Lindsay Foresight & Stratagem
MARSHA LINDSAY, CEO and Founder
One of the world’s leading authorities on competitive advantage—researching, analyzing, and advising businesses on how to win in the marketplace of the future.
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The most effective strategies for future advantage are cast from deep experience across all its dimensions —business, marketing, brand, and governance. There are not many strategists or advisors who have successfully operated across all four. But our founder and CEO has.
That breadth isn't incidental — it's the lens through which Lindsay Foresight & Stratagem knows what insight and foresight truly are. It’s the game-changing edge Marsha Lindsay brings to every analysis, consult, playbook, and speech.
“YOU HAVE A GIFT FOR THOROUGH ANALYSIS, INSIGHT, AND FORESIGHT.”
That observation from a professor set Marsha on the path to grad school at the University of Wisconsin— Madison where she intended to become a professor herself.
Her area of scholarship? The science of human decision-making: The psychology, sociology, and behavioral economics that define the universal and timeless drivers of motivation, attitudes, and behaviors. Her primary research uncovered insights into business strategies to accelerate demand and competitive advantage. It revealed strategies that desensitized people to price, accelerated change management, and enhanced leadership.
Fascinated by applying her insights to real-world business challenges, Marsha dropped out of grad school just short of her Ph.D. She started her own business. Though only 25, she immediately started changing the fortunes of those who hired her. Among the first was the very professor who encouraged her to attend grad school. He was running for governor but was a total unknown. He was not even his party’s nominee. Yet Marsha’s playbook for competitive advantage was a winning one for him. Major brands took notice. They hired her firm to help them win in the marketplace.
Today, Marsha’s still changing the fortunes of those who engage her. And because consumer behaviors and the marketplace are ever-changing, she continues her study of human decision-making and research on competitive strategies that can win in the marketplace.
MARSHA’S ANALYSES AND PLAYBOOKS VALUED AROUND THE WORLD.
CEOs, CMOs, and board directors from the Fortune 100 and multinationals seek Marsha’s insights. Hedge funds, VC-infused start-ups, ad agencies, and trade associations turn to Marsha for counsel.
Global think tanks inviting Marsha’s participation include Zurich’s Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute of Economic and Social Studies and Monitor Deloitte at UC Berkeley. The concern of both? The future and fusion of marketing, data, and business models.
Marsha has taught in executive and MBA programs at universities including:
Columbia University
Communication University of China
University of Wisconsin — Madison, where she also served as an adjunct professor in the MBA program, developing and teaching the semester-long MBA course on brand strategy and management
Business Investor’s Daily, NPR, and The New York Times have interviewed Marsha.
In 2018, the 4As engaged her to do a global study on the future of commerce, culture, and consumption. It resulted in The Growth Playbook for the Quantum Age of Marketing: How to transform companies, brands and careers. It was published in 2019 for exclusive use by 4A members.
THERE’S A REASON PEOPLE CALL MARSHA A THOUGHT LEADER.
In a way others can’t or won’t, Marsha alerts businesses to issues and opportunities relevant to their future viability and competitive strategy.
Her insights can be found on this website’s blog. Examples include “AI for strategic advantage” and “Pricing Lessons from Warren Buffett” which can be found here and here.
Marsha’s white papers include:
“How to Drive Short-Term Results While Building Long-Term Equity”
“The New Consumer Psychology Required to Engage and Persuade in Today’s Digital, Social, Mobile World”
“The Entrepreneur’s Marketing Playbook”
“How to Make Smarter Business Decisions Faster with the Right Data and Analytics”
“Disruptive Innovation: How to Find, Launch, and Scale it for your Brand’s Advantage”
“Habit: How to break, create and leverage it for your brand’s advantage”
Her published articles include:
Directors & Boards: “How a Director Transition Can Strengthen the Board”
Chief Executive : “9 Ways Smart Leaders Never Waste a Crisis”
CEO World: “How Any Leader Can Avoid Becoming a Frog”
Becker’s Healthcare CFO: “4 Ways to Mitigate Risk, Accelerate Efficiencies; Drive Additional Revenue”
Becker’s Hospital Review: “Play to Win: 8 Strategies”
Adobe’s CMO.com: “Stop Using These Marketing Strategies Now or Your Brand Will Suffer”
Forbes: “10 Reasons Marketers and the C-Suite Must Become ‘Habit Experts’”
MARSHA’S COUNSEL IS DEEPLY INFORMED BY REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE.
She’s been a serial entrepreneur, award-winning CEO, and served with distinction on several fiduciary boards.
The first firm Marsha founded was right out of grad school. Its focus was marketing and advertising. It came to be known as Lindsay Stone & Briggs. As CEO, Marsha led the firm in pioneering a new-to-the-category business model. And the pioneering of effective new processes for brand strategy development, new product development, the launch and scaling of innovations. Clients included: P&G, Kimberly Clark, S.C. Johnson, Kraft, PepsiCo, Miller Coors, GE Healthcare, Delta Dental, and The Green Bay Packers. In 2014, Ad Age honored the firm as a “Small Agency of the Year.” Marsha sold the firm to her executive team in 2016.
Marsha’s second major business initiative was Brandworks University™. Referred to as “the TED of Marketing,” it was a three-day annual MBA-level conference that, for 25 years ,attracted 400 executives from around the world. Each year’s curriculum was based on a study of Marsha’s concerning the pressing issues and opportunities for accelerating growth and competitive advantage.
Marsha’s third venture is the one she leads today: Lindsay Foresight & Stratagem. Combined with her years as a CEO, successful entrepreneur, and board director, she brings to this company a rare ability to spot issues and opportunities early, helping her clients move quickly to manage risk and protect stakeholders.
Marsha’s board experience has spanned advisory and fiduciary roles across a national insurance carrier, a venture capital firm, a hedge fund, multigenerational family-owned businesses, and national nonprofits.
Read more about Marsha’s business and board experience on LinkedIn.
“OUR AUDIENCE WAS SPELLBOUND.”
Marsha does what all great presenters do —open the eyes of audience members and engage them emotionally. It’s a skill she’s honed from delivering more than 400 speeches and 100 workshops.
Business leaders in more than 51 countries have enjoyed her in-person and virtual presentations. Standing ovations for her speeches and workshops are common. Many organizations engage her repeatedly. Those featuring her as a speaker include:
The World Business Forum in New York City
National Association of Corporate Directors, Washington, D.C.
Advertising Research Foundation
Becker’s Healthcare
The Conference Board
Institute of Practitioners of Advertising in London and New York City.
Indie Summits of thenetworkone in London and Beijing.
Annual conferences of MediaPost, The 4As, 20th Century Fox, and many more.
More on Marsha’s speeches and workshops here. Testimonials here.
HONORS & IMPACT
Business communities around the world have recognized Marsha’s contributions:
One of Nine Women Making a Difference in the World, the honor bestowed by the International Women’s Forum.
Distinguished Fellow, E-Commerce Institute, University of Wisconsin—Madison’s Engineering School.
Named by three governors to serve on five different study committees that analyzed and advised the government on issues such as Privacy, Economic Development, and 21st-century jobs.
Visionary Community Leader - recognition bestowed by Madison Magazine.
Wisconsin’s Advertising Hall of Fame. (The only woman ever inducted.)
Distinguished Alumna, University of Wisconsin—Madison and University of Wisconsin—Stevens Point.
EXPERIENCE MARSHA LIVE AND ON CAMERA
Virtual presentation on Integrative Thinking
Interview on LeaderBoard Podcast
“The transformative methods of Lindsay Foresight & Stratagem helped us hone our vision while becoming more efficient and effective in the strat planning process.”
