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Services

21 engagements, each with a subject and a completion test

An engagement is on this page only if it has a subject, something you are left holding, and a way for you to establish it is finished. Work whose result cannot be produced is not an engagement — it is a justification for an hourly rate.

The written management frame of an organisation

Management Consultancies

Not advice to management but the documents that record it: where the company is going, who owns what, who may sign what, which numbers it checks itself against, and what it does by when. The subject of every engagement is an artefact you can show to somebody else — a strategy document with a dated roadmap, a target structure with role charters, an authority matrix, a policy manual, an indicator library, a savings register, a programme tracker.

  1. 01

    Corporate strategy and roadmap

    Where the company competes, what it stops doing, and the dated roadmap that follows

    Why this exists

    The shareholder approved three priorities at the annual meeting — a second market, a new product line, a move to direct sales. Eight months on the chief executive cannot say which of the three is underfunded: the operating budget was built on last year's cost centres, nobody is named as owner of the second market, and asked what the company is doing this year, three first-line managers give three different answers.

    Interviews with the shareholder and the first line; analysis of the current revenue, customer and cost portfolio from your own management data; two or three resource-allocation scenarios, each with its refusals stated — what the company stops doing; one scenario chosen in a workshop with the shareholder; that choice broken down into initiatives with owners, dates, headcount and a spending envelope.

    What you are left holding

    • Strategy document of 10–25 pages — markets served, the offer, and an explicit not-doing list
    • Initiative portfolio — 8 to 15 initiatives, each with an owner, start and finish date, headcount and spend envelope
    • A 24–36 month roadmap with quarterly milestones
    • Resource allocation table mapping initiative against cost centre and revenue stream
    • Decision log — options considered, option chosen, who approved it and on what date
    Done when
    The shareholder or board has signed the strategy document and the roadmap. Every initiative in the portfolio has a named owner from your own staff, a date and a figure. The decision log is closed — no lines left marked "decide later".
    Duration
    8–12 weeks
    Who buys it
    Shareholder, board chair or chief executive

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — Not a business valuation, and not a financial model built to raise regulated finance. The analysis works on your management data and stops at commercial conclusions.
    • — No tax position is taken. Where a choice has tax consequences, those are for your FTA-registered tax agent.
    • — Not company formation, licensing or immigration work. If the strategy points at a new jurisdiction, the setup itself is done by licensed providers.

    Ask about this engagement →

  2. 02

    Operating model and organisational design

    How the work actually runs today, the target structure, and the roles that own each decision

    Why this exists

    The company has grown from 30 people to 120 and the structure has not changed: the chief executive has eleven direct reports and is still the approval point for procurement, hiring and customer discounts. A customer request passes through four departments, none of which owns the total elapsed time; asked who owns the invoicing process, every manager names the department next door.

    We measure how the work runs now — end-to-end flows from request to cash, the handover points, and the places where work stops. Spans and layers are analysed against your actual staffing. Then two or three target-model options (by product, by customer segment, by end-to-end process), each with its consequences set out, and one chosen in a workshop with the principal. The result is a target structure with headcount, role charters for the first and second line, and a transition plan.

    What you are left holding

    • Current-state operating model map — flows, handover points, where work stops
    • Spans-and-layers analysis against the current staffing structure
    • Target operating model — 2 to 3 options assessed, one selected with the reasoning recorded
    • Target organisation chart with headcount per unit
    • Role charters for first and second line — decisions owned, decisions escalated
    • RACI for cross-functional processes
    • Transition plan — sequence, effective dates, positions to fill, merge or close
    Done when
    The target structure and role charters are approved by you. Every end-to-end process has one named owner. The transition plan carries a date against each position and contains no line reading "to be confirmed".
    Duration
    8–14 weeks
    Who buys it
    Chief executive or chief operating officer; the HR director as co-owner of roles and headcount

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — Not recruitment and not staffing. Filling the positions the design creates is work for MOHRE-licensed providers.
    • — Not employment contracts, visa procedures or payroll. Those stay with you and your legal provider.
    • — Not individual performance assessment. This is structural design — who owns which decision — not an evaluation of the people currently in post.

    Ask about this engagement →

  3. 03

    Governance and delegation framework

    Board charter, authority matrix, and the management risk register that hangs off them

    Why this exists

    A second shareholder has come in and the bank has opened a credit line. The bank wants an authority matrix, the joint-venture partner wants the board charter, and in practice one person signs everything — the limits in the accounting system match neither the bank mandate nor a shareholder resolution from two years ago. When the founder travels, payments and procurement stop for a week.

    We establish what the board decides, what management decides, and what a single signature can commit — then write it down as documents that survive being read by an outsider. Reserved matters, delegated authority by value and by category, and the management-level risk register that hangs off the same ownership structure: the owner of a decision is the owner of its risk.

    What you are left holding

    • Board charter and terms of reference, with reserved matters listed
    • Delegation of authority matrix by value band and decision category
    • Reconciliation of that matrix against existing bank mandates and system limits
    • Management risk register, each line with a named owner and a review date
    • Decision log covering the questions settled during the engagement
    Done when
    The authority matrix is approved and reconciles with your bank mandates and the limits configured in your systems — discrepancies either removed or recorded as accepted, with a signature. The board charter is signed. Every line in the risk register has an owner and a next review date.
    Duration
    6–10 weeks
    Who buys it
    Shareholders and board chair; the company secretary or finance director as custodian. Often initiated by a bank, an incoming investor, or a group parent rather than by the company itself.

