Capabilities
What we do — and the questions each capability answers.
Six capabilities, offered as focused assessments, project engagements, or an ongoing advisory relationship. Every one starts with the question underneath the request.
Board & Executive Advisory
An ongoing, independent relationship for founders, CEOs and boards who want a trusted outside view before — not after — the big decisions.
- Standing advisory: a regular cadence of challenge and counsel
- Preparation for board discussions on strategy, risk and AI
- Independent review of major proposals and investments
- A confidential sounding board for the CEO
Typical format: a monthly or quarterly advisory retainer, principal-led throughout.
AI Strategy
For leadership teams who know AI matters to their business but need to separate the durable shifts from the noise — and decide where to move first.
- Where AI changes your product, cost base, or competitive position
- Build / buy / partner decisions, made on evidence
- AI governance: autonomy, accountability and risk, in proportion
- Readiness assessments and sequenced roadmaps
Typical deliverable: an AI strategy and roadmap — opportunities ranked by value and feasibility, with the first moves specified in detail.
Corporate & Growth Strategy
For companies at an inflection point: a new market, a stalled engine, a portfolio that has grown by accretion rather than design.
- Where to compete — and where to stop competing
- Positioning and differentiation that customers can repeat back
- Growth bets: sizing, sequencing, and what to fund first
- Portfolio and pricing reviews
- Business planning — turning the chosen strategy into a working business plan: priorities, resourcing, milestones and the numbers that go with them
Typical deliverables: a strategy memorandum with a recommended direction, the evidence behind it, and a sequenced set of moves — and, where the engagement calls for it, a full business plan built from that strategy: goals, initiatives, resourcing, milestones and financial outlook, in a form that can be shared with a board, investors or a leadership team.
Security Strategy
For boards and executives for whom security has become strategic: a differentiator with customers, a condition of enterprise sales, and a genuine risk.
- Security posture as strategy — where to be excellent, where to be adequate
- Board-level risk framing in business language
- Security product and market strategy for security companies
- AI and agent security: identity, governance and control
Typical deliverable: a board-ready security strategy briefing and a prioritised investment case.
Strategic Transactions & Partnerships
Acquisitions, investments and partnerships are strategy by other means — and the most common way companies buy themselves a distraction.
- Strategic-fit assessment before financial modelling
- Partnership strategy: who, why, and on what terms
- The honest walk-away case, made explicitly
Typical deliverable: an investment/partnership memorandum with a clear proceed / don't-proceed recommendation.
Strategy Execution & Focus
Most strategies don't fail on insight; they fail on dilution. This capability is about protecting a decision after it's made.
- Translating strategy into priorities, owners and measures
- Initiative portfolio reviews — what to stop, not just start
- Operating cadence: how leadership reviews progress honestly
- Course-correction reviews at 6 and 12 months
Typical deliverable: an execution plan and review cadence your team can actually run.
Engagement formats
Three ways to work with us, depending on the decision in front of you.
Assessment
A focused, fixed-scope review — typically two to four weeks — ending in a written recommendation. Best for a single, well-defined question.
Project
A defined strategy engagement over one to three months, working alongside your leadership team through diagnosis to decision to plan.
Advisory
An ongoing principal-led relationship — a standing seat at the table for strategy, board preparation and major decisions, month to month.
Start a conversation
A good first conversation costs nothing but an hour.
Bring the decision you're weighing — a market to enter, a product to bet on, an AI strategy to set, a board question to work through. You'll leave with a clearer frame for it, whether or not we work together.
The first step is a short, confidential conversation. No pitch, no obligation — just a direct discussion of the problem and whether we are the right fit to help with it.