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Standing facts

  • 08 engines · one evidence model
  • 02 arenas · francophone Europe / Africa
  • Entry from 2 minutes · free, no account needed
  • Every engagement ends in a verdict , never a slide deck
  • Fees anchored to value at stake · never consultant days
  • Every instrument published blank · 33 rows in the public register
Resources

Evidence you can print, run and defend.

One register for evidence notes, instruments, field briefings, corridor playbooks and decision conversations. Every item carries its publication class and the evidence standard it meets, so you know exactly what you can take into a board room.

The register

What you can use today.

17 items are open right now: 3 evidence notes, 8 instruments you can print and run against a live decision, 4 methods of record and 2 platforms. A further 3 field briefings are not open downloads: we send them on request, within one working day.

17
Available nowOpen, read or request today
8
Publication classesEach with a defined evidence standard
2
Evidence scalesMethod maturity, and finding strength
2
LanguagesAuthored natively, never translated
90 min
To your own memoEvidence Express, read on your decision

Register read on 29 July 2026.

Start here

Your revenue is visible. Your margin leakage is not.

The evidence note read most often, and the instrument that goes with it. Read the argument, then print the waterfall and run it against one customer, one product, one channel.

Pairs as

Evidence note · MarginLeak · No. 01
≈1 min read · read now
Instrument · MLX-01
A4 · print and run
The shelf

One register for everything we publish.

Notes, instruments, briefings, corridor playbooks and the method of record, in a single list with its class, its status and what you can do with it. Filter by what you need rather than by where it happens to live.

Shelf
Status

A shelf is where an item sits in the register. A class is the evidence standard it was published to. Every item has exactly one of each.

33 of 33 publications shown

  • Evidence noteAvailable now

    Evidence before scale

    The Discipline · No. 01

    The one rule that reorders every other rule in the firm.

  • Evidence noteAvailable now

    AI, honestly

    AI, honestly · No. 01

    The frame for the whole framework: no vendor pitches, no unattributed claims.

  • Evidence noteAvailable now

    Your revenue is visible. Your margin leakage is not.

    MarginLeak · No. 01

    How true profitability by customer, product, channel and payment behaviour hides in the data you already own.

  • InstrumentAvailable now

    The Margin Leakage Waterfall

    MLX-01 · A4, printable

    Follow one euro from list price to cash-adjusted contribution, and mark every silent leak.

  • InstrumentAvailable now

    The Deal Reality Twin

    DRT-01 · A4, printable

    Five versions of the target, and the gap between the one sold and the one you inherit.

  • InstrumentAvailable now

    Deal Reality Twin, overview

    DRT-02 · A4, printable

    The buyer-side model on one page, for a board that has ten minutes.

  • InstrumentAvailable now

    The Truth Stack

    TS-01 · A4, printable

    Seven rungs from anecdote to independently verified value. Locate where a claim actually sits.

  • InstrumentAvailable now

    The Evidence-to-Decision Cycle

    EDC-01 · A4, printable

    Six gates from a claim to committed action. The method on a single sheet.

  • InstrumentAvailable now

    The Three-Corner Test

    TCT-01 · A4, printable

    Growth, margin and cash on the same page. Approve only if all three hold.

  • InstrumentAvailable now

    The Benefits Bridge

    BB-01 · A4, printable

    Seven handovers between a business case and the P&L, and where the benefits leak.

  • InstrumentAvailable now

    The Board Authorization Canvas

    BAC-01 · A4, printable

    One page a board needs before it commits, with the authorize gate made explicit.

  • Field briefingAvailable now

    Capex evidence gate, practitioner playbook

    14 pages · CFO, Group Investment Committee

    The one-page defence a board should ask for before approving a capex line.

  • Field briefingAvailable now

    Pricing defensibility, mid-market edition

    18 pages · Commercial Director, CFO

    How to test a price move against the four axes that decide whether it survives a quarter.

  • Field briefingAvailable now

    AI value traceability, from pilot to P&L

    20 pages · Group CTO, CFO

    The evidence trail that turns an AI pilot into a defensible budget line.

  • Field briefingComing soon

    Board authorization playbook

    12 pages · Board chair, company secretary

    One page per decision, six decisions a year. For boards that want evidence, not comfort.

  • Method of recordReference

    Methodology

    How we know what we claim

    The evidence ladder, the verdict standard and the closed-loop review, written into every engagement letter.

  • Method of recordReference

    The Evidence File

    Redacted specimens

    Redacted specimens of the artefacts we produce: verdicts, exhibits and engagement briefs.

