Build capability, not consultant dependency.
With performance-based pricing.
Strategic Consulting That Shares the Risk; Without the Big Consultancy Price Tag
You're Small To The Big Consulting Firms - You Won't Get Their A Team, But Will Pay A Team Prices
You hire the big firms because you need strategic thinking, want credibility, or your board expects “top-tier” consulting. Then reality hits:
The Cost
£500K minimum, often £1M+ for meaningful engagements. Junior consultants with massive day rates.
The Depth & Width
They are great at strategy but can’t talk to your functions as experts with deep real word experience.
The Outcome
Beautiful strategy decks don’t build capability. A liked and rewarding experience that gets results does.
"Big firms are brilliant at strategy development. But they don't build execution capability, they don't share risk, and they cost 6-10x what strategic transformation should cost."
Performance-Based Pricing: We Only Win if You Win
Big 4 firms can bill you over £10k/day whether you succeed or fail. We are a fraction of that, assign our A-team to your project, a tie part of our compensation to your results.
"60% of our clients are rescue engagements. We specialise in the hard cases - organisations that tried and failed, where scepticism is high and trust is low. That's our expertise."
Five Reasons Companies Choose Us Over Big Consulting Firms
We Build Capability, Not Dependency
They become your strategy function. When they leave, you can’t execute without them. So you hire them again (which is their business model).
We teach you to think strategically. By month 6, you don’t need us—you have the capability to set strategy, execute it, and adapt as conditions change.
Why this matters:
You’re not buying strategy-as-a-service. You’re building permanent organisational capability.
We Have Functional Depth, Not Just Framework Expertise
Brilliant generalists who know frameworks but may not understand your specific functional challenges in product, engineering, brand marketing, growth marketing, sales, HR and Finance.
We bring specialists in each function who’ve led these departments at scale. They don’t just consult—they’ve done the actual work.
Why this matters:
Cross-functional collaboration breaks down because functions don’t understand each other. Our experts bridge that gap.
We Share Risk Through Performance Pricing
Bill by the hour. Often £10,000+ /day whether you succeed or fail. Zero skin in the game.
We’ve blended our rates so the real profit comes from your success. You must achieved breakthrough growth or strategic OKR achievement.
Why this matters:
We’re genuinely partnered with your success, not just collecting fees.
We Stay Through Execution, Not Just Strategy
3-6 months developing strategy, then they leave. Execution is ‘your problem.’ Most strategies die in implementation.
28 days to launch, then 6 months of execution support. We stay until the transformation sticks and you’ve developed independent capability.
Why this matters:
Strategy without execution is fiction. We ensure your strategy actually happens.
We Cost 80-90% Less Than Big 4 Engagements
£500K minimum, often £1M+ for transformation programmes. Junior consultants charging £2,500/day building PowerPoints.
£60K-120K base (scaled by complexity) + performance bonus. You get senior expertise at a fraction of the cost.
Why this matters:
ROI. You don’t need to pay for brand prestige. You need results.
How We Deliver Strategic Transformation
28 days to launch. 6 months to breakthrough. Lifetime capability.
Strategic Clarity
We don’t start with frameworks. We start with your competitive reality.
- What actually creates advantage for you?
- Where are you strategic vs. just busy?
- What are the 3-5 priorities that drive breakthrough performance?
You get:Â Strategic clarity your leadership genuinely owns, not consultant jargon.
Cross-Functional Alignment
Our functional experts (marketing, product, sales, HR) facilitate genuine collaboration.
- Middle managers challenge and refine the strategy
- Cross-functional teams form around shared objectives
- Managers learn to lead strategically, not just execute tasks
You get: Buy-in and capability across your management layer.
Execution Support
Weekly check-ins. Monthly strategic sessions. Quarterly retrospectives. Expert intervention when needed.
You get: Execution discipline that persists and embedded capability that stays when we leave.
Is This Right for Your Organisation?
- This is for you if:
- You're considering big consulting but questioning the ROI
- You need strategic thinking but don't want consultant dependency
- You have 100-1,500 employees (large enough for structure, small enough for agility)
- You're stuck at 0-10% growth and know strategy execution is the bottleneck
- You want functional depth (marketing, product, sales, HR), not just generalists
- You value capability building over impressive PowerPoints
- You appreciate performance-based pricing that shares risk
We Are Optimized for Your Economics, Not Ours
We know that you’re in low growth mode and need to move quickly and get results. The challenge is that you need to carry on moving forward whilst re-booting the org. So we’ve optimised for you.