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — Not internal audit and not assurance. We design the framework; testing whether controls operate is work for a licensed auditor.
    • — Not a legal opinion. Where a constitutional document or shareholder agreement must be drafted or interpreted, that is work for your licensed legal consultants.
    • — Not financial or insurance risk advice. The register covers management-level risk ownership and escalation, not investment or treasury positions.

    Ask about this engagement →

  4. 04

    Process architecture and policy manual

    Processes mapped as they run, then the numbered policies that hold them

    Why this exists

    You are going through accreditation with a corporate client who wants written procedures for procurement and order handling. Inside the company there are forty instruction files from different years: some contradict each other, half reference employees who have left and a form that no longer exists. A new joiner learns from the person at the next desk rather than from a document, and each of them does it differently.

    A process inventory with owners and a criticality rating. Five to ten priority end-to-end flows measured as they actually run, with real cycle times and rework loops. Then target maps with an explicit list of what changes between as-is and to-be, and a policy manual written to be used operationally and to be shown to a counterparty — numbered documents, versions, owners and review dates, with the forms and checklists each procedure refers to.

    What you are left holding

    • Process inventory with owners and criticality rating
    • As-is process maps for 5–10 priority flows, with cycle times and rework loops
    • To-be process maps and the change list between as-is and to-be
    • Policy and procedure manual — numbered documents, version, owner, review date
    • Forms, checklists and templates referenced by each procedure
    • Document control register
    Done when
    The manual is approved by the process owners. Every procedure references a form that exists and every form references a procedure that exists. Your own staff have walked through the new procedure without a consultant present, and the observations from that walkthrough are incorporated.
    Duration
    8–12 weeks per functional area
    Who buys it
    Chief operating officer or a function head — procurement, sales, service; the quality manager where there is one. Usually triggered by a corporate client or partner requirement

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — Not certification. We prepare the content; certification against a standard is carried out by an accredited body.
    • — Not an audit of whether procedures are being followed. That is assurance work and belongs to a licensed auditor.
    • — Not accounting procedures or the preparation of financial statements — those sit with your finance function and its licensed providers.

    Ask about this engagement →

  5. 05

    Performance management and KPI framework

    One definition per indicator, one source per number, one review that produces decisions

    Why this exists

    The monthly management pack runs to sixty slides, of which four get looked at. "Revenue" in the sales report and in the finance report differ by eight per cent because they are recognised at different moments, and the meeting is spent establishing whose number is right instead of deciding anything. Bonuses are tied to indicators whose source nobody can name out loud.

    Objectives from the strategy reduced to a limited set of indicators, each with a definition, a formula, a data source, an owner and a frequency. The cascade from corporate level to function to role, reconciled so that the lower indicators actually add up to the higher ones. Baselines and targets naming the period each number came from. A reporting pack template and a review charter: who attends, what they decide, how the decision is recorded.

    What you are left holding

    • KPI library — definition, formula, data source, owner and frequency for each indicator
    • Scorecards at corporate, functional and role level, cascaded and reconciled
    • Baseline and target table naming the period each number came from
    • Monthly reporting pack template of 8–12 pages, not 60
    • Review cadence charter — participants, agenda, decision rights, how decisions are recorded
    • Data gap list — indicators your current systems cannot produce, and what is needed to produce them
    Done when
    Two reporting cycles have been run on the new pack by your own people. No indicator is interpreted differently by two functions. The minutes of both reviews record decisions with owners, not only discussion.
    Duration
    6–10 weeks, plus two reporting cycles of support
    Who buys it
    Chief executive as owner of the review; finance director as owner of the data; HR director where indicators are tied to bonuses

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — We do not prepare or certify financial statements. Indicators are computed from your own data and your own sources.
    • — Not an audit of the figures. Whether the underlying records are accurate is a question for a licensed auditor.
    • — Not payroll or bonus administration. Where indicators feed remuneration, the scheme itself stays with you and your advisers.

    Ask about this engagement →

  6. 06

    Cost base review and savings pipeline

    A cost baseline built from your own management data, then a register of initiatives with owners and run-rate dates

    Why this exists

    Margin has fallen six points in two years while volume grew. The chief executive asks for "ten per cent out", and finance replies with a four-hundred-line general ledger extract with no structure: it is not visible which part of overhead serves which revenue stream, which supplier contracts renew automatically, or at what point a cut runs into a service level already promised to a customer.

    Twelve months of cost restated by category, cost centre and the revenue stream each cost serves, from your own management data; the split between direct and serving costs; spans and layers; the third-party contract portfolio reviewed by renewal date and notice period. Then an initiative register with the value of each, the one-off cost to achieve it, and the date it reaches run rate — plus the mechanics for tracking whether it did.