  • Method of recordReference

    Publication register

    What we added and retired

    What we added, retired and refined. Instruments are dated, and retirement is recorded.

  • Method of recordReference

    Evidence Express

    Nine gates, three domains, one memo

    Nine gates across value leakage, AI readiness and decision quality. Each domain read on its own, ending in a printable memo. About two minutes.

  • Corridor playbookComing soon

    Whether to hold price when your cost base and your revenue sit in different currency regimes

    WAEMU to euro · Abidjan, Dakar, Paris · Margin Leakage Waterfall, then Three-Corner Test

    Engine · Profit and pricing

  • Corridor playbookComing soon

    How much cash to hold when the stated payment terms are not the real ones

    Francophone West Africa · 13-Week Cash Decision Twin, then Benefits Bridge

    Engine · Cash and capital

  • Corridor playbookComing soon

    Whether to own, franchise or wholesale a last mile that is partly informal

    Abidjan, Lomé, Douala · Hidden Logistics Cost Observatory, then Margin Leakage Waterfall

    Engine · Operations and supply

  • Corridor playbookComing soon

    How to gate capex when infrastructure reliability is the dominant variable

    Corridor wide · Capex Evidence Gate, then Evidence-to-Decision Cycle

    Engine · Leadership, governance and risk

  • Corridor playbookComing soon

    Whether to widen across borders or deepen in one market first

    WAEMU and CEMAC · Growth Constraint Decision Twin, then Three-Corner Test

    Engine · Growth and commercial

  • Corridor playbookComing soon

    What a European holding board must see from a West African operating company

    Paris, Geneva to Abidjan, Lomé · Board Authorization Canvas, then Truth Stack

    Engine · Leadership, governance and risk

  • Corridor playbookComing soon

    Which AI workflows to fund when connectivity, data and talent do not match the vendor’s assumptions

    Abidjan, Dakar, Casablanca · AI Workflow Experiment Studio, then Benefits Bridge

    Engine · AI and productivity

  • Corridor playbookComing soon

    Whether to buy skills, build them, or redesign the work when the talent pool is thin

    Corridor wide, francophone Africa · Growth Constraint Decision Twin, then Benefits Bridge

    Engine · Leadership, governance and risk

  • Corridor playbookComing soon

    Whether to automate a line when labour is cheap and capital is expensive

    Abidjan, Douala, Casablanca · Hidden Logistics Cost Observatory, then Capex Evidence Gate

    Engine · Operations and supply

  • PlatformAvailable now

    AIRI, the AI Readiness Index

    Platform · live

    The index every AI programme is scored against before it earns a budget line.

  • PlatformReference

    The Diagnostic Suite

    Platform · standing reference

    The instrument set we run inside Evidence Express and the Decision Sprint, listed with the engagement that uses it.

  • InstrumentComing soon

    The Capex Evidence Gate

    Instrument · in preparation

    The gate a capital request must clear before a board authorises it. Named in three corridor playbooks; the specimen is in preparation.

  • InstrumentComing soon

    The Execution Friction Map

    Instrument · in preparation

    Where a plan loses time and margin between decision and delivery. Named in the corridor playbooks; the specimen is in preparation.

  • InstrumentComing soon

    The Margin Leakage Architecture

    Instrument · in preparation

    The structural view behind the Margin Leakage Waterfall: where leakage is designed into the operating model. The specimen is in preparation.

Thirteen further evidence notes are commissioned and listed with their publication month on the Insights ledger. Fifteen decision conversations are indexed below.

Field briefings

Request the briefing or playbook that matches your decision.

These are not open downloads, and that is not a capture tactic: they are the evidence checklists and decision templates we use on engagements. A briefing applied to the wrong situation does damage, so a partner checks the fit first.

Why on request

  1. 01

    A partner reads your context before anything is sent.

  2. 02

    You receive the briefing within one working day, or the one that fits better.

  3. 03

    No sales sequence is triggered behind the request.

Available briefing

Capex evidence gate, practitioner playbook

The one-page defence a board should ask for before approving a capex line — with the six gates we run against every project brief.

Audience
CFO, Group Investment Committee
Length
14 pages

Request this briefing

Practitioner-grade briefings. We send by email within one working day.

Available briefing

Pricing defensibility, mid-market edition

How to test a price move against the four axes that decide whether it survives a full quarter — before it reaches the sales floor.

Audience
Commercial Director, CFO
Length
18 pages

Request this briefing

Practitioner-grade briefings. We send by email within one working day.

