Non-executive director
A regular, cherished part of our work since 2003. For established end clients and new agile scale-ups, we are a valued part of the management team. We will add to your strategic thinking and organizational rhythm with an independent & objective perspective. We are a critical friend on business decisions, commercials and man-management.
Our Friendly Review engagements provide bench strength and immediate resource off-fixed overhead. We ensure leaders can look ahead when your business & executive team is thinly stretched.
We have earned our grey hairs over the years from establishing, managing, scaling and selling our own international group to embedding mergers to support to scale-ups and an angel investor to start-ups. We know how to overcome some of your likely pitfalls and will help the CEO & board team bring accountability to strategy, product, numbers and governance steams; thereby helping to deliver revenue & profit centre success.
Service Agency Services
On the service agency side, we often find ourselves working in tandem with procurement and roster agencies in tender processes and advising on how to win and cost that pitch.
In our market research heartland, fresh primary research may not always be the most appropriate or agile enough commercial response; often ‘good enough’ information lies inside the company ‘libraries’ or in public domain. Our rapid response desk research services can provide many answers before primary research programs or ad-hoc studies. Do you think like your client or like an agency? Are you pro-active enough? Are you prepared to invest behind yourself on a big pitch?
A regular start-point for our Friendly Review is what we call a market research health-check, namely to review the alignment of continuous and ad-hoc research programs to strategy, marketing messages and KPIs, thereby providing independent guidance on how to improve the return from your market research budget and staff/agency time. Do you know the key “North Star” metric of your client?
Strategic input – we will improve the framing and accuracy of information retrieval from your addressable audience – and where appropriate migrate slower moving vehicles to more nimble & cost- effective approaches, saving significantly on budget and adding value.
Practical hands on help – at times of stretched resources, holidays and manpower shortages – and when you can’t be in 2 places at once but need to keep to timing milestones.
We look after project delivery and co-operate with your roster agencies, supporting them for you
e.g. by distilling, summarizing and integrating reports on an issue where no-one else has the bandwidth, time or experience to think clearly
e.g. even to manage, observe, and post Covid-19 attend FGDs, Depths, Communities.
Friendly Review Benefits
- Independent, experienced managerial input.
- Improving the ROI from your budgets & resources.
- Verifying & improving the targeting, context and accuracy of your commercial activities, marketing and research vehicles.
- Bench strength – support whilst you work in and on the business.
- Our orientation is productive effort, engagements are about covering as many tasks as possible in hours, not taking full days or long meetings.
- Typically engagements cover 6 months, ca. 200 hours, but have ranged from 1 intensive month to 3 years.
- Low maintenance – view us as a ‘call a friend’ helpline
We make & keep 3 Promises
- The money we help you make (or save) will outweigh your investment in us.
- Senior & experienced people will work on your business.
- We will deliver Insights, Consequences and Recommendations.