Three ways to work with me
Every engagement runs on the same commercial method. Find the money you are losing, build the engine you are missing, then govern it so it keeps working. What changes is the intensity. Pick the way in that matches where your business is.
The method has carried a P&L, not merely advised one. Profit went from £6m to £24m at Majestic Wine. The trade customer base quadrupled at Wickes. Hamleys sold for £70m.
The Builder - fractional CMO
For founder-led and family businesses from £30m to £80m where marketing has outgrown instinct. You get a professional marketing function: the leadership off your desk, a team that thinks as well as does, and spend you can defend. Two to four days a month.
Read about fractional CMO work →
The Co-Pilot - alongside you or your CMO
For businesses from £80m to £200m that already have a marketing leader. Sometimes the CMO brings me in. Sometimes the CEO does. The job is the same either way: put hard numbers behind marketing so it wins the CFO and investor arguments. I make the CMO stronger, not smaller. I do not want the job.
The Advisor - NED, Chair and board advisory
For boards of consumer businesses that need independent challenge on customer, commercial, digital and AI. Governance from someone who has sat in the executive chair, not watched it. Currently Non-Executive Chair at Harvey Jones and a NED with ExtraCare Retail and VIY. Two to five days a quarter.
Read about non-executive director services →
Which one fits?
| The Builder | The Co-Pilot | The Advisor | |
| Best for | £30m to £80m turnover | £80m to £200m turnover | £200m turnover and above |
| My role | Fractional CMO | Ally to you and your CMO | Board advisor, NED or Chair |
| What you get | A professional marketing function where you had a founder's instinct and a junior team | Numbers that win the CFO and investor arguments, and a stronger CMO | Independent challenge and assurance on the numbers that reach your board |
| Time | 2 to 4 days a month | 1 to 2 days a month | 2 to 5 days a quarter |
| You talk to me as | Founder or CEO | CEO or CMO | Chair or main board |
Most first conversations start with a problem, not a proposition. Bring the problem. If none of the three fits, I will say so, and I will usually know someone who can help.
Talk to me first, decide later
The first conversation costs you nothing and commits you to nothing. Bring one problem you cannot get to the bottom of. If I am not the right person, I will tell you.