Available briefing

AI value traceability, from pilot to P&L

The evidence trail that turns an AI pilot into a defensible budget line, and the four handovers where value most often leaks.

Audience
Group CTO, CFO, transformation lead
Length
20 pages

Request this briefing

Practitioner-grade briefings. We send by email within one working day.

In preparation

Board authorization playbook

One page per decision, six decisions per year. The template we ship to boards that want evidence, not comfort.

Audience
Board chair, company secretary
Length
12 pages
In preparation. Join the general waitlist and we will notify you when this briefing ships.

Treated under client confidentiality: never reused, benchmarked or aggregated.

Evidence grading

Two scales, and a rule against confusing them.

A named framework is not validated because it has been published. Internal use is not field validation. Three client examples are not a benchmark. So we grade the method and the finding separately, on two scales that may never substitute for one another.

FEM (Framework Evidence Maturity), method maturity

How mature and validated is the method, at a specific version and scope.

F1 · Framework Declared
Asset owner only. Declared, not reviewed — nothing at F1 may be published, which is why every register row sits at F2 or above.
F2 · Methodology Specified
Asset owner plus internal methodology reviewer
F3 · Logic Tested
Methodology reviewer plus test reviewer
F4 · Pilot Validated
Research lead plus independent evidence reviewer plus pilot owner
F5 · Benchmark Supported
Benchmark governance panel
F6 · Externally Validated
Independent external reviewer or institution

F1 is a declaration, not a publication: an asset at F1 has been written down by its owner and reviewed by nobody, so nothing at F1 may appear in the register. Every row you can read here sits at F2 or above.

SEG, finding strength, in full

How strong is this particular finding, on a scale from SEG-0 to SEG-6, applied to a single conclusion rather than to a brand.

SEG-0 · Asserted
Stated without supporting evidence, including first-hand testimony. Never presented as verified fact.
SEG-1 · Sourced
Traceable to a named source that has not been independently checked.
SEG-2 · Reconciled
Reconciled against the organisation's own records for a stated period.
SEG-3 · Triangulated
Confirmed by at least two independent sources or two independent methods.
SEG-4 · Tested
Established by a test whose hypothesis and outcome measure were set before the data was seen.
SEG-5 · Benchmarked
Held against a governed comparable dataset with a stated population and period.
SEG-6 · Externally validated
Confirmed end to end by an independent external reviewer or institution.

FEM asks how mature the method is. SEG asks how strong the specific finding is. Neither scale may substitute for the other.

The operating principle

A mature method does not strengthen a weak finding. A strong finding does not validate the method used to interpret it. The grade belongs to a version, a decision type and a scope, never permanently to a name.

Why no badges appear on this page

A grade without its scope and its limitations is decoration, so we do not display one. No asset may be self-certified: F2 needs a methodology reviewer, F4 an independent evidence reviewer, F6 a party with no financial interest in the answer. A grade is published with its version, validated scope, evidence period and limitations, or it is not published at all.

Where a grade has been earned, it appears on the asset's own page as the panel opposite, complete with the version and scope it applies to, the evidence behind it, and what has not been established.

Public evidence panel · specimenSPECIMEN

Every graded asset displays this.

Maturity
F3, Logic Tested
Version
1.1
Validated scope
Executive evidence assessment
Evidence base
24 reference fixtures, three independent reviewers
Not yet established
Field impact and cross-sector benchmark validity
Last reviewed
29 July 2026
Next review
January 2028

Illustrative field values, not a live grade.

Read the full standard
The Emerging-Market Difference

Fifteen decisions, told by the executive who owned them.

A commissioned set of CEO decision conversations from francophone Africa and its corridors. Each one opens on the trade-off rather than the outcome, because the trade-off is the part that transfers. The index is published so you can tell us which one you would read first.

Coming soonCEO Decision Conversation · no minimum method grade · findings graded SEG-0 to SEG-1, with testimony separated from verified fact.
  1. 01

    Building distribution where the formal market ends

    Distribution

  2. 02

    Growing through currency devaluation without destroying margin

    Cash and currency

  3. 03

    Why we chose control over capital efficiency

    Capital

  4. 04

    The decision to build our own infrastructure

    Infrastructure

  5. 05

    Scaling across borders that do not operate as one market

    Regional scale

  6. 06

    Managing cash when revenue and costs move in different currencies

    Working capital

  7. 07

    Why the global operating model failed locally

    Localisation

  8. 08

    Using informal networks without losing control

    Informality

  9. 09

    Making an AI investment before the data were ready

    AI and data

  10. 10

    When political access becomes a governance risk

    Governance

  11. 11

    Retaining talent in a market designed to export it

    Talent

  12. 12

    Why resilience was not a strategy

    Strategy

  13. 13

    The acquisition that looked right but could not be integrated

    M&A

  14. 14

    What a global board misunderstood about the local market

    Board decisions

  15. 15

    When local legitimacy matters more than brand recognition

    Legitimacy

Titles are final. Publication dates are not, and we will not invent them. Nominate a decision if yours belongs in the set.

