Jan 26 / Natalie Savery

What a Trip to an Island Can Teach Us About Strategy

It’s 6pm in a cottage on a beautiful island off the coast of Cornwall.

Outside, the wind is howling — rattling the windows and bending the trees into submission. Sand is whipping up from the beach, coating the path outside our door. Inside, we’re sitting in relative darkness, the room lit only by the glow of a log fire and a handful of candles. The lights have gone out, and it’s unlikely the electricity will return until the storm has passed.

And yet, none of this feels unsettling. We feel calm. Able to get on with our evening. Safe.

Earlier that day, members of the senior team we’d been working with had let us know that Storm Goretti was on its way. Living and working on an island means keeping a close eye on what’s coming. They were horizon scanning — quite literally — watching conditions shift, drawing on experience of previous storms, and anticipating what might happen next.

People were sent home early. We were advised to light the fire, gather some candles, and be ready. Not with alarm — but with calm, practical reassurance.

And as we sat there that evening, it struck us: this is what strategy looks like when it’s alive and functioning.

  When plans meet reality

In leadership, strategy is often treated as something static — a plan, a document, a set of intentions agreed at a point in time. But real life rarely unfolds that neatly. Conditions change. Complexity intrudes. The environment shifts — sometimes gradually, sometimes overnight.  This is where the distinction between intended (or deliberate) strategy and realised strategy becomes so important.

Having an intended strategy matters. It gives direction and focus. But the work of Henry Mintzberg reminds us that strategy is not only what leaders intend to do — it is also what emerges as people respond to reality. Realised strategy is shaped by learning, adaptation, and the decisions made when plans meet the world as it actually is.

a picture of a head jigsaw with a piece missing

The lighthouse and the route

One way we often talk about strategy is through the image of a lighthouse.

Think of your vision - this might be your organisational vision or an individual one – what you want to achieve.

Your vision is a lighthouse, guiding you to where you want to be. It’s fixed. Visible. Purposeful.

Your strategy is how you intend to get there. The route you take and the mode of transport you decide is best to get to where you need to be.

You might plan to travel by boat — steady progress, familiar waters. Then the weather changes. The sea becomes unsafe. Suddenly, the only sensible option is to take to land. When you travel by car then you might reach a diversion, or fork in the road where both paths might lead to the lighthouse via a different scenic route.

Whatever happens, the destination hasn’t changed. The lighthouse hasn’t moved. But the path — and even the mode of travel — has to adapt.

Strong strategy doesn’t insist on one route. It holds direction firmly while allowing flexibility in how that direction is reached.

picture of pens and paper on a table

Back to the Island

The power went out sometime before 6pm on Thursday evening. It didn't return until just before 8am on Friday Morning.

Overnight, Storm Goretti battered the island and surrounding areas. Travel was disrupted. Systems failed. There was damage to buildings, landscape and equipment. By morning, one of the shop freezers hadn’t survived the outage, leaving food with nowhere to store it and at risk of being wasted. So, someone arranged to cook it, and encouraged staff to enjoy a hot breakfast as they all worked together to get everything back to normal.

 There was no drama. No blame. Just clear prioritisation, practical problem-solving, and people pulling together to do what needed doing.  

As we watched all this going on, few things stood out powerfully:
  • A clear overarching mission: delivering an exceptional guest experience while taking great care of staff
  • Values that genuinely guide decisions under pressure 
  • Strong prioritisation — people know what matters most in the moment
  • A culture of looking after one another


Everyone we encountered checked that we were safe and comfortable after the storm. At the same time, people were busy restoring roads, buildings, and equipment — quietly getting things back to normal.

It was a powerful reminder that when strategy is lived — not laminated — it creates resilience, connection, and trust.

What we have learned from our Tresco Partners

We’ve been working with Tresco since January 2025, and one of the unexpected outcomes has been how much it has shaped us.

Spending time with a team who live with uncertainty as part of everyday life has quietly increased our own capacity to roll with the punches. We now find ourselves expecting disruption at some point — and planning for it as a matter of course.

So we packed spare clothes. We checked where we might stay if travel was disrupted. As storm updates came through across the week, we felt fine about it. Prepared. Ready to adapt. When we couldn’t get home on the train, it didn’t phase us. There was no frustration or panic — just a quick sense-check, a new plan, and a calm decision to stay overnight and catch an early train home.

No stress. No drama. Just adjustment.

It felt like a small but meaningful moment of realised strategy — learning absorbed through experience rather than instruction. Being around people who are comfortable with uncertainty, who trust themselves and one another to respond well, builds that same capability in you.

We may not be islanders — but we are certainly getting better at riding the waves of uncertainty.