    What you are left holding

    • Cost baseline — 12 months restated by category, cost centre and revenue stream served
    • Third-party spend and contract register with renewal dates and notice periods
    • Initiative register — owner, value, one-off cost to achieve, run-rate date
    • Spans and layers table with comparison points
    • Savings tracker and the monthly pack that runs it
    Done when
    The cost baseline is agreed with your finance function and reconciles to your management accounts. The initiative register is signed, every line has an owner from your own staff and a run-rate date. The first month of tracking has been run and the variance between plan and actual is explained line by line.
    Duration
    4–8 weeks for the review; tracking runs in quarterly cycles
    Who buys it
    Chief executive and finance director; the shareholder where the work is preparation for a stake sale or an incoming partner

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — Not an audit. The analysis is commercial work on figures you provide; whether those records are accurate is a question for a licensed auditor.
    • — Not tax advice. Where a cost decision has a tax consequence, that is for your FTA-registered tax agent.
    • — Not bookkeeping or accounting services. We restate your management data for analysis; we do not keep your books.
    • — Not redundancy administration. Where a decision affects positions, the employment process stays with you and your legal provider.

    Ask about this engagement →

  7. 07

    Implementation and change office

    The office that runs approved decisions to their dates, and the executive cadence around it

    Why this exists

    The strategy is approved, the structure is drawn, and six months have passed: of fourteen initiatives, three have moved. The rest are waiting on people who run them in addition to their actual jobs. A merger of two departments has been announced, but staff do not know who they report to from the first of the month, and two key people have already resigned. Nobody holds, in one place, what was promised to the shareholder against what has actually been done.

    Mobilisation — initiative charters, a master milestone plan with dependencies, a weekly review cadence. A live register of risks, issues and blockers with an escalation route and a named recipient. Where units merge, split or close: a transition plan covering reporting lines, effective dates and the sequence of communication. Benefits tracked against what the roadmap promised, and a decision memo before each choice put to the chief executive or the board.

    What you are left holding

    • Initiative charters — scope, owner, milestones, and what counts as done
    • Master milestone plan with dependencies and dates
    • Weekly review pack and the decision log it produces
    • Risk, issue and blocker register with escalation route and named escalation owner
    • Transition plan — unit by unit, effective dates, reporting-line changes, communication sequence
    • Benefits tracker — promised against realised, by initiative
    • Executive decision memos — options and a recommendation, one per decision
    Done when
    Every initiative is closed one of three ways: delivered against its own completion test, stopped by a decision recorded in the log, or handed to a line owner with a date. The benefits tracker reconciles to the roadmap and the variances are explained line by line. You have accepted the programme closure report.
    Duration
    3–9 months, in quarterly cycles with a scope review at each boundary
    Who buys it
    Chief executive as programme owner; shareholder or board as the recipient of progress and benefit reporting

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — Organisational restructuring here means structure, roles and reporting lines. Debt restructuring, insolvency and liquidation are regulated and legal matters and are not within scope.
    • — Not recruitment. Where the plan creates positions, filling them is work for MOHRE-licensed providers.
    • — Not employment process. Terminations, contracts and settlements stay with you and your legal provider.
    • — We do not hold executive authority. Decisions are put to your management with options and a recommendation; they are taken by you.

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Decisions about the offer, and a marketing function that can be held to them

Marketing Management

Not campaigns and not execution. Four kinds of subject: fixing what the company sells and to whom, and turning that into a dated plan with owners; taking one product to one market by a committed date; putting order into the range, the price and the right to discount; and making marketing spend and its result legible to a board. What comes out is a decision recorded in a document your own teams and agencies can execute.

  1. 01

    Brand positioning and marketing plan

    One positioning statement per priority segment, and a twelve-month plan with a budget figure and an owner on every line

    Why this exists

    Three people in the company describe what is sold in three different ways: the website says one thing, the sales deck a second, the founder in a meeting a third. The marketing budget goes against whichever version the agency heard last, and nobody can name the segment the company is actually trying to take.

    We interview leadership and sales, read every piece of marketing material from the last twelve months along with the deal records, and size the addressable segments from published and licensed sources. We fix one positioning statement per priority segment and derive from it a message set with proof points and objection answers. That becomes a twelve-month plan: which segments, which channels, how much money, in which quarter, with a name against every line. Where existing material contradicts the agreed positioning, it goes into a rewrite register with priorities.

    What you are left holding

    • Positioning statement per priority segment, one page each
    • Segment and buyer map with the decision roles named
    • Message set — value proposition, proof points, objection answers
    • Twelve-month plan with quarterly milestones, spend per channel and a named owner per line
    • Rewrite register of existing material — the item, what contradicts the positioning, the priority
    • Walkthrough deck for the leadership meeting
    Done when
    Leadership signs one positioning statement per segment, and every line of the twelve-month plan carries an owner's name and a budget figure. Not one line is left with "TBD" where the owner should be.
    Duration
    5–8 weeks
    Who buys it
    Founder or chief executive in a company with no marketing lead; the marketing director where one exists and has a mandate to rebuild the offer

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — Marketing management advisory only. Creative production, media buying, PR and event management are separate licensed activities and are delivered by your own teams and agencies, whose work we help coordinate.
    • — Not advertising placement. Where the plan calls for paid media, the buying is done by your agency under the plan.
    • — No surveys, focus groups or consumer panels are run in the UAE — field research requires its own permit. Segment sizing is desk research.

