Strategic AI Architecture for SME Leaders
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.
The Real Problem
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.
AI amplifies whatever architecture it sits on. Fix the carbon (human) layer first.
The invisible friction that keeps leaders trapped in firefighting mode.
When the architecture is right, AI doesn't just improve things. It transforms them.
Who This is For
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.
The Approach
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
The Advantage
The Transformation
Credentials
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
The Diagnostic
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.
Trapped in reactive mode, solving the same problems on repeat.
Thinking clearly, but the systems aren't keeping pace with the ambition.
Moving fast, but not sure if the foundations will hold at scale.
Architecture is solid. AI is genuinely multiplying what works.
Speaking
Conferences and summits
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 operational trap that keeps brilliant leaders stuck, and the system that breaks the cycle.
Corporate L&D and away days
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.
The Book
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.
Latest Thinking
Why your AI strategy is really a people strategy
The era of AI architecture (paired post)
Co-presentation with Dave Birss at Bizzable
The most dangerous phrase in business: 'We'll layer AI on top'
A 30-minute conversation. No pitch, no pressure. Just an honest look at whether I can help and what the first move would be.
Not ready to talk? Take the diagnostic first.