A bit about myself and why Strategy, Risk Management, Intelligence & Foresight matter to me

Written By Rostyk Hursky

First off I’d like to start by saying that: All views and experiences shared here are my own, based on work across many sectors over many years.

I moved to Canada when I was 13 years old.

Growing up in Ukraine—under Soviet occupation—you learned by observing, questioning, and reading between the lines. You learned to think critically, to listen to multiple sources, and to recognize when information didn’t add up.

Looking back, my career in competitive intelligence, strategy, risk, and foresight started far earlier than any job I’ve ever had.

I learned:

  • not to trust everything and take at face value views presented by media or figures of authority

  • how to analyze signals and patterns

  • how to reason through conflicting information

  • how to identify what was real vs. what was being “fed” to you

Thanks to my family and our trusted long-wavelength radio, I listened to voices from around the world—European stations, international Ukrainian broadcasters—and I discovered perspectives we weren’t supposed to hear.

I read constantly. Or as my parents put it - I “devoured” books: History. Science fiction. Mystery. Anything that expanded my understanding of how systems, people, society, operate and what happens when “power” and authority is at play.

I talked with my parents, observed society, looked at what people were doing, how people reacted to things, how people planned things, how people resisted and how people changed things around them.

⸻

When Canada became my home in 1992, I joined the workforce shortly after—and I’ve been at it for over 30 years.

Jobs I’ve had included: Construction, Office cleaning, Customer service, Banking, IT, Merchandising, Shipping and logistics, Market researcher, Competitive intelligence Analyst, Strategist, Impact evaluation specialist, Risk and foresight planning, Non profit management, Marketing and Communications, Board Member, Parent Council member, and more..

In every job I observed. In every profession I listened and tried to put myself in the shoes of others, of those in charge. Why they were asking those questions, why they were behaving the way they did, how they expected things done, how they made decisions. Every job taught me something about how decisions get made.

And I noticed a pattern:

The people making decisions are smart, capable, and well-intentioned…but they’re overwhelmed.

They don’t have the time or space to step back, scan the environment, and think about what’s coming next. And when they do it’s not done consistently, repetitively and routinely without any bias.

Most teams aren’t struggling because they lack talent, passion, or big ideas. They’re challenged because they’re:

  • overwhelmed

  • reactive

  • building the future while putting out fires today

I’ve sat in rooms where decisions were based on:

  • assumptions instead of evidence

  • “gut feel”

  • urgency instead of strategy

  • habit instead of possibility

  • fear of risk instead of understanding it

And I kept thinking: It doesn’t have to be this way.

⸻

That belief is one of the reasons I created Vyronix Strategies.

To help organizations:

  • see beyond the immediate crisis

  • turn uncertainty into opportunity

  • build strategies grounded in reality AND ambition

  • create space for honest, meaningful conversations

  • challenge respectfully and constructively

  • bring clarity to complexity

Because when you combine: Strategy, Risk Management, Insights, Intelligence as well as Foresight …

…you stop reacting to the world, and start shaping it.

⸻

I’ve seen what happens when organizations do this well:

🔹 teams become aligned

🔹 leaders make decisions with confidence

🔹 risks become manageable, not paralyzing

🔹 opportunities emerge that no one saw before

🔹 momentum builds

And the best part?

People feel energized again. They rediscover purpose. They see a path forward—together.

That’s the work that lights me up.

Vyronix isn’t about buzzwords. It isn’t about always agreeing for sake of agreement. We are not there to prop up egos. We are about real and at times tough conversations, thoughtful analysis, and helping organizations move from “we hope” to “we know,” and from “someday” to “let’s start now.”

If your organization is ready to lead instead of react, I’d love to connect.

NOTE: I asked AI to generate images of what it thought of me after reading the blog. These three images are from ChatGPT, Copilot and MetaAI.

Rostyk Hursky