
What I do
Clarify your thinking
Many organisations have more strategy than they realise, but less clarity than they need. I work with leadership teams to answer the real questions underneath: ‘Why do we exist?’ and ‘How can we win?’
Find the story, then tell it
A strategy that can’t be communicated isn’t a strategy. I work out what the story is and who needs to hear it, then write and produce it: keynotes, board narratives, investor briefs, films. I have run media businesses as well as newsrooms, so the story is built to change what people do.
Lead as one team
Strong leadership teams share one view of the strategy and act on it together. They trust each other, decide quickly and give the people closest to the work room to act. I help executive teams and the leaders in them do just that.
Expertise × Technology = Depth × Speed
I use technology to do my own work faster and more distinctively, and I build digital tools where they are part of the answer: simplifying a process, telling a story, connecting people to each other and to their data.
Who I am
Before becoming an independent consultant in 2020, I spent 23 years inside some of the biggest digital transformations in media — Sky News, ITV, NBC News, Future. I’ve led teams through the shift to digital, built products from scratch, and written the strategies to start the journey. I work independently; which means you get me, rather than a team that’s never met you.
Work
Tap a service to see the case studies.Click a service to see the case studies.
Strategy
Strategy synthesis
Turning complex strategic thinking into a clear position, a usable framework, and a story leaders can tell.
A national lottery operator needed their strategy distilled from a sprawl of decks and priorities into a single narrative nine senior leaders could tell in their own words. One page. One film. Done in weeks.
A global bank’s property team needed to decide how ambitious their sustainability commitments should be. Four scenarios, financial modelling, competitor benchmarking against three major rivals. Leadership aligned on an accelerated pathway — and a rationale they could defend.
Building digital tools
Most consultants can say where technology would help. I build it: working tools and prototypes that test an idea, simplify a process or connect people to their data.
A national lottery operator needed to show the art of the possible for communicating their social impact at scale — in stores, with a major supermarket partner. A working prototype, built in days, read a government grants database, cross-referenced charity records and local news coverage, and surfaced stories automatically.
A law firm planning their annual partners’ conference needed a way to manage registrations, sessions, preferences and logistics in one place. A custom conference management app, built as a working prototype ahead of the pitch, demonstrated the full capability live in the room.
Storytelling
Storytelling and narrative
Finding the story, then telling it: positioning, narrative, scripts, films, keynotes and communications built to change what people do.
A science innovation campus wanted to celebrate its pandemic-era researchers. A series of articles and films turned individual stories into a campus-wide narrative that attracted new tenants and raised the profile of the site.
A private equity house going through digital transformation needed their people to understand why, not just what. Animated explainer films, produced with a small team, gave the whole organisation a shared story to hold.
Live events and video production
Hybrid and virtual events with the production values of broadcast television.
A global investment bank needed a two-day strategic leadership event for a hundred senior leaders across three cities, delivered entirely remotely. A studio-produced interactive broadcast — with live voting and structured discussion — kept the room engaged across time zones.
A wealth management firm wanted to raise the bar on their annual all-staff town hall year on year. A hybrid format, designed and produced with TV executive-producer experience, ran live across in-person and remote audiences simultaneously — and landed well enough to become a fixture.
Leadership
Workshop facilitation
Sessions that help executive teams share one view of the strategy, build trust and decide faster.
A global architecture firm wanted a new set of values that would hold across a practice spanning multiple countries and cultures. A series of working groups across levels and regions produced values that became, in the words of the CEO, ‘the foundation of our business strategy.’
A multinational investment bank’s Italian leadership team needed to navigate structural change and build collective decision-making capability — half the facilitation delivered in Italian.
Leadership coaching
Coaching for senior leaders and their teams on deciding quickly, building trust and giving people room to act.
A group of early-stage startups, selected for a major bank’s sustainable innovation programme, needed to sharpen their impact narratives and marketing approach. Four webinar sessions and individual office hours produced measurable improvements in how each team told their story.
A responsible lending charity needed their CEO to deliver a high-stakes investor presentation with confidence. Tailored coaching and script refinement — with a well-known patron involved — produced a performance that left investors informed, engaged and on board.
Writing
A selection of articles on strategy, storytelling, AI and leadership.
Why every star needs a solar system
Deborah Turness and Michael Gove rightly argued that people follow people. But how do you build a business your stars don't want to leave?Impact Storytelling and societal impact: compounding for good (6/6)
The last article in my series about combining words and numbers to communicate impact, with the example of the power of a clean floorImpact Storytelling and risk: The value of not finding out (5/6)
How to calculate the multiple costs of a single failure, and why prevention is almost always better value.Impact Storytelling and low staff engagement: The cost you’re already paying (4/6)
How to show a CFO what low engagement is already costing them.