Aberdean Consulting StratOp Facilitation Review | Fox & Crow Group
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Aberdean Consulting Fox & Crow Group Review: StratOp Facilitation and Strategic Planning for the IT Channel
Thank you to the team at Aberdean Consulting for this review of their work with Ian and Carrie Richardson, Co-Founders of Fox & Crow Group.
First Published: October 1, 2025
Last Updated: May 1, 2026
A strategic planning session is only as good as the person running it. Put a room of capable leaders with strong opinions in front of a weak facilitator and you usually get a polite document that nobody believes in. Put them in front of a strong one and you can leave the room with real alignment and a plan people will actually execute.
Here is what Aberdean had to say about that experience with Ian:
"Ian and Carrie have unique backgrounds that complement each other and make them a formidable business consulting team that can positively impact your business. My company initially partnered with the Richardson & Richardson team to facilitate the StratOp process. As a StratOp facilitator, Ian brings a wealth of experience and expertise and relates well with a room of diverse personalities. He is a natural leader and teacher able to guide others effectively through a successful engagement."
Two complementary backgrounds in one engagement
Aberdean opens by pointing out that Ian and Carrie's backgrounds complement each other. That is intentional, and it is one of the reasons our work lands the way it does for IT channel and MSP clients.
Ian sits at the intersection of MSP operations, strategic planning, and executive coaching. He has built and run a managed service business, advised dozens of others, and trained as a certified StratOp facilitator. The strategy work he produces is rigorous because the operating reality is always sitting next to it.
Carrie sits at the intersection of channel sales, prospecting, and go-to-market execution. She has spent more than twenty years building sales pipelines for IT channel companies and has trained hundreds of channel professionals to do the same.
When an MSP hires us, they get both perspectives at once. Strategic plans get pressure tested against real go-to-market constraints. Sales motions get pressure tested against the actual strategy. The output holds up better in the field because it has already been argued from both sides before anyone tries to execute it.
StratOp is a real process, not a slide deck
Aberdean specifically calls out the StratOp process, and we appreciate that.
Most "strategic planning" engagements run on the consultant's favorite slide deck. The framework is loose, the conversation drifts, and the output is a list of goals that nobody is accountable for thirty days later.
StratOp does not work that way. It is a defined, multi-stage process developed by The Paterson Center. A leadership team works through perspective, playing field, priorities, tactical action plans, and a measurement and accountability system. They walk out with a written plan they own and execute against, not a pretty PDF.
For MSPs and IT channel companies, StratOp gives you the things most planning sessions skip: structure, accountability, and a defensible reason the plan looks the way it does. Ian is a certified StratOp facilitator and runs the full process for clients who are ready to commit to real planning rather than a one-day workshop.
Reading a room of strong personalities
Aberdean's note that Ian "relates well with a room of diverse personalities" is a quiet compliment about the hardest part of facilitation.
In any leadership team, especially in MSPs where founders, technical leaders, sales leaders, and operations leaders see the business very differently, planning conversations involve people who think differently, communicate differently, and want different outcomes. A weak facilitator either lets the loudest voice win or imposes a process so rigid that real input gets squeezed out.
A strong facilitator does the harder work. They draw out the quieter people, push back on the loudest people, and turn the resulting friction into clarity. That requires reading the room continuously, knowing when to press and when to back off, and being secure enough in the process not to need to be the smartest person at the table.
That capacity is what makes a StratOp engagement actually produce alignment instead of just paperwork.
Leader and teacher, not just facilitator
Aberdean closes by calling Ian "a natural leader and teacher able to guide others effectively through a successful engagement."
The teaching part of that line matters. Good strategic planning work is not just about producing a plan. It is about leaving the leadership team with the discipline to keep planning, adapting, and executing long after the consultant is gone.
The MSPs who get the most out of working with us are the ones whose leaders absorb the way of thinking, not just the artifact. They learn to ask sharper questions, structure their own decisions more carefully, and hold each other accountable to the priorities they set. That is what makes the work last.
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FAQ: StratOp Facilitation and Strategic Planning with Fox & Crow Group
What is StratOp and how is it different from a regular planning session?
StratOp is a structured strategic planning process developed by The Paterson Center. Instead of a loose workshop, a leadership team works through a defined sequence: perspective, playing field, priorities, tactical plans, and measurement. They leave with a written plan that has clear ownership and accountability built in.
Who in an MSP should be in a StratOp engagement?
The senior leadership team. That usually means the owner or CEO plus the leaders of operations, sales, and any other major function. The point is to align the people who own execution, not produce a document for the founder to read alone.
How long does a StratOp engagement take for an MSP?
A full engagement runs across multiple sessions over several weeks, with work between sessions. The cadence is on purpose. Strategic clarity does not come out of a single day in a conference room.
Why does Fox & Crow Group focus on the IT channel for strategic planning?
Ian has built and operated an MSP, advised dozens more, and works exclusively with IT channel and MSP businesses. That focus keeps the planning conversation grounded in how managed services and channel companies actually grow.
MSPs working through partner alignment alongside StratOp will find Reuben Levinsohn's review of Fox & Crow Group's facilitation work relevant — partner alignment is one of the harder problems StratOp surfaces, and he covers it directly. Kathy Blair's account of Ian Richardson's leadership team planning approach addresses the same challenge from a slightly different angle.
Read more about the Brightworks MSP sales success story and how MSPs are building predictable sales growth with Fox & Crow Group.