Wadi Bardawil

Fractional - CSTO - Chief Strategy and Technology Oifficer for +10 USM in Revenue and Portfolio Companies

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

@gedamtekle Digital

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

@gedamtekle @LibraryPath Digital

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

If you can't point to one of your top 3 goals, it's probably not worth doing.
"Better efficiency" isn't good enough.
"Saves 20 hours/week worth $52K annually" is.

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

How to Align Technology Investments With Business Objectives
Before approving any tech spending:

Which business objective does this serve?
What's the expected impact in dollars or percentage?
How will we measure success?

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

Old thinking: "IT is a cost center"
New thinking: "Technology investments drive revenue growth"
The shift: Ask "How can technology help us grow?" instead of "What's IT costing us?"

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

Technology as a Strategic Enabler
Stop treating IT like the help desk.
Old thinking: "IT maintains our systems"
New thinking: "Technology enables us to serve customers faster than competitors"

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

"We need AI" isn't a strategy. What problem are you solving?
Ignoring Team Capacity
Your people aren't machines. Change needs space to work.

Fix: Ask what metric improves, what's the simplest solution, and does your team have capacity.

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

Common Strategic Blindspots in Growing Companies
3 expensive blindspots in $10M-$50M companies:

Confusing Activity with Progress
Busy ≠ Strategic. Are revenue, margins, retention improving?
Technology First, Problem Second

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

Success Metrics - how will we know it worked?

This kills vanity projects and connects every dollar to business value.

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

The Strategic Alignment Framework
Every initiative must pass 5 filters:

Business Outcome First - what metric improves?
Current State Assessment - where are we actually starting?
Gap Analysis - what's blocking us?
Solution Design - what's the minimum viable approach?

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

3 questions to find YOUR quick wins:

What manual work do your highest-paid people do?
What customer friction causes most support tickets?
What bottleneck does your team constantly complain about?

Strategic opportunities aren't hiding. They're buried under assumptions.

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

How to Identify Your Highest-Impact Strategic Opportunities
Stop analysis paralysis.
The Impact vs. Complexity Matrix:

High Impact + Low Complexity = Quick Wins
Start with what you can finish in 90 days

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

Most $10M-$50M companies need strategic thinking but can't afford a full-time CSIO.
That's what fractional leadership solves.

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

3 Questions Every $10M+ Business Owner Should Ask
Before your next strategic initiative, ask:

Does this align with business performance goals, or just our IT wishlist?
Can we measure ROI in terms our CFO understands?
Do we have organizational capacity to absorb this change?

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

Mid-market companies lose 20-30% of productive capacity to strategic misalignment.

That's millions bleeding out while everyone points in different directions.

Marketing runs left. Sales runs right. Product runs in circles.

Alignment isn't a soft skill. It's your P&L.

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

El burnout no es un badge of honor.

Es tu cuerpo gritando "BASTA" después de que ignoraste todos los mensajes anteriores.

Si te sientes vacío haciendo lo que antes te apasionaba, DESCANSA 🧵👇

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

Most high-performers are missing half the equation for excellence.
It’s not: Stress = Growth
It’s: Stress + Rest = Growth
Here’s what research from “Peak Performance” reveals about sustainable excellence:

[Wadi Bardawil @wbardawil]

@paulg Do you just ask for permission to play and invest rather than fix the negotiation on a %?