The Friction Diagnostics™
Find out what your stalled AI rollout is costing you, and what to fix first
You spent big on AI. It hasn’t paid off, and you can’t see why. I map the hidden friction points causing execution drift and gridlock across your business. Then I walk you through your assessment and risk profile, and deliver a pragmatic roadmap to secure your transformation agenda.
It starts with a free check I call the 60-Second Friction Scan. Four yes-or-no questions to isolate your primary execution bottleneck on the spot.
This works on its own. You don’t need anything else from me for it to pay off.
Sound familiar?
One of these is already on your desk
You’ll know your own line when you read it.
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If you run the company, or sit on the board
A chunk of our payroll is quietly bleeding into busywork and meetings that go nowhere. That’s millions a year. Where is it on our books, and how do I get it back before next quarter?
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If you run the tech or the data
We spent millions on the tools. Most of my teams still grind through manual work to cope. Are we paying a hidden tax for an engine the business won’t actually run?
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If you run the money
Losing a senior leader costs us up to twice their salary. We blame pay. How much of our lost profit is really people walking out because the top of the house is gridlocked?
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If you run the business unit
Our boardroom friction is leaking out to our clients and dragging our numbers. How do we move the team out of alignment theatre and into the top quartile, where the assets we own actually get used?
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If you run the day to day
Every time things slow down, we throw more software or more people at it. It only gets slower. How do I find the one thing killing our speed, without paying a big firm to guess?
If one of those is your line, this is built for you.
The Strategic Friction Matrix™
I plot your business on one simple map, and it tells you which problem you’ve got
The whole diagnosis runs off this map. It only has two questions. Are your people pulling in the same direction? And do they have the room to actually act? Plot your business against those two and you land in one of four places.
Hedging
- Tax
- The Hedging Tax
- Behaviour
- Playing it safe
- Impact
- Asset Stagnation
Everyone agrees, nobody dares move. You buy the same AI everyone else buys. It works, but it never gives you an edge. It quietly traps you in the pack.
Productive Friction
- Dividend
- The Stewardship Dividend
- Behaviour
- Constructive dissent
- Impact
- Multiplied Output
People challenge a bad call in week two instead of nodding it through.
Unregulated Adoption
- Tax
- The Shadow AI Tax
- Behaviour
- Free for all
- Impact
- Capital Destruction
People wire unapproved AI into the business on the quiet, with no protocol and no oversight.
Deceleration
- Tax
- The Deceleration Tax
- Behaviour
- All gas, no speed
- Impact
- Efficiency Loss
You paid for fast AI, but every decision still crawls through sign-off. The tools are quick. The business isn’t.
Most stalled rollouts sit in one of the first three. The Scan tells you which. The full diagnostic proves it, and you’ll be able to price it.
The Friction Audit Report™
What you actually walk away with
I look at how your teams behave against the tech they’re meant to run. That gap, between the tools and the people, is where your money leaks. It is the core baseline I measure. You don’t get a massive deck left to gather dust. You get a dynamic diagnostic baseline and my active involvement, helping your leaders get work done and bring their people along.
of a payroll is what unmanaged friction quietly wastes in lost capacity. I size that drag against your headcount so you can take control, stop the bleeding, and flip the narrative to ROI, cost avoidance, and efficiency gains.
Your friction state, named
Which of the four places on the map you’re in, proven against your own business, not guessed.
A number, against your own payroll
The 8.5% capacity leak sized to your headcount, so the drag stops hiding as a vague “people problem”.
The words to lead with
Plain language and hard global benchmarks so you can hold the line with your board or your investors when they push back.
The order to fix it in
What to address first, second, third, so your own team knows exactly what to do on Monday.
You get the diagnosis, the number, and the plan. Your team runs the fix, with my guidance.
Why nothing’s worked
What you’ve already tried, and why it didn’t land
You’ve probably tried three things. None of them touched the real problem: the gap between the tech and the people meant to run it.
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The big firms
They sent junior analysts. Months of data gathering. A six-figure deck. It vanished the day they left, and nothing moved.
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The coaches
They treated it like a mood. Surveys and off-sites. They worked on feelings while the hidden problem persisted.
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More software
You bought a faster engine. Your people were already struggling with the last one. A new tool didn’t change that.
Each one walked past the same thing. That gap has a shape, and the Matrix is built to find it.
How it works
Two immediate, zero-cost intelligence tools. A rapid 3-stage deployment if you choose to move forward.
The Zero-Cost Gateway:
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60sfree, no sign-up
The 60-Second Friction Scan
Four yes-or-no questions on this page. A short report I call your Executive Rapid Feedback Report lands in your inbox straight away, telling you which friction state you’re likely in. It comes with a free 30-minute call.
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30 minfree, no deck
The Exploratory Call
If your Scan came back red, we scope the work against your size, your team, and the politics in the room. We map what’s on your desk to what it’s costing you. No selling. You leave knowing your next step.
The 3-Stage Diagnostic Deployment:
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Stage 01 16 Qyou + your leaders
The 16-question diagnostic
Once you’re in, I send a secure link to a 16-question version for you and your leaders to fill in. Where it’s safer, we do private one-to-one or team interviews instead. Nobody gets put on the spot.
