Before a big decision, check that the plan will actually hold.
A contract with red pen all over it. A whiteboard full of arrows. A team that can't agree on the priority. The plan may look fine on paper, but nobody has tested whether it still works when things get difficult.
I help good businesses and deals become clear to the people who have to decide on them: investors, buyers, lawyers, successors. What works for insiders often doesn't make sense to an outsider who is about to commit money, a contract or a career.
I do the first 80%: agreeing what you want, defining the key terms, and testing where the plan breaks. That is where most of what decides whether a plan works gets settled. I show you what needs to be done and give clear recommendations. You, or your specialists, then carry it out: you close the sale, sign the investor, present the contract. Where it helps I can take on parts of that, scoped and priced separately. The decisions and the signatures stay with you.
Who it is for: owners and family businesses, investors and the companies they back, and COOs, division heads and VPs. If the problem sits above you, we work on the case you take upward.
Introduced by someone? Mention their name when you get in touch.
01 // WHAT YOU THINK YOU KNOW
WHERE IT USUALLY STARTSEvery plan starts as a version that feels right. It feels right because it has worked so far, or because everyone nods. That is not the same as knowing it is right.
Here are some common issues I've seen in companies. These are not personal faults. I have done some of them myself.
“The deck is clear.”
What it can hide: It is, to you. Readers outside your business leave unsure what it is, how it makes money or why it is different. It works on people who already trust you and fails on the ones who don't yet.
“It's a people problem.”
What it can hide: Sometimes. Often a good person is in the wrong seat, or the right thing is being done in the wrong way, or nobody has said how far anyone can decide.
“Everyone is on the same page.”
What it can hide: The same word means different things to the lawyer, the finance team and the engineers. Everyone agrees, and means something else.
“It works, because I know how.”
What it can hide: Knowledge that lives in one person's head leaves with them, and nobody else can explain why it works.
“The terms are fair. We trust each other.”
What it can hide: Until a loan and an ownership share are mixed into one promise, or a 50/50 split has no way to break a deadlock, and trust is carrying weight the terms should carry.
“It's quicker if I just decide.”
What it can hide: It is, once. Then everything lands on one desk, because nobody set clear limits for anyone else.
What it costs when the plan is wrong has a name: the Stagnation Tax. Decisions that wait, and work that gets done twice.
What the job site taught me
I began my working life in manual labour: pulling heavy electrical wire through underground conduits, installing sacrificial anode corrosion protection on gas pipes, and dialling outbound telephone calls.
Anyone who has worked on a physical job site knows that the drawings drafted in an air-conditioned office lie all the time. They are out of date, an unmapped boulder sits right where the trench was planned, or someone forgot to record an obstacle. The drawings can claim whatever they want, but physical friction does not negotiate. If the conduit was misrouted or backfilled with debris, the wire jams. You can shout or point at the schematic, but physical reality does not budge.
People are not passive machines; capable teams adapt and improvise constantly. But when the underlying systems, roles and definitions point in conflicting directions, that adaptation burns enormous human stamina. It drains confidence in decisions, eats working hours, consumes money and resources, and exhausts capable people just to keep a muddled situation going.
For four years I sold secured corporate bonds issued by Nordic companies to everyone from private investors to professionals, wealthy families and funds. That is where I learned that the same pitch does not work for both, and why investors need to see exactly what they are being asked to back. Many came back to invest again, one of them fourteen times. I count that as stronger proof of trust than a single large deal, because it is the part you cannot ask for.
Later, in corporate finance compliance, cross-border agreements and venture structuring, I watched the same friction destroy value. I have seen trust evaporate because a commercial offer was presented badly. I have watched a potential multi-million-euro transaction collapse early because the story fell apart the moment we dug into the real numbers, and there was no sound reasoning underneath the pitch. Today I work between Colombo and Helsinki as an independent advisor. I sit outside internal politics and have no billable-hour reason to drag projects out. I help leaders find the cracks before the plan has to carry real weight.
02 // THE MESSY MIDDLE
WHAT EVERY VENTURE NEEDSLook closely and the problem is rarely where you first thought. I find that every business, venture or community runs on the same five things. When one is off, it shows up as something else.
The relationships, and who is where
The wrong person doing the right thing, or the right person doing the wrong thing. Sometimes it is politics and power. Often it is simply a good person in the wrong seat. Structure and execution only work when the relationships do, and a founder who carried the company for decades is part of that, not an obstacle.
The same words, the same meaning
When people do not share words, nothing else holds. Each specialist does good work on their own brief, and the pieces don't fit together. This is the one underneath the other four.
Who decides what, and how things flow
The systems, handoffs and decision limits. When they are vague, deciding alone puts your career at risk and asking the boss risks nothing, so everything goes to the top.
Cash, costs and who gets repaid first
Equity, cash flow, working capital, running costs and the assets you need. Trouble starts when commitments outrun the cash, or when loans and ownership are mixed, and everything freezes the moment cash gets tight.
Doing the right things, and doing them well
Strategies that sound good at the board meeting but tell the frontline nothing about what to do on a Tuesday. Doing the wrong thing well is still a failure.
This is the uncomfortable part, and it is where most people stop. Two things pull them back to a simple answer: fear of the mess, and avoiding it. So they hire someone, buy a tool or push harder, and the same problem returns.