    Ask about this engagement →

  2. 02

    Go-to-market and launch plan

    A dated launch plan for one product in one market, with the pre-launch gates named and owned

    Why this exists

    The product has an announced launch date in the UAE and the engineering side is on schedule. The commercial side is an unsigned channel, an unapproved price, and a launch week in which four teams each believe somebody else is making the announcement.

    For one product in one target market we define the entry segment and the entry proposition, choose the launch channels and set their sequence, and build the plan counting back from the committed date. We name the pre-launch gates — what must be true for the launch to continue — and put an owner, a date and a go/no-go criterion on each. Where a gate depends on a licence, permit or approval, it is recorded as a dependency with a date, while the application itself stays with your licensed advisers.

    What you are left holding

    • Launch brief — target segment, entry proposition, and what is deliberately out of scope
    • Dated launch plan by workstream, counted back from the committed date
    • Pre-launch gate list with owner, date and go/no-go criterion per gate
    • Channel and campaign sequence for the launch window with spend per channel
    • Launch-week runbook — who announces what, on which day, in which channel
    • First-90-days measurement sheet with the numbers that decide scale or stop
    Done when
    Every gate in the plan carries a date and every line of the launch week carries an owner, and your launch committee accepts the go/no-go criteria as the ones it will actually decide on.
    Duration
    4–6 weeks
    Who buys it
    Commercial or product director carrying the launch date; a regional general manager where the launch is entry into a new market

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — Not creative production and not media buying. The plan says what runs where and when; your agencies produce and place it.
    • — Licences, permits and product approvals are dependencies in the plan, not work we perform. Applications are made by you or your licensed providers.
    • — No regulatory or legal clearance is given. Where a gate turns on a legal question, it is marked as requiring your legal consultants' confirmation.

    Ask about this engagement →

  3. 03

    Portfolio and pricing architecture

    One price list, a discount authority matrix, and a verdict against every item in the range

    Why this exists

    The range has grown to forty items, six of which carry the margin, and sales discount at their own discretion because nobody wrote down who may approve what. Two customers in the same segment pay prices that differ by a third, and there is no one who can explain the difference.

    We build the revenue and margin picture by item and segment from your own data and put a verdict against every item — keep, reprice, retire, merge — with the reason recorded. Then the price architecture: the list price, the corridor within which sales may move, and the approval level required to leave it. Where you are changing how you charge — one-off to subscription, bundled to unbundled — we model the revenue effect with the assumptions written out.

    What you are left holding

    • Revenue and margin analysis by item and segment, with the source data noted
    • Portfolio decision register — item, verdict, reason
    • Price architecture — list price, discount corridor and floor per segment and channel
    • Discount authority matrix — who approves which deviation, up to what limit
    • Revenue model scenarios with the assumptions written out
    • Transition sheet — which customers move to new prices when, and what is said to them
    Done when
    One price list exists and sales have received it as binding. Every discount outside the corridor has a named approver. The portfolio register carries a verdict against every item, with no empty cells.
    Duration
    6–9 weeks
    Who buys it
    Commercial director or CFO; in an owner-managed company the owner, usually after a quarter of falling margin

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — Pricing advisory for your own commercial decisions only. We do not exchange pricing data between market participants or coordinate market conditions — that is prohibited under UAE competition law.
    • — No tax position is taken. Where a pricing change affects VAT treatment, it is flagged and passed to your FTA-registered tax agent.
    • — Not sector price regulation advice. Where a regulated price applies, the question goes to your legal consultants.

    Ask about this engagement →

  4. 04

    Customer acquisition and retention programme

    The funnel arithmetic, the channel mix it justifies, and a retention programme with named triggers

    Why this exists

    Acquisition cost has risen for three quarters running. Marketing reports leads, finance reports revenue, and the two numbers have never been connected. At the same time a fifth of customers do not renew, and at what point in the relationship they decide that is known to nobody.

    We build the end-to-end funnel model — traffic, lead, qualified lead, deal, retention — from your CRM and channel data, and derive acquisition cost and payback period by channel and segment. From that arithmetic we set the channel mix and the target acquisition cost each channel has to hold. On the retention side we analyse cohorts and churn, find the lifecycle points where customers leave, and design the programme: trigger, action, owner, measure.

    What you are left holding

    • Funnel model with the conversion rate and data source at each stage
    • Acquisition cost and payback table by channel and segment
    • Channel mix plan with target cost per acquisition, budget and volume per channel
    • Cohort and churn analysis identifying the lifecycle points where customers leave
    • Retention programme design — trigger, action, owner and success measure per play
    • Loyalty or referral mechanic specification with its economics modelled
    Done when
    Marketing and finance read the same acquisition cost from the same model. Every retention play has a named trigger, a named owner and a measure, and the first cohort has been through at least one trigger.
    Duration
    6–8 weeks
    Who buys it
    Marketing director or head of growth; the CFO where the trigger was the acquisition cost line in a report

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — Not campaign execution, creative production or media buying. We set the mix and the targets; your teams and agencies run the campaigns.
    • — Loyalty mechanics are designed commercially. Where a mechanic touches promotion rules or consent for personal data processing, it is flagged for your legal consultants — the UAE data protection law is consent-first.
    • — Not CRM implementation. We work from the data your systems already hold and list what they cannot produce.

