Olivia Cefai — innovation strategy consultant and creative director, helping clarify and elevate complex or confidential projects.
For the past 20 years, I have worked alongside R&D teams and senior executives in high-stakes environments, where technical excellence must be matched by clear, credible positioning.
Primary engagement model: fractional strategic advisory — a part-time leadership role without the need to hire, typically 1 to 2 days a week over several months.
Contact« I combine two disciplines that are usually kept separate: strategic advisory and creative direction. This means guiding, overseeing and, when needed, executing myself. » — Olivia
Product direction still taking shape. Key structural decisions must be made before further technical commitment. Exploring use cases, clarifying technology choices and shaping a coherent value proposition to reduce uncertainty.
Clearly articulating the value proposition and bringing credible use cases to life. Structuring a foundational narrative to engage investors, partners and international markets.
An established company (or scale-up) navigating technological, competitive or generational change. Clarifying positioning, modernising visual and editorial expression, and realigning brand assets.
At critical stages of a project, I rely on strategic artefacts — multimedia and interactive materialisation tools designed to clarify a direction, structure a value proposition, and align technical teams with market vision. I have defined around twenty of them, divided into two groups: exploratory artefacts and narrative artefacts.
A typical example would be a prototype presentation film created for a board presentation, an investor deck, an industrial tender, or an international partnership opportunity.
Unlike conventional media production created for marketing purposes, a strategic artefact is not designed to be seen — it is designed to drive decisions. Innovation teams often lack translators between what they are building and what decision-makers are actually able to understand, assess and approve. A board, an investor or an industrial partner does not decide on raw data or spec sheets alone — decisions are made on the basis of what can be clearly pictured and understood.
“ A strategic artefact (...) is designed to drive decisions. A board, an investor or an industrial partner (...) decides based on what they are able to picture clearly. When the stakes are high, replace your 90-slide presentation with a 90-second film. Applause guaranteed.”
Producing that representation is neither pure consulting, which does not execute, nor pure creative work, which does not think in terms of decision strategy. It is a combination. And that is exactly what I have been doing for the past 20 years.
Discover strategic artefacts (coming soon)
« I worked with Olivia for 15 years on exploratory R&D projects. She has a remarkable ability to turn complex concepts into tangible outcomes and to work effectively with scientific, technical and creative teams alike. Her rigour and sensitivity helped accelerate major projects. » — Fabien Agon, Nestlé System Technology Centre
