Trisector Strategy and Innovation for
Transformation (Problem Setting)

Dr Charles Phua Chao Rong

Dr Charles Chao Rong Phua is an academic-practitioner of trisector strategy-innovation-entrepreneurship. With 22 years in government and corporate doing various domains (corporate, geopolitical, policy and military) and phases (design, implementation, monitoring/adjustment) of strategy work, he now runs Solaris Strategies Singapore and chairs Solaris Consortium of Management Consultancies with full suite of consulting capabilities. Besides (local and overseas) government and nonprofit consulting, his corporate consulting ranged from strategy development for then $916b tech MNC to $1M start-up to sector/industry transformation to organisational development for 12 organisations. He teaches trisector strategy practicums in 4 Singapore and 1 Swiss universities, and is success coach/program leader for Chief Strategy Officer program with Emeritus and National University of Singapore Business School.

His first PhD was in public policy (strategic pragmatism as strategy) and EdD (soon) on teaching strategy with postgraduate/degrees (including in progress) in international relations, education, security management, accounting, organisational psychology, systems thinking, law, HRM, marketing, economics/finance, strategy and innovation, amongst others. He learnt strategy-innovation-entrepreneurship, marketing and sustainability from top B schools: Harvard strategy, leadership and management, entrepreneurship and innovation, MIT systems thinking, Stanford design, Wharton strategy and entrepreneurship, INSEAD advanced strategy, Babson entrepreneurship, Kellogg marketing, Berkeley open innovation, LBS and Cambridge sustainability, Oxford strategy and scenarios, and fused them in his consulting and teaching/coaching practice. He has won scholarships from NUS (PhD), NTU (EdD), Goldman Sachs (twice), Oxford and Cambridge (partial) and completed fellowships at Brookings Institution, Columbia, Johns Hopkins. He is a Singapore Skillsfuture fellowship awardee and Routledge series editor for strategy, wisdom and skills.

He is amongst 100 global professor/author grade Certified Management Consultant-Academic Fellow (International Council of Management Consulting Institutes); previous winners included heads of business schools and programs. He is author of four and two (forthcoming) books covering geopolitical, policy, and corporate strategy. His 3rd and 4th published books are under consideration for two PhDs in military/security and corporate strategy, by publication. His 5th book seeks to integrate strategy in military, corporate, geopolitical and policy domains; his 6th book on teaching strategy from his EdD thesis; both manuscripts under production. He is currently writing his 7th book on corporate sustainability strategy and 8th book on trisector strategy-innovation-entrepreneurship.