What this engagement actually is
Senior thought-partnership for boards and management on growth, capital allocation, market entry, restructuring and FP&A design.
A strategic financial advisory engagement is a retained or project-based relationship in which a senior practitioner works alongside the leadership team. The work mixes analysis, written advice and live counsel in the room: attending board and management meetings, interpreting financial information, framing options and helping management land choices on capital, growth or restructuring.
A typical brief begins with a defined strategic question (a growth path to test, a capital allocation choice, a market to enter, a restructuring to sequence) and develops into a structured assessment of options. Financial implications are quantified, sensitivities tested, and the preferred path documented in a paper that can stand up to board and shareholder review.
The work is advisory in the analytical sense. We do not take a directorship, we do not act as a statutory officer, and we do not provide regulated investment advice. We act as a senior adviser to the people who do hold those responsibilities, and we help them reach a defensible decision.
What you get
Six concrete deliverables. Each is an artefact on a shared drive, not a promise.
- Growth strategy and capital allocation paper setting out options, financial implications and a recommended path.
- FP&A design and implementation: chart of accounts, KPI library, rolling forecast process and reporting calendar.
- Board reporting pack template with management commentary structure and an agreed review cadence.
- Market entry analysis for a defined geography, covering demand sizing, route to market and capital requirement.
- Turnaround or restructuring plan with cash runway analysis, intervention sequencing and stakeholder communications.
- Written advisory notes on discrete strategic questions, suitable for board or shareholder circulation.
How long, how priced
Strategic advisory is priced as a fixed-fee project for a defined question, or as a monthly retainer where the work is ongoing. The retainer model is common where a board wants senior financial counsel in the room across a planning cycle or through a period of consequential decisions.
Project engagements are scoped against the decision audience, the breadth of options to be assessed and the supporting analytical work required. Retainers are sized against expected board cadence, the volume of written output and the level of management interaction agreed at the outset.
We work to a written scope and an agreed time commitment, and we adjust both in writing where the brief evolves. Fee structures are transparent. We discuss commercials only after we have understood the decision the work is meant to serve.
Best for
Three sectors where this service typically comes first.
Healthcare and Life Sciences
Strategic advisory for care operators and life sciences businesses navigating regulatory, capital and capacity questions in parallel.
Government and Public Sector
Five-year planning, investment mapping and capital allocation work for public bodies subject to audit and procurement scrutiny.
Technology and Innovation
Senior financial counsel for scale-ups, with strategy work that connects to the product, engineering and fundraising plan.
A typical engagement
Three phases. Senior practitioner involvement at every stage.
Discover (week one to three)
Situation review with the leadership team, structured interviews with relevant stakeholders, document review across recent board papers, management accounts and any prior strategy work. The strategic question is defined in writing, the decision audience identified, and an initial framing paper produced. By the end of this phase the engagement has a documented scope, a critical path and an agreed cadence.
Design (week two to eight)
Option development against the agreed question, financial assessment of each option, sensitivity work on the assumptions that move the decision. Options are tested structurally with management before the field is narrowed. Where the work requires a supporting model, one is built or rebuilt to the standard required. The output of this phase is a short-list of options the board can defend.
Deliver (week six to twelve and beyond)
Board paper drafted to the audience and circulated for review. Presentation delivered in the room, with the senior practitioner available for committee questions. Decision support extends through to resolution. Where the client requires continuing counsel into execution, the engagement transitions to a retained advisory cadence with monthly board attendance and ad hoc input agreed in writing.
When the question is bigger than the numbers
GIVE Consultancy, one call away
GIVE Analytics is one of two firms in the GIVE Network, sitting alongside GIVE Consultancy Limited. The non-financial dimensions of most engagements (legal structuring, market research, communications, people, regulatory positioning) are addressed by GIVE Consultancy Limited, a separate firm operating under the same standards. The GIVE Foundation, the charitable entity through which both firms donate ten per cent of annual profits, is held separately again. The network exists because consequential decisions rarely have a single dimension; clients tell us they value being able to draw on adjacent capability without renegotiating confidentiality. We do not cross-refer unless the client asks us to.
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GIVE Foundation receives ten per cent of profits from every engagement. See the giving model (opens in a new tab).
Confidentiality
Clients engage us on the understanding that the engagement is not described publicly without their consent. Where this page refers to past work, the description is by sector, the analytical question and the deliverable. Names, deal sizes and counterparties are withheld as a matter of standing policy. References are available to serious enquirers at the appropriate point in a conversation, with the consent of the referee.
Discuss a Strategic Financial Advisory engagement
A 30-minute introductory call, in confidence. We will tell you if this service is not the right starting point.