An hour with your board. A written plan within forty-eight hours.
For boards staring at a stack of AI proposals, or the absence of any, wondering what is worth doing, what is worth testing, and what to leave alone. You book the hour. We prep the day before. You leave with four lists and a plain written plan in your inbox within two days.
Three steps, no more. The work happens before the room, in the room, and on the page. No discovery phase, no workshop framing.
- You send the board pack, any proposals on the table, and a sentence on what you are actually trying to decide. We read it the day before and prep questions specific to your numbers and your sector, not generic AI ones.
- One structured hour with the board, in person in Edinburgh or by video. We work through what is worth backing, what is worth testing cheaply, and what to leave alone.
- A written plan lands in your inbox within 48 hours. Four sections, named below, plain prose, decisions ready for the next board meeting.
What comes out of the hour
A short list of AI moves worth making in your business. Each one with a real cost, who runs it, and the condition under which you would call it a win. If the bet does not clear the win condition, you stop.
The cheap pilots to run in the next quarter before you commit to anything bigger. Costed, time-boxed, with a kill criterion if they do not land. Small money, fast read, clear go or no-go at the end.
The things currently being pitched to you that are not worth your board's time. One line each on why, so you can close the conversation cleanly the next time someone walks in with a deck about them.
The ones that might be worth a second look later, and the specific signal (price, capability, regulatory) to watch for. Saves you re-litigating the same conversation in October.
One fixed fee. Prep, the hour, the written plan.
An hour of a four-person board, fully internalised, is already a few thousand pounds before anyone speaks. £1,800 covers the reading the day before, the structured hour itself, and the board-ready plan within 48 hours. The number that matters more is the one in the vendor proposal you are about to sign, or not sign. The proposals sat in front of you usually start at five figures and run to six. This is the conversation that decides which of them you sign and which you do not. No day rate, no retainer, no per-seat. One number, paid once.
A plan is only useful if the person writing it has nothing to gain from any particular answer. Here is the structure.
- We do not build the AI systems we point you at, so there is no implementation revenue to protect.
- We do not resell platforms, licences, or seats, so there is no quota to hit and no partner tier to defend.
- No commission, no referral fee, no kickback from any vendor your board is considering.
- The £1,800 is the only money that changes hands. If a bet pays off, we do not get a slice.
A mid-market services board had a £40,000 "AI transformation" proposal in front of them from a consultancy they liked, six months of work, four named workstreams. The hour produced three pilots at roughly £4,000 each they could run in Q1 instead, each with a win condition written down in advance and a kill date if it did not land. Two items came off the agenda entirely. One was parked for a six-month look, with the signal they agreed to watch for. They walked away from the £40,000 proposal without burning the relationship and started the quarter with three things they could actually measure. This is the shape of the output, not a named engagement.
A written plan, addressed to the board, plain prose, typically six to ten pages depending on how much was on the table. The four sections in the order above. Every priced bet has a number, an owner, and a win condition. Every pilot has a budget and a kill criterion. Every ignore has a one-line reason your chair can read aloud. Every revisit has the signal to watch for. Short enough to table at the next board meeting without rewriting, concrete enough that anyone in the room knows what they are agreeing to. No slide deck, no appendix of frameworks.
Written plan within 48 hours of the session, most weeks sooner. If your board pack is unusually large, or your decision deadline genuinely will not wait, tell us at booking and we will be honest about whether we can move faster or whether you should hold off.
Forward us what is on the table.
Forward the vendor decks, the internal notes, the email from the friend who said you should be doing something. Add a sentence on what your board is actually trying to decide, and a couple of dates that suit for the hour. Edinburgh in person or video, your call. A reply lands the same working day.