Why TORVAKO
Strategy sets the direction. Results happen in everyday work.
We show where a change in strategy gets lost, what TORVAKO does differently and the data we build on.
Where companies lose value
A change in strategy often fails to reach everyday work. It gets lost between what the company has decided and what people decide and do every day.
- The market changes
- Strategy changes
- Processes and technology change
- Roles stay the same
- People decide by the old brief
45 %of middle managers could not name even one of their company’s top five priorities. The rest could name at least one.Source: Sull, Homkes and Sull, Harvard Business Review (2015).
When roles lag behind strategy, people decide according to old goals, old authority and old ideas about their work. They work well, but on what the company needed yesterday. We call this role lag.
What TORVAKO changes
Organisations set the direction. Managers create room. People deliver results.
Performance is created at three levels. A change in strategy shows in the work only when all three come together. TORVAKO develops people and sets up the conditions at all three levels at once.
What TORVAKO does differently
We link the development of managers, teams and individuals to what is expected of them and what they are allowed to decide. People can then put what they learn to use in their work quickly.
Team workshops, short online lessons between sessions, individual development, shadowing, and work directly with customers and on ride-alongs.
We track how results and people’s behaviour at work are changing. We show the outcome in numbers.
What we build on
Data, research and examples from practice.
The value of work is changing
Over fifty years, what companies create value from has changed, and so has what technology can make cheaper.
Chart 1
Intangible assets make up 92 % of the market value of the largest companies
Share of tangible and intangible assets in the market value of S&P 500 companies, in %. Intangible assets are software, data, brand, know-how and people’s capabilities.
1975 17 %
2025 92 %
10×smaller share of tangible assets than 50 years ago, from 83 % to 8 %. One square is 1 % of value.
Chart 2
Technology got cheaper. Services built on people’s work got more expensive.
Change in US consumer prices between 2000 and September 2025, in %
Technology has made many goods cheaper. Services built on people’s work have not seen the same effect. Value increasingly comes from work that cannot be fully written down as a procedure.
Neither process nor skills are enough on their own
Procedures and rules are necessary. On their own, they do not secure performance. This case shows what happened when people followed every rule and traffic came to a standstill.
Case in point
What happens when people do only what the rules say
France, March 2019
Customs officers in Calais and Dunkirk did not walk out. They started carrying out checks in full, exactly as the rules allow. It was a protest: they wanted to show what the border would look like after a no-deal Brexit, and to push for more staff and better conditions.
The procedures were followed in full. Traffic stood still in queues kilometres long.
Source: The Guardian (28 March 2019); Euronews via AFP and Reuters (12 March 2019); Getlink, Q1 2019 revenue.
The same happened in Canada in August 2021: border officers followed procedures to the letter and lorries waited up to 3 hours 45 minutes (The Canadian Press). Italian labour law has its own term for this, sciopero pignolo, a nitpicking strike. As early as 1984, the Italian Senate recorded that customs officers had paralysed border crossings by applying the rules literally.
Between the rule and the result there is something process alone cannot solve: a person’s decision in a specific situation. Smooth traffic at the border relied on the officers’ everyday judgement about what to check thoroughly and what to clear quickly.
The reverse is also true. Skills are essential. On their own, they do not create performance. Someone who can lead, negotiate or decide also needs to know what is expected of them and be allowed to decide.
Performance comes when all three meet. This is the connection TORVAKO works on.
AI will speed up this shift
The internet made information cheap.AI is making answers cheap.Decisions and accountability stay with people.
+40 %higher-quality work from BCG consultants using AI where the task was within AI’s reach. Where it was not, they had 19 percentage points fewer correct solutions than colleagues without AI. The difference came from knowing when not to trust AI.Source: Dell’Acqua et al., Harvard Business School Working Paper 24-013 (2023), experiment with 758 consultants.
Chart 3, outlook
AI will split services into two branches
TORVAKO outlook: how the price of work in services will develop. The chart shows a direction and has no numerical scale.
Gets more expensive
Decisions with impact, leading people, dealing with customers, accountability for results.
Gets cheaper
Answering queries, preparing materials, routine analysis, translation.
The difference between companies will be made in the upper branch.That is where TORVAKO works.
Follow what is changing and how organisations will work tomorrow.
We share research, observations and practical experience on strategy, decision-making, changing ways of working and future demands. The conversation happens on LinkedIn.
Frequently asked questions
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Not sure where to start?
Write to us or book a short introductory call. Together we will define what you need to change and where it makes sense to start.
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We start where the biggest obstacle lies between what you want to achieve and how work actually happens. It may be in what is expected of people, in the support they get from managers or in what they need to be able to do. Together we decide where change will have the greatest impact.
Yes. A specific team or part of the organisation lets us understand the situation quickly, test the solution in practice and evaluate its benefit. Based on the results, you decide whether and where to continue.
No. We start with what you need to achieve and what has to change. We use the diagnostic where we need a more precise picture of the current state, to uncover obstacles and to choose the right next step.
We compare strategic demands with how the organisation actually works. We ask people whether they know what is expected of them, what support they get, what they can do, how much time they have and how they work together across the organisation. The result is a clearer picture of where change loses speed or effectiveness.
It measures how quickly and how well changing demands reach everyday work. Across nine areas we measure Effectiveness, meaning how well the conditions support people in their work, and Commitment, meaning how willingly people carry change. We add the expected development of demands over the next two years and role lag: how long it takes for a change in strategy to show in work.
The time and the gap between a change in strategy and the moment roles change with it: what is expected of people, what they decide, who they work with and what they can do. The diagnostic measures it with two questions and by comparing today’s readiness with the demands of the next two years.
We do not assess people or their personalities. We measure the conditions the organisation creates and how quickly change reaches work within them. The result shows what will help people, not who performs well or badly.
Yes. Besides today’s state, for each area we ask how demands will change over the next two years. We ask what your environment will require, not what you would like. This shows where today’s readiness may not be enough.
The next step depends on where the gap between required and current functioning lies. It may be clearer roles, better support from leadership, collaboration across the organisation or targeted development of people.
When new or future demands require different capabilities, decisions or ways of working. We focus development on the specific situations and capabilities people need in their everyday work.
The scope depends on the situation you are dealing with and the result you want. We can start with a specific part of the organisation and continue based on the findings. The collaboration follows five steps: direction, reality, change, delivery and impact. Scope, time and people’s involvement are agreed in advance.
Depending on the brief, you get a picture of the current state and future demands, the main obstacles and change priorities, specific recommendations for roles, leadership and people development, and indicators for tracking change and its impact.
We track how change reaches decisions, ways of working, collaboration and selected results. Depending on the brief, this may include decision speed, the number of escalations, overload, productivity, quality of collaboration or specific operational and commercial indicators.
Decisions and the removal of obstacles change first, which is visible within weeks. Clearer roles, collaboration and new capabilities show within months. What we track and when we evaluate it is agreed in advance.
Start with an introductory call
In 30 minutes we will define together what is stopping your people from achieving results today, how demands on your organisation are changing and where it makes sense to start.
Book a meeting- 30 minutes
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