- 1What is the real issue or decision, with the panic taken out?
- 2If it goes wrong, what are the real consequences?
- 3How likely is that, honestly, given what you have in place?
- 4What are three genuinely different ways forward, and what does each one risk?
- 5Which one, and why? Write the reason down, and move.
The order matters. Look at the worst case before you talk about the odds. Someone who does not flinch from the downside earns trust from an investor, a board or a team, and the conversation changes from an argument into a shared look at the facts.
03 // THE SHORT VERSION
See all 5 cases →Before anything else I try to say the plan in a few plain sentences: what it is, who it is for, and what it needs. If I can't, the rest is guesswork.
It doesn't have to be complete. Everything else has to fit inside it. Client names and figures are withheld.
Pitching professional investors: show everything
What was wrong: A founder used to pitching private investors held some information back until the second meeting. With professional investors that caused confusion and doubt.
What I did: Coached him to show everything up front, so professionals can make an informed decision. Professional investors trust clear numbers and honest risk management, not sales tricks.
What changed: one professional investor went from a 'no' halfway through the first meeting to 'let's go deeper' by its end. Another said he would discuss it with his family and with another investor. These are early results.
A deal where a loan and ownership were mixed
What was wrong: Two partners buying a commercial property had drafted terms where equal cash contributions led to an 80/20 equity split, with the investor repaid from revenue before dividends.
What I did: Split the deal in two: a registered loan repaid first from free cash flow, and ownership with a salary and a way to break a deadlock.
What changed: the documents were drafted within two weeks and the purchase completed in four. No money moved until both partners had signed.
Decisions that all landed on the founders
What was wrong: The founders of a fast-growing technology firm worked 14-hour days settling routine pricing, refund and supplier questions.
What I did: Found that managers were not lacking initiative: asking carried no risk, while deciding alone carried career risk. Wrote a 3-level table of what managers decide alone, what they report weekly, and what needs sign-off.
What changed: routine pricing and refund decisions are now settled by department heads and no longer reach the founders.
The short version is where people are tempted to stop. It is a good shape and an incomplete answer. The detail still has to go back in.
04 // THREE WAYS FORWARD
WHAT YOU COULD DOAt this point there are always at least three ways forward, and each has a cost. The usual mistake is to compare the path you favour with a version of the others that does not exist.
Carry on, and pay the Stagnation Tax
Keep settling the same disagreements. Let drafts wait weeks for a decision. Hold everything together through your own long days.
Brief each specialist on their own
Hire lawyers, accountants and agencies without a shared brief. Each does good work to the instructions given, but the questions nobody asked stay unanswered.
Agree the basics first
Bring in an outside view before you spend money on execution. Agree what you are trying to do, set clear decision limits, and test what happens when things go wrong.
When the company and the family are tied together
In my earlier years in investment sales I worked with wealthy families, family offices, high-net-worth individuals and funds. I also work with many owners for whom the company is far more than an asset: it carries their name, their history and the people who built it with them. One of the cases on this site is a young family company that is close to me. I advise it from the outside and I am not involved in running it.
In these businesses the structure matters, and so do loyalty, history and timing. A parent who still has the last word is not a problem to be removed; usually they are the reason the company exists. The aim is a company that works clearly for the next generation, without anyone having to be pushed aside to prove it.
The first conversation is unhurried. Nobody needs to decide anything.
05 // A POSITION YOU CAN DEFEND
WHERE THE WORK ENDSA plan that feels right and a plan you know is right can look the same for a year. The difference shows when someone asks why.
The end of the work is not a report. It is a position you can explain, with the detail back in, that the person who has to decide can defend to someone else: a board, a partner, a bank, or yourself in ten years. You and your specialists carry it out. The decisions and the signatures stay with you.
I advise on strategy, finance and commercialisation. In practice, that means:
- Second opinions: investor decks, term sheets, proposals and decisions stuck at the top, within two working days.
- Deal terms: separating loans from ownership, setting deadlock rules, briefing lawyers in plain language.
- Who decides what: written decision limits, so routine questions are settled by the team, not the founder.
- Investor and client stories: rebuilding a pitch so people outside the industry understand it.
- Practical strategy: bridging the gap between strategy and execution, so that the entire organisation aligns.
THE FIRST STEP
See all services & fees →The 48-Hour Second Opinion
Send me what you are about to decide on. I tell you where an outside reader will get lost, doubt it or push back, and what to change.
- Option A: you have a high-stakes document. An investor deck (up to 20 slides), a term sheet, or a client proposal (up to 5 pages).
- Option B: everything lands on your desk. An organisation chart, a list of approvals that keep reaching the top, a decision dispute, or a proposal for more freedom in your unit (up to 5 pages). Open to owners, family businesses, COOs, division heads and VPs. If the problem sits above you, send the case you plan to make upward.
You get the scope in writing first. Within two working days of payment and written scope, you receive a 20-to-25 minute private screen recording that walks through where a reader gets lost, plus a 1-to-2 page memo with specific rewrites.
All materials shared with me are treated with confidentiality.
Retention and deletion arrangements are confirmed at the start of each engagement.
I clarify commercial intent, financial logic and who decides what. Legal drafting, filings and legal representation stay with your lawyers.