Advisory
Executive operating and technology leadership for transformation, turnaround, regulatory remediation, AI, performance and M&A.
60+ markets
Businesses operated directly and complex international organisations across 60+ markets.
How a mandate works
North Axiom provides senior operating and technology leadership where an organisation needs additional capability to deliver a defined outcome. Mandates can include fractional or interim COO and CTO leadership, enterprise transformation and turnaround, regulatory remediation, technology and AI modernisation, performance improvement, and the operating and technology execution of M&A.
Selected non-executive appointments and board intelligence provide independent challenge, decision support and earlier warning where required.
Every mandate starts with a clear outcome, an agreed measurement basis and a defined point for transferring responsibility back to management.
How success is defined
A mandate begins with a defined business outcome and the measures that will show whether it has been achieved.
01A named outcome
The business outcome the mandate is expected to deliver, agreed in writing at the start.
02A baseline
The starting position is established before material changes are made, so improvement can be measured against a clear baseline.
03An attribution method
How changes in operating or financial performance are connected to the interventions that produced them.
04A measurement period
The period over which results are measured, including where appropriate after responsibility has transferred back to management.
How we engage
The objective is to deliver the mandate, strengthen management capability and transfer clear ownership back to the organisation.
01Advise
Define the decision, its economics, dependencies and operating implications.
02Mobilise
Establish the team, decision rights, delivery plan, controls and measures.
03Operate
Take direct responsibility for execution where the mandate requires it.
04Transfer
Transfer responsibility to management with the capability, controls, operating rhythm and evidence in place.
Advisory and board services
Senior executive accountability for a defined outcome and agreed period, without requiring a permanent appointment.
Roles we take
- Fractional or interim Chief Operating Officer
- Fractional or interim Chief Technology Officer
- Chief Transformation Officer mandates
- Operating partner alongside management
- Transformation office and programme recovery
- Defined accountability, measurable outcomes and an agreed transfer back to management
Turnaround and stabilisation
- Operating turnaround and stabilisation where performance, liquidity or delivery requires additional executive control
- Liquidity protection and operating control
- Regulatory remediation, evidence preparation and supervisory engagement
- Remediation of regulatory findings, consent orders and enforcement actions, including regulator engagement
- Design and implementation of operational, technology and risk controls
- Clear accountability between business ownership, control functions and independent oversight
Executive leadership for major transformation, from mobilisation and operating-model redesign through delivery, recovery and transfer into business-as-usual.
Operating model and decision rights
- Operating model reset and decision rights
- Organisational design, spans and layers
- Management cadence, KPI architecture and board reporting
- Change portfolio prioritisation, investment decisions and delivery stage gates
- Benefits realisation and delivery assurance
Shared services and global capability centres
- Shared services consolidation and migration
- Global capability centre design, build and transfer
- Sourcing strategy and location economics
- Outsourcing, insourcing and vendor transition
- Works councils, employee consultation and transfer obligations
- Retention and knowledge transfer through a move
Programme delivery and recovery
- Executive delivery leadership for critical platform, operating-model and business change
- Delivery controls, independent challenge and evidence-based status reporting
- Programme recovery where delivery, cost, scope or implementation has moved materially away from plan
- Data migration, cutover and parallel running
- Adoption, training, operational support and sustained use after implementation
Rolling out what works
- Enterprise replication and operating standards
- Common platform rollout
- Post-merger standardisation
- Multi-site and multi-country rollout
Capability centres and migration
- Shared operating model and services
- Global capability centre design, build, expansion and site selection
- Service migration, knowledge transfer and run-book handover
- Capability transfer and training
- Sourcing strategy and location economics
- Works councils, consultation and transfer obligations through a move
Modernise the technology and data foundation, deploy AI and automation where they create measurable value, and connect technology investment directly to operating performance.