Corridor playbooks

What to do differently, corridor by corridor.

A playbook sequences existing instruments against one recurring decision in one named corridor, and states the local conditions that change the answer.

  1. 01

    Whether to hold price when your cost base and your revenue sit in different currency regimes

    Corridor playbooks
    WAEMU to euro · Abidjan, Dakar, Paris
    Profit and pricing
    Margin Leakage Waterfall, then Three-Corner Test
    Coming soon
  2. 02

    How much cash to hold when the stated payment terms are not the real ones

    Corridor playbooks
    Francophone West Africa
    Cash and capital
    13-Week Cash Decision Twin, then Benefits Bridge
    Coming soon
  3. 03

    Whether to own, franchise or wholesale a last mile that is partly informal

    Corridor playbooks
    Abidjan, Lomé, Douala
    Operations and supply
    Hidden Logistics Cost Observatory, then Margin Leakage Waterfall
    Coming soon
  4. 04

    How to gate capex when infrastructure reliability is the dominant variable

    Corridor playbooks
    Corridor wide
    Leadership, governance and risk
    Capex Evidence Gate, then Evidence-to-Decision Cycle
    Coming soon
  5. 05

    Whether to widen across borders or deepen in one market first

    Corridor playbooks
    WAEMU and CEMAC
    Growth and commercial
    Growth Constraint Decision Twin, then Three-Corner Test
    Coming soon
  6. 06

    What a European holding board must see from a West African operating company

    Corridor playbooks
    Paris, Geneva to Abidjan, Lomé
    Leadership, governance and risk
    Board Authorization Canvas, then Truth Stack
    Coming soon
  7. 07

    Which AI workflows to fund when connectivity, data and talent do not match the vendor’s assumptions

    Corridor playbooks
    Abidjan, Dakar, Casablanca
    AI and productivity
    AI Workflow Experiment Studio, then Benefits Bridge
    Coming soon
  8. 08

    Whether to buy skills, build them, or redesign the work when the talent pool is thin

    Corridor playbooks
    Corridor wide, francophone Africa
    Leadership, governance and risk
    Growth Constraint Decision Twin, then Benefits Bridge
    Coming soon
  9. 09

    Whether to automate a line when labour is cheap and capital is expensive

    Corridor playbooks
    Abidjan, Douala, Casablanca
    Operations and supply
    Hidden Logistics Cost Observatory, then Capex Evidence Gate
    Coming soon

A playbook publishes when the sequence has been run often enough to prescribe, with its grade and its limitations on the page.

Request a playbook →
How we publish

Three tests every piece passes before it ships.

Hypothesis first

Every piece opens with a claim it could be wrong about. If the claim is safe, the piece does not ship. That one test removes most of what a firm is tempted to publish.

Evidence in the piece

Sources, samples and workings live in the piece, not in an appendix. If it cannot be re-run, it has not been written.

A verdict you can apply

Every piece closes on a rule you can apply to your own decision on Monday morning, not an invitation to think differently.

Research participation

Nominate a decision for study.

We document consequential decisions from the two arenas we work in. Nomination is not promotion: a decision enters the register only if it can be evidenced, and the executive who owned it is willing to be held to the record.

What qualifies

  1. 01

    A decision already taken, with a consequence that has landed.

  2. 02

    A named owner prepared to separate what they knew from what they assumed.

  3. 03

    Documents, not recollection, for anything presented as fact.

  4. 04

    Willingness to publish the decision that did not work as well as the one that did.

Propose a decision

Anonymised on request. Nothing is published without written approval of the final text.

Arenas & Situations We Know
Family-owned groups·Founder-led companies·PE portfolio companies·Country subsidiaries·France · United Kingdom · Belgium · Luxembourg · Switzerland·Côte d'Ivoire · Senegal · Benin · Togo·Cameroon · Morocco · Guinea·Paris · Brussels · Geneva corridors

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