How we work
Four depths, one format.
Published in full, including where the machine sits — because a firm that will not describe its own delivery model is asking you to take the most important part on trust.
01The depths
How far you go is your decision, taken four times.
There is no framework to buy into and no minimum commitment. Each stage produces something you keep whether or not there is a next one, and every engagement — including a multi-year programme — starts at the first.
IgnitionThe moment of clarity
One question, taken seriously. A written position on it — the recommendation, the evidence traced to source, the assumptions with what would change each, and the objections raised. Short, scoped, and yours whether or not you continue.
LiftoffThe architecture of action
One bounded question, answered properly, with the working handed over. You have narrowed it already; what you need is the evidence assembled and a position you can defend.
ExperimentProof that changes minds
A decision that has to survive being questioned later. Several workstreams, tested against the people who will object, written up so it holds when the person defending it was not in the room.
TransformationThe operating system
A programme, not a bigger project. Composed of the above and sequenced against an outcome, over a period long enough that the operating model changes rather than a decision being made.
Every engagement is scoped and fixed-priced against your question before it starts. If the scope moves we say so and re-price it, rather than absorbing it quietly and delivering less. Consulting is scoped; products are priced — platform and course pricing is published on the platform sites.
02Catalyst Labs
All four run through the same format.
A strategy workshop tends to generate a photograph of a wall of sticky notes and a deck assembled afterwards by whoever had the least to do. Catalyst Labs runs inside the working environment instead, so what comes out is a structured artefact rather than an intention.
One arc, whatever the question. A five-day Lab can be the whole of an Ignition; a Transformation is a sequence of them.
03Senior only
The person who scopes it, delivers it.
We do not staff pyramids. Where a piece of work needs a specialist we do not have, we say so and bring one in by name — we do not backfill it with someone junior and hope the review catches it.
We run a small number of engagements at once, deliberately. Every engagement names a second person who can pick it up, and the record lives in your tenant rather than in anyone’s notebook, which is what makes that possible.
04The boundary
Every consultancy is using AI now. We’ll show you where.
The machine does
A person does
Where we don’t use it at all
GxP work products, and any content you file with a regulator. That work is human, throughout.
Not because it could not draft one. Because validation means something specific under GAMP, no honest supplier can claim it of a language model, and your quality unit has enough to do.
You get a written account of which steps were which, on every engagement, without asking.
05Trust
Where your evidence sits, and how you get it back.
Tenancy
Isolated per client. Your evidence is not pooled and is not used to improve anything outside your tenant.
Residency
You choose the region, stated in the engagement letter rather than assumed.
Export
Open formats you can read without us. The record, the sources, the gates and the dissent — on request or at close, no fee, no notice period.
Certifications
We hold no ISO certification, no SOC 2 report and no FedRAMP authorisation. Where a questionnaire asks, that is the answer, and we will not describe a roadmap as a status.
NDA
Ours is pre-signed and available before you tell us anything. If your legal function prefers yours, we sign yours.
The conflict
We own the platform our work runs on. Where an engagement would have us assess whether that platform creates value for you, we say so before we start and will step aside for an independent assessor.
Export is the one that matters. A record you cannot take with you is a switching cost dressed as a benefit — and our pricing policy would be worth nothing if leaving cost you the thing you paid for.