About the practice
Koan exists at the intersection of leadership maturity and organisational performance — working with leaders when the real obstacle isn't information, strategy, or resource, but the system underneath.
Most advisory firms operate at the level of tools and execution architecture. Koan works four layers deep: from the principles that govern how organisations actually function, through the conceptual lenses that make diagnosis possible, to the structural frameworks and tools that convert insight into action. This is what allows Koan to credibly diagnose and work across all three leadership systems — Human, Strategic, and Execution — rather than treating each as a separate problem.
Derek O'Halloran spent a decade as a member of the Executive Committee of the World Economic Forum, where he led the Global Technology Governance Programme and worked directly with heads of state, CEOs, and senior policy leaders on the governance of technology at global scale. He published Beyond Cybersecurity: Protecting Your Digital Enterprise (Wiley, 2015) and built several of the Forum's most significant multi-stakeholder platforms.
That work was, at its core, an exercise in systems architecture — designing structures for complex adaptive systems involving hundreds of institutions, competing interests, and rapid technological change. At Koan, we apply the same thinking at organisation and executive system scale.
Derek holds an MPA from Columbia University and an MA in Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh. He has thirty years of experience across Japan and Asia. He is a Zen practitioner and local youth sports mentor.
Engagements are shaped by the situation. Most begin with a diagnostic conversation — informal, unhurried, and without obligation — because the right first step is understanding what is actually in front of the organisation, not selling a predefined solution. Koan draws on Derek's framework and, where the work calls for it, on a small network of senior practitioners with decades of operator experience in specific domains.
Not coaching — the unit of work is the leadership system, not the individual.
Not a methodology sold off the shelf — every engagement begins with diagnosis.
Not management consulting — we don't manage programmes or deliver slides.
Not pre-formed answers — the prior question comes first.
Not a presenter who leaves after the report — we stay through the difficult middle.