HOW FEC WORKS · FROM PLAN TO PROOF
The plan comes first. Everything else follows from it.
FEC starts with the plan the company has decided on and asks whether the company is strong enough to carry it: to do everything the plan will ask of it. We work out what the company must be able to do, check whether it can do that today, and change or build what is missing.
FEC’S WORKING NOTES
THE PLAN
What the company is trying to do
The company brings the plan. Everything else is worked out from it.
WHAT IT REQUIRES
What must be true inside the company
Set by the plan.
TODAY
What is actually true inside the company now
Examined against what the plan requires.
WHAT FEC DOES
OPERATING JUDGMENTCHANGE / BUILDPROOFWATCHING
Only what is needed to close the gap between what the plan needs and what is true today.
THE PLAN SETS THE TEST
Is this a good company? Can this company carry this plan?
A company can run today’s business well and still not be ready for what comes next.
Starting in a new market, buying another company and merging it in, or handling twice as much work each puts a different kind of pressure on the business.
A company can be ready for one move and not ready for another.
That is why FEC does not judge a company in general, only against the plan in front of it.
EXAMPLE PLANS
MADE-UP EXAMPLE COMPANY · THE SAME COMPANY IN ALL FOUR PLANS
THE PLAN
Keep running the business as it is
WHAT THE PLAN REQUIRES
- Keep customer service, deliveries and day-to-day control of the business steady at today’s workload.
- Keep the way managers are organised today working, without adding anything that makes it more complicated.
- Keep a clear view of performance, cash, customers and day-to-day problems.
TODAY
- The current management team handles today’s workload without repeated breakdowns.
- Important decisions that involve more than one team still go up to the founder.
- Its reports, systems and daily routines are set up for one business, in one market, handling today’s amount of work.
WHAT WOULD STOP THE PLAN
Nothing in the company today would stop this plan.
The company still depends on the founder, but today’s workload does not yet push the company past what it can handle.
The plan sets the test.
01
Start with the plan.
The company brings the plan. FEC makes it clear and exact enough to test the business against it.
We do not decide what the company wants to achieve. We work out what the company must be able to do for that plan to work.
PLAN RECORD
THE MOVE
What exactly is the company trying to do?
THE OUTCOME
What is supposed to be different if it works?
THE TIMING
When does it need to happen?
THE COMMITMENT
What money, contracts, people, deadlines or other commitments are already agreed or under way?
THE CONSEQUENCE
What is at risk if the plan does not work?
THE PLAN IS LOCKED IN
WHAT THE COMPANY MUST BE ABLE TO DO
The conditions that must be true inside the company for this plan to work.
THE FEC QUESTION
What does this company need to become to execute its next stage, grow stronger, and create more value through it?
- Can the company carry the plan?
- What needs to change or be built?
- How does the company become stronger through it?
02
Examine the company.
FEC does not inspect the company in general. It examines the parts of the business the plan depends on, then tests whether those parts can handle the extra work and pressure the plan will bring.
WHAT THE COMPANY MUST BE ABLE TO DO
The conditions that must be true inside the company for this plan to work.
SOME OF THE QUESTIONS WE ASK
How does work actually move?
Where is work passed from one person to another, where does it pile up or slow down, and which steps does nobody own?
How are decisions actually made and passed along?
Who really decides, where do decisions get stuck or get overruled, and who decides in practice compared with who is supposed to?
Where is the workload already building up?
Which teams, jobs or people who approve decisions are already near their limit?
Where is the company relying on people to make up for weak spots in how it is set up?
Which leaders or jobs are doing hidden work, quietly covering gaps or keeping things going by stepping in themselves?
Do the systems actually control how the work is done?
Which systems are used the way they were meant to be, and where do people skip them, invent their own way around them or rely on memory?
What keeps breaking or happening again?
Which delays, failures, shortcuts or special cases happen often enough to show a problem in how the company is set up, not a one-off accident?
What can the company really do today?
Where does what we see people actually doing match what the company says it can do, and where does it avoid the task, put it off or find a way around it?
What happens when the extra work the plan brings arrives?
Can the company, as it is set up today, take more decisions, more urgent work, more pressure on its leaders and on each job, and more strain on its systems, without breaking?
