Gary Ralston

Partner, Ralston Consulting Inc.

Email: gary@ralstonconsulting.com
Website: http://www.ralstonconsulting.com

Biographical Info: My wife, Ann, and I co-founded Ralston Consulting Inc. in 1997, dedicated to creating dramatic, sustainable results with our client organizations through shifts in underlying structure.

We are of most impact with boards and senior leaders, as partners in deep thought and action, co-inventing sustainable and generative ways forward where convention doesn’t cut it, the past has failed the future, and the alternatives are unclear.

We’ve worked with a diverse range of clients throughout North America, from start-ups to Fortune 50 organizations, supporting them to achieve significant, and even award-winning, gains within their ventures.

Industries and sectors served include: engineering (AEC), social enterprise and NGOs, clean energy, software development, media and branding, education, real estate, global food and beverage, associations and non-profits, broadcasting, cable and telecom, research institutes, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and wellness, airlines, aboriginal economic development and more.

With such diversity, we’ve become adept at synthesis, bridging domains and cross-pollinating ideas and practices, to the benefit of our clients. What the majority of our clients have in common, though, is that we find them in an oscillating structure, and we help them move to an advancing one.

In our strategic foresight and scenario planning we’re constantly learning alongside our colleagues and clients. Nicole Boyer, of Adaptive Edge, who learned her unique craft with the greats of scenario-planning at GBN, is a frequent collaborator. Most recently, we have worked on scenario engagements for both the Canadian Real Estate Association and the National Association of REALTORS®.

Since 1990, I have studied and collaborated with Robert and Rosalind Fritz, learning about Structural Dynamics, and developing the related crafts of Structural Consulting and the creative process. (In Peter Senge’s seminal book, The Fifth Discipline, elements of Fritz’s work form one of the core disciplines – Personal Mastery). I’m one of a very few structural consultants certified in both business and personal practice.

Personally, I have a passion for all things aviation and aerospace, a fondness for a wide variety of aquatic sports, and a weakness for products created by Apple. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, I live in Columbus, Ohio with Ann, and our wonder-lab, Bogart.

But all that is behind me. I am here to learn.

Keywords: Business Strategy, Business Models, Lean Start-Up and Customer Development, Scenario Planning and Strategic Foresight, Organization Design, Executive Coaching, Partnership Mediation