For organisations that would rather ask early than commission late
A standing advisory arrangement. You get independent digital and AI counsel on tap, so the question gets asked before the decision is made rather than after it has gone wrong. I advise your leadership team. I do not join it and I do not run your delivery.
Book a free 30-minute conversationThe problem this addresses
Digital and AI questions do not arrive on a schedule that suits a piece of consultancy. A supplier sends a renewal quote with three weeks' notice. Someone forwards a tool that promises to halve a process. The board asks for an AI position by the next meeting.
Each of these is too small to commission a piece of work for, and too consequential to guess at. So they get decided quickly by whoever is nearest, and the organisation accumulates a set of choices nobody would defend if they were looked at together.
The pattern I see most often is not a bad decision. It is a series of reasonable decisions taken without anyone able to say how they fit, made by people who would have asked if asking had been easy.
What it is
A monthly arrangement that makes me available to your leadership team for advice, prioritisation, governance and decision support.
In practice that means a standing monthly session with the people who decide, a route to reach me between sessions when something lands unexpectedly, and someone who holds the context so you are not briefing from scratch every time. Over a year it becomes the cheapest form of continuity an organisation can buy: the digital reasoning stays consistent even when the people and the suppliers change.
What it is not is delivery capacity.
This retainer does not buy days of implementation, project management or supplier wrangling. If a piece of work needs building, I will help you decide whether it should be built, what good would look like and who should build it, and then it is scoped and paid for separately or it goes to someone else entirely.
How this differs from fractional digital leadership
A strategic advisory retainer advises the leadership team
I am outside the organisation. I give you a view, you decide, and accountability for the decision and its delivery stays with you. No authority over suppliers, no ownership of the roadmap, no line in your executive structure.
Fractional digital leadership joins it
A different arrangement entirely. That person sits in the executive meeting, owns the roadmap, directs suppliers and carries accountability for what happens. If that is what the organisation needs, this retainer is not it, and I will say so on the first call.
The shorthand worth remembering: one advises the leadership team, the other joins it. Buying the first when you need the second is a common and expensive mistake, and it is usually obvious within one conversation which of the two is missing.
What you get
- A standing monthly session with the leadership team, held whether or not there is a crisis
- A route to reach me between sessions when something arrives without warning
- An independent read on proposals, quotes and supplier renewals before you commit
- Help prioritising, which usually means help deciding what not to do this quarter
- Governance support on AI use, data and digital risk, in language a board will accept
- Someone who holds the context, so you are not explaining the background every time
How this is scoped
A retainer is a monthly commitment, so it is worth being precise about what it covers before either of us starts.
What sets the size
How often the leadership team wants to meet, how many people are in the room, and how much between-session availability you need. An organisation with an active programme running asks more of a retainer than one in a steady year.
A typical shape
One session a month of 60 to 90 minutes with the same two or three people, plus reasonable contact between sessions. Reviewed quarterly. Most arrangements settle at that and stay there.
What the first conversation establishes
Thirty minutes, free, on what keeps arriving unannounced and who currently absorbs it. If the honest answer is that you need someone accountable inside the business, I will point you at that instead.
How a proposal follows
A short written scope: session frequency, who attends, what between-session access means in practice, the monthly fee, and the notice period. An initial three months, then rolling, with 30 days notice on either side.
Who this is for, and who it is not for
This is for you if
- Digital and AI questions keep arriving and there is nobody senior to put them to
- You would rather ask before signing than review after it has gone wrong
- You have a capable team that needs a sounding board, not supervision
- You want continuity of thinking across a year of decisions rather than a one-off report
This is not for you if
- You need someone accountable for delivery, which is fractional leadership and not this
- You are looking for discounted implementation days under a monthly label
- You want someone to manage your agency or your internal team on your behalf
- There is one specific question to answer, in which case commission that and stop
Independence
No software to sell
I do not own, licence or resell a product. Nothing in a recommendation points at something I profit from.
No reseller agreements
No partner tiers, no referral fees, no vendor relationships that need feeding.
No delivery to protect
Because the retainer buys no implementation, I have nothing to gain from recommending a build. That is the point of it.
Evidence
Judgement built over a long time, applied to your decisions.
Track record
More than forty years in business and technology, more than thirty of them in digital
Executive board membership in a £140 million travel business, programme leadership up to £2.5 million, and director and trustee experience.
About »Sector experience
Documented engagements across legal, financial services, property, travel, health and charity
Every one written up with what was done, what changed and what did not.
All case studies »What happens next
Book a 30-minute conversationNot sure where to start?
Most clients begin with a conversation. No pitch, no hard sell.
Just a straightforward discussion about where you are and whether I can help.
Book a free 30-minute call