Weeks
Diagnostic
A hard read of how the enterprise, unit, or value flow actually works, where value is created, and where it leaks. Ends with a decision, not a deck.
Approach
How I work.
Six things that are true of every engagement, whether it runs for six weeks or three years.
-
Find the system under the symptom
The presented problem is rarely the real one. A missed target is usually a decision that sits in the wrong place, an ownership boundary that was never drawn, or information that arrives after it could have been useful. I start by understanding how the thing actually works end to end, then name what is really broken.
-
Ask why this way at all
The common question is how do you work. Mine is: I understand why you work this way, but why this way at all? The point is to build the benchmark, not adhere to one.
-
Follow the value, then the leakage
Every operating model either creates value or leaks it, and the leaks are almost always at the handshakes between functions. Make the handshakes explicit, give each one an owner, a standard, and a measure, and most of the argument disappears.
-
Design for the operating year
A design that only works in the strategy deck is not a design. It has to survive budget cycles, staff turnover, the quarter that goes badly, and the executive who was not in the room. That constraint shapes the work from day one.
-
Tell the truth, including the expensive kind
You are paying for judgement, not agreement. If the framing is too defensive, the plan too optimistic, or the answer is that you should not do this at all, you will hear it early, in private, and with a stronger alternative attached.
-
Build it, rather than recommend it
I have spent most of my career on the build side: the platforms, frameworks, and architectures that go into production and stay there. Recommendations are cheap. I would rather be measured on what is still running in three years.
Engagements
Shapes that tend to work.
Months
Operating model and architecture
The target operating model, the decision architecture, and the sequenced path to it. Built to be executed by your people, not by a standing army of consultants.
Years
Operating Partner
A standing seat with a fund, a board, or a founder. Diligence, value creation, and the difficult conversations, sustained over the period it actually takes.