Independent advisor to chief executives and boards
Your reports say the plan is on track. Your people know it is not.
When an agreed plan is stuck or a hard decision is coming, I find out what is really going on inside your organisation and tell you plainly.
Arrange a conversation How advisory works
- 230+C‑suite and director-level executives since 2013
- 4Continents
- 15+Countries with in‑person talks
An example
A green dashboard and a project 2 years late.
A financial services group was 2 years behind on a major systems change and millions over budget. Every month the board reviewed a dashboard, and every month it was green. The chair asked me to find out why the system would not launch.
It launched 3 months later.
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I spoke to people one to one and in confidence, from the chief operating officer to the staff who run branch compliance.
The software worked. But the new system would stop branch managers from overriding compliance checks. Without those overrides, they could not meet their daily loan targets. The operations lead knew. He could not say so, because the board had already announced the launch date. So he kept asking the supplier for small changes that pushed the launch back.
I gave the chair and the chief executive 2 pages. They said: your technology is ready, but your targets and your compliance rules cannot both be met.
The board changed the branch targets and told the operations lead he could speak without risk.
The client is not named. Shared with their permission.
Nobody was lying. Everybody was hiding.
Why you may not hear it
Bad news gets smaller on its way to the top.
Telling the boss about a problem early can cost a manager. Making it sound smaller costs nothing. So at every level, the bad news shrinks a little more. I call this the filter.
The decision was sensible. The information behind it was not.
The full bar is what the people doing the work know. The solid part is what reaches each level.
How we work together
Advice first. Talks second.
Most of my work is advice on one important decision. Talks and closed board sessions are often where it starts.
The main work
Advisory
Beside you on one important decision, for as long as it needs. 6 to 18+ monthsA few clients at a timeOne fee, agreed at the start How advisory works
For audiences
Speaking
Keynotes and closed board sessions, drawn from the advisory work. ConferencesBoardsExecutive programmes See the talksIf a problem keeps coming back, it needs a full investigation. That is the work of my firm, FranklySpeaking
About Frank
Skill is rarely the problem. Information is.
Since 2013 I have advised more than 230 C‑suite and director-level executives in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and North America. My work is about people, power and politics: who has influence, who is afraid to speak and who has something to lose.
My method comes from aviation accident investigation. Investigators ask what a capable pilot believed at the moment they acted, and why it made sense to them. I ask the same question before a decision is made, not after it fails.
More about FrankLess
I work in 3 ways. Research: I read what has actually been reported. Frank conversations: I talk to people at every level, in confidence. Bringing people together: I help the right people agree what happens next.
I founded FranklySpeaking, which investigates problems that keep coming back. I also founded #PeopleMakingHistory, and I chair the advisory board of The eHub.
Where I have worked
- Telecommunications
- Energy
- Mining
- Logistics
- Infrastructure
- Construction
- Banking
- State-owned enterprises
Ask a company what is wrong and you hear what everyone has agreed it is safe to say.
Start here
What is the decision in front of you?
Bring it as you see it. In 30 minutes we work out what is really going on and whether I can help.
The first conversation is on me. If I am not the right person for the problem, I will say so and tell you who is.