If the plan depends on something else, such as being able to win and serve more customers, suppliers who can keep delivering, having cash at the right time, or being able to merge in another company, we examine that too.
HOW WE FIND OUT WHAT IS TRUE
We watch how the work actually happens, examine what the systems and records show, and speak with the people doing and managing the work. We compare that evidence with how the company says it works.
What we see happening counts for more than what we are told.
OPERATING JUDGMENT
The examination ends in an operating judgment.
Not a list of observations. One of three clear answers.
PROCEED
The company can deliver the plan under normal working conditions.
The plan can move forward. FEC sets out what should keep being watched once the company starts delivering the plan.
PROCEED AFTER CHANGES
The plan can work, but specific things inside the company must be changed or built first.
FEC changes or builds what is needed, then proves it works under the real workload.
DO NOT PROCEED
The company cannot deliver the plan as things stand. Closing the gap would mean making big changes to the plan or to the company itself.
FEC shows the evidence behind the decision. Going ahead would need a very different plan, or a very different company.
FEC gives its judgment on whether the company can deliver the plan. The company’s owners, or the people they have given the power to decide, choose whether to go ahead.
03
Change what would stop the plan.
FEC changes what would stop the plan and builds what the company still needs in order to deliver it.
EXAMPLES OF CHANGES FROM FEC’S WORK
Something already exists, but it is set up wrong.Something the plan requires does not yet exist.
WHAT WE FOUND
Decisions needed to deliver the growth plan kept going back to the founder. That slowed everything down and kept all the power to decide at the top.
CHANGED
A clear chain of command, with written rules at every level on who decides what: what each level could decide, what had to go higher, and what it was not allowed to decide.
HOW IT WORKS NOW
Everyday decisions are now made at the level that has the power to make them. Unusual cases are passed up through a set route, instead of landing on the founder by default.
WHAT WE FOUND
The growth plan needed more orders to go through the factory, but packing and dispatch (sending orders out) shared one narrow route. At the busiest times, orders waited in line and people had to work around blocked walkways.
CHANGED
The floor was redesigned around the actual order of work, with defined zones and clear walkways.
HOW IT WORKS NOW
Orders now move in one direction, processing → packing → dispatch, without the shared route that used to limit how much could get through.
WHAT WE FOUND
The expansion meant a new site and many new staff, but key day-to-day work existed only as unwritten habits the new team had never seen.
CHANGED
Step-by-step instructions were written for ticketing, lifeguard rotations, cleaning, maintenance, looking after guests, handovers and emergency response. Each one set out the steps, what “done” looks like, and the route for passing problems up.
HOW IT WORKS NOW
Important work no longer depends on who happens to remember how it is done.
WHAT WE FOUND
The growth plan depended on buildings being kept in good repair, but repair requests were not tracked anywhere. Nothing showed which jobs were still open, who was responsible for them or how late they were.
BUILT
Maintenance tracking software. Every request is recorded, given to a named person, tracked and checked before it can be closed, with alerts when a job runs late.
HOW IT WORKS NOW
Every maintenance request can now be followed from the moment it comes in until the finished job is checked, with late work flagged before it piles up.
WHAT WE FOUND
The plan needed more clients, but nobody was clearly in charge of finding them, there was no organised list of possible deals, and no way to keep track of possible clients. Sales waited for word-of-mouth recommendations.
BUILT
A sales system for winning new clients: a clear list of possible deals at each stage, a CRM (software that keeps track of every client and contact), one person responsible for results, and live training in finding new clients.
HOW IT WORKS NOW
New clients can now be found, handed to the right person, tracked and followed up through a clear system, instead of waiting for recommendations.
WHAT WE FOUND
A much larger new site was planned. The informal way of setting who reports to whom, who can decide what and how many staff are needed had worked at 10–20 staff, but could not handle 50–100.
BUILT
For the new site: clear work zones, a minimum number of staff, a supervisor for each zone, written rules on who can decide what, and set routes for passing problems up.
HOW IT WORKS NOW
The company can open and run the larger site with clear rules for who works where, who decides what, and when a problem is passed up.
The company now works differently. Whether the new way of working holds up in real conditions is the next test.
04
Prove the company can carry the plan.
