Operations consulting for companies that have outgrown their spreadsheets.

I help founder-led businesses between twenty and two hundred people work out why the thing that used to work has stopped working, and what to do about it.

Ellis Wren · Independent · Manchester

What I am usually called in for

Everything goes through one person. Usually the founder. Work queues behind them and nobody else is allowed to decide anything.
Delivery has become unpredictable. The same job takes three days one week and three weeks the next, and nobody can say why.
The numbers disagree. Finance, sales and operations each have their own version of the truth, and meetings are spent reconciling rather than deciding.
A good team is quietly leaving. Not over pay. Over friction.

How it works

Two weeks of looking

I sit with the people doing the work, follow a few jobs end to end, and read whatever the systems will tell me. No workshops yet.

One honest document

What is actually happening, what it is costing, and the three or four changes that would matter most. Ranked, costed, and short enough to read in one sitting.

As much help as you want

Some clients take the document and run it themselves. Some want me alongside for a quarter. Both are fine, and I will tell you which one I think you need.

Who I work with

Size

Twenty to two hundred people. Small enough that the founder still knows everyone's name, big enough that they can no longer be in every decision.

Shape

Usually founder-led, usually profitable, usually growing faster than the way they work was designed for. Often I am the first outside pair of eyes they have paid for.

Sectors

Manufacturing, logistics, professional services and clinical groups, mostly. The problems rhyme more than people expect.

Who I am not for: large corporates that already have a change function, and pre-product startups still looking for their first customers. In both cases I would be taking money to tell you things you already know.

What usually changes

Decisions stop queueing. The most common first result is simply that three or four decisions a week stop waiting for one person, because it is finally written down who can make them.
The same job takes the same time. Predictability tends to arrive before speed does, and it is usually worth more.
One set of numbers. Not better numbers. The same numbers, in one place, that nobody argues with at the start of a meeting.
Quieter weeks. The founder gets their evenings back, which is normally the thing they wanted and the last thing they said out loud.

Practicalities

Diagnostic engagement: £6,500, two weeks, fixed
Ongoing advisory: £2,400 a month, minimum one quarter
A single day: £1,200, for when you just want a second opinion
First conversation: Free, and genuinely without obligation

I take on four clients at a time. If I am full I will say so and suggest someone else rather than keep you waiting.

Get in touch

Tell me roughly what is going on. I read everything myself and reply within a day or two.

Or email [email protected]