FAQs

1. What does Frontier Strategy Group (FSG) do?
2. What are FSG Councils and how do they work?
3. Why do executives from leading organizations join the Councils?
4. How do members use the Councils?
5. What value is there in sharing knowledge across industries?
6. Does membership require a substantial time investment?
7. How is FSG different from consulting firms and other advisory services?
8. We have internal strategy department that deals with the issues you cover, why would we join?
9. How do you protect member confidentiality and am I required to share information with you?
10. Who would be my “point of contact” for the Councils?
11. Whom do you work with at member organizations?

1. What does Frontier Strategy Group (FSG) do?

Frontier Strategy Group (FSG) is a provider of membership based Councils supporting senior executives in emerging markets. Our exclusive Councils enable executives bearing similar corporate responsibilities to share insights and experiences with their peers in order to address their most pressing challenges. Members of the Councils harness the collective knowledge of the membership through exclusive peer cohorts, short-answer best practice research, and private events, enabling them to elevate their performance on key strategic and tactical priorities.

2. What are FSG Councils and how do they work?

FSG Councils are comprised of senior executives with similar corporate responsibilities who share common challenges and issues. Members of the Councils can tap into the collective knowledge of the membership on a range of strategic and tactical priorities through private phone consultations, exclusive peer cohorts where small groups of members collaborate around a set agenda, and short-answer best practice research and private events. A dedicated Program Director acts as the primary contact for each member and is committed to ensuring that each member gains the maximum value from their participation in the Council. Members proactively receive best practice briefs on topics of interest to them and are able to initiate specific research or consultation requests through their Program Director.

3. Why do executives from leading organizations join the Councils?

Whether a company is new to a market or has been operating there for years, today success in emerging markets requires executives to elevate their performance to new levels. The first-mover strategy and success metrics of the last decade will no longer cut it given today’s realities of new local and global competitors, volatile regulatory environments, cost inflation, and a scarcity of local talent. Our membership-based Councils help senior executives and their organizations raise the bar on strategy and execution by enabling them to learn from the proven experiences and best practices of their peers who are getting it right in the face of these new challenges.

4. How do members use the Councils?

Members leverage the power of the Councils for a variety of tactical and strategic priorities in a number ways:

Short Answer/Best Practices: A member considering an investment in Eastern Europe wanted a fact and experience-based analysis of investment options and viable business models for the region. The member initiated a short-answer research project to identify best practices business models in the region. Our staff spoke to 6 companies across the region and identified three viable joint venture models for the member.

Peer Cohorts: A group of members formed a peer cohort around the common challenge of maintaining compliance and ethical standards in a global workforce. Through the cohort, members shared insights and best practices for instituting and monitoring a variety of compliance policies.

Anonymous member polling: A member facing dramatically rising wage costs and employee retention challenges wanted to know if their experiences were in-line with the broader market and requested an anonymous member poll. The member found out they were paying nearly 10% more for middle management than similar member companies and 15% below market for their senior most staff. In addition, the member found out that they need to create non-monetary incentives to align their compensation structure with the market.

5. Does membership require a substantial time investment?

Absolutely not. Our goal is not only to save you money, but also time. We do this in four ways. First, we focus your time on the correct set of strategic issues by serving as an “early warning system” for new trends and challenges in emerging markets through issues briefs, podcasts, and webinars. Second, we help you avoid reinventing the wheel by drastically reducing the amount of time you spend looking for answers to questions and challenges that have already been addressed and successfully solved by your peers. Third, we present all best practices and insights in a highly structured, succinct, and graphical format making it easy to use the Councils information to improve your performance. Fourth, we provide implementation support to help you integrate best practices into your organization.  

6. What value is there in sharing knowledge across industries?

Our experience in serving the world’s largest multinational companies in emerging markets is that executives across industries face many of the same challenges -talent retention, host government relations, corruption, and identifying sustainable business models -- and can benefit greatly from best practices that have been developed in other industries. Because industry maturity and experience vary significantly by region and country, there is a high probability that a peer in one sector has solved a problem being tackled by an executive in another industry. By identifying best practices outside of their industries executives can greatly expand their knowledge and get a leg up on the competition.

7. How is FSG different from consulting firms and other advisory services?

There are several ways in which our approach differs from consultancies and other advisory services:

Experience-Based Insight and Learning from Peers -- Unlike the opinions of management consultancies, market research firms, and other advisory services, we offer senior executives fact and experience-based insights from the one source that matters – their peers. Our members are able to harness the learning and best practices of peer executives who have overcome similar challenges - and have gotten it right. Un-metered Service -- Our members receive unmetered service throughout the year and can continuously tap into the insights and knowledge of the membership on a range of strategic and tactical priorities without worrying about incurring additional costs. Emerging Markets Expertise and Thought Leadership -- Our deep expertise and thought leadership in emerging markets stems from past engagements, our eminent Advisory Board, and our on-the-ground relationships in new markets. This enables us to ask the right questions and identify leading best practice organizations before the broader market.

Un-metered Service -- Our members receive unmetered service throughout the year and can continuously tap into the insights and knowledge of the membership on a range of strategic and tactical priorities without worrying about incurring additional costs.

Emerging Markets Expertise and Thought Leadership -- Our deep expertise and thought leadership in emerging markets stems from past engagements, our eminent Advisory Board, and our on-the-ground relationships in new markets. This enables us to ask the right questions and identify leading best practice organizations before the broader market.

Cost Effectiveness -- Because we are able to harness the collective insight and experience of our members, we provide our clients with high-quality, experience-based insights at the level of management consultancies but at a fraction of the cost. This enables our members to drastically reduce their spending on consulting engagements and other advisory services

8. We have an internal strategy department that deals with the issues you cover in your research, why would we join?

Membership in FSG’s programs overcomes one of the toughest issues in corporate culture, challenging internal assumptions and providing unbiased insights, FSG enhances the work of your strategic planning department by doing just that, while also providing best practices across industries and geographies. Membership also provides access to structured networking with your peers and to the insights and experience of our research team and advisory board. Most members of our programs have large strategic planning departments but find that working with FSG complements and often extends their internal efforts.

9. How do you protect member confidentiality and are members are required to share information with you?

Simply put, confidentiality is at the core of what we do. Our mission is to provide a forum where executives can share information anonymously without risking exposure of corporate strategy and internal concerns. To ensure that this happens, all information shared among members is shared anonymously unless a member provides explicit permission to use his/her organization’s name in our research. This applies both to our major research efforts, as well as to specific work we do on behalf of members’ as part of their bespoke consulting hours.  

Moreover, members can opt out of any questionnaire or research effort if they believe that the information involved is too strategic to share. These precautions have proven themselves successful in ensuring confidentiality for our members.

10. Who would be my "point of contact" for the Councils?

Each member is assigned a dedicated Program Director who is responsible for ensuring that your membership yields value to your organization throughout the year. The Program Director conducts your initial orientation to the Council, coordinates your strategy session, liaises between you and others in the Council with whom you may wish to contact and is available any time to assist with requests.

11. Whom do you work with at member organizations?

We work with the senior most executive responsible for a particular function, division, or region, with each Council being composed of peer executives. For certain issues, executives have the option of assigning delegates.