I don't arrive assuming the problem is organisational.
By the time most CEOs speak to me, they already have a theory. We need a COO. The sales team needs restructuring. We need better systems.
Sometimes the theory is right. Often it describes a symptom. The real constraint could be commercial, leadership, people, customers, pricing, systems, decision-making, accountability or execution, and it's frequently two or three of those pulling on each other.
I don't believe in prescribing a twelve-month programme before understanding what's actually happening.
From first conversation to lasting change
Conversation
Thirty minutes. You tell me what's changed, what's become harder and where your time is really going. I'll tell you where I'd start looking and whether I think I can help. If I don't think I can, I'll say so.
Understand what's making the business harder to run
If it's worth going further, we look at the symptoms together. Which decisions keep coming back to you. Where the same problems recur. Which meetings exist to compensate for something else. Where information is too scattered to trust without checking.
Capability Review
A structured examination of what's happening across the business: commercial performance, customers, leadership, people, decision-making, accountability, systems, processes, operating rhythm and execution. It typically takes two to four weeks and a few hours from each leader involved.
Identify the real constraints
Most businesses have a long list of things that could be better. The work is finding the few that hold the rest in place, and showing how they connect to what you experience day to day.
Agree what needs to change
Priorities, owners and sequence, agreed with you and your leadership team. Some CEOs take it from there themselves, and that's a good outcome.
CEO Operating Partner, where useful
If you want someone alongside you while the changes happen, I stay on and work with you and the leadership team on what the Review identified.
What I won't do
- Arrive with a programme before I understand the business.
- Assume every problem is organisational.
- Hand you a large report and leave you to work out what to do with it.
- Take over running the business.
Questions CEOs usually ask
How much time will this take from my leadership team?
The Review needs a few hours from each leader involved, typically over two to four weeks. Anything after that is designed to take load off the leadership team over time rather than add another workstream.
What does it cost?
The Capability Review is a fixed fee, confirmed before the work begins. Ongoing work is scoped around what's involved and agreed before it starts.
Do I need to be the founder?
No. Most of this work is with CEOs, MDs and leadership teams, whether or not they founded the business.