Pittsburgh, on site. Elsewhere, mostly not.
Priced by the week, and every week ends with something you can use without me.
I fix how small companies run day to day — the handoffs, the scheduling, the thing that always goes wrong on a Thursday. Not by writing a report about it. By standing in it for a week and leaving something behind that works when I have gone.
- A week
- $6,500
- A day
- $1,800
- Minimum
- Two weeks
- Notice to stop
- None
A week is four days on your work and one on mine. The fifth day is where the writing happens, and the writing is the deliverable.
Operations review, two weeks, $13,000.
You know something is wrong and cannot name it. Most engagements start here and about half stop here too.
| When | Work | What exists at the end |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | On site. I watch, I follow three jobs end to end, and I interview eight people including the two everybody warns me about. | A map of how work actually moves, which is never the map on the wall. |
| Week 2 | The findings, written and argued with you rather than presented at you. | Ten to fifteen problems, ranked by what they cost you, with the three worth fixing first marked. |
- By the week, not by the project
- A project price rewards me for going slowly and rewards you for adding scope. A weekly rate makes both of us count the weeks, which is the correct incentive for everybody.
- Every week ends with an artefact
- A map, a rebuilt process, a written handover, a hiring plan. If a week ends and there is nothing you could use without me, it was a bad week and I will say so before you do.
- Stop at the end of any week
- No notice period and no minimum beyond the first two. Roughly half of operations reviews stop after week two, which is a fine outcome and often the right one.
- I work where the work is
- On the floor, in the warehouse, next to the person doing the scheduling. Not in a meeting room being briefed about it.
Five things I turn down.
Published, because saying no in a meeting is easy and saying it on your own website is the only version anybody should believe.
Why, in each caseRedundancy programmes
If the plan is already to cut people, you do not need an outsider to legitimise it. I will not be the reason it looked considered.
Anything where the answer is decided
Being hired to produce a report that agrees with a decision already made is a waste of your money and my week.
Software selection
Your process is broken and a system will encode the broken version. Fix the process, then buy something. I will not run a vendor bake-off.
Companies under about ten people
At that size the operation is a person, not a system, and my week costs more than the problem. Ring me in two years.
Board-level advisory work
Not what I do. I work where the work happens, which is usually two floors below where I would be invited.
A day of watching costs $1,800 and commits you to nothing.
