integration executive

   The fractional 'Chief Integration Officer' variant from the research is a delivery format: a part-time senior role for companies whose real problem is translation between siloed departments. Scope it like the established fractional executive offers (the fractional-cfo card's market shape) but positioned on integration, not one function.

6. 6

   Publish the patterns

   Cross-domain insight is unusually good content: what hospitals could learn from air traffic control, what SaaS onboarding could learn from hospitality. A publishing habit here does double duty as your prospecting and your pattern library, and it attracts precisely the clients whose problems do not fit a category.

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