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Studio + Lab · Mexico City

AGCS
Strategic
Design

Helping organizations think ahead and stay forward.

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Strategic Design · Studio + Lab

AGCS | Studio + Lab |

AGCS is a Strategic Design Studio + Lab based in Mexico City, founded and led by Alex Gallardo, a recognized consultant in Strategy and Innovation.

Strategic Design combines the principles of Strategic Thinking with Design Thinking methods to face and solve the complex strategic challenges that emerge beyond the horizon of day-to-day management.

Our purpose is to equip leaders and organizations with a unique combination of mindset and frameworks that broaden perspective, simplify strategic discussions, anticipate potential futures and accelerate transformation, through a systemic approach and agile, creative and collaborative processes.

Alex Gallardo, founder and director of AGCS, seated in front of a bookcase

Founder’s note

“Every context is dynamic, every reality is transitory.”

The digital revolution has not only marked the end of the industrial era. It has also created a scenario of uncertainty that most organizations find hard to manage effectively.

The boundaries that until yesterday served as reference points for meaningful differentiation in creating economic value and in the customer experience are fading today amid fragmented offerings and a proliferation of content.

This new reality has increased the need for radical innovation across the whole context that surrounds a brand.

Designing possible futures, new concepts and disruptive business models is a collective challenge that we cannot leave solely in the hands of a handful of pioneering, innovative companies.

We need organizations with a new perspective, bolder and more fearless, able to reinvent the company so that today’s company and the new company are also the company of the future.

When change accelerates and we face the uncertainty of the future, strategy stops being solely a matter of logic and becomes a matter of creativity.

It is no longer only a challenge to reason; it is a challenge to imagination. It means we stop revering old dogmas and dare to challenge them.

Alex Gallardo
Founder / Director
AGCS Strategic Design | Studio + Lab |

AGCS · Systems

Two Systems, One Intent

One explores the future. The other performs the strategy.

AGCS works with two systems that start from the same strategic intent. Forward System explores the future and decides which bets to scale. DRIs System takes strategy into decisions at every level of the organization and tracks its performance.

Explore

Forward System

Which future conditions must we prepare for, and which strategic opportunities will we bet on?

  • Foresights Engine
  • Explore Portfolio
  • Incubation Labs
  • Scale Launchpad
  • Learning System
Walk through Forward System

Exploit

DRIs System

How do we take strategy into decisions and owners at every level of the organization?

  • Drivers
  • Results
  • Initiatives
  • Performance Stack
  • Performance Loops
Walk through DRIs System

Strategic Intent · Direction

Direction Before Action

Intent sets the limits both systems work within.

  1. Describes the future the organization wants to build. It is the north star against which every signal, every bet and every result is read.

    Guiding questions

    • What future do we want to help build?
    • What changes for our customers if we achieve it?

  2. Sets the place the organization wants to hold in that future, written so that the committee can measure progress.

    Guiding questions

    • What position do we want to hold, and on what horizon?
    • How will we know we have reached it?

  3. Declares the markets, capabilities and risks in play. Everything both systems explore and execute falls within these limits.

    Guiding questions

    • In which markets, and with which capabilities, will we play?
    • What stays out of the game, and why?

Forward System · Explore

Four Engines, One System

Each stage turns uncertainty into evidence the next can use.

Forward System answers one question: which future conditions must we prepare for, and which strategic opportunities will we bet on? It turns strategic intent into a portfolio of tested bets. Each stage hands evidence to the next, and the Learning System returns it to the start of the cycle. Choose a stage to see what it does and what it delivers.

Reads signals, trends and disruptions in the present and builds future scenarios with explicit premises.

Present
Forward

What’s new?

  • Signals
  • Trends
  • Drivers

Future
Back

What’s next?

  • Premises
  • Scenarios
  • Futures

Defines the value drivers and picks the bets that pass the desirability, feasibility and viability tests.

Drivers
Definition

What wins

  • Drivers
  • Results
  • Initiatives

Bets
Decision

What if

  • Desirability
  • Feasibility
  • Viability

Builds, tests and decides with evidence. Each bet leaves the lab with one of three decisions: Kill, Pivot or Scale.

Prototype

Build + Iterate

Experiment

Test + Learn

Validate

Evidence + Decide

  • Kill
  • Pivot
  • Scale

Allocates capital and teams to the bets that won in the lab and deploys them to grow.

Allocation

Capital + Resources

Acceleration

Deploy + Growth

Evidence + Patterns + Capabilities

Each cycle leaves evidence, patterns and capabilities in the organization. The next cycle starts with more knowledge than the last.

02 · Stage detail

Foresights Engine

What is changing, and which futures are plausible?

