ABOUT US
We are an advisory boutique with in-depth senior skills across technology, operations, go-to-market, people, AI and finance. We take on a small number of engagements at a time, on a fractional, interim or advisory basis, and bring together the disciplines each brief needs. We're based in London and work UK-wide and internationally.
OUR FOUNDER
Ken Dickie, founder
Our founder has spent 30+ years where commercial strategy, operations, technology and governance meet. He has steered global programmes across complex matrixed organisations and served on the Executive Committee of an international executive search firm as Chief Information & Transformation Officer, CISO and Data Protection Officer. He combines enterprise-grade architecture with a willingness to get under the bonnet and fix what slows a business down.
"We build strong teams by being clear about what matters and then getting out of their way."
Our bench
CS brings together senior leaders who have each run their discipline at executive level. Every engagement is led by the person best placed to deliver it, with the rest of the bench behind them.
(01)
Marketing and growth
Our marketing and growth lead has 20+ years as a CMO and senior marketing leader in professional services, across Big Four accounting, global law, consulting and executive search, and in PE-backed and founder-led businesses. She has led global brand refreshes across 16 countries and more than 30 offices, built and led marketing teams of up to 35, and brought brand, communications, business development and RevOps together into one function aligned to pipeline.
Several of us have worked side by side on the same senior leadership team, so we know how to work together and with yours.
(02)
People and organisation
Our people lead has 15+ years of experience leading people strategy, most recently as a group Chief People Officer and board member across six specialist brands and 18 offices in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. She has built people and operations functions from scratch, helped scale a business from 50 to 200 people across four continents, led the people workstreams on mergers and acquisitions from due diligence to integration, and shaped a people-centred AI strategy with the technology and finance leads.
Our Founders EXPERIENCE
(01)
Leathwaite | Nov 2022 to Sep 2026
Joined Leathwaite's Executive Committee as Chief Information & Transformation Officer, also serving as CISO and Data Protection Officer and reporting to the CEO. Led the global rollout of Salesforce CRM and reshaped how the business ran around it, lifting CRM usage by about 500%, while taking more than 20% out of operating costs during a period of high inflation.
(02)
Interim M&A and compliance consultant, Hong Kong | Dec 2021 to Oct 2022
After Manulife acquired Aviva's Asia operations, led technology delivery within a wider team, separating and integrating the IT estate country by country under a six-month TSA with no impact on customers. Then carried out technology due diligence at Cigna and ran its IFRS 17 programme across five markets.
(03)
Hong Kong Jockey Club | Jun 2019 to Dec 2021
As Head of the Strategic Project Management Office, set up and ran the governance for a portfolio of strategic programmes worth close to US$1 billion, including technology due diligence and a major new sportsbook build.
(04)
Lululemon | Aug 2018 to Jul 2019
As Head of Technology for Asia Pacific, built and ran the technology behind an expansion of 26 stores in a single year, mainly in tier 1 cities in China. Deployed RFID stock tracking and 3D modelling of prototypes to improve supply chain speed and product test-to-market times.
(05)
Spencer Stuart | 2004 to Aug 2018
Over 14 years, became accountable for infrastructure and support across 60 offices in 30 countries, and led the operations and technology work to open the business in India and the UAE.
CREDENTIALS ACROSS THE TEAM
CIPP/E CERTIFIED
EXECUTIVE MBA
GCP, AWS, AZURE AND VERTEX AI
SALESFORCE AND REVOPS, SERVICENOW AND ITIL
ZERO TRUST (MICROSOFT ENTRA AND DEFENDER XDR)
OFFSHORE DELIVERY TEAMS
EXPERIENCE ACROSS APAC, EUROPE, INDIA AND SOUTH AFRICA