Independent advisor to chief executives, chairs and boards
Your reports say the plan is on track. Your people know it is not.
Big decisions are often made on half the picture. I find out the other half, in confidence, before it costs you.
Since 2013, Frank Tsuro has advised more than 230 C-suite and director-level executives. He has spoken in person in more than 15 countries across Africa, Europe, the Middle East and North America.
A green dashboard and a project 2 years late.
A financial services group was 2 years behind on a major systems change and millions over budget. Every month the board reviewed a dashboard, and every month it was green. The chair asked me to find out why the system would not launch.
It launched 3 months later.
Read what was really happening
I spoke to people one to one and in confidence, from the chief operating officer to the staff who run branch compliance.
The software worked. But the new system would stop branch managers from overriding compliance checks. Without those overrides, they could not meet their daily loan targets. The operations lead knew. He could not say so, because the board had already announced the launch date. So he kept asking the supplier for small changes that pushed the launch back.
I gave the chair 2 pages. They said one thing: your technology is ready, but your targets and your compliance rules cannot both be met.
The board changed the branch targets and told the operations lead he could speak without risk.
The client is not named. Shared with their permission.
Bad news gets smaller on its way to the top.
Telling the boss about a problem early can cost a manager. Making it sound smaller costs nothing. So at every level, the bad news shrinks a little more. I call this the filter.
The decision was sensible. The information behind it was not.
- Board
- Executive team
- Senior managers
- Supervisors
- The floor
AI can write the report. It cannot hear what your people will not say.
Much of what leaders once paid coaches and consultants for, they now get from AI in seconds. What clients still come to me for is trust and judgement.
What AI now does well
- Summarise what has been reported.
- Draft the paper, the plan and the speech.
- Answer questions about the documents you give it.
What still needs a person
- Hear what people will only say in confidence.
- Judge what it means for your decision.
- Advise you plainly and answer for the advice.
An AI system trained on a filtered business learns the filter, then repeats it, fast and with confidence.
For chief executives, chairs and their boards
Advisory
Beside you on one important decision, for as long as it needs. One fee, agreed before we start.
How advisory works
For conferences, boards and leadership teams
Speaking
4 signature talks drawn from the advisory work, each ending with questions your audience can use the next morning.
See the talksWhat is in front of you?
Choose one. Three short questions, then the right next step, with your answers already in the booking.
Prefer to talk first? Book a call
The first conversation is on me. If I am not the right person for the problem, I will say so and tell you who is.
Arranging this for someone else?
The Wider Work
FranklySpeaking
When a problem keeps coming back, my firm finds the cause and fixes the system, with a method adapted from aircraft accident investigation.
franklyspeakinghq.comThe Leader’s Office
The support usually kept for the very top: a chief of staff and a team, without the full-time hire.
tlo.franktsuro.com#PeopleMakingHistory
A journal, fellowship and archive that records what the people making Africa’s history are learning, for the leaders who come next.
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