I've spent a couple of decades solving hard problems for global enterprises. Now I do it for businesses like yours: board-level operations, technology and strategy leadership, by the day, the month or the project. You work directly with me, and every engagement ends with something you can act on.
You get me, not a pyramid of analysts. The person you meet on day one is the person doing the work on day ninety.
Every engagement, even a single day, ends with a written, prioritised set of actions. You could execute them without me. That's deliberate.
Day rates, monthly subscriptions or fixed-price projects. No lock-in beyond the notice period. No surprises on the invoice.
Problems get enterprise-sized long before the budget does. I've watched the same walls appear at every scale. Wherever you are on the curve, there's a right-sized way through.
Most small business owners make their biggest decisions alone and learn the expensive way. The Growth Partner subscription puts board-level thinking in your corner for less than half the cost of your cheapest employee, and it makes every other salary you pay work harder.
Everything works because of heroics, not systems, and the founder is the bottleneck. Get the structure, systems and operating rhythm of a much bigger business, installed by someone who has run them.
Post-raise, everything needs to professionalise at once. Fractional executive leadership installs the discipline investors expect without killing the pace that got you funded.
A transformation or integration needs C-level attention your exec team cannot spare. Drop in proven executive capacity for the initiative, then step away. No recruitment fees, no severance risk.
The value creation plan is agreed; the portfolio company lacks bandwidth to execute it in the hold period. Operating partner-calibre execution, reported in the language the fund expects.
A sample of recent engagements. Names withheld out of respect for client confidentiality; I'll gladly talk specifics in person.
A twelve-week, evidence-led diagnostic of identity and asset management across three affiliated global financial services firms. 1,634 observations from 54 contributors, distilled into five structural patterns and a 36-month, eight-workstream roadmap. Identified $3m–$8m of annually recoverable licence cost, alongside closure of audit findings spanning SOX, DORA and FCA SMCR.
An outside-in assessment of network operations integration after a tier-one US investment bank acquired a market-leading trading platform, where every minute of downtime carried a six-figure P&L impact. Reframed the integration question the merger had skipped, mapped the convergence points and set a path that kept the acquired team's agility inside the acquirer's governance.
An independent assessment of a global bank's new cloud platform ahead of hosting important business services, examined through four lenses and aligned to the PRA's expectations. Board-level readout: no critical gaps, and a short, prioritised list of recommendations to keep speed and control in balance as the platform scaled.
A security operations reset for a global law firm in the middle of a large-scale technology transformation: team identity, governance and decision rights first, then a staged maturity roadmap from foundational fixes through to a 24x7 security operations centre, positioning security as an enabler of the firm's growth ambitions rather than the department of no.
Cloud strategy and target operating model for one of the Nordics' largest banks, built from structured stakeholder interviews across the group rather than imported from a template. Cloud centre of excellence design, decision rights and the accountability model to make the strategy stick after the consultants leave.
Taking a global talent-assessment SaaS platform into mainland China: discovery and target design for an in-country cloud estate, a requirements and compliance traceability matrix for a heavily regulated market, and the migration plan to get there without disrupting the global platform.
Further engagements span telecoms task-force leadership, payments, media, energy infrastructure, retail and legal technology, delivered across the UK, the Nordics, the US, mainland Europe and Asia-Pacific.
The same patterns, at a scale you might recognise. If one of these sounds like your Tuesday, that's rather the point. And when these stories say "we", they mean exactly that: the business owner and me, working it out together. There's no office full of consultants behind the curtain.
A well-regarded local agency competing on fee against corporate chains and online listers, working harder each year for thinner margins. We repositioned the firm at the top of its market: brand, fee structure and a service worth the fee, saying no to the stock it used to chase.
Second-generation engineering firm where every quote, schedule and dispute crossed the owner's desk. We installed written decision rights, a weekly operating rhythm and a quote-to-cash process that didn't need him in the middle of it.
Revenue climbing, profit flat, team exhausted. Customer-level profitability analysis showed a fifth of clients consumed half the service desk. We repriced, exited the worst, and refocused sales on the profile that actually paid.
A brand built on the founder's voice, spending heavily on an agency for content that sounded like everyone else's. An AI Context Sprint built the context pack and workflows to produce founder-quality output in-house, with the agency retained only for campaigns.
A steady line of employees-turned-founders, from personal trainer to dog groomer to bookkeeper, each launched at the top of their local market rather than the bottom of it. Together we built the sharp value proposition, pricing with a spine, a healthy pipeline before day one, and all the plumbing (brand, tools, process, numbers) a business needs to launch, grow and scale. The pattern holds in every trade: position on value, not price, and the right customers find you.
Composite case studies: real engagement patterns and typical results, with details generalised so no individual client is identifiable.
Start small, scale when it earns its keep. Prices are indicative and confirmed at scoping, no VAT is added to any of them, and there's a fifth offer just below for the AI-curious.
One full day on your most pressing problem: pre-reading, a structured working session, and a written action plan within 48 hours.
Think you can't afford this expertise? Think again. For less than half the cost of a single junior employee, you get a seasoned executive in your corner every month.
A senior executive on your team without the hire. Fractional COO, CTO/CIO or strategy lead, embedded in your leadership rhythm.
A defined outcome, delivered. Operating model redesign, technology selection, integration playbook, or a value creation plan turned into an executed roadmap.
Not everything needs a product name and a price tag. If it needs senior judgement, ask.
A standing seat at your table: quarterly board rhythm, available between meetings, invested in the long game.
Selling in a year or three? Find what a buyer's due diligence would find, and fix it before it costs you the multiple.
Before you sign something big: a system, an acquisition, a lease, a restructure. Cheap insurance against expensive mistakes.
You asked ChatGPT for a business case and got something that reads like everyone else's. Meanwhile you suspect your competitors are using AI to move faster and take share. Both problems have the same root: AI without your context is a very confident stranger. The gap between AI that sounds impressive and AI that moves your numbers is context, and closing it is a business exercise, not a technical one.
A short, sharp engagement that turns the AI tools you already pay for into ones that actually know your business, without a whiff of AI slop reaching your customers.
Enterprises spend millions learning that AI output is only as good as the context behind it. I've led that work at global scale, and the lesson translates directly: the winners aren't the businesses using AI loudest, they're the ones using it with judgement. Quietly, in operations, analysis and drafting, where it compounds; carefully, in front of customers, where trust is the whole game.
Want to know who you'd be working with? Meet Ian →
Want a feel for how I think first? Read something I've written →
The easiest first step is a Diagnostic Day: one day on your most pressing problem, a written plan within 48 hours, and nothing to lose but the problem. Not sure it's the right fit? Email me anyway. If I can't help, I'll say so and point you towards someone who can.
[email protected]Or connect on LinkedIn.
Based in England, about an hour from London, if you fancy a cup of tea or something stronger. On site across the UK, remote anywhere; the experience was earned worldwide and travels well.