The Cognitive Automation Era
You’re thinking about AI from the wrong perspective.
Most businesses are responding to AI from the bottom up. Which tools, which licences, where the hours come back. It feels like progress. It answers the wrong question.
You will adopt the tools. Everyone will. Being faster at what you already do will not save a business whose reason for existing has quietly stopped being scarce.
The question that decides the next decade is not how you use the tools. It is what happens to the thing you sell when the cognitive work inside it can be bought by anyone for almost nothing.
It Does Not Stay In One Place
The mistake that follows is treating this as a department problem, a thing for operations or IT to absorb. It does not stay in a department.
A shift in what cognitive work costs moves through the whole business in sequence: what your product is worth, then your margin, then the shape of team you need, then what your customer will pay you for rather than do themselves, and then who your competitor is.
By the time it reaches your revenue line it has passed through every place you could have acted, and the options have closed one by one while the business was busy.
This is what the tactical response cannot reach. You cannot buy your way out of a structural shift with a licence, because the licence answers the question everyone else is answering, while the structural question, the one about position, is the one nobody put in the room clearly enough to act on.
Why This One Is Different
Every previous wave of technology automated something physical or routine: the loom, the production line, the spreadsheet, the warehouse robot.
Each took work that was muscle or repetition and did it cheaper, and the response was always the same, move people up into the judgement work, the analysis, the relationships, the thinking the machine could not do.
That escape route is the thing now being automated. The drafting, the analysis, the first draft of the judgement is precisely what most owner-managed businesses sell, or build their margin on, or staff their middle layer with.
When the loom arrived you could still sell expertise. The question this time is what you sell when the expertise itself is what gets cheaper.
What This Is Not
Not a ChatGPT training session. Not a technology briefing. Not a vendor pitch.
Business strategy for leaders navigating a structural transition, grounded in 12 years of operational MD experience, published research, and a framework tested with investors, advisers, and business leaders across the South West and beyond.
The participants who get most from it are the ones who walk in with a vague sense that the environment has shifted, and walk out with a specific plan rather than a longer list of things to worry about.
The Foundation
This workshop is built on the Investing Through Disruption framework: the product of five months of research across the full landscape of AI and its economic implications. The three scenarios underpinning the session draw on WEF, IMF, McKinsey, and Goldman Sachs source material, calibrated to UK data and the operating environment of established businesses.
The framework is published. Available on request before you book.
Ready To Discuss?
TESTIMONIALS
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Gary Chivers, Former Business Partner
“He cares deeply about seeing his people thrive, he is relentless and he is extremely capable. I would happily run into burning buildings alongside Marc, and smash through walls to drag people out.”
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Ed Birks, Director
"Marc possesses an innate ability to cut through noise and identify the truth of a situation. He saw straight through the smokescreen that had been created and took decisive action at speed.
His work helped protect the wider group and significantly reduced personal and financial exposure for those involved. Beyond the crisis, his coaching and lived experience helped me move forward quickly - I've since appointed him as advisor to my business and Chair of the Board."
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Annette Pettitt, Accountancy Firm Principal
“Marc is an exceptional coach and a steady hand in demanding circumstances.
He knows how to guide teams through uncertainty with clear thinking, practical direction, and a leadership style that inspires trust. His impact on an organisation’s ability to adapt and thrive is invaluable.”
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Chris Dunn, CEO of TDA Transitions & Learning
"In your consulting niche you have a lot to pass on - especially that 'first hand' lived experience. That sets you apart. There is no substitute for experience.”
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Jasper Heinrich, Operational Leader
"Marc brought immediate clarity and direction during a period of real pressure. His calm leadership, structured approach, and clear plan gave the team confidence when it mattered most. We faced some big decisions, and his ability to cut through complexity and create clarity made all the difference."
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Tom Canning, Aston Martin Racing Driver
“I’m very grateful for the involvement from Marc and the impact he had on me and my career over these years as well as a relationship for life. I developed more than I could have imagined in almost all areas.”
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Martin Badder, Music Composer & Producer
"Marc is a very special person. His compassion and caring nature shine through in everything he does, and I felt a genuine connection with him. I am thankful for his impact on my journey."
