FranklySpeaking

Engagements

A fixed scope, a fixed fee, and a finding at the end.

A fixed scope and a fixed fee, agreed before the first interview. You know the cost and the end date before we start.

Fixed scopeFrom US$35,000Written finding

Book the first meeting See what is included

01 / Four ways to engage us

What you buy, and what closes it.

Start hereNo fee

The first meeting

90 minutes with the executive who would sponsor the work. It ends with a written position: the preliminary report.

If this does not look like an alignment problem, the report says so and the matter ends there.

01From US$35,000

The investigation

The full investigation and the intervention that closes it. 12–16 weeks, priced by how many defences are in scope.

Rising to US$250,000 for a multinational group or a regulator.

02By scope

Realignment

The fix on its own, where a sound investigation already exists and the business has not been able to act on it.

We check the existing findings before acting on them. If the diagnosis is wrong, the fix will be wrong too, and you will have spent the budget and the goodwill finding that out.

03Retained

Register oversight

Quarterly re-scoring of the alignment register, reported straight to the board rather than through the executives it measures.

Available once an investigation has produced the register. We do not sell it on its own.

Not sure which one applies? That is what the first meeting is for.

Book the first meeting 90 minutes · No fee

02 / Is this us

One question decides whether we are the right firm.

Does somebody else's ability to operate depend on you? If it does, the cost of a misaligned leadership team is carried by people who are not even your customers.

Where we have worked

  • Telecommunications
  • Energy
  • Mining
  • Logistics
  • Infrastructure
  • Construction
  • Banking
  • State-owned enterprises

The method transfers to

  • Ports and terminals
  • Rail and freight
  • Water and sanitation
  • Payments and mobile money
  • Data centres and cloud
  • Downstream fuel

The second list is where the method works, rather than where we have worked. The test is the same in all of them.

Sector is the easy part. What actually decides whether an investigation is worth running is the condition you are in.

Worth investigating

The condition is there

We would decline

The condition is not

Worth investigatingThe same remedy has been tried more than twice
We would declineOne function underperforming against a clear plan
Worth investigatingAgreement in the room, and different funding outside it
We would declineTwo people who need a mediator rather than a finding
Worth investigatingGood analysis already on the shelf, and the problem still there
We would declineA board wanting a document to support a decision already taken
Worth investigatingA sponsor with the authority to act on whatever we find
We would declineA team that has already decided who is to blame
Worth investigatingA failure here would be public within hours
We would declineA programme that needs delivery hands rather than a diagnosis

03 / Four things we agree first

Before a fee is quoted.

  1. Somebody senior enough to act on the finding is sponsoring the work.
  2. Blame sits outside the terms of reference, in writing.
  3. No restructuring during the first phase, because it changes the evidence.
  4. You get the whole findings report, including the parts that were uncomfortable to write.

We do not quote day rates. A day is not the thing being bought.

04 / Start here

The first meeting costs nothing.

90 minutes, questions rather than a presentation, and a written position on whether an investigation is warranted.

Book the first meeting See what we have found before