    Ask about this engagement →

  5. 05

    Route to market and partner development

    Which route carries the product into the market, and a screened shortlist of named partners with terms to negotiate

    Why this exists

    The company sells direct at home, and the board has set a target of three GCC countries next year with no local presence. The options — distributor, agent, reseller, marketplace, own entity — have never been compared side by side, and the two distributor conversations that did happen both opened with a draft agreement the distributor brought.

    We map the routes available to the product in the target market and compare them on margin, control, time to first revenue and what each demands of you. Then we map the actual players — distributors, resellers, channel and platform partners — and screen them against criteria agreed with you in advance: coverage, current portfolio, conflicts, payment reputation from public and commercial sources. The output is a ranked shortlist with contact routes and a commercial terms framework: what to ask for and what can be conceded.

    What you are left holding

    • Route-to-market comparison — option, margin, control, time to first revenue, requirements
    • Channel architecture showing which segment is served by which route, with conflict rules
    • Partner and distributor map for the target markets with company profiles
    • Screened shortlist ranked against the agreed criteria, with contact routes
    • Commercial terms framework — exclusivity, targets, margin, term, exit; ask and concede positions
    • Partner onboarding sequence covering the first ninety days of obligations on both sides
    Done when
    A shortlist exists that your commercial team has accepted as the list it will work from, and every candidate has a contact route. The terms framework is approved before the first negotiation rather than after it.
    Duration
    6–10 weeks
    Who buys it
    Commercial or export director; the chief executive where regional expansion is a board mandate

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — Screening is commercial. It is not legal or financial due diligence, and agreements are drafted by your legal consultants.
    • — Not a credit check — payment reputation is assessed from public and commercial sources, since credit information is the exclusive province of Al Etihad Credit Bureau.
    • — We do not negotiate on your behalf and take no commission from any partner.
    • — Not company formation or licensing in the target markets.

    Ask about this engagement →

  6. 06

    Marketing performance and reporting framework

    A KPI tree down from the revenue line, a dashboard specification, and review meetings that decide something

    Why this exists

    The monthly marketing report runs to thirty slides of channel metrics, the board asks what the money bought, and assembling the answer takes a week. Two teams calculate customer lifetime value differently, so the same campaign is profitable in one deck and not in the other.

    We build the indicator tree from the revenue line down to the metrics marketing actually controls, and write one canonical definition per metric — including the contested ones — agreed with your finance side. We specify the dashboard: which three to five numbers are shown large, what history is shown, what single level of detail sits under each number. Then the reporting calendar by audience — weekly operational, monthly management, quarterly board — and the review itself: who attends, what decision is expected, what happens when a metric crosses a threshold.

    What you are left holding

    • KPI tree from the revenue line down to controllable marketing metrics
    • Metric definition register — name, formula, data source, owner, signed off with finance
    • Dashboard specification — layout, hero metrics, drill-downs, thresholds and alerts
    • Reporting calendar by audience with a template for each report
    • Review meeting terms of reference — attendees, agenda, decisions expected
    • Baseline report produced once, end to end, against the new definitions
    Done when
    One report has been assembled end to end under the new framework and accepted at your own management meeting, and no metric in it still has two competing definitions in circulation.
    Duration
    4–6 weeks
    Who buys it
    Marketing director being asked for reporting; the chief executive or board member who asked for a number and did not get it

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — Not analytics implementation or data engineering. We specify what the dashboard must show and list what your systems cannot currently produce.
    • — Not an audit of the underlying figures. Accuracy of the source records is a question for your finance function and its licensed advisers.
    • — Not media buying or campaign management. Budget optimisation here means the allocation decision and its reporting, not the placement.

    Ask about this engagement →

  7. 07

    Marketing spend and vendor review

    Where the marketing budget actually goes, which supplier owns which scope, and what gets cut first

    Why this exists

    Marketing spend is spread across nine suppliers, three of whom have overlapping scopes, and two of whom invoice a retainer against work nobody has reviewed in months. The budget line is being cut by a fifth, and the marketing lead cannot say which supplier to release without losing something needed.

    We build the actual spend register from invoices and contracts — supplier, scope, monthly cost, contract end, notice period — and map each supplier against the work they are supposed to do. Overlaps, gaps and unreviewed retainers are named. Budget is reallocated against the agreed marketing plan, with a cut-and-reinvest list in priority order and the consequence of each cut stated. For the suppliers who stay, a scope brief, a deliverable list and the scorecard they will be reviewed against.

