How it works · The process
Diagnosis first. Everything else is expensive guessing.
Most consulting starts with a proposal. That’s backwards — it means the recommendation was decided before anyone looked.
I won’t tell you what to do until I know what’s actually wrong, and the two are almost never the same thing. The brand problem is usually a structure problem. The media problem is usually a positioning problem. The awareness problem is usually a trust problem.
01 · Diagnosis
What the market believes, what your team believes, what the numbers say, and where those three disagree. Short, senior and deliberately uncomfortable. It frequently narrows the work rather than widening it.
02 · The argument
Not a 90-slide deck. One written position: here’s what I think is true, here’s the evidence, here’s the strongest case against it, here’s what I’d do. You should be able to disagree with it precisely.
03 · The plan
Sequenced, costed in effort and honest about what your organisation can actually absorb. A plan you can’t staff isn’t a plan.
04 · In the room
Where useful, I stay through implementation — because strategy that never survives contact with a real team was never strategy. This is where most engagements earn or lose their money.
05 · Handover
The goal is to leave the capability behind, not a dependency. An engagement that can’t end was designed wrong.
A recommendation made before anyone looked isn’t strategy. It’s a proposal with a slide deck on top.