This evening is the second in a series of dinners for CEO's, C-Level executives and Heads of Strategy. Each will have a guest to introduce a topic of conversation. Good convesation. a relaxed atmosphere, an interesting venue, a good quality meal and the chance to network with peers is what we offer.

This evening's venue will be the RSA. The Royal Society of Arts has been the home of enlightened thinking since 1774. It is housed in a 240 year old central London townhouse that was purpose built for it in 1774 by the celebrated Scottish architects Robert and James Adam. Twenty years after its foundation in a Covent Garden coffeehouse, the RSA had been given a home that matched the scale and ambition of its goal – to promote social progress by harnessing the power of great ideas. It soon became a world-renowned centre for Enlightenment thinking. A rather apt venue don't you think?

The guest for this evening's dinner will be Kim Warren, a Teaching Fellow at London Business School, Originator of the Strategy Dynamics Approach, and a strategy practitioner with considerable experience. In conversation Kim will talk about the evolution of the relationship between strategy and finance professions, and the urgent need for a reconciliation between the two. The following is a taste of what will be discussed on the night.

Three years after the chaos of the economic crash, financial institutions have reverted to type - neither national governments nor international institutions can evidently intervene.  So … a new order needs to be built from the ground up, rather from the old, failed financial and economic models.  And surely strategy must have a part to play, notwithstanding its present peripheral status?

But the old amicable marriage between strategy and finance failed, with neither partner understanding the other.  Pressured by markets and institutional investors, finance long ago left strategy and went its own way.  Now, for the sake of the children (that is, for all of us!), strategy and finance must find new ways to work together again.

The problem with finance.  On its own, finance always risks failure. Crude ratio-management and complex mathematical models override concerns for business realities. The resulting ‘strategy myopia’ encourages irresponsible aims and behaviour that destroys value – the very opposite of what finance thinks and claims that it is offering.

This strategy myopia caused the two great crashes of the last decade – the dot-com bust and the banking collapse. Strategically flawed financial engineering and financial greed caused spectacular failures at Global Crossing, Northern Rock, Lehman Bros, Enron and others. But most companies now suffer the same myopia, though with less catastrophic consequences.

The problem with strategy. Strategy is the partner in this marriage that stopped contributing to the failed relationship. Strategy once led and supported finance with powerful ideas in economics, market analysis and competition; then became increasingly mired in abstract behavioural concepts that have no clear links to performance. Finance was left to flirt with seductive, quick-fix solutions such as value-based management and balanced scorecards that suffer chronic theoretical weaknesses and implementation problems.

A possible approach.  The world badly needs a reconciliation between strategy and finance. Strategy must take the initiative and step up to the mark by offering what finance needs - practical tools to support the creation of sustained financial value.

Too often strategy has promised ‘breakthrough concepts’ that have failed to deliver. This seminar will instead describe a synthesis of existing, proven methods – rock-solid models of strategy and performance, established valuation principles, and balanced performance measurement. The method will be demonstrated with worked small examples and a real case in pharmaceuticals that yields significant strategic insights.