Get anytime access to our growing collection of classes, workshops, and exclusive content. New items added every month.
Get anytime access to our growing collection of classes, workshops, and exclusive content. New items added every month.
Our Services
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Custom Research
HELPING CLIENTS KNOW MORE
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And then lots more here
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Capacity Building
HELPING CLIENTS DO MORE
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And then lots more here
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READING SIGNALS
We undertake directed, exploratory, and speculative inquiries to identify prioritised information, register the previously achieved, identify the current state of the art, and scope the near, medium and far horizons. We get to the heart the matter.
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ANTICIPATING RISKS
We investigate constraints and opportunities that shape the success or failure of ventures. We advise clients on the courses of action available to them to support compliance, ensure peace of mind, and see a worthwhile return on investment.
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INNOVATING ALTERNATIVES
Choosing the right direction is too important to leave to guesswork or chance. We test the waters. It requires creative thinking, proven methods, testing, and an eye for alternative outcomes and iterative clarity - based on real evidence.
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Technical Assistance & Capacity Building
We help clients do more. We conduct needs assessments, training and mentoring, and direct support, on an embedded, remote, or hybrid basis. The goal: develop intramural competencies and capacity to field the big challenges
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Outsourced Executive Support
Serious research takes resources, expertise, and planning. We provide fractional CxO support to help clients stay ahead of the information curve: tracking information requirements, coordinating data collection, and applying it to client advantage.
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Retained Advisory Services
Our retained advisory services provide clients with meaningful, cost-effective support. The benefits: personalised one-to-one interaction, expedited feedback, and privileged access to our expertise, experience and extended network.
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PRODUCTS
Standalone, one-off deliverables for routine or common needs. They’re priced transparently and without the commitment of recurring services or the complexity of full-scale projects.
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Our products are fixed fee deliverables that address common or recurring requirements.
Productised deliverables are ideal for clients who need immediate support on something specific that doesn’t rise to the scope of a project or the complexity of a package.
Products are priced transparently and predictably, and can function as extensions to projects or packages, with discounts and optional access to additional services such as R&D insights or specialised resources.
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PROJECTS
Projects are bespoke, non-recurring work of tightly defined scope and duration, priced to a daily company rate and predictable, fixed fee project budgets.
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Projects can be as short as a few hours or as long as several weeks, months or longer. They’re distinct from products in that they address uncommon challenges or issues.
We structure and price projects as stand-alone work, or as discounted bolt-ons for subscriber clients who need work done additional to what's covered in their packages.
Clients benefit from a daily company fee consistent with UK MoD and FCDO rate tables. On very short projects we pro-rate the daily fee to actual consultant time expenditures.
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PACKAGES
Our subscription packages are recurring services in bundles scaled for light to heavy usage - for as long are you need them, with no long-term commitment lock-ins.
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This is our service of first resort for meaningful, cost-effective client engagement. It’s your point of entry to recurring, personalised advisory and technical support.
Our packages operate on a retained basis. Clients benefit from roll-overs of unused technical support, no minimum additional spend, and no-penalty cancellation options.
Additional benefits include discounted rates, privileged access to our R&D and basic research, and services tailored to accommodate different stages in the business life cycle.
Client Testimonials
FOUNDATIONS
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Many Histories
We built our professional profiles in public service and private practice - as academics, data scientists, intelligence analysts, journalists, and policy advisors. We developed our sector expertise working on front-page rule of law, emerging technologies, and geopolitical, defence and security challenges. We did it while living and operating in and studying Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.
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One Philosophy
There is a word in Japanese that translates broadly to “truth”, “true state”, or “actual condition”: Jittai. In some interpretations, jittai means “substance” or “state of affairs”. It distinguishes fact from fiction, objective evidence from subjective meaning. Jittai is the centre - what is, not what we wish it to be. In a world of extremes, of contested facts and consensual hallucinations, this is the essence of things.
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Ten Principles
Our work isn’t governed by history and philosophy alone. It’s shaped by a ten-point discipline of thought and inquiry. They’re the principles that animate us, underwritten by a commitment to the evidence and what it reveals. They guide our approach to every assignment, and how we decide what matters. Waypoints to the true state, where our research provides something deliberate and of enduring value, worthy of the trust placed in it.