The Observer's Notebook

What a Business Second Opinion Actually Looks Like Most strategy calls are sales calls in a trench coat. You get on the call, you tell the practitioner what is going on, they listen for thirty minutes, and then they recommend their program. The diagnosis and the prescription are the same product. Whatever you said in the first thirty minutes, the answer is the package. That is not a second opinion. That is shopping. If you have been booking strategy calls and walking away with someone else's playbook for a problem they only half-understood, this post is going to define what an actual second opinion looks like, where the term comes from, what happens on the call, what you walk away with, and how to tell whether one is right for you. Where the Phrase 'Second Opinion' Comes From Second opinion is not marketing language. It is a clinical concept, and it comes from medicine. In medicine, you get a second opinion when the first diagnosis doesn't sit right, or when the recomme...