Built is not proven.
FEC tests the new way of working under the real conditions it was built for, and checks whether it holds up.
- INSTALLED
- UNDER REAL CONDITIONS
- PROVEN
Does it still work with as much work, pressure and complication as the plan brings?
Did the number that matters actually change after the work was done?
Are the new steps, systems and rules on who decides what being used the way they were designed?
Does it keep working long after it is put in place, not only at the start?
Do the company’s real records back up the result the change was meant to produce?
Proof means the new way of working holds up under the conditions it was built for.
05
Keep watching what matters.
After proof, the things that matter are watched for any sign of slipping back.
- AS PROVEN
- SLIPPING BACK
- SPOTTED
- CORRECTED
WHAT IS WATCHED DEPENDS ON WHAT WAS CHANGED
Results start slipping back toward the edge of the range they were proven to stay within.
People start skipping the new steps or systems and going back to old habits.
Decisions start going back to the people who used to make them.
Work starts piling up or waiting in line again where that had been fixed.
A key check is removed or weakened: a required step is dropped, or an important job is left with nobody doing it.
The result the plan depends on starts to slip.
THE COMPANY KEEPS THE WATCH
FEC leaves the company a clear list of what to keep watching, the warning levels to look out for, and what to do when one is crossed.
FEC KEEPS THE WATCH
Where the company has agreed with FEC that FEC keeps watching, FEC keeps checking those same things and acts when something slips far enough to need it.
Watching is there to catch slipping back early, before it turns into another problem in how the company runs.
WHAT FEC LEAVES BEHIND
The intervention ends. The operating state remains.
TEAMS AND ROLES
Jobs, rules on who decides what, who reports to whom, and the route for passing problems up: the way responsibility is set up.
WAYS OF WORKING
Written step-by-step instructions, the order work moves in, daily routines, and how work physically moves around the site.
SYSTEMS & RECORDS
Software, tracking systems, a CRM for keeping track of clients, stock controls and records that make the work easy to see and easy to check.
CHECKS & WARNING SIGNS
Numbers to track, warning levels, rules for what to do, and signs that show when the new way of working is starting to slip back.
FEC’s work does not end with a list of advice. The company keeps the set-up, systems, ways of working and checks that were put in place.
FEC gives its judgment. The company makes the decision.
FEC RESPONSIBILITY
- PROCEED
- PROCEED AFTER CHANGES
- DO NOT PROCEED
COMPANY AUTHORITY
THE COMPANY DECIDES
FEC IS RESPONSIBLE FOR
FEC stands behind its judgment and the work the company has agreed with FEC.
- JUDGMENT
- What the evidence from inside the company shows.
- THE AGREED WORK
- The changes, new builds, checking and watching the company has agreed with FEC.
THE COMPANY KEEPS
The company keeps the power and the duties that belong to its owners, its board, or the people they have given the power to decide.
- DECISION
- Whether to go ahead, change direction, put money in, or stop.
- AUTHORITY AND DUTY
- Deciding where the company’s money goes, the board’s power, and the company’s legal duties all stay with the company.
QUESTIONS
Questions we are often asked
- 01What does Fornax Execution Consulting do?
- FEC works inside established companies. We find out whether a company can deliver its plan, change and build what is missing where the company agrees, and check that the changes keep working.
- 02How is FEC different from a strategy consultancy?
- We do not decide what the company wants to achieve. The company brings the plan. We work out what the company must be able to do for that plan to work, then change and build what is missing where the company agrees.
- 03Does FEC review the whole company?
- No. FEC does not inspect the company in general. It examines the parts of the business the plan depends on, then tests whether those parts can handle the extra work and pressure the plan will bring.
- 04Who makes the final decision?
- The company does. FEC reaches an operating judgment: PROCEED, PROCEED AFTER CHANGES or DO NOT PROCEED. The company keeps the decision.
- 05Does the business keep running during the work?
- Yes. FEC works inside the company to find what must change first and build what the next stage needs, while the business keeps running.
- 06What is left once the work ends?
- The intervention ends. The operating state remains. The changes are checked to make sure they keep working, and where it is agreed, FEC keeps watching after the work is done.
Bring us the plan.
Tell us what the company is trying to do next.