Technology cost and technical debt
- Technology baseline, cost and risk review
- Technical debt assessment, prioritisation and remediation plan
- Technology cost reduction without weakening control
- Enterprise architecture and platform standardisation
- Migration and legacy retirement, with the old system switched off
- Vendor and licence optimisation across contracts, renewals, utilisation and unused spend
- Supplier consolidation across the technology estate
Core platform replacement and integration
- Core platform and ERP replacement
- Data foundation, integration and management information
- Acquisition integration and platform consolidation
- Separation and standalone technology build
- Application and data migration, including what is left behind
- Integration and interface architecture that connects fragmented systems and data
Security and operational resilience
- Identity and access management
- Security operations and vulnerability management
- Incident response, forensics and recovery testing
- Data residency, sovereignty and retention
Automation business cases
- Automation opportunity map
- AI workflow redesign
- Industrial automation business case
- Vendor and integrator selection, commercial control and delivery oversight
- Independent review of a business case already written
- Technology selection independent of any vendor relationship
Robotics and industrial automation
- Robotics, cobots and production line automation
- Machine vision and quality automation
- Intralogistics and warehouse automation
- Deployment, ramp and multi-site replication
- Integration with production, data and management systems so operating performance can be measured automatically
Field force and infrastructure rollout
- National field force and installation programmes
- Metering, device and asset rollout at scale
- Engineer scheduling, routing and productivity
- Depot, stock and spares operations
Forecasting and decision systems
- Executive decision support and forecast architecture
- Scenario planning and stress testing
- Management information and board decision support
- Demand, supply and inventory planning
- Predictive and condition-based maintenance
- Customer, churn and lifetime value analytics
- Pricing and margin analytics
Data ownership and master data
- Clear accountability for each critical data domain
- Reconciliation across finance, sales and operations
- Master data: customers, products, suppliers and sites
- Integration that removes repeated manual reconciliation and rebuilding of forecasts
Turn regulatory, operational and technology requirements into clear accountability, practical controls, evidence and sustained remediation.
AI and automation controls
- AI decision rights, human oversight, testing, approval and monitoring
- Translate AI and operational-resilience requirements into practical operating and technology controls
- Workforce impact, redeployment and skills planning
- Controls and human review where automated decisions affect customers, pricing, employees or other material outcomes
Model testing, validation and control
- Testing and approval requirements before a model enters production
- Back-testing, out-of-sample discipline and challenge
- Evidence standards for model design, testing and performance
- Data quality controls in model pipelines
- Independent review of model assumptions, limitations and performance
- Algorithmic trading and pricing model oversight
- Escalation, intervention and human override when model performance moves outside agreed limits
Early warning and risk intelligence
- Emerging risk and threat monitoring feeding executive decisions
- Machine learning applied to market, credit and fraud signals
Improve growth, margin, productivity and cash while protecting customer value and the capabilities the business depends on.
Pricing, margin and customers
- Pricing and margin management
- Customer profitability and segmentation
- Sales productivity and revenue operations
- Retention and account development
Working capital and procurement
- Procurement and third-party cost
- Working capital and cash conversion
- Cost to serve and network design
- Technology cost reduction
Management information and reporting
- Management information and KPI architecture
- Budgeting, forecasting and financial close acceleration
- Board and lender reporting
- Benefits realisation and benefit tracking
- Attribution connecting operating interventions to measurable financial and performance outcomes
Payments and service operations
- Payment operations, card data security and resilience
- Contact centre and service operations economics
- Cost to serve and cost per contact
- Product and new-product approval cycle time
Lead the operating, technology, data and people execution required to protect the transaction thesis before, during and after completion. North Axiom does not act as a broker or run sale processes.
Diligence and target operating model
- Operational, technology and AI due diligence
- Target operating model for the combined business
- Integration and separation cost and risk assessment
- Independent challenge to the operating assumptions, costs, dependencies and delivery plan
Day One and integration
- Day One readiness and cutover
- Integration across operations, technology, data, people and processes
- Synergy delivery and benefit tracking
- Bolt-on integration into an existing operating and technology platform
Carve-out and separation
- Carve-out execution and standalone build
- Transition service agreement design, pricing and exit
- Data separation, ring-fencing and supplier separation
- People and operating-model transition
- Stranded cost removal
Regulated and cross-border deals
- Licence continuity and regulatory approvals through a change of control
- Market-entry requirements across licensing, authorisation, localisation and sovereign obligations
- Technology, operations and risk capability for newly licensed or separated entities
- Regulated platform separation from group infrastructure
- Data residency, sovereign data and in-country hosting obligations
- Competitor data segregation and ring-fencing under competition commitments
- Supervisory engagement through a transaction
Exit readiness and vendor diligence
- Vendor diligence support and exit readiness
- Operating performance evidenced by measurable outcomes
- Operating, technology and performance evidence for the data room
- Independent challenge to operating assumptions before buyer diligence
- Separation readiness where part of the business is being sold
Independent challenge for buyers
- Operational and commercial diligence
- Technology and AI diligence
- Management and capability review
- Carve-out feasibility and standalone cost modelling
- Independent assessment of the value-creation plan, execution assumptions and delivery risk
Value creation planning
- Value-creation opportunity assessment
- Value-creation plan, priorities, owners and measures
- Day One readiness and cutover planning
- Integration cost, risk and timeline assessment
International and market-entry execution
- Operating-model design across multiple markets
- Technology and service readiness for launch or integration
- Capacity, resilience and service-performance requirements
- Market entry and regulatory readiness
- Data residency and sovereign requirements by market
Selective board appointments where operating, technology, AI, risk, transformation or transaction experience can add relevant independent challenge. Non-executive appointments are held personally rather than delivered as a North Axiom corporate mandate.