    What you are left holding

    • Spend register — supplier, scope, monthly and annual cost, contract end, notice period
    • Supplier-to-scope map marking overlaps, gaps and unreviewed retainers
    • Reallocated budget against the marketing plan, by channel and quarter
    • Cut and reinvest list in priority order, with the stated consequence of each cut
    • Scope brief and deliverable list per retained supplier
    • Vendor scorecard and review cadence with the reviewer named
    • Consolidation plan with sequence and notice dates where suppliers are merged or released
    Done when
    The spend register explains the whole marketing budget with no unexplained remainder. Every retained supplier has a signed scope brief and a first scorecard review in the calendar.
    Duration
    4–6 weeks
    Who buys it
    Marketing director under a budget cut; the CFO or COO where procurement raised the question

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — We do not negotiate with or manage your suppliers. We give the commercial position; the negotiation and any contract amendment stay with you and your legal advisers.
    • — We take no commission, rebate or referral fee from any supplier, and we do not bid for the scopes we review.
    • — Not an audit of supplier invoices. Discrepancies are listed for your finance function, which decides how to pursue them.

    Ask about this engagement →

A checkable basis for one commercial decision

Commercial Information Services

Not analytics and not insight: the grounds for a specific decision — how much money is here, who is already taking it, through whom to sell, whether to enter at all, and whether the case survives somebody else checking it. The subject is a register and a model rather than a report: segments with a source under every figure, a demand model whose assumptions you can change yourself, a competitor register with collected prices, a partner register with a completed scorecard.

  1. 01

    Market sizing and demand assessment

    Market size, the part of it you can actually reach, and a demand forecast built bottom-up and top-down with the gap explained

    Why this exists

    The board has asked for a regional budget, and the only market figure in the deck comes from another vendor's press release. There is nothing to support it when the budget is challenged, and to the question "how much of that volume is actually available to us, at our price, through our channel" the company has no answer — because nobody has broken the market into the segments it is made of.

    The market is split into segments along whichever line actually affects your decision — buyer type, price tier, channel — and each segment is counted two independent ways: bottom-up from buyer numbers, frequency and average transaction, and top-down from industry or import statistics. Where the two counts disagree, the gap is not smoothed over: it goes in the text with the assumption that creates it and the check that would close it. The forecast runs three to five years in three scenarios, with the drivers of each named separately from the arithmetic.

    What you are left holding

    • Market size model in two counts, bottom-up and top-down, with the assumptions on their own sheet for you to change
    • Segment register — definition, size, growth rate, price tier, and how reachable each is for you
    • Demand forecast over 3–5 years in three scenarios, with the drivers of each listed
    • Source register — every figure in the model tied to a source, a date and how it was obtained
    • Reconciliation note — where the two counts disagree, why, and what check would settle it
    Done when
    You open the model, change a key assumption — price, penetration, frequency — and get a recalculated result without us in the room. The gap between the bottom-up and top-down counts is explained in the text rather than tuned away. Every figure in the summary table has a line in the source register beneath it.
    Duration
    3–5 weeks
    Who buys it
    Commercial director or head of strategy defending a regional budget or an investment case to an owner

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — Desk research and structured synthesis of published, licensed and proprietary secondary sources. We do not run surveys, interviews or consumer panels in the UAE — field research requires its own permit.
    • — Market data is compiled from published and licensed sources with the methodology stated. It is not audited data and carries no assurance opinion.
    • — Not a valuation and not an investment recommendation. The model informs your own commercial decision.

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  2. 02

    Competitive landscape benchmark

    A competitor register with collected prices, terms and coverage, reduced to one comparable table

    Why this exists

    Sales has been losing deals for three quarters and explains it by the competitor's price — but the company holds not a single competitor price list. The size of a discount is decided on a salesperson's account of what the customer said, and that salesperson has an interest in the discount being approved. Nobody can say whether the loss is price, specification or lead time.

    We assemble the list of players you actually meet in deals, and record for each what is externally visible and verifiable: what is in the offer, public or collected price points, delivery and payment terms, geography and channels, segments served, and public statements of intent. It reduces to one matrix with the same axes for every player, so the difference reads rather than drowning in prose. Price points are restated to a comparable specification, because comparing list prices without that step produces the wrong conclusion.

    What you are left holding

    • Competitor register — a profile per player in one common structure
    • Comparison matrix on shared axes — offer, price, terms, coverage, channel, segment
    • Price point table restated to comparable specification
    • Positioning map on the two axes that matter in your market
    • Observed changes over the last 12–18 months — launches, exits, price moves — with dates
    • Source register naming how each line was obtained
    Done when
    Your salesperson takes the matrix into a live deal and finds in it the price point and terms of the player they are up against. Every line has a source. Every axis is filled for every player, and where there is no data it says "no data" with the reason rather than being left blank.
    Duration
    2–4 weeks
    Who buys it
    Marketing director or head of product; in smaller companies the commercial director needing to justify a price revision

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — Open and commercially available sources only. We do not use methods that involve misrepresentation or obtaining confidential information.
    • — Not a credit check or a creditworthiness assessment — credit information in the UAE is the exclusive province of Al Etihad Credit Bureau.
    • — We do not exchange pricing data between market participants or coordinate market conditions. The output informs your own pricing decision alone.

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  3. 03

    Market screening and prioritisation

    Countries compared on criteria agreed before the assessment starts, ending in a ranked shortlist

    Why this exists

    The company has three expansion options and each has an internal champion: one director has been to Saudi Arabia, another knows a partner in Kenya, the third points at the size of India. The choice is going to whoever argues best in the meeting, because no list of criteria exists on which these markets are even comparable — and any ranking can therefore be dismissed as somebody's preference.

