Most performance problems are not growth problems.
They are alignment problems.
Strategy agreed in principle.
Behaviour not unified in practice.
Ambition outpacing operational reality.
The instability rarely begins in the pipeline. It begins at the top.
How it shows up
Nothing is collapsing. The business is functioning. But the signs are there if you know where to look.
Decisions get made, then quietly revisited. The same issues circle the leadership team without resolving. Functions pull in slightly different directions. The founder is still the decision point for everything that matters.
Forecasts get revised more often than they are met. The business is busy. The numbers do not reflect the effort.
None of it looks like crisis. All of it is misalignment, and it compounds.
What I do
I operate as a Board Adviser and Fractional CMO.
I work with senior leaders whose businesses are under real commercial pressure, across sectors and ownership structures. I am most useful where at least one leader is willing to look honestly at where the misalignment starts, which is usually at the top.
I come in when growth is real but the commercial engine needs to mature, or when a team needs senior commercial leadership at short notice. I read the system quickly. Sales and marketing alignment. Pipeline and forecasting. Positioning and message. The operating rhythm underneath revenue.
I am not a consultant who diagnoses and leaves. I am embedded. I own the function, sit in the operating rhythm, and answer for the outcome.
I take a small number of engagements at once. Fractional, interim, or advisory. A day or two a week, or a defined brief with an end date.
Where I’ve done it
Thirty years across technology, consumer and complex services businesses. Two pieces of work tell you most of what you need to know.
At its essence, I am brought in to find the biggest problems and build the solutions. Most recently as Chief Marketing Officer and main-board director of a PE-backed business. New business was not working. The function meant to drive top-of-funnel engagement with new clients was not delivering, so there was no real pipeline being created. I stepped past the marketing remit and my team built that engine ourselves, bringing prospects to the table through events and outreach. When I found those prospects were not being converted, I addressed that too, with structured nurture. I go in as adviser to the CEO. I stay to fix what is not working.
And I ran a business inside THG. Managing director of a 200-person creative company through its acquisition, holding revenue, talent and client relationships together inside one of the most demanding operating environments in the market. Anyone who knows THG knows what that takes.
Writing
Alongside the advisory work, I write about leadership under pressure. Not as theory, but as lived experience.
Let’s talk
If you recognise the misalignment above, and you’re ready to address it, we should speak.