"We brought StrategyLink in when our margins were shrinking quarter after quarter. Within five months they restructured our procurement process and saved us £182,000 annually."— D. Hargreaves, COO, Lothian Manufacturing Group
"Most consultants hand you a deck and leave. This team stayed through implementation, adjusted the plan when our supply chain broke, and hit the revised targets anyway."— R. Achebe, Managing Director, Forth Logistics
Business Consulting built on a timeline of real results
StrategyLink Consult started with a single question: why do so many consulting engagements end with a report that nobody reads? We decided to measure ourselves by what actually changed inside our clients' organisations. Below is the story of how we got here, told through the milestones that shaped our method.
Founded on one principle: finish what you start
Two former operations directors pooled their severance, rented a desk in Edinburgh, and took on three clients in the first quarter. Every engagement included a clause: if the agreed outcome wasn't met, the final invoice was waived. All three paid in full.
Mid-market manufacturing became our proving ground
Manufacturers with 50 to 400 employees faced a specific problem: they were too large for gut-feel decisions and too small for McKinsey. We built a diagnostic that could map operational waste in 10 working days. That tool is still in use, now on version nine.
Pricing strategy and commercial modelling joined the offer
A logistics client asked us to look at their rate card. We found they were undercharging their three largest accounts by an average of 14%. Correcting that added £310,000 to annual revenue without winning a single new customer. After that, pricing work became a standing service.
Pandemic response work for seven clients simultaneously
Cash-flow modelling, furlough planning, supply-chain re-routing. We ran weekly war-room calls with each client. Six of seven emerged profitable that year. The seventh broke even, which was itself a win given their sector collapsed by 40%.
We formalised the three-phase engagement model
Diagnose, redesign, embed. Each phase has a fixed duration, a named deliverable, and a go/no-go gate. Clients can stop after any phase and still walk away with usable output. This structure eliminated scope creep and made budgets predictable.
Fourteen active clients across four sectors
Manufacturing, logistics, professional services, and food production. We now have a team of six consultants, each with at least 12 years of operational experience before joining. No juniors running your project. No sub-contracting to fill gaps.
If your business has outgrown its current operating model but you are not sure where the friction actually sits, a 90-minute diagnostic call with our lead consultant costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Request a diagnostic callThe three-phase framework
Every engagement follows this structure. Phases can be purchased individually or as a package. Each phase ends with a written deliverable you own outright.
Phase 1 — Diagnose (3 weeks)
We interview your leadership team, review financial data for the past 18 months, and map your core processes. The output is a diagnostic report ranking issues by financial impact, not by ease of fix.
Phase 2 — Redesign (5 weeks)
Working with your senior managers, we build a revised operating model. This includes new process maps, revised KPIs, a staffing plan, and a costed implementation roadmap with named owners for every action.
Phase 3 — Embed (6 weeks)
We sit inside your business during rollout. Weekly progress reviews, obstacle removal, and real-time adjustment. The phase ends when the new model is running without our involvement for two consecutive weeks.
Who we work with — and who we don't
Honest fit matters more than a signed contract. Here is how we think about it.
Good fit
- Revenue between £2m and £80m
- Leadership team willing to be challenged
- At least one clear pain point with financial evidence
- Decision-maker available for weekly check-ins
- Budget for implementation, not just advice
Not the right match
- Looking for a slide deck to show investors with no intent to act
- Need a full-time interim manager rather than a consulting engagement
- Annual revenue under £1m (we can refer you to specialists who serve that segment well)
- Require industry-specific regulatory compliance consulting — we are generalist operators, not compliance auditors
A note on how we charge
We quote fixed fees per phase. No day rates, no time-and-materials surprises. The diagnostic phase is priced between £4,500 and £9,000 depending on the complexity of your operation. Redesign and embed phases are scoped after the diagnostic is complete, because quoting blind helps nobody. Every fee is agreed in writing before work begins.
What happens after we leave
Every engagement ends with a handover pack: process documentation, decision logs, and a 90-day review checklist your internal team can run without us. We also offer a quarterly check-in retainer at a fraction of the engagement cost, for clients who want an external sounding board as they continue to evolve.
Roughly 60% of our clients choose the retainer. The rest prefer full independence, and that is exactly what the embed phase is designed to enable.
Start a conversation
Tell us a little about your situation. We respond within one working day.
Prefer to talk?
Call +44 1227 975885 during business hours (Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm).
Email directly
Visit us
265 Bogisich Close, Nolan-le-Schmidt, Scotland, CW44 8KJ, United Kingdom
Common questions
How quickly can an engagement begin after the initial call?
Typically within two weeks. The diagnostic phase requires access to your financial data and availability of three to five key people for interviews, so the main constraint is usually on your side rather than ours.
Do you work with businesses outside Scotland?
Yes. About a third of our current clients are based in England. We travel for on-site work and use video calls for regular check-ins. The embed phase does require some in-person presence, which we factor into the fee for clients outside central Scotland.
What if we only need help with one specific problem, not a full engagement?
The diagnostic phase works well as a standalone project. You receive a prioritised report and can act on it yourself. Many clients start there and decide later whether to continue.
Can you share references from past clients?
We can arrange a call with a current or former client in a comparable sector, subject to their agreement. We do not publish case studies without explicit permission, but we are happy to facilitate a direct conversation.
The team, briefly
Six consultants. Combined 84 years of operational management experience across manufacturing, logistics, retail, and professional services. No one on the team has fewer than 12 years in industry before moving into consulting. We do not hire graduates and train them on your time.