Most work of this kind starts from a brief. We start from the position the organisation is actually in, establish what must be decided and only then determine what work should follow.
The mandate is not passed down. Whoever takes the work is whoever reaches the conclusion.
We separate the presenting request from the consequential choice beneath it, then make the objective and constraints explicit.
We test the structure, information, governance and economics against the people who will have to approve, fund or operate them.
We identify the decision-makers, dependencies and sequence required to turn agreement into coordinated action.
The answer may be a completed transaction, an operating institution or a decision the organisation can defend and execute.
A written position on the decision, the conditions it depends on and what must be true for it to hold.
Where the decision requires a document that will be read by a board, a regulator, a lender or a counterparty, we write it. Where it requires a conversation with the people who must carry it, we have that conversation.
We do not leave a set of options behind for someone else to resolve.