Our story dates back to 1992, when we first developed a series of intensive two-day workshops in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, Austin, and Washington D.C. focused on the intersection of strategy and messaging. The great need we saw was to help clients achieve greater clarity of message so their investment in communications would be fully realized. Several hundred firms, largely drawn from the technology and industrial space, would participate in these workshops during the next few years, which led to the development of the consultancy Message Strategy Inc. during the mid-1990’s in Chicago. Then, in 2008, as we added culture as a focus area, rebranded as Cereus Partners Inc. and relocated to the west coast of the United States. Our name references the Cereus Grandiflorus, a flowering desert cactus that finds a way to do the improbable thing in the improbable place at the improbable time: amidst heat and aridity it blooms (at night) in the desert. The name reminds us how people and organizations can surprise to the upside.
Throughout the years Brian J. Lewis has driven our work, using his unique skills—to ask the right questions, see patterns (connect the dots), clarify issues, and articulate story—to help leaders advance their organizations. Brian has worked with leading multinational firms since 1988, principally in the United States and Scandinavia. He is the author of Ways of the Relay-Racers: Essays on Leaders, Misleaders and the Culture-Strong Organization, and has traveled widely (in Asia, Europe, and Scandinavia) to help senior leaders listen and better align their message with the needs of their global teams. From 2000 to 2021 he served on the board of Hope International, helping to shape an NGO that has loaned nearly $2 billion USD to micro-enterprise clients around the world.
In business, as in the non-profit sector, our impact is measured by our influence on those with whom we work. By helping you strengthen your culture, clarify your vision, and communicate your principles, we at Cereus hope to set in motion a virtuous circle of growth and impact.
CEREUS PARTNERS INC
19225 8th Avenue NE, Suite 201-17
Poulsbo, WA 98370 USA
+1-360-298-6713