Stage 3 Consulting

Capability 01

Strategy & Business Problem Solving

Turn complexity into a clear course of action.

The work starts with the decision you are trying to make, not the method you expect to buy. We diagnose the real problem, frame the options and recommend the move.

The problem it solves

The right answer to the wrong question is still wrong.

Most strategy work goes wrong before any data is collected. The question written into the brief is rarely the question the organisation is actually facing, and once a method has been bought, the study is committed to answering the wrong thing accurately.

The market compounds it. Inexperienced resource is put on problems that turn on judgement, and the same framework comes back regardless of what was asked. We start by taking the brief apart, and the people doing that are the ones who have run this work for 15 to 30 years.

Management consulting offering

01

Complete management problem solving as per global consulting methodologies inspired by leading firms such as McKinsey, focusing on identifying root causes, developing actionable solutions, and driving measurable business outcomes:

  • Issue Tree Analysis
  • MECE framework
02

A 360-degree assessment by capturing insights from all key stakeholders to develop value chain diagnostics and interventions:

  • Voice of Customers (VOC)
  • Voice of Employees (VOE)
  • Voice of Vendors (VOV)

Why Stage 3 was built

What's included

Four pieces of work, bought together or separately.

  • Business problem diagnosis

    We start from the decision you are trying to make and work back to what has to be known before it can be made.

  • Research proposal design

    Proposals and questionnaires are written by the person who will run the study — the founder's own remit, not a delivery team's.

  • Decision frameworks

    Options prioritised and modelled, so the choice and the evidence standing behind it can both be stated plainly.

  • Startup & SME advisory

    Startups and SMEs sit alongside local corporations and multinationals in the organisations this practice is built for.

Where the evidence comes from

How it runs

Outsmart, outpace, outperform — applied to one decision.

The same three phases that govern every engagement, in the order this particular problem needs them.

  1. 01

    Outsmart

    Listen and diagnose

    Before anything is scoped we take the business question apart: what decision is pending, who owns it, and what would have to be true to make it.

  2. 02

    Outsmart

    Challenge the assumption

    Where the brief rests on something unproven, we say so before a rupee is committed to fieldwork.

  3. 03

    Outpace

    Model the options

    The realistic courses of action are laid out, weighed against the evidence, and cut down to the ones actually worth arguing about.

  4. 04

    Outpace

    Recommend the move

    The engagement ends with a recommended action and the reasoning behind it, in a form the person who owns the decision can take forward.

  5. 05

    Outperform

    Agree what success looks like

    We set out in advance what would show the decision worked, so it can be measured later rather than defended.

See the full approach

Related

Published work, and the latest from Insights.

The case study is filed under Strategy & Business Problem Solving. The article is simply the most recent one we have published.

All case studies All insights

Start here

Bring the decision. We'll tell you what it needs.

Describe the problem in your own words. If research is not the answer, we will say so before you commission any.