Engagements
A day is not the thing being bought.
The fee is anchored to the appointment an organisation would otherwise make, because that is the decision the engagement replaces.
01 / Four shapes
What is bought, and what closes it.
Preliminary report
Ninety minutes with the executive who would sponsor the work, and a written position at the end of it.
Where the conditions do not indicate an alignment failure, the report says so and the matter closes there.
Black box review
The full investigation and the intervention that closes it. Twelve to 16 weeks, priced by the number of protective layers in scope.
Rising to US$250,000 where the organisation is a multinational group or a regulator.
Realignment
The intervention alone, where a sound investigation already exists and the organisation has been unable to act on it.
The existing findings are tested before the work is accepted, because an intervention on a weak diagnosis is a guess with a schedule.
Register oversight
Quarterly re-scoring of the alignment register, reported to the board independently of the executive it measures.
Available where an investigation has produced the register. It is not sold on its own.
02 / The anchor
Priced against the appointment you would otherwise make.
Each of these roles is capable. Each reports into the hierarchy under examination, and that is the structural reason none of them can produce the finding.
| The appointment | Annual cost | Why it cannot produce the finding |
|---|---|---|
| Chief risk officer | US$150,000–300,000 | Measures compliance against policy, rather than the distance between what leadership believes and what is operationally true |
| Transformation director | US$120,000–220,000 | Owns delivery of the strategy under examination, and reports on milestones rather than on premises |
| Head of organisational development | US$130,000–250,000 | Holds the interpersonal skill without an investigative mandate or board-grade financial framing |
| Strategy consultancy | US$300,000 upward | Examines the document and the operating model, rather than what the team believed at the moment it acted |
A permanent appointment is a poor remedy for a bounded failure.
03 / The qualifying test
One question decides whether the work applies.
Does another organisation's ability to operate depend on this one? Where the answer is yes, the cost of a misaligned leadership team is carried by people who are not its customers.
Where the work applies
Where it does not
04 / Terms
Four terms, stated before a fee is quoted.
- The sponsor holds the authority to act on what the investigation finds.
- Blame sits outside the terms of reference, in writing.
- Restructuring is suspended for the duration of the first phase.
- The findings report is delivered whole, including the parts that were uncomfortable to write.
Where a fee comparison is requested against a day rate, the engagement is declined. A day rate places a bounded finding beside an hourly service, and the two are different purchases.
05 / Next
The preliminary report costs nothing.
Ninety minutes, structured questions, and a written position on whether an investigation is warranted.