When the business has to change
Ambrose and Bell is a consulting firm. We work out with you what the business should do, get the organisation behind it, and leave a team that can deliver it without us.
Most clients come to us with one of these challenges
Growth has outrun the structure
Revenue is up, margins are flat, and every decision still waits for the same three people.
The transformation is slipping
A funded programme is late, over budget, or short of the benefits it promised.
The AI spend is not paying back
The business has paid for AI tools and pilots, but the processes around them have not changed, so the savings have not appeared.
The deal is not delivering
The business you bought is still run the way it was before the deal.
A founder or senior leader is stepping back
The client relationships and the big decisions sit with one person, and nobody else is ready to take them on.
The top team is pulling apart
Each director is pushing a different priority, so decisions stall at the top.
What we do
Six services, each drawn from work we have done ourselves.
Consulting service
Operating Model Transformation
Where structure, accountability and decision rights are slowing the strategy down. You get a board-ready view of the gap, then the redesign that closes it.
View Operating Model Transformation →Strategy
- Operating Model TransformationWhere structure, accountability and decision rights are slowing the strategy down. You get a board-ready view of the gap, then the redesign that closes it.
- Technology Product LeadershipWhich digital products and services the business should offer, and which markets to back. We make the case for the portfolio first, then the build and the structure that scales it.
Transformation
- Transformation Programme LeadershipAn independent assessment of a programme that is missing its dates or its benefits. We set out what went wrong and why, and the options for recovery.
- AI and AutomationAI spend pays back when the processes and roles around the tools change with them. We find what has to change, and in what order.
Leadership
- Leadership Team EffectivenessAn assessment of the team that has to deliver, using Belbin team roles from peer feedback and a survey based on Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team. It shows whether the team agrees on the priority and where the strategy will expose gaps.
- Executive CoachingOne-to-one coaching for senior leaders taking on a bigger job, including a first board or trustee seat. Led by an EMCC Senior Practitioner with 350+ hours of coaching and mentoring experience.
We judge an engagement by whether your own team can carry the work on once we leave.
Led by people who have run businesses
Our principal has run businesses as managing director, carried the profit and loss and lived with his own decisions. Our associates have held senior roles in industry. The judgement we bring to a client comes from that experience.
We are principal-led, and we choose associates for each brief. The people you meet in the first conversation are the people who do the work.
Dr Stephen McCormac's career record
25+ years in consulting and leadership, 15+ with P&L. Five statutory directorships, three of them with full P&L accountability.
Results from the roles named. Clients are not named.
Three ways to work with us
Consulting
Six services. Each starts with a diagnostic, and the scope is agreed in writing.
View consulting →Interim leadership
Interim CEO, MD, COO and executive team roles. Ninety-day milestones and a defined exit.
View interim →Board roles
Non-executive and trustee appointments where the seat carries real decisions, on seven conditions set in writing.
View NED →Pro bono for charities and social enterprises
We give senior consulting time, at no fee, to registered charities and social enterprises with income above £1 million. Each offer is five days of our effort, and asks one to two days of your people’s time. We take on one engagement at a time.
Latest insights
Articles by Stephen McCormac on operating models, transformation and leadership.