    The first step is to agree the comparison criteria and their weights with your leadership, and to sign that document before any data is collected — so that the result cannot later be explained away as weights chosen to fit a known answer. Then the same indicator set is collected for every market: demand size and growth, the number and strength of incumbents, channel availability, price level, entry barriers, and the observed time and cost of a legal presence treated as a commercial cost line. Markets are run through the agreed scheme and ranked.

    What you are left holding

    • Criteria and weights document, agreed with leadership before data collection
    • Screening matrix — every market on one indicator set
    • Ranked shortlist with the reasoning against each criterion
    • One-page profiles of the shortlisted markets
    • List of rejected markets naming the criterion that eliminated each
    • Source register for every indicator of every market
    Done when
    You put your own weights into the matrix — including weights different from the agreed ones — and see whether the shortlist survives the change. For every rejected market the document names the specific criterion and the figure on which it fell out.
    Duration
    3–5 weeks
    Who buys it
    Chief executive or development director who has to bring the board a choice between markets rather than arguments for one

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — The regulatory indicator is a commercial cost and timing observation, not a legal assessment. Legal opinions on any market are for licensed legal consultants in that jurisdiction.
    • — Not company formation, licensing or immigration services in any of the markets screened.
    • — Desk research from published and licensed sources. No field surveys or interviews are conducted in the UAE without the applicable permit.

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  4. 04

    Market entry feasibility study

    A commercial test of entering one chosen market — what to sell, through whom, at what price, at what cost of presence

    Why this exists

    The market is chosen and the money is approved, but nobody knows which part of the product range sells here or through which channel it reaches a buyer. The actual commercial cost of being present — the licence category this activity falls under, observed registration timelines, fees and recurring charges, product certification requirements — is missing from the business case entirely, and the case balances precisely because that line is not in it.

    We test whether entry stands up commercially: which part of your offer meets local demand and at what price, who the buyer is and how they buy today, which presence options are commercially available — direct, distributor, agent, joint venture — and what each gives up in margin, speed and control. The regulatory environment is examined as a cost line rather than as law: which licence category the activity falls under, which authority issues it, what observed timelines and payments that creates, and how that changes the business case.

    What you are left holding

    • Feasibility report with an explicit verdict — enter, do not enter, or enter subject to conditions, with the conditions listed
    • Comparison of presence options by margin, speed to market and degree of control
    • Revenue and entry-cost model with the assumptions sheet open for you to edit
    • Regulatory-commercial map — licence category, authority, observed timelines and payments, effect on the case, marked as requiring legal confirmation
    • Entry roadmap with dates, dependencies, and the point at which the decision is still reversible
    • Risk register with commercial consequence and the signal by which each risk would first show
    Done when
    You take the document to an investment committee and get a decision without a request to go and collect more data. Every condition attached to the verdict is written so it can be checked. The model recalculates when you change price or volume. The regulatory section carries a written boundary saying which part is commercial opinion and which must be confirmed by a licensed lawyer.
    Duration
    6–10 weeks
    Who buys it
    Chief executive or regional managing director answerable to an owner for the decision to commit money to a new market

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — The regulatory section is a high-level commercial review — how requirements shape feasibility, cost and timing. It is not a legal opinion, and you confirm its conclusions with a licensed legal consultant before filing anything.
    • — Not company formation, trade licensing, visa or PRO services. If the verdict is to enter, the setup is carried out by licensed providers.
    • — No tax position is taken. Tax treatment is a matter for an FTA-registered tax agent or the equivalent in the market concerned.
    • — Not an investment recommendation and not a valuation.

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  5. 05

    Channel and distribution mapping

    A register of the market's partners with a completed scorecard, a portfolio-conflict check, and a ranked shortlist

    Why this exists

    The company signed a distributor who turned out to hold the portfolios of two direct competitors. A year on the product sits in his catalogue without selling, and the exclusivity has two years left to run. The choice was made from the inbound letters of intermediaries, because no list of the market's channel players existed and there was nothing to compare against.

    We build the list of channel players in the market — distributors, dealers, system integrators, retail, agents — with a source against every line, so you can see where each candidate came from. For each we collect what is externally verifiable: geography and points of presence, brands already carried (including your direct competitors), segments served, whether they hold stock and service, observable scale. Candidates go through a scorecard with weights agreed with you, and separately through a portfolio-conflict check. In the GCC a significant share of distribution sits with family holdings — they are mapped separately, because missing them is the most common defect in this kind of choice.

