What we do

Four practices, and the shape of the work.

The practice list is the easy part — every firm has one. What follows is how each engagement is actually staffed, what it costs, and when we'd tell you not to run it.

Corporate strategy

Where to compete, what to stop funding, and what the board will actually approve. We build the case with your finance team so it survives the first challenge.

When not to call us

If the decision is already made and you need a document to justify it, we're the wrong firm — and we'll say so on the first call.

Portfolio review

Unit-level economics for every business you own, including the ones nobody questions. Usually the quietest line is the expensive one.

Growth planning

Three-year plans built from capacity and demand you can evidence, not from a target handed down and back-solved.

Pricing

Willingness-to-pay work with your commercial team in the room, tested on live accounts before it reaches the price list.

Market entry

Entry cases with an explicit exit trigger written in — the number at which you stop, agreed before you start.

Typical length 8–16 weeks Core team 1 partner · 3–4 consultants Board sessions 2–3

Operations

Cost, throughput and supply. We spend the first fortnight on the floor, not in the data room — because the variance is rarely where the report says it is.

When not to call us

If headcount reduction is the only outcome anyone will accept, an operations programme is the wrong instrument. That's a restructuring, and it needs different advisers.

Cost programmes

Bottom-up cost baselines rebuilt from transactions, with every saving owned by a named budget holder before it counts.

Supply chain

Network, inventory and service-level work — including the contracts your team has been told are non-negotiable.

Manufacturing

Line-level throughput, changeover and yield. We measure on shift, across all shifts, before proposing anything.

Procurement

Category strategy and renegotiation, run with the people who'll have to live with the supplier afterwards.

Typical length 12–24 weeks Core team 1 partner · 4–6 consultants On site Weekly, minimum

Digital & data

Modernisation that pays for itself inside eighteen months. We size the benefit before the platform, and we write the business case you'd defend under audit.

When not to call us

We don't implement, resell or certify platforms, and we take no vendor commission. If you need a systems integrator, you need one in addition to us.

Core systems

Replacement cases built on year-five run cost, not licence list price. Most of the money is after go-live.

Data foundations

What to fix first when everything is broken — sequenced against the decisions the data is meant to support.

AI adoption

Baselines first. If we can't measure the process today, we won't claim a percentage improvement on it tomorrow.

Tech due diligence

Three-week technical and commercial reads for investors, with the risks priced rather than listed.

Typical length 6–20 weeks Core team 1 partner · 2–5 specialists Vendor fees taken None

M&A and integration

Commercial diligence in three weeks, integration planning before signing, and a synergy tracker your CFO can reconcile line by line on day one.

When not to call us

We won't write a diligence report that supports a price already agreed. Roughly one in five of our diligence reads concludes against the deal.

Commercial DD

Customer, market and margin evidence in three weeks, with a clear view on what we could not verify in the time.

Synergy planning

Synergies sized bottom-up and owned by named executives before signing, not allocated afterwards.

Day-one readiness

The operational checklist for day one and day one hundred, rehearsed with both management teams.

Carve-outs

Standalone cost and TSA exit planning — usually the most underestimated number in the model.

Typical length 3–12 weeks Core team 1 partner · 3–5 consultants Diligence turnaround 3 weeks

On engagement models

A team you can't name in week one is a team you won't have in week ten.

Imani Osei · Partner, Corporate Strategy Northgate Partners, London

Engagement models

Three ways to work with us.

Roughly eighteen engagements a year across all three models. The named partner is written into the contract in every one of them — not the proposal.

Diagnostic

A short, fixed-scope read on one question. Ends in a recommendation and an honest view of what we couldn't establish in the time.

Length: 3–6 weeks
Team: 1 partner · 2 consultants
Fee basis: Fixed
Indicative: £95k–£180k

Chosen when the board disagrees about the problem, not the answer.

Full engagement

The standard shape. Diagnosis, decision and enough of the rollout that the change is running before we leave the building.

Length: 8–24 weeks
Team: 1 partner · 3–6 consultants
Fee basis: Fixed, staged
Indicative: £280k–£1.4m

About two thirds of our work. Staged fees release against agreed milestones, not elapsed time.

Standing counsel

A retained partner for a defined executive team — a standing call, a room on demand, and no new scoping exercise every time something moves.

Length: 12 months, renewable
Team: 1 partner · analyst support
Fee basis: Retainer
Indicative: £18k–£34k / month

Offered only to clients we've completed an engagement with. It relies on context we can't acquire cold.

How fees work

Four things we put in writing.

Indicative ranges above are real ranges, not anchors. What follows is the part most firms leave to the engagement letter.

Fixed, not time and materials

We quote a fee for a scope. If the work runs long because we misjudged it, that's our cost — and it has been, more than once.

Scope changes are re-quoted, not accrued

If the question changes mid-engagement, we stop and re-price in writing. No variation appears on an invoice you haven't already agreed.

Expenses at cost, capped

Travel and expenses are billed at cost and capped at 8% of fees. Above the cap they're ours, which is a useful discipline on travel.

No vendor commission, ever

We take no fee, referral or rebate from any software vendor or supplier we might recommend. It's the reason the digital practice can say what it says.

Start a conversation

Not sure which of these you need?

Most people aren't at the first call — that's what the call is for. A partner reads every enquiry and replies within two working days.

Start a conversation See the results

Also worth reading

Every number we publish was verified against the client's own reported figures twelve months after we left.

Selected results