Why Vader Barclay
Every consultancy claims to be senior, independent and outcome-focused. Those words cost nothing to write. These are the same claims, written so you can hold us to them.
01 · Six commitments
A promise you cannot check is a slogan. For each commitment below we have written down how you would know if we had broken it.
Finance, strategy and marketing sit in the same engagement under one named lead. A growth plan the numbers cannot support does not reach you, because the argument happens on our side of the table.
We do not run a pitch team. The adviser who scopes your work delivers it, and stays through to the end of the engagement. There is no handover to somebody more junior once the contract is signed.
What we will do, what you will receive, when, and for how much, agreed in writing before work starts. We do not bill in unexplained hourly increments and we do not issue an invoice you were not expecting.
We take no payment from software vendors, platforms, lenders, brokers or any other third party we might recommend. Our fee is the same whichever answer we give you, which is the only structure under which advice is worth taking.
Commercial measures are agreed at the outset and reported monthly. Progress appears in your management accounts, not in a status report about the engagement.
Models, processes and reporting are documented so your team can run them without us. Retainers end on one month’s notice, and we will tell you when we think the arrangement has stopped earning its fee.
02 · The alternative
Three suppliers is not simply three invoices. It is three views of the same business that were never reconciled, and the reconciliation is a cost the client absorbs without ever seeing it itemised.
03 · Honesty about the limits
A firm that is right about everything is describing its marketing rather than its work. These are the places where we think claiming less is the more useful answer.
We do not guarantee a percentage
Any firm quoting you a guaranteed uplift is quoting a number it cannot control, in a market it does not own, for a business it has not yet examined. We commit to measures agreed with you once we understand the position, and to reporting honestly against them, including when the answer is uncomfortable.
We are not the cheapest
Senior people delivering the work themselves costs more per hour than junior people delivering it under supervision. It usually costs less per outcome, but we would rather you chose us knowing that than discovered it on the first invoice.
We are not right for every business
Below roughly £1m of turnover a full engagement is usually more structure than the business needs. Above £50m you generally want a specialist function rather than a generalist practice. We will say so in the first conversation rather than take the work anyway.
We are not a regulated firm
We do not audit, we do not file statutory accounts or tax returns, and we do not give regulated financial, investment or legal advice. Where you need a regulated party we will tell you and help you find one. Being clear about that boundary is part of what makes the advice we do give trustworthy.
04 · Fit
Knowing who a firm suits is more useful than knowing what it does. Both halves of this are stated deliberately.
05 · Start the conversation
An introductory consultation is a straightforward conversation about your position and your priorities. No charge, no proposal deck, and no obligation to go further.