What your champion forwards when you're not in the room

Illustrative example. Northshore Strategy is not a real firm.

Field notes, from Northshore Strategy

These are for you only, so please don't forward them. They're here to help you use the two briefs that came with them.

Who gets which brief

Each brief takes about five minutes to read. Each one opens with a result from a job like this one, then answers the questions people in that role usually ask us.

What to say when you send them

Something short and specific works best. For example: "Northshore wrote this for finance directors. It covers how they price the work and what happens if it overruns. Worth five minutes before we talk budget."

I'd steer away from "I think we should hire them", because it turns the conversation into one about your judgement. And "have a look when you get a minute" usually means it gets read a fortnight later.

Questions you'll probably hear, and what you could say

From your finance director:

• "How do we know what we're paying for?" The work runs in three stages, each at a fixed fee, and each one ends with something we can check. Their brief lists all three, and we can stop after any of them.
• "Couldn't we do this ourselves?" We could, but our people would be doing it on top of running two businesses, and that's usually where integrations drift. Northshore only do this.
• "What if it overruns?" The fee for each stage is fixed. If a stage takes them longer, that's their cost, and the brief says so in writing.

From your managing director:

• "Will this pull the leadership team away from the business?" They ask for two hours a week from the leadership team in the first month, and less after that. Their people do the rest.
• "Have they done this in a business like ours?" That's what the result at the top of their brief covers, and they've offered to put you in touch with the person it came from.
• "Why now, rather than after the year end?" Every month the two businesses run side by side, we pay for two sets of systems, and people in the new team are still unsure who they report to. The brief explains what tends to happen when it's left.

After the briefs go out

If anyone comes back with detailed questions, forward them to me. I'll answer them, or join a 20-minute call with you if that's easier.

If someone asks for a proposal, tell me before we send one, because a short conversation with them first usually saves everybody time.

And if nobody has replied after five working days, one nudge is plenty. After that, let me know, because a long silence often means there's someone involved we haven't thought about yet.

Northshore's founder

Illustrative example. Northshore Strategy is not a real firm.

For the finance director: Northshore Strategy's integration work, in one read

Why this is for you

Most finance directors we work with want three things before they approve an integration: to know what they're buying, to have a price they can explain to the board, and to see where the risk sits. This brief covers all three.

What you'd be buying

A six-month plan to bring the two businesses onto the same systems and reporting lines, run alongside your own people so the day-to-day carries on while it happens.

How the price works (illustrative figures)

The work runs in three stages, each at a fixed fee.

• Stage 1, the integration plan, £12,000. Four weeks with your leadership team, ending in a written plan you keep whether or not you go any further.
• Stage 2, systems and structure, £28,000. We move both businesses onto one set of systems and agree the new reporting lines with your managers.
• Stage 3, the first 90 days as one business, £20,000. We stay alongside your team while it settles, and hand over once the measures we agreed in Stage 1 are met.

That's £60,000 in total, invoiced at the start of each stage. You can stop after any stage. If a stage takes us longer than we planned, the extra time is on us.

Where the risk sits

If the plan in Stage 1 shows you don't need us for the rest, you've spent £12,000 and you keep the plan. If a stage overruns, the fee stays the same. And if the business needs to pause for any reason, Stage 3 can be paused and restarted at the same price any time in the following twelve months.

What we'd ask of you

A 30-minute call before you approve anything. Bring whatever this brief didn't answer, and if we're the wrong fit for this integration, we'll say so on the call.

Illustrative example. Northshore Strategy is not a real firm.

For the managing director: Northshore Strategy's integration work, in one read

Why this is for you

Your finance director has a brief of their own on cost and risk. This one covers what managing directors ask us about most: what the integration will ask of you personally, what changes when it works, and why it's worth doing now.

What it asks of you

An hour with us in the first week, to agree the one result that will tell you the integration has worked. After that, two hours a week from your leadership team in the first month and less from then on, plus a short review with you at the end of each stage, where you decide whether we carry on.

What changes when it works

Everyone in the business you bought knows who they report to and how decisions get made. Customers deal with one company, with one set of terms. And your leadership team gets back the hours they've been spending on questions that only exist because there are still two of everything.

Why now

While the two businesses run side by side, you're paying for both sets of systems, and the people you've just taken on are left guessing about what happens to them. In our experience, the integrations that go badly are usually the ones that were left to sort themselves out.

The next step

A 30-minute call with Northshore's founder, with no proposal and no slides. If it's a fit, we'll describe what we'd do first and what it costs. If it isn't, we'll say so, and the decision after that is yours.