What Leaders Say About Working With Us

The Situation

A management team at a listed Thai company needed to present results that fell significantly short of guidance. Internal drafts of the board pack were defensive in tone and, in places, difficult to follow. The CFO felt underprepared for the questions she expected from two particularly rigorous non-executive directors.

How We Worked

Over three weeks, we reviewed the draft materials, helped restructure the narrative to acknowledge the shortfall clearly rather than obscure it, and worked with the CFO on how to respond to the likely areas of questioning. The rehearsal session was run with two of us playing different board voices — one supportive but probing, one consistently sceptical.

The Outcome

The board discussion was, by the CFO's account, the most productive the company had experienced in two years. The transparent framing built rather than eroded trust. Two non-executive directors subsequently asked how management had prepared so thoroughly. The CFO continued with a Standing Conversation arrangement following the engagement.

The Situation

A new CEO had been appointed to a mid-sized family business in the consumer sector. She was the first non-family leader in the company's history. The family remained closely involved operationally. The expectations placed on her were significant and, in some cases, contradictory. She had no safe space to work through what she was observing.

How We Worked

Bi-weekly sessions over three months focused on mapping the key relationships, understanding where expectations were aligned and where they weren't, and developing her approach to the founder conversations that were clearly going to be the defining feature of her tenure. We did not tell her what to do — we helped her think through what she herself believed was right.

The Outcome

At ninety days, she described herself as more settled in the role than she had expected to be. The written reflection document became the basis for a conversation with the founder about clarifying her authority. She has continued with a Standing Conversation arrangement for over a year since.

The Situation

A founder of a Bangkok-based services business had been approached by two PE firms. The business was performing well. He had not intended to raise outside capital but was beginning to question whether the company could reach its next stage without it. His advisors — lawyers, accountants — were focused on the transaction mechanics. Nobody was helping him think about whether this was the right decision at all.

How We Worked

Over several months of Standing Conversations, the discussions kept returning to this question. We did not push him in any direction. We helped him notice what his own thinking was pointing to, examine the assumptions he was making about his business and his own motivations, and consider what the decision would mean across different time horizons.

The Outcome

He declined both approaches. Not because the conversations led him there, but because thinking carefully about the question made his own position clear to him. He later said the main value was not the conclusion but the quality of the thinking that preceded it. He continues as a client.