"Big firms optimise for their economics, not yours. They need you dependent because that's how they generate £250K+ per client per year. We optimise for your independence."
Frequently Asked Questions
If you need brand prestige for your board or investors, hire one of the big consultancies. Their name carries weight in certain contexts.
But if you need actual transformation—strategy that gets executed, capability that persists, breakthrough performance that lasts—you don't need the big guys. You need what we provide at a fraction of the cost.
Ask yourself: Do you need impressive slides and consultant prestige, or do you need your organisation to think and execute strategically on its own?
Three ways:
- We're not paying for global infrastructure: No fancy offices in 100 countries. No partner retreats in the Maldives. Our overhead is lean.
- We're specialists, not generalists: We focus on strategic growth for companies in the danger zone. The big firms do everything from audit to digital transformation. Specialisation creates efficiency.
- We leverage assets and technology: Our frameworks, materials, videos, handbooks and platform speed up the time-to-excellence.
We deliver senior expertise and proven methodology without the brand tax.
Be honest about the tradeoff: Big firms give you prestige, we give you results.
Some boards understand that big firm name recognition doesn't equal better outcomes. If your board is sophisticated, they'll appreciate performance-based pricing and capability building over brand names.
If your board requires one of the big guys for credibility reasons, we're not the right fit. But if they care about ROI and actual transformation, we're the better choice.
Our methodology is research-backed and proven across dozens of engagements. We combine:
- Academic research on competitive advantage and strategic thinking
- Neuroscience of change management
- Practical functional expertise from leaders who've scaled these departments
The big firm have brilliant frameworks. We have frameworks plus execution support plus capability building plus performance-based pricing. Different doesn't mean less rigorous. It means optimised for your success, not our brand prestige.
Big firms don't publish success rates, and neither do we (client confidentiality).
What we can tell you:
- 80%+ of our clients come to us in low/no growth and achieve 10%+ growth within 12 months
- Our performance bonus model means we only get paid the full fee when clients succeed
- Clients renew our platform at 85%+ rates, indicating ongoing value
Big firm success rates are hard to measure because "success" is often defined as "we delivered the strategy deck" not "the strategy actually drove results."
Trust should be based on methodology, results, and alignment of incentives—not brand size.
We offer:
- Research-backed approach (you can verify our methodology)
- Case studies with real results (we'll connect you with clients)
- Performance-based pricing (we share your risk)
- Functional depth from operators who've done the work
Big firms offer:
- Brand prestige
- Larger consultant bench
- Guaranteed fees regardless of your results
Which matters more for your transformation: our name or your outcomes?
What Happens In Your Strategy Session
Book Your Strategy Session
We’ll discuss:
- Where you're stuck and why
- Whether you need Big 4 prestige or genuine capability building
- What breakthrough looks like for your organisation
- Specific investment based on your complexity
- How our approach differs from Big 4 and boutique consultancies
No sales pitch. Honest assessment of whether we’re the right fit.
Pre-Work Phase
We’ll discuss:
- Interviews with leadership and middle managers
- Review of current strategy and market position
- Identify capability gaps and growth barriers
- Develop strategic thesis and transformation roadmap
You’ll arrive at Week 1 with a clear diagnosis and plan.
The Transformation Begins
We’ll discuss:
- Leadership offsite
- Strategic clarity
- Real alignment
- The hard work starts
This is where real transformation begins – with your leadership team fully aligned.
Limited Availability
We deliberately limit engagements to ensure quality. Our consultants work with 12-15 organisations per year.
You don’t need consulting prestige. You need breakthrough performance.
If you’re ready for genuine transformation at a fraction of the cost, don’t wait.
- United Kingdom
Ashtead
KT21 1RZ
+44 20 7046 1328
- United States
New York
NY 10013
+1 646-718-4720
- ZOKRI helps leaders and teams achieve strategic goals using the OKR (Objectives & Key Results) framework. Our platform aligns strategy, goals, and people, fostering engagement and growth through comprehensive training and management systems.
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