ABOUT US

Dr. William Putsis

Dr. William P. Putsis (Bill) is Professor of Marketing, Economic and Business Strategy at the Kenan-­‐Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to his current position, he was Professor and Department Area Chair at the London Business School (1997-­‐2003), Associate Professor at the Yale School of Management, Yale University (1990-­‐1997) and Assistant Professor, Cornell University (1988-­‐1990). He is also President and CEO of Chestnut Hill Associates, a strategic consulting firm that he founded in 1995. 

He has published two books. The first, Compete Smarter, Not Harder: A Process for Developing the Right Priorities Through Strategic Thinking (Wiley, 2014), presents a detailed process, well tested in industry for over 25 years, that focuses on growth through prioritization. Companies using this process successfully in practice are as diverse and varied as The Boeing Company, Owens Corning and Underwriter’s Laboratory. His most recent book, The Carrot and the Stick: Leveraging Strategic Control for Growth (University of Toronto Press, 2020), focuses on the two keys to strategy in today’s business interconnected ecosystems: “Strategic Control” and “Vertical Incentive Alignment.”

His research and academic pursuits focus on the empirical application of game theoretic models of competition, competitive strategy, new product diffusion and product line strategy. He has over 30 scholarly articles published in leading peer-reviewed academic journals.

Dr. Putsis has his MS and PhD in Economics from Cornell University.

Mr. Philip J. Burns

Mr. Philip J. Burns (Phil) is currently President and CEO of Burns Partners, Inc., a management consulting practice founded in 2003 focused on working with B2B organizations to develop and implement strategies to create customer value and grow. Between 1992 and 2003 he held positions as Principal, Consumer and Industrial Products at CSC Consulting, Director, Client Services at MCI Systemhouse, Practice Director for PWC Consulting, and Partner, Commercial Industries for Unisys.  He also served as a Senior Advisor to The Chicago Corporation from 2010-2012.  Early in his career he led major business transformation and system integration initiatives that helped organizations create and deliver value to customers.

Over the last decade, Phil has had a unique opportunity to engage over 500 organizations worldwide and facilitate discovery and value exploration between client businesses and customers, gaining deep insights and experiences into strategic customer engagement, understanding customer needs, creating customer value, and creating competitive advantages.  He has designed and led businesses through customer strategy and development programs, globally, helping businesses leaders deepen their understanding of their customers and discover new sources of creating value. 

Phil has worked with a wide range of clients in industries including industrial products and services, consumer products and services, engineering services, power & energy, financial services, technology, aerospace and defense, medical devices, and healthcare.

Mr. Burns earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1983.

A Special Note:

Mr. Burns and Dr. Putsis are co-founders of The Platform for Strategic Growth. They had the unique experience of working with the same client organization over a decade, leading complimentary customer strategy and executive development programs to help grow the company more than double its original size.  The Platform for Strategic Growth combines the proven approaches, methods, and practices with the knowledge and experiences that were essential to driving growth at this shared client organization.