01
Margin is a delivery metric.
If the team does not know the gross margin on their engagement, they cannot protect it.
01 / Leadership
How I run delivery as a business.
I run a 33-person digital commerce and AI practice with full responsibility for delivery, margin and client health. This operating model shows how disciplined governance and direct people leadership make 80+ concurrent engagements more predictable.
02 / Operating system
Predictable delivery starts with one shared governance spine.
Every engagement in the practice runs on the same spine: a requirements-understanding document before scoping, an SOW with explicit assumptions, milestone gates with acceptance criteria, a RAID log reviewed weekly, a scope-reconciliation workbook comparing approved against estimated hours before every invoice, and a monthly business review with the client. It is boring by design. Boring is what predictable looks like from the inside.
03 / Commercial rigour
Margin improves when commercial accountability sits inside delivery.
02
Unapproved work is a leak, not a favour.
Find it before invoicing, name it, and decide together whether to bill it, absorb it or map it to future work.
03
Disputes are settled with documents, not with discounts.
Every concession is written down; nothing is written off silently.
04
Say no early.
The most valuable move in a portfolio is declining the work that will lose money or damage the team.
04 / People
Strong delivery systems depend on leaders who have done the work.
Hire with a scorecard, not a feeling. Structured interviews, the same questions, written feedback.
Performance conversations happen when they are needed, not at review time.
The leadership pipeline is the manager's job. Every lead should be able to name who could replace them.
I have sat in every chair on the team. I do not ask for anything I have not done.