Shaping Retail’s Future: Strategy-Led Transformation in Real Estate

The Client

Our client is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on suburban retail centers. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, they partner with national and regional retail brands to secure and develop thriving spaces in high-growth suburban markets. But their value doesn’t stop at site selection—they stay involved post-deal to help ensure long-term success for their tenants.

Their philosophy is rooted in more than just real estate economics—they bring agility, resilience, and a relentless optimism for what’s next to every partnership. With a mission to drive meaningful traffic and performance, they stand as strategic allies to brands navigating the evolving retail landscape.

The Challenge

As part of an ongoing transformation effort, the company needed a seasoned strategy consultant to report directly to the Chief Transformation Officer. The mandate included both strategic and executional components:

• Business Case Development: Build high-level, executive-ready business cases for a wide range of initiatives across the organization, and coach internal stakeholders on how to do the same without overcomplicating financial modeling.
• Project Oversight: Track and manage over 50 active transformation initiatives, surfacing risks, removing roadblocks, and ensuring organizational accountability to timelines.

This hybrid role required a unique combination of structured thinking, emotional intelligence, and the ability to lead through influence in a highly cross-functional environment. Travel to headquarters in Ohio was expected twice per month.

Our Approach

Given the dual focus on strategic planning and operational execution, we targeted consultants with 4–6 years of experience at top-tier strategy firms (MBB and Tier 1). The ideal candidate needed to blend strong business case development skills with a track record in project management—especially in transformation or PMO-style roles.

We emphasized:

• Strong financial and strategic reasoning—particularly in estimating value without exhaustive analysis
• Comfort operating in matrixed or ambiguous environments
• High emotional intelligence and strong interpersonal presence
• Real estate sector exposure and/or understanding of real estate economics as a plus

The Placement

We placed a seasoned strategy advisor with both domestic and international experience across a wide range of industries including real estate, retail, technology, and financial services. He brought a versatile background in management consulting, business development, transformation leadership, and project management.

His profile included:

• Leadership in post-merger integration and strategic transformation initiatives
• PMO and business case development experience across global markets
• A track record of aligning cross-functional teams and driving executive-level reporting
• Deep exposure to real estate economics, client-facing advisory, and business process optimization

The candidate quickly earned trust across leadership, providing structure and momentum to the company’s transformation program while enabling broader capability-building across teams.

The Outcome

The consultant successfully built a repeatable business case framework and trained internal teams to use it effectively—speeding up strategic decision-making while ensuring financial discipline. He also brought order and visibility to over 50 strategic initiatives, facilitating cross-functional communication and surfacing risks early.

His work empowered the Chief Transformation Officer with the tools and oversight needed to drive results and enabled the company to accelerate its transformation agenda with confidence and precision.