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Stage 02 2×2your business, plotted
I run the Matrix
We pull it apart together, plot your business on the map, and find the exact points where your rollout is stalling and the risk each one carries. This becomes your Friction Audit Report.
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Stage 03 90 minprivate briefing
The 90-minute Executive Feedback Session
A private briefing. I walk you through the number, the friction state, and the plan. You leave with the full report, your priorities in order, and answers ready for the boardroom.
What it costs
Priced on the value, not the hours
Every tier is on the table. The Scan stays free. You only pay for the full diagnostic if your Scan comes back red and the Exploratory Call confirms it’s a fit.
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Emerging
- Revenue Scale
- Up to £50M
- Indicative Duration
- 1 to 2 weeks
- Investment Guide
- From £8,000
- Delivery Scope
- Diagnostic for the core leadership team, matrix plotting and a private briefing.
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Mid-Market
- Revenue Scale
- £50M to £300M
- Indicative Duration
- 2 to 3 weeks
- Investment Guide
- From £15,000
- Delivery Scope
- Diagnostic plus targeted private 1:1 safe-harbour interviews, silo friction analysis, and a customised briefing.
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Enterprise
- Revenue Scale
- £300M+ (or complex portfolios)
- Indicative Duration
- 3 to 4 weeks
- Investment Guide
- From £25,000
- Delivery Scope
- Diagnostic across up to 3 divisions, 1:1 & team interviews, deep-dive with teams, and boardroom briefings for each business unit leader.
A fixed fee and a fixed scope that ends with your Report and a clear stopping point, never an open contract that turns into a monthly bill.
No risk to you
The free Scan is your safety net
You get a real result before you spend a penny. Worried that sending questions to your leaders will stir up politics? It bends to your culture: online, private one-to-ones, or a group session. I treat friction as a systemic component failure, never a people problem.
Before you ask
Questions you’ll want answered first
How is this different from a Bain or McKinsey job?
The big firms charge millions for a deck and take six to nine months. This runs in two to eight weeks for a fixed fee. You get a number you can show your investors, not a deck that disappears. And you get me across the table, not a pool of juniors.
Is this a fixed fee, or does it turn into a retainer?
Fixed fee, fixed scope, clear endpoint. You see your tier and your cost before you sign. Nothing turns into a retainer on its own. If you want ongoing help after, that’s a separate decision you make.
Will this cause a political mess in my team?
No. I ban blame. Friction is a fault in the system, not a performance review. How I gather the answers bends to your culture: online, private interviews, or a group session. Nobody gets cornered.
What if my Scan comes back green?
Then keep doing what you’re doing. I’ll confirm it on your free call. The paid work only runs on a red result. You never pay for an answer you already have.
What does my team have to do?
For the Scan, nothing. Under sixty seconds online. For the full work, your leaders answer the 16 questions or sit the interviews, plus a quick note on your tech. No decks to build. No data to dig up.
What if you find something we can’t fix yet?
The report comes with the order to fix things: first, second, third. Nothing gets raised without a next step attached. If a fix needs more from me later, the report says so. If it doesn’t, it says that too.
How is this different from coaching?
Coaching treats your team’s exhaustion as a mood and works on feelings. This finds the fault in the system and turns it into a number on your books. Coaching can sit alongside this. It can’t replace it.
Why me
Why I catch what the others miss
I’ve spent 25 years reading stalled rollouts inside big companies, from Kraft Foods to GE, across nine industries. Whatever’s gone wrong with yours, it almost certainly already sits on a map I’ve seen before.
The old playbooks police the symptoms or soften the mood. I do one thing instead: I read how your leaders actually behave, plot it on the Matrix, and put names to the quiet habits and the gridlock that hide in plain sight, because most leaders never have the words for them.
When your report lands, the work is mine. No juniors on the deck. You get me, not a team of 25-year-olds with a slide show.
What each one costs
Same £50m business. Same £1.5m AI bet. Four very different endings.
Friction diagnoses these states. I built one reference business and ran it through the four. Three quietly drain it. One pays for itself.
Playing it safe−£200ka yearEveryone agrees, nobody adopts. The £2m boost never arrives, the spend lands anyway, and dual-running becomes a permanent drag.Read the case study
Unregulated Adoption−£630kprofit hitStaff feed client data into tools nobody approved. One client finds out and terminates. A £4m account gone in a call.Read the case study
All gas, no speed−£460kEBITDAAlways nearly ready, never live. A faster rival ships first and poaches £3m of revenue while the firm runs one more readiness workshop.Read the case study
The Stewardship Dividend+£2.5mEBITDAAligned, and free to push back. That’s Productive Friction. The rollout goes live in 90 days, frees £1m of capacity, and lifts the top line to £55m. The only ending that pays.Read the case study
Straight talk
Who this isn’t for
This isn’t for you if you’re sure the problem is just morale, or if you want to hire a fix.
It’s for mid-market CEOs who’ve spent real money on AI, need a straight answer on what’s wrong, and want one senior person on it, not a pool of juniors.
Start here
Your problem, in plain sight
Four yes-or-no questions. Your biggest problem lands in your inbox straight away. Green, carry on. Red, you decide what happens next. No commitment either way.