Advisory & Strategy · AI Advisory & Strategy

Advice you can price, not a maturity model

Owners do not need a framework. They need to know which three things to do this year, what each one costs, and which vendor promises to ignore. That is what this engagement produces.

  • Interviews with the people who actually do the work, not only leadership
  • Every recommendation carries an hours figure and a cost figure
  • A do-not-build list, so you stop paying for the wrong pilot
  • The written plan is yours, whether or not we build it

What you get

Deliverables, not slideware

  • 01

    Process map with money attached

    How work moves today, where it waits, and what each wait costs in payroll and lost deals.

  • 02

    Ranked opportunity list

    Each item scored on payback, delivery effort, and operational risk, with the assumptions written out so you can argue with them.

  • 03

    Build or buy call

    For each opportunity, whether an off-the-shelf tool is enough, an integration solves it, or custom work is justified.

  • 04

    Sequenced twelve-month plan

    What to do first, what depends on what, and which internal person needs to own each piece.

opportunity-plan.md
  • 0101 Quote drafting — payback 3 months — effort M — risk low
  • 0202 Invoice chasing — payback 5 months — effort S — risk low
  • 0303 Reporting pipeline — payback 9 months — effort L — risk med
  • 04Do not build: customer-facing chatbot (volume too low)
  • 05Do not build: custom CRM (the one you pay for is fine)
Sample of the deliverable. You keep this document whatever you decide next.

How it runs

What actually happens, step by step

No discovery theatre. Each step ends with something you can read or use.

  1. 01

    Interviews

    Short sessions with the people whose work is in scope, not a workshop with the leadership team.

  2. 02

    Map with money

    Each process gets a time cost and a failure cost, sourced from your own numbers.

  3. 03

    Rank and price

    Opportunities ordered by payback, each with an effort and risk estimate.

  4. 04

    Sequence

    A twelve-month order of work, plus the list of things we recommend not building.

Tangible

What lands in your hands

Named objects with a format and a week attached, so the handover is easy to picture.

  • Opportunity map

    Every process scored by cost, volume and how hard it is to automate.

    PDF · 12 pagesWeek 2
  • Baseline numbers

    What the current way of working costs, measured before anything changes.

    Spreadsheet + method noteWeek 1
  • Ranked plan

    What to do first, second, and what we would refuse to do at all.

    PDF · decision memoWeek 2
Sample

AI Opportunity Map

Scored processes, expected savings, and the two we would refuse.

12 pp
Download the sample (PDF)

This is the real template, with client figures replaced by representative ones. Read it before you talk to us — if the format is not useful to you, the engagement will not be either.

Before and after

What the change looks like in the week

Red is the cost you carry today. Green is what the system gives back.

Today

  • Vendors pitch tools before anyone measured the problem
  • AI budget goes to pilots nobody uses after month two
  • No shared number for what a manual process actually costs
  • Decisions wait because the owner has no comparable options

After

  • A ranked list with cost and payback in front of you
  • Pilots only where a measured problem justifies one
  • Every process step carries a price your finance lead accepts
  • Decisions take a meeting because the options are comparable

Objections

Answered before you ask

Is this just the Diagnostic again?

The Diagnostic is the entry engagement and covers one company at a high level. Advisory goes deeper: more interviews, more processes, and a full twelve-month sequence.

Will you recommend your own build work?

Sometimes, and we say so plainly. When an existing product covers it, we name the product and the cost. You are paying for a judgment, not a funnel.

Who needs to be in the room?

The owner, whoever runs operations, and two or three people who touch the work daily. Six to ten hours of your team's time in total.

One next step, and it is a paid one on purpose

The AI Opportunity Diagnostic is a fixed-scope engagement. You leave with a ranked plan you can act on with us or without us.

Still sizing the problem? Write to us in your own words first. A person reads it.