Independent Advice for Important Leadership Questions
Not every important question requires a formal review.
Sometimes a Board, CEO, Managing Partner or COO simply wants an experienced independent perspective on a difficult decision, a developing issue or a question that cuts across the firm.
That is the role of my Strategic Advisory work.
I bring together my research into professional services, more than twenty years of operating and transformation experience, and an independent view of the institution.
The purpose is simple: help leadership think more clearly before important decisions are made.
The Questions I Help With
My work focuses on the economics and institutional design of professional services.
Typical questions concern economics and profitability, client and service portfolios, growth and cross-selling, AI, pricing, talent, operating models, global delivery, technology investment, governance, ownership and capital, partner economics, network structures, consolidation and major transformation decisions.
These questions rarely sit neatly inside one function. A discussion about AI may become a discussion about pricing and talent. A growth question may expose a deeper issue around client economics. An ownership or capital decision may change governance, incentives, investment capacity and the structure of the institution itself.
Strategic Advisory provides a way to explore those questions without turning each one into a separate engagement.
How It Works
The relationship is flexible.
It may involve regular conversations, reviewing a proposal or investment case, preparing for a Board discussion, challenging the assumptions behind a major decision, or looking more deeply at a specific issue when needed.
Some relationships are ongoing. Others are used only when an important question arises.
I remain independent from the management structure. My role is to provide analysis, challenge and judgment, not to take responsibility for implementation.
When Strategic Advisory Is Useful
Strategic Advisory works best when the issue matters, leadership already understands much of the context, but an independent perspective would improve the decision.
That can be particularly valuable when questions around growth, AI, ownership, capital, governance or operating structure interact and cannot sensibly be considered in isolation.
Where a question requires a more structured diagnosis, one of my defined reviews may be the better starting point.
Strategic Advisory is for everything in between.
Why My Perspective Is Different
I focus specifically on the economics and institutional design of professional services.
Through my Industry Insights and Case Studies, I continuously study how the profession is changing across economics, AI, talent, ownership, capital, governance, delivery models and institutional structure.
That research is continuously tested and refined through conversations with Board members, CEOs, Managing Partners, COOs, investors and other senior leaders across professional services.
I combine this with more than twenty years of operating model and transformation experience, including CIO responsibility in a Big Four environment.
The value is not that I will always have the answer. It is that I bring an independent, researched and experienced perspective to questions that can be difficult to see clearly from inside the institution.
Discuss Strategic Advisory
If you are dealing with an important leadership question that would benefit from an independent perspective, I would be interested to understand the context.
The first conversation is simply to determine whether I can add value and what form of advisory relationship would make sense.
Email: henrico.dolfing@roughtrailventures.com
Mobile: +41 79 326 4763
LinkedIn: Henrico Dolfing