The first two years were genuinely difficult. I had one anchor client, a housing association in the Midlands, and I spent a lot of time wondering if I'd made a mistake. The pandemic turned out to be, oddly, the thing that clarified the work. Organisations suddenly needed to think clearly under pressure, and they needed someone who wasn't inside the building. By late 2020 I had more work than I could take on, and I had to make a decision about whether to grow or stay small. I stayed small. I think that was right.
Two regional charities had formally merged eighteen months earlier but were still operating as separate organisations with separate cultures. I ran a diagnostic, identified three specific structural decisions that had never been made, and helped the board make them. Six months later the finance teams were sharing a system.
— DiagnosticA mid-size manufacturer had a five-year strategy document that staff couldn't summarise and leadership couldn't agree on. I spent four weeks reading everything, interviewing twelve people, and wrote a six-page document that replaced it. The CEO said it was the first time he'd seen the strategy and believed it.
— Strategy SprintA technology team at a public sector body had 40% turnover in two years. The assumption was pay. The actual problem was a decision-making structure that made everyone feel powerless. We redesigned the team's operating model over one quarter. Turnover in the following year was under 10%.
— Embedded QuarterI've sat in a lot of rooms where someone has written a problem statement on a whiteboard and…
I've been on both sides of this. I've been the consultant brought in to solve something that…
I've read somewhere around two hundred strategy documents over the past decade. Sector strategies,…
Marcus Hale spent eight years at a mid-size operations consultancy in Bristol before going independent in 2019. Before that, he ran a process redesign project for a regional NHS trust that cut patient-facing admin time by roughly a third. He left the firm when he realised he was spending more time managing internal politics than actually solving client problems. He reads widely in systems theory and organisational psychology, keeps a paper notebook for every engagement, and is slowly working through the complete works of Russell Ackoff. He lives somewhere between a spreadsheet and a long walk.
Yes, though the minimum engagement size is £2,400. I've worked with organisations of six people and organisations of six hundred. The size matters less than whether the problem is real and the people involved are willing to look at it honestly.
The Diagnostic is four weeks. The Strategy Sprint is six. The Embedded Quarter is twelve. The Writing work varies, usually one to three weeks. I don't do open-ended engagements. We agree a scope and a timeline before anything starts.
I've worked with organisations in Ireland, the Netherlands, and remotely with a team based in Canada. Most of my work is UK-based, but geography isn't a hard limit. Remote works fine for most of what I do.