    What you are left holding

    • Channel candidate register with a source on every line
    • Scorecard with agreed weights, completed for each shortlisted candidate
    • Ranked shortlist with the portfolio conflict marked against each
    • Channel structure map — tiers, who sells to whom, where the margin sits, estimated volume shares
    • Separate list of the market's large distributing holdings and their portfolios
    • Contact register and the open questions outstanding for each shortlisted candidate
    Done when
    Every shortlisted candidate has a scorecard completed with no gaps, and the portfolio-conflict check has produced a written answer to "which of your competitors are already in his catalogue". You change the weights and get a different ranking yourself. Every line in the register names its source.
    Duration
    4–7 weeks
    Who buys it
    Regional sales director or export director — whoever signs the partner agreement and answers for the volume that comes through it

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — Not a credit check. Financial standing is assessed from public registries and published filings; credit information in the UAE is the exclusive province of Al Etihad Credit Bureau.
    • — Not contract drafting or negotiation. The distribution agreement, and particularly any exclusivity, is drafted and reviewed by your licensed legal consultants.
    • — We do not act as an agent and take no commission from any candidate. The register is built for you, not from the inbound interest of intermediaries.

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  6. 06

    Commercial diligence and investor briefing pack

    A commercial reading of the market and the position in it, built to survive an investment committee

    Why this exists

    The document is not read by you. It is read by a party whose interest runs the other way: an investment committee, a buyer or a bank, testing every market figure for weight. What you hold is the seller's version or your own deck without sources, and to the question "where did this number come from, and does the growth rest on a single segment" there is no answer. Deals and rounds stall on unsupported figures more often than on bad ones.

    We examine the market the target sits in and its position within it: the size and growth of the segments the revenue actually rests on, revenue concentration by segment and customer type, durability of the position against named competitors, dependence on channel. The commercial claims the deal rests on are listed and tested one at a time, with a record of how each was tested and what came back — including the ones that did not survive.

    What you are left holding

    • Commercial memorandum on the market and the position, with the scope boundary stated explicitly
    • Claim test log — the claim, how it was tested, the conclusion, including claims that failed
    • Revenue concentration table by segment, channel and customer type
    • Assumption and source register, every figure tied to a source and a date
    • Answer sheet for the objections the reviewing side can be expected to raise
    • One-page commercial summary for the committee
    Done when
    The reading party walks the memorandum and finds a source under every figure without contacting us. The claim log contains at least one claim that did not pass, or a written statement that all passed and what that rests on. The document carries a signed scope boundary separating commercial analysis from audit, financial and legal due diligence.
    Duration
    4–6 weeks
    Who buys it
    CFO or corporate development director on the company side; on the capital side, a fund's investment committee, a family office or a corporate buyer

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — This is commercial analysis, not an audit and not financial or legal due diligence. We issue no assurance opinion, do not verify financial statements, do not compute normalised EBITDA and do not set a working capital target — that work belongs to a licensed auditor or law firm, and ours sits alongside it rather than instead of it.
    • — Not a valuation and not a fairness opinion.
    • — We do not promote, offer or place securities, funds or investment products, and we do not introduce clients to investors. The material is prepared for your own board and investment committee.

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  7. 07

    Retained market watch

    Market observation on a standing cycle — a watch register, and a quarterly review with a decision under every item

    Why this exists

    A competitor launched at thirty per cent below your price in March, and the company found out in August from a distributor complaining about falling orders. Watching the market is nobody's job: it happens only once something has already broken, and each time it starts from collecting the base figures again, because nobody kept the last review in a comparable form.

    We fix the watch register first: which players, which indicators and which events are tracked, at what threshold a signal is raised, and who inside your company receives it. Then the work runs as a cycle — a signal log between reports, and each quarter a review of what moved against the previous cycle, which base figures were restated, which players entered or left, what changed in prices and terms. Every item in the review ends either in a proposed decision or an explicit "no action required".

    What you are left holding

    • Watch register — players, indicators, events, thresholds, and the named recipient of each signal
    • Signal log with the date each change was detected
    • Quarterly review, structured identically each time so cycles are comparable
    • Restated base figures with the previous value shown alongside
    • A decision or an explicit "no action required" under every item
    Done when
    Each quarterly review is comparable with the last by structure and shows the delta rather than the picture from scratch. Every item carries a decision or a marked "no action required". The signal log shows the date of detection, so you can see the lag between an event in the market and your knowledge of it.
    Duration
    Quarterly cycle, engaged for 12 months or more
    Who buys it
    Head of strategy or commercial director in a company with no market observation function of its own but a regular planning cycle the findings must feed

    Not in scope, and who does it instead

    • — Desk research from published, licensed and commercial sources. No surveys or field interviews are conducted in the UAE without the applicable permit.
    • — Not a monitoring subscription and not a data feed. The deliverable is a reviewed judgement with a decision attached, not a stream of alerts.
    • — We do not collect or exchange pricing data between market participants. Observations are compiled from published sources for your use alone.

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What is not on this page

No prices, no case studies, no client logos

Each of those absences is deliberate and worth stating plainly, because the alternative is to invent them.

No published fees

A fee follows the scope, and the scope is agreed in writing before any work starts. A number printed without that scope would be a number invented for the page.

No case studies yet

Client work is confidential until a client says otherwise. We would rather show the shape of the work — the deliverables and the completion tests above — than publish an anonymised story you cannot check.

No rankings or awards

Claims of that kind are common in this market and almost never carry a source, a year or the body that issued them. We do not make any.

40 contract subjects, grouped rather than listed

The engagements above cover the full list of subjects this company contracts for. They are grouped into named work rather than printed as a list, because a list of forty lines is a table of contents, not an offer.

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