Appointments we take
- Non-executive director appointments
- Subsidiary and joint venture board oversight
- Risk committee membership or chairmanship
- Audit committee engagement
- Advisory board seats for private-equity-backed and founder-led businesses
What the seat covers
- Technology, data and AI oversight at board level
- Operational resilience and third-party risk oversight
- Capital, scaling and key appointments
- Accounts, related-party arrangements and regulatory filings
- Board effectiveness and the quality of what the board is given
Where regulatory approval is required for a board appointment, that process applies to the individual director rather than North Axiom. Appointments are taken selectively so that each mandate receives the time and independent attention expected of the role.
Give boards decision-ready information, earlier warning and independent challenge, whether or not North Axiom holds a board appointment.
Reporting a board can act on
- Reporting designed around the decisions the board needs to make
- One reconciled view of performance across finance, sales and operations
- Scenario and sensitivity analysis that makes downside, dependencies and trade-offs visible
- Attribution connecting management actions to measurable operating and financial outcomes
- Concise board papers that surface the decision, evidence, risks and required action
Emerging risk and early warning
- Emerging risk and threat intelligence connected directly to board decisions
- Data and machine-learning signals across market, credit and fraud risk
- Concentration and thematic risk across suppliers and counterparties
- Structured review of emerging, increasing and material risks
Independent challenge before a decision
- Independent challenge before capital, technology or operating commitments are made
- Challenge to model assumptions, forecasts and the evidence supporting them
- Evidence that critical controls operate as intended
- Independent assessment of major transactions, transformation programmes and technology investment cases
Prior enterprise experience provides evidence of the capabilities offered through North Axiom mandates: operating-model redesign, technology modernisation, AI, regulatory remediation, cost and performance improvement, international operations and complex M&A across 60+ markets. Open an industry to see the evidence behind those capabilities.
Global insurance
- M&A integration and separation: led technology, operations and risk across mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, covering integration, transition services and sovereign data requirements
- Acquisition integration: integrated technology, data and risk across a $67bn acquisition serving 80 million members, including competitor-data ring-fencing required by competition commitments
- Carve-outs and standalone capability: separated $6.3bn and $5.36bn businesses across six Asia-Pacific markets, established standalone systems and exited transition services three months early
- Global capability centres: built international delivery capability across India, Ireland, Singapore and Hong Kong, migrating 1,200 roles, cutting run costs 21% and improving digital product time to market 11%
- Platform modernisation: rebuilt claims, customer operations and service technology for 1.1 million customers in India, retired the legacy platform within regulatory cost requirements and supported a business growing 28% annually
- Market entry: built technology, operations and control capability required to meet Saudi Arabian regulatory and localisation requirements for entry through a licensed branch
- Digital platforms and new revenue: scaled an API-first platform to 250,000 customers across Asia, the Gulf and 16 African markets, reducing local deployment cost and opening claims-processing fee income
- AI and cloud controls: established enterprise controls across 30+ markets covering data residency, cybersecurity, model risk, third-party risk and regulatory readiness
- Technology and AI decision controls: established control standards, risk reporting and capital-allocation challenge across international joint ventures and a statutory data and AI board
Investment and wholesale banking
- Operating-model redesign: redesigned accountability across 1,100 roles using a Basel-aligned control model, separating business ownership from independent oversight and reducing headcount 29%
- Regulatory remediation: led operational and technology remediation across 60 markets under supervisory oversight, redesigning risk classification, accountability and executive reporting and reducing risk exposure 17%
- Board assurance: strengthened board risk, audit and remediation reporting, reducing high-risk exposure 26% and audit findings 15%
- Supplier risk and automation: automated production controls and assurance across more than 50 tier-one suppliers, improving thematic and concentration visibility and reducing run costs 35%