What it does

  1. 01Scans the signals, trends and Drivers relevant to the strategic intent.
  2. 02Makes explicit the premises on which the current strategy rests.
  3. 03Builds future scenarios and translates them into implications for the business.

What it delivers

  • Signals and trends radar
  • Scenarios with explicit premises
  • Prioritized implications for the portfolio

Hands off to: Explore Portfolio

Talk about this stage

ARGUS · AGCS engine

One Engine Across the Platform

It proposes. People decide.

ARGUS is the engine of the AGCS platform. Inside Foresights Engine it generates the Change Patterns and the Future Premises. In Forward and in DRIs System it works alongside the team. In both cases it proposes, and a person decides what goes in.

One engine, two modes

  1. 01Foresights Engine

    Generative

    Builds the foresight, step by step.

    Follows a fixed path, step by step, and saves each result with its version. From the present it writes the Change Patterns; from the future, the Future Premises.

  2. 02Forward · DRIs System

    Companion

    Works next to the team.

    Consults the same rules and proposes against the same contracts, but does not write. In Forward it proposes Drivers and improves Future Premises. In DRIs System it proposes improvements to the strategic intent and the playbook.

How it works

  • Cites its sourceEvery claim carries its literal quote, and ARGUS checks the quote against the page it comes from.
  • Stops at the gatesA person confirms the Drivers before moving to the future and chooses which ones move on to Explore Portfolio.
  • Proposes, does not writeIt delivers complete proposals, not loose phrases. Nothing is applied until a person decides to use it.
Talk about ARGUS

DRIs System · Exploit

Strategy Into Decisions at Every Level

Every initiative traces back to a strategic mandate.

DRIs System is a strategic management system. It translates intent into a playbook of Drivers, Results and Initiatives, assigns a directly responsible individual (DRI) to each piece and keeps the pace with tracking routines.

Strategic Playbook · System

  1. 01Cascade

    Drivers

    Domains we must master to win.

    What must we master to win?

    Strategic levers or domains. They define the mandate, are inherited across levels and are not negotiable.

  2. 02Contribution

    Results

    Outcomes we must achieve.

    What do we want to achieve, and by when?

    Quantifiable objectives. They are split across areas and recomposed, and each part has a clear owner.

  3. 03Networks

    Initiatives

    Vehicles we deploy to achieve Results.

    What will we do to win?

    Strategic programs and projects. They operate across functions, with multidisciplinary teams.

Strategic Performance · Stack

  1. DefinitionDefines the DRIs and their decision rights.
  2. PropagationDistributes ownership and accountability.
  3. TrackingKeeps the pace and the visibility.
  4. InsightsTurns signals into learning and intelligence.
  • Contribution System Organizational Nodes · Individual
  • Collaboration System Dynamic Teams · Individual

Performance Loops · Routines

  1. Daily TrackImmediate operational adjustments.
  2. Weekly PulseTactical reprioritization.
  3. Monthly ReviewFocus adjustments across priorities.
  4. Quarterly ReviewAdjustment or redefinition of priorities.
  5. Annual ResetPriorities for the new cycle.
Talk about DRIs System

Studio + Lab

Two Arms, One Method

Both arms run on the same framework and evidence.

Studio

Strategic Thinking Studio

Strategic frameworks, executive assessments and recommendations for leadership committees. The Studio leads the strategic intent and the design of the portfolio of bets.

Stages it leads

Strategic Intent Foresights Engine Explore Portfolio
Lab AI-native

Innovation Lab

AI-native workflows, system architectures and prototypes. The Lab builds and tests the bets, and runs the platform that carries evidence from one cycle to the next.

Stages it leads

Incubation Labs Scale Launchpad Learning System

Programs

Programs in the Field

Each program enters the framework at a defined stage.

Strategic Intent

Culture by Design

Executive Pre-Assessment

An executive assessment that reads culture as a system and flags the patterns that call for action from the leadership committee.

Talk about this program
Scale Launchpad

Forward

Platform · AGCS Lab

Runs the method as a living system. It runs bets through Labs, takes approved Scale bets to Scale Launchpad and closes each bet with a PRD, a Pivot deep-dive or a Kill case.

Request a demo Go to Forward

Organizations that work with AGCS

FEMSA · Coca-Cola FEMSA · OXXO · Grupo Nos · Grupo Axo · Grupo Patio · Alpura

Stay Forward · Contact

Start With Your Intent

The first conversation maps where your strategy enters.

Every program starts with a conversation with the leadership team about its strategic intent. That conversation shows the system and the stage to enter through.

Prefer to write directly?
max@agcs.co
Mexico City · agcs.co

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