Commercial strategist and hands-on operator
I connect the commercial plan to how the business runs.
I am Helen Forsyth. I work in the space between commercial leadership and operations: understanding how a business earns money, what gets in the way and what needs to change to make the plan work.
My work includes strategy, commercial troubleshooting and change management. I help funded startups build foundations, established SMEs change direction and enterprise teams solve specific problems. Sometimes the role is fractional CCO. Sometimes it is a focused brief that does not fit neatly into a job title (which is why my email address is helen@something-other.com!).
Start with ‘what if’.
What if the issue is not the sales team? What if the offer makes sense internally but not to the customer? What if the process is making the right outcome harder? Those questions help us find the underlying problem before committing to a solution.
How I work.
I start by understanding how value moves (or gets blocked) through the business. Then we agree what needs to change, I work with the team to put it into practice, and we keep checking the evidence as we go.
I work predominantly remotely, and in person when that helps, particularly early in an engagement and at key decision points. I am based in Devon.
Background.
I am a commercial strategist and hands-on operator, and I also work as a fractional CCO.
- 25+ years’ experience in commercial roles.
- 12 years advising companies at C-suite level on improving commercial outcomes.
- NVQ Level 5 in Leadership and Management, awarded by ILM.
- Non-executive director, ThinkingWare CIC, which stewards The RoundView.
What happens on the intro call.
The intro call is free and lasts 30 minutes. It usually runs like this:
- Introductions, so we find out who we both are.
- You talk me through your goals and where things are currently stuck.
- An open Q&A, in both directions.
- I outline my initial ideas and the approaches I would consider.
- We summarise and agree the next actions.
There is nothing to prepare beforehand.
Experience you can inspect.
Read the case studies for the context, work and measures behind specific engagements. You can also read about my work with The RoundView, a science-based sustainability framework.
What clients have said
“100% recommend Helen. She has a finely tuned skill set that enables her to really get inside a client’s needs - beyond what is in an initial brief.”
“Helen’s calm approach to the chaos was great. She identified with my pain completely and swiftly set about finding the most suitable solution.”
“Helen is responsive and excellent at drawing out the key issues. We started working with Helen in 2018 - she’s now one of our NEDs.”
Want to talk through a commercial challenge?
A first conversation about the challenge and whether I can help.