David McMillan Strategy → Execution | Independent Advisor
Strategy means nothing
until it's executed.
I help senior leaders translate strategy into coordinated action — clarifying direction, aligning stakeholders, and building the governance that turns plans into measurable results. Over 20 years with Palladium and now through independent advisory work, across commercial, government, and mission-driven organizations.
Most strategies don't fail in the boardroom.
They fail in the hand-off.
- Leadership agrees on direction — then it stalls across business units, agencies, or partners who were never truly aligned.
- Initiatives multiply faster than anyone can govern them, and no one can say which ones actually matter.
- KPI dashboards exist, but they measure activity, not the decisions that move the strategy forward.
- Transformation programs launch with energy and lose it within two quarters, once the complexity of multiple stakeholder groups sets in.
If any of this sounds familiar, the gap isn't your strategy. It's the execution architecture underneath it.
How I Help
Engagements sit at the intersection of enterprise strategy, execution governance, and transformation delivery.
Strategy Design & Cascading
Designing enterprise and business-unit strategies and cascading them so every team can see how its work connects to the whole.
Execution Governance & KPI Systems
Building performance management systems and decision-focused dashboards that support real decisions, not just reporting.
Transformation & Initiative Portfolios
Coordinating initiative portfolios and transformation programs across business units, agencies, and partners.
Executive & Stakeholder Alignment
Facilitating alignment across executive teams and external stakeholders when the environment is complex and the stakes are high.
Strategy Execution Capability Building
Training and structured working sessions that build lasting strategy execution capability inside client organizations.
Cross-Sector & Multi-Stakeholder Strategy
Developing multi-stakeholder strategies that achieve ecosystem-level impact across commercial, government, and social-impact lines.
Selected Results
Two decades of strategy execution work across healthcare, financial services, energy and utilities, transportation, public safety, international development, and social-impact investment.
Clarified the airline's strategic plan and cascaded it to all 11 departments, establishing company-wide governance and measurement. The CEO called it one of the most successful engagements in his tenure.
Built alignment across 13 business units through cascading strategy, initiative management, and performance reporting.
Designed a governance plan that strengthened oversight of a $1B research portfolio.
Facilitated a shared social-performance goal across representatives from the world's largest mining companies, and guided a $100M social impact fund.
Facilitated multi-stakeholder strategy to mobilize $2B in blended finance, including a program under the Biden Administration's APEP initiative.
Directed a global strategy that helped the company reach a $1B+ valuation and the largest market capitalization in its industry.
Designed a 15-year strategy that mitigated risk and positioned the utility as an economic development catalyst.
Aligned system-level and regional strategies, driving 40% growth while improving clinical quality outcomes.
Cascaded strategy to multiple branches and divisions, supporting the agency's successful pivot into national security. The work became a basis for a Harvard Business Review case study.
Implemented a comprehensive strategy execution approach that achieved 80% revenue growth and a 90% increase in free cash flow within 3 years, ahead of the company's acquisition by Merck.
Led a division strategy to reduce its drag on corporate financials; the U.S. Government Accountability Office recognized the project's contribution to the railroad's effectiveness.
Aligned 150 stakeholder groups — hospitals, academic institutions, tissue banks, donors, physicians, and patients — around a national strategy for organ and tissue donation.
What Clients Say
“David is a knowledgeable strategist. I have most appreciated his sincere partnership posture, his ability to quickly learn the basics of our industry, his flexibility to adapt strategic frameworks to what works in our context, and his emphasis on building the strategy capacity of my team. His team's most recent consulting engagement is one of the most successful that Caribbean Airlines has undertaken in my tenure as CEO.”
CEO, Caribbean Airlines
“We have benefited immensely from using the Balanced Scorecard since 2008. I'm grateful for Palladium's help in getting us started.”
Client Executive, Regional Grocery Chain
How Engagements Work
Diagnose
A structured assessment of where strategy is breaking down — direction, alignment, governance, or initiative discipline.
Design
Working sessions with leadership to build the strategy, governance model, or KPI system the organization actually needs.
Deliver
Hands-on coaching and facilitation that carries the work from plan to sustained execution.
Insights & Publications
- Reimagining the Balanced Scorecard for the ESG Era
- Building Climate Resilience in the Mining Sector
- Strategy Execution Champions: The Palladium Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame Report
- How to Write Performance Analysis That Truly Enhances Decision Making
- Five Pitfalls to Avoid When Writing Performance Analysis
About David
I am especially interested in working with organizations whose missions contribute to stronger communities and long-term societal well-being, and where complex challenges are addressed through thoughtful collaboration across teams and stakeholders.
Over 20 years with Palladium and now through David McMillan Consulting, I have supported senior leaders across commercial, government, and mission-driven organizations as they clarified strategic direction, aligned stakeholders, and implemented initiatives that delivered measurable results. I am often brought in when organizations need to move from vision to implementation across complex environments involving multiple business units, agencies, partners, or stakeholder groups.
Throughout my career I've had the opportunity to work personally with Drs. Robert Kaplan and David Norton, the originators of the Balanced Scorecard, and I apply their Execution Premium Process™ methodology in my own engagements. Three client engagements I led — Millipore, the FBI, and CHRISTUS Health — have been recognized in the Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame for Executing Strategy®.
- Kaplan-Norton Strategy Execution Certified Graduate
- Project Management Professional (PMP)
- BSc in Economics, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
- Minors in Theater Arts & Music, University of Pennsylvania
- Guest Lecturer, Simmons University MBA Program — Balanced Scorecard
Ready to close the gap between strategy and execution?
Based in Greater Boston — working with organizations everywhere.
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