HOW WE WORK
Strategy when required. Hands-on operational capability when it matters. Zero permanent footprint.
Every engagement follows the same six steps, in the same order, whether the mission runs six weeks or six months.
DIAGNOSIS · SEE THROUGH THE NOISE
01 — Find the real problem.
We do not accept the presenting diagnosis. We map the field: stakeholders, incentives, decision rights, information flows, history. We ask what changed, who benefits, and what evidence would prove us wrong. A diagnosis that cannot be disproved is not a diagnosis. It is an opinion.
02 — Reduce it.
What is cause and what is symptom. What happens if nothing changes. Where a small, precise intervention produces disproportionate movement. Complexity may be unavoidable. Confusion usually isn’t.
03 — Define the mission, and define what finished looks like.
One problem. One objective. A defined team, a defined period, and an observable condition that proves the thing is fixed — decision time cut from weeks to days, one accountable owner in place, duplicated workflows gone, acquisition economics restored. Completing a project is not evidence of success. Changed behaviour is.
04 — Work alongside your people.
By day three an EDS strategos is not in the glass conference room building slides. They are talking to the middle manager who knows what actually happens, to the IT lead who holds the system logs, and to the people who know who is really staying late. That is where the unvarnished operating truth lives.
05 — Transfer the capability.
Processes handed over. People developed. Knowledge documented. Ownership returned.
06 — Leave.
Cincinnatus went back to his farm. We invoice first, but the principle holds. The objective is not to become indispensable. It is to make our continued presence unnecessary.
FRAMEWORKS
See the field before choosing the intervention.
Stakeholder and incentive mapping
Who benefits, who carries risk, and which political debts shape the visible problem.
Decision-rights analysis
Who owns the decision, who can veto it, and where accountability dissolves.
Information-flow mapping
What is known at the frontline, what reaches leadership, and what disappears on the way up.
Operating-model review
Where structure, process, systems and incentives no longer match the company’s stage.
Falsifiable diagnosis
What evidence would prove the diagnosis wrong before money is spent treating it.
The Bestiary
Shared diagnostic language for recurring structures: Hydra, Cerberus and Minotaur are examples, not the whole practice.
HOW AN ENGAGEMENT IS FRAMED
Five questions before anyone signs.
Who is engaging us, and on what basis. Why — what are you actually trying to achieve. How do you intend to get there. What resources exist. When — and what does victory look like.
Fixed cost accounts for 50–60% of our billings. Time and materials is charged at the applicable day rate plus 25%. Milestone-based billing is reserved for longer projects.
Rates default to USD. AUD pricing is calculated at the listed USD amount plus 32%.
INDICATIVE RATES · USD
Princeps / Partner
Monthly $45,000 · Daily $3,500 · Hourly $400
Prime / Director / Team Lead
Monthly $22,000 · Daily $2,250 · Hourly $300
Manager / Lead Associate
Monthly $12,000–18,000 · Daily $1,200–2,000 · Hourly $160–250
Associate
Monthly $8,500–12,000 · Daily $750–1,100 · Hourly $110–160
Specialists
By experience and skill set.
Accommodation: $300–400 · Per diem: $125 · Travel: invoiced cost plus 10% booking fee. Multi-person teams may incur a 15–25% administrative fee depending on the support required.
Bring us a problem.
Tell us what is happening. Tell us what should be happening. Tell us what you have already tried.
BRING US A PROBLEM