Strategic AI Architecture for SME Leaders

You're the Most Expensive
Firefighter in Your Company

You built this business to lead it, not to spend every day buried in problems your team should be solving without you. There is a way out, and it starts with fixing the systems, not adding more technology.

Your competitors aren't outworking you. They're out-architecting you.

You didn't build a business to spend your days untangling operational knots, clarifying miscommunications, and responding to urgent emails at ten o'clock at night.

While you've been keeping the engine running, the businesses pulling ahead haven't been working harder. They've been building systems that think better.

This isn't a time management problem. It's a systems problem. And AI, applied to a broken system, just amplifies the chaos.

Silicon vs Carbon

AI amplifies whatever architecture it sits on. Fix the carbon (human) layer first.

Operational Drag

The invisible friction that keeps leaders trapped in firefighting mode.

The Amplifier Effect

When the architecture is right, AI doesn't just improve things. It transforms them.

SME owners and senior leaders who know they need to move on AI, but don't trust the hype.

You're running a business with 20 to 500 people. You've seen the demos. You've heard the pitches. You're smart enough to know that bolting a chatbot onto a broken process isn't transformation. You want someone who'll tell you the truth about what needs fixing first.

REIMAGINE: Strategy as an Operating System

Not a report that gathers dust. A living system I install in your business across three phases: building the foundation, creating the advantage, and locking in the transformation.

The Foundation

R Resilience
E Effective Planning
I Intelligent Data

The Advantage

M Motivate Teams
A Adaptive Advantage
G Genuine Trust

The Transformation

I Integrate
N Nurture Growth
E Execute Excellence

Two decades in the room where it happens.

I founded and scaled Profusion, one of the UK's first data science consultancies. I've sat on advisory boards, been a regular technology pundit on BBC World News, and led AI transformation programmes for the John Lewis Partnership and Carlsberg Britvic.

Escape Velocity is where I bring everything I've learned to the leaders who need it most: the ones running the businesses that actually make this country work.

400%

Revenue growth guided for a professional services firm

3-year

Revenue runway built from scratch, replacing annual anxiety with strategic freedom

79%

Staff retention through radical transformation

Not sure where you stand? Find out in five minutes.

The AI Readiness Diagnostic maps your business against the REIMAGINE framework and tells you which operational archetype you're currently running. No fluff, no upsell. Just a clear picture of where you are and what to fix first.

🔥

The Firefighter

Trapped in reactive mode, solving the same problems on repeat.

📐

The Strategist

Thinking clearly, but the systems aren't keeping pace with the ambition.

The Accelerator

Moving fast, but not sure if the foundations will hold at scale.

🔊

The Amplifier

Architecture is solid. AI is genuinely multiplying what works.

Which one are you?

Five minutes. Your strategic prescription.

Start the Diagnostic

Three talks. One thesis. Zero fluff.

Conferences and summits

The Indiscriminate Amplifier

Why AI doesn't care what it makes louder, and what leaders need to fix before they switch it on.

Vistage and peer groups

The Most Expensive Firefighter

The operational trap that keeps brilliant leaders stuck, and the system that breaks the cycle.

Corporate L&D and away days

Silicon vs Carbon

The human architecture your AI strategy is missing, and why no amount of technology will compensate for it.

AMPLIFIER

AI Doesn't Care What It Makes Louder. You Should.

Mike Weston

AMPLIFIER

The book behind the thesis. AMPLIFIER is a practical guide for leaders who want to understand what AI actually amplifies in their organisation, and what to do about it before they press go. Built on the Silicon vs Carbon framework and the REIMAGINE system.

Recent posts and appearances

Follow on LinkedIn →
LinkedIn Mar 2026

Why your AI strategy is really a people strategy

Video Feb 2026

The era of AI architecture (paired post)

Event Mar 2026

Co-presentation with Dave Birss at Bizzable

LinkedIn Feb 2026

The most dangerous phrase in business: 'We'll layer AI on top'

Ready to fix what's underneath?

A 30-minute conversation. No pitch, no pressure. Just an honest look at whether I can help and what the first move would be.