For chief executives, boards and investors in a business that has stopped growing
Find out why growth stopped before you pay to restart it.
A stall has a cause, and it is rarely the one the last board paper named. The work is to establish what is true about the market, the asset and the constraint, with the evidence for each, before anyone commits to a direction. It is a short, paid piece of work with a written answer, and if the answer is that the plan is sound and the market has moved, that is what it will say.
A written reply within two working days. No mailing list, no price list, nothing gated.
If this is on your desk
- Revenue flat for four quarters or more, and three competing explanations in the room
- A product that sold well and then stopped, with no agreed reason
- A turnaround plan built on the same assumptions that produced the stall
- An investor or a board asking for a diagnosis the management team is too close to give
- A fix being funded before anyone has written down what would prove it wrong
How the diagnosis runs
Every engagement runs through the same four steps, and each step says what it produces. The point of the discipline is that you can see where a conclusion came from, and so can your board.
| Step | What it produces | What a person always does |
|---|---|---|
| Gather | Primary documents first: your numbers, your filings, your customers' behaviour, the regulator's record. Trade press is used, marked as reported, and never upgraded to fact. | Chooses the sources, and checks every figure against the original before it is used |
| Model | Arithmetic shown in one unit with its basis stated. A per-market figure is never averaged into a national one without saying so. | Sets the assumptions, and owns the number that goes in front of your board |
| Challenge | The counter-case, written down rather than implied. If we cannot state the strongest argument against our own reading, we do not understand it yet. | Decides what survives, and signs their name to it |
| Recommend | One recommendation, its counter-case, what would have to be true to change it, and the indicators that will tell you which way it is going. | Writes it |
How the first step works
- 01
Tell us what is on your desk
A paragraph is enough. The more specific the question, the more useful the reply.
- 02
A written reply within two working days
How we would approach it, what it would take and what it would cost. If the right answer is to change nothing, the reply will say so.
- 03
A one-day teardown, if it is worth one
A 90-minute working session, a written answer in two working days, and the model behind it, yours to keep.
Work you can check before you write
Everything we publish is free, opens without an email address, and shows the source behind every figure.
Tell us what has stalled
Say what stopped, when, and what has already been tried. You will have a written reply within two working days with how we would approach it, what it would take and what it would cost.
Questions people ask first
Is the diagnosis independent of what comes after?
Yes. It is scoped and priced as its own piece of work with its own written answer, and some diagnoses end there. Nothing in it depends on you buying the next stage.
What do you need from us?
Access to the numbers you already have, two conversations, and someone who can say what has been tried and what happened.
Can you diagnose a business outside telecom?
The method is a business method. Our telecom depth helps where the business touches networks, devices or spectrum, and is not needed where it does not.
How long does it take?
A one-day teardown is answered in two working days. A two-week assessment produces a 12 to 18 page memo with the working shown and a one-page board summary.
Why is there no price on this page?
Pricing is set per engagement and written into the first reply, so you see it before you commit to anything.