Consulting for the question in front of your board
Seven services, each built around one kind of question. Most clients start with a two-week diagnostic and decide on the rest with the tree in front of them.
Every service, and the question it answers
Lengths are typical. The fee is fixed in the proposal once the question is agreed.
Services by the question a board asks
Example prices, before tax
What is the board asking?
Where should we grow?
Which customers, products and places to grow in over three to five years.
Whether to enter a new region or segment, and how: build, partner or buy.
Which businesses or product lines to keep, fix, fund or sell.
Why does it cost this much?
Where the margin goes, line by line, and the three changes worth making first.
Why orders arrive late or short, from purchase to delivery, and what to change.
Who should decide?
Structure, spans and roles for the next stage of the company.
Who decides what, who is asked, and what goes to the board.
If you are not sure where to start
Most questions belong to more than one branch. These are the starting points we suggest most often.
Profit fell and nobody agrees why
Start with a cost and margin review. It usually shows within two weeks whether the cause is price, cost or mix.
The board wants a growth plan
Start with growth strategy, or with a portfolio review if some of the business should not grow at all.
Decisions are slow or keep coming back
Start with decision rights. A structure change is rarely needed before the decisions are clear.
You have a plan and want a second opinion
A two-week diagnostic tests the plan’s three biggest assumptions, at a fixed fee.
Questions chief executives ask
Do you write the strategy for us?
No. We answer the question with you and show the evidence. The decision, and the plan that follows it, stay with your leadership team.
Will you need our data?
Yes, usually sales, costs and headcount for two or three years. We work in your systems or on copies you provide, and everything is deleted at the end (sample terms).
What if the answer is not what we hoped?
Then the tree shows why, branch by branch. A hypothesis that is ruled out is a result, not a failure.
Do you sell implementation afterwards?
Only if you ask. The final answer includes a plan your own managers can run without us.
Bring us the question you cannot answer yet
Write it down in a sentence or two. A partner reads it, calls you within two working days and tells you honestly whether a two-week diagnostic would help.