Every CEO leading a high-growth professional services firm has faced a similar problem: Your executive team and board agree on the goal, but they can’t agree on how to get there. Unison helps CEOs turn that friction into alignment. Here is how we partnered with one firm to get it done.

Context‍

A mid-market professional services firm had just crossed $100 million in revenues after thirty years of steady growth. Now the CEO and board set an ambitious goal: 10x the business and hit $1 billion within a decade.

The destination was clear. The path was not.

Some leaders argued that AI should be the priority. Others pushed for geographic expansion, M&A, or investment into one of five high-profit customer channels. Others pointed to cross-selling or global delivery models. A few expressed skepticism towards others’ ideas but offered none of their own.

The CEO knew that reaching $1B would require significant effort regardless of the path, and that he needed deep alignment from this group of stakeholders. Without alignment, indecision would cause a lot of friction, slow things down, and jeopardize their goal. He needed the team to agree on a small number of priorities that could be easily communicated, resourced, and executed. 

The Challenge

Leadership teams often struggle to prioritize revenue initiatives. Many initiatives can look great on paper, and the number of uncertainties and contingencies involved can make it hard to know for sure which ones will have the greatest impact. Also, when executives feel like decisions are handed “down” to them rather than co-created, they disengage. 

We helped the CEO solve for two truths:

1. Focus drives momentum: The firm could not chase ten opportunities. Even status update meetings would be unwieldy at this number.
2. Ownership drives execution: Priorities would stick if executives had a hand in choosing them.

Unison’s role was to transform a nest of competing ideas into three clear, credible bets the full team could champion. 

The Approach 

Define what makes a “priority.” 

We first established clear criteria: A top priority had to materially advance growth, align with the firm’s long-term strategy, and be executed profitably and with low friction or risk. This gave the conversation guardrails.‍

Introduce an objective framework.

We built a scoring model with weighted factors - materiality, fit, profitability, adoption probability, risk, competitive position, early wins. This replaced gut feelings with structured analysis and gave the team firm standing for debate.  

Engage the team members individually first.

Two weeks before the meeting, we enabled executives and board members to independently score ten potential initiatives using the framework. This step revealed that six of the possibilities had significantly more support than the others, and eliminated the weaker candidates before the live discussion. 

Structure debate and commitment via a live workshop.

Unison designed and facilitated a one-day session to complete the task. At the beginning of the meeting, the CEO set the tone: “By the time we leave, we will have named three priorities. When we walk out that door, we all need to be a champion of the list.” 

Our workshop consisted of:

• Paired debates: Leaders with opposing views were paired to discuss for and against with a goal of agreeing. The pairs then came back to the full group discussion to share their updated perspectives. This ended up converging the group on three priorities. 
• Real-time ranking: A projected working list of priorities allowed everyone to see how initiatives rose and fell as the debate progressed.
• Final convergence: With one or two initiatives clearly falling out, the group used structured discussion to agree on the top three and their order.

Before concluding, each member gave an explicit verbal commitment: “Yes, I am fully aligned and will champion this.”

The Outcome

We helped the firm converge on three clear revenue priorities. Each leader walked out of the room a champion of the list, with clarity on what mattered most and confidence in how the decision was made. 

Before Unison, the company had:

• Ten competing growth ideas, all compelling but unprioritized
• Executive Team and Board members pulling in different directions
• High potential for wasted effort, friction, and second-guessing
• No clear way to communicate priorities across the firm

After Unison, the company had:

• Three top growth priorities, explicitly defined and ranked
• Full alignment across CEO, Executive Team, and Board
• Clear commitments: every leader a champion of the same priorities
• Priorities supported by objective data and a rigorous framework
• Unified message to cascade across the firm, reducing friction and speeding execution

Takeaway for CEOs:

Aligning your team on the path to revenue growth isn’t about choosing the perfect strategy. It’s about creating a process that forces focus, gives leaders ownership, and builds confidence in the decision.

That’s the value Unison provides: we give CEOs the structure, data, and facilitation that turns debate into commitment. When every executive walks out of the room aligned and energized, growth accelerates and friction disappears.

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