The Art of Strategic Patience: Why the Best Advisory Programs Can't Be Rushed

In our recent interview with Andrew Fitzgerald about Kyndryl's Customer Strategy Board, he revisited a challenge they faced during launch:

"We had a target date that we chose to delay because we wanted the right people," he said. "We were prepared to wait for them. It was the right thing to do." 

This decision—which would give many marketing executives heartburn—made me reflect on our client interviews over the past few years. Across conversations with executives from T-Systems, ZS Associates, Thomson Reuters, and now Kyndryl, the most transformational advisory programs share something that runs counter to typical business urgency: strategic patience. 

(It’s why we explicitly name both “Momentum & Action”, as well as “Adaptability,” as key characteristics of the most powerful customer advisory boards. These boards are meant to sustain over a longer term, and take specific cultivation and, yes, patience, to survive and continue to deliver.) 

The discipline of quality over speed 

Andrew's decision wasn't procrastination—it was strategic discipline. The makeup of the board determines everything that follows. Compromise on quality at the beginning, and you'll be managing those compromises forever. 

The valuable contributors—the executive peers who can truly elevate your business—are exceptionally careful about where they invest their time. They don't join advisory boards; they choose partnerships. And partnerships take time to develop. 

At T-Systems, Katharyn White discovered that her advisory network became more valuable as it evolved. "As we moved forward, we would test strategic elements, the clients' understanding, the relevance; refine that, go back, and show them adaptations and get further refinements." This iterative process can't be rushed. 

It takes time to mature.

Real strategic guidance comes from customers who trust you enough to share uncomfortable truths. Andrew Fitzgerald describes the difference, "We all run customer satisfaction surveys and NPS and so on. They are a little less personal. When you can say, 'A room full of our most important customers looked me in the eye and told me this,' it carries a different weight." 

This kind of direct, honest feedback doesn't always happen in first meetings. It emerges after customers have seen you act on their previous advice, after they've watched you struggle with implementation challenges, after they've developed enough trust to tell you difficult truths. 

Andrew captures this perfectly, "It takes time to mature. The members know us better and can give better feedback, and we get better at framing conversations." 

Strategic patience pays compounding returns.

ZS Associates' experience illustrates why strategic patience pays compounding returns. What started as relationship building with board members has "extended relationships" to their teams and other executives. This organic expansion—almost impossible to force or accelerate—becomes more valuable than the original advisory insights. 

As our client explained, "Always on my mind as a marketer—are there engagements that we're winning or projects we're launching that were influenced by this council? How's this going to impact business with any specific client over the years? I suspect the positive impact will continue." 

Notice the language: "over the years" and "positive impact will continue." This is strategic patience in action—investing in outcomes that compound over time. 

Patience sees value in many measures.

The biggest challenge isn't always (or only) convincing customers to invest time—it's maintaining internal conviction when results aren't immediately visible. Andrew Fitzgerald addresses this reality, noting that the most valuable outcomes from advisory programs often resist easy or traditional measurement approaches. 

The executives who succeed learn to measure multiple, different things in addition to revenue or account growth. As Andrew notes, when customers tell you "it's worth their time" and when your top executives regularly integrate board feedback “to provide legitimacy for changes [they] need to drive,” that signals genuine value creation on both sides.  

Are customers returning to the board eagerly? Are they engaging more deeply over time?  

Are your top leaders liberally quoting the board’s feedback in their work, be it at kickoffs, sales enablement events, or other internal rallying points? 

These leading indicators—board member retention, engagement depth by both your own organizational leaders and the members, board feedback becoming organizational currency—may predict long-term success better than quarterly revenue attribution alone. 

Patience builds competitive advantage.  

While impatient competitors cycle through quick-fix approaches to customer engagement, companies practicing strategic patience build assets that become nearly impossible to replicate. When customers have invested months helping shape your strategy, when they've developed personal relationships with your executives, they may be less likely to leave for marginal price differences. 

Strategic patience isn't passive waiting—it's active, disciplined investment in outcomes that matter most. It requires resisting the urge to over-program, accepting uneven progress, and building internal conviction for long-term value. 

For those willing to practice strategic patience, the results speak for themselves.

As Andrew Fitzgerald puts it, "Customers tell us it's worth their time. At the end of the day, it has to be valuable for us, but it has to be worth the customers' time, too." 

Kathryn White understands why patient, systematic approaches create lasting advantages. She describes our approach at Farland as a "systems approach" versus a one-off event: "It's that continuous process that I think is missing in some [advisory board] models, particularly those that organizations do on their own." While competitors chase quick wins, companies practicing strategic patience build systematic advantages that compound over time. 

That balance—when customers genuinely want to invest in your success—can't be rushed. But it can't be replicated by impatient competitors, either.