- Product approval redesign: embedded compliance and architecture requirements into product approval, reducing the cycle from twelve weeks to six
- Shared services and cost transformation: consolidated technology controls into a common service model, reducing costs 22%
- Technology resilience: sustained 98% uptime across fixed-income trading platforms and reduced priority-one incidents 31%
- Supervisory remediation: led testing, evidence and control implementation under regulatory oversight, engaging regulators in the US, Hong Kong and Singapore
- AI-enabled intelligence: built machine-learning capability for earlier identification of cyber, geopolitical and fraud threats and scaled it across 30+ markets
- Credit and capital decisions: led wholesale credit decision forums under $20m delegated authority, connecting risk appetite and capital allocation with 4% business growth
Energy trading and utilities
- Risk and capital: established an enterprise risk and decision framework that released $15m of capital for reinvestment and reduced risk exposure 34%
- Operating-model integration: consolidated trading, retail and wholesale technology and operations into shared services, reducing expenditure 24%
- Technology modernisation: migrated mission-critical trading platforms to hybrid cloud and removed $22m of legacy run costs
- Payments and security: implemented controls protecting £2bn of card transactions and supporting £1.2bn of public-sector contracts
- Critical-infrastructure security: helped shape security requirements for the national smart-metering rollout
Consulting and professional services
- Capability build: established a technology-risk capability of 150 people on a $40m cost base
- Client transformation: led technology, operating-model and risk transformation across banks, exchanges and industrial businesses
- Commercial growth: client mandates contributed 8 to 12% of annual consulting revenue
- Post-merger integration: led rationalisation following a major acquisition, delivering a 14% cost-efficiency improvement
- Regulatory and data transformation: delivered government, critical-infrastructure and banking data-protection mandates
Global telecommunications
- Global technology integration: standardised networks and applications and integrated acquisitions across more than 65 countries
- Cost and capacity: reduced costs 18% while increasing network capacity 19%
- Critical-infrastructure security: delivered lawful-intercept capability and operated a government threat-intelligence exchange
Direct ownership and operating experience
Food and drink manufacturing
- Business acquisition and modernisation: acquired an established manufacturer and led its move to AI-enabled operations
- Robotics and production automation: automated 80% of the production line using robotics and process automation, cutting costs 50% and accelerating time to market 30%
- Planning and decision intelligence: rebuilt planning, finance and data using predictive intelligence, improving inventory planning precision by 90%
- Digital growth and channels: developed direct-to-consumer capability alongside supermarket, retail and wholesale channels
- AI operating model and controls: established the AI strategy, data requirements, decision rights and controls required for deployment
Convenience retail and hospitality
- Acquisition and repositioning: acquired underperforming sites and developed them into stronger operating formats
- Site transformation and value realisation: converted existing property into a full-format convenience business, developed the operation and subsequently realised the investment through sale
- Multi-site operations: operated a portfolio across major UK convenience brands
- Procurement and supplier management: developed long-standing commercial relationships across major food, retail and wholesale suppliers
- Hospitality operations: built and operated hospitality businesses covering sourcing, margin, labour, property, customer experience and day-to-day operating performance
Wholesale, merchandising and production
- Wholesale and distribution: built and operated the business end to end across commercial performance, P&L, working capital, people and premises
- International production and sourcing: produced branded merchandise and promotional goods for major automotive, luxury fashion and consumer technology customers
- International supply chain: managed Asian sourcing, importing, distribution and merchandising across international markets
Foreign exchange trading and research
- Investment and risk management: built and operated a proprietary foreign-exchange business covering portfolio strategy, capital, liquidity, risk and P&L
- Portfolio execution: managed major currency exposures through periods of market volatility, delivering 6% annual returns while managing liquidity and market risk
- Predictive research: developed an independent research programme applying statistical methods to forecasting