When growth creates complexity that structure hasn’t caught up to yet
At a certain point the problems stop being about effort and start being about architecture. Your team is working. Initiatives are moving. And something keeps getting in the way that nobody can quite name.
Decisions that should be straightforward stack up. Cross-functional work loses momentum between handoffs. Leadership is aligned in the room and misaligned in execution.
The same conversation happens in different meetings and nothing resolves.
This isn’t a performance problem. It’s a clarity problem. And it’s almost impossible to see from inside it.
What I Do In these Situations
I come in as an outside diagnostic voice. Not to implement a system, not to replace anyone in the room, and not to run a change management program. To find what’s actually stuck and make it legible enough that the people who own it can move it.
The process starts with conversations. The right questions asked of the right people across the organization surface what internal teams are too close to see. What looks like a communication problem is usually a decision rights problem. What looks like a people problem is usually a structural clarity problem. What looks like a strategy problem is usually an execution architecture problem.
I name it. I show where it lives. I make clear what has to happen, who owns it, and what moves first.
That’s the work.
What looks like a people problem is usually a structural clarity problem.
Where This Comes From
I’ve spent more than two decades being brought into complex organizations at moments when something was stuck and the people inside it needed someone who could see it differently.
At Comenity I walked into a platform that had fractured across 50 white-label brand clients. Sales was going rogue, customer service was overwhelmed, internal teams were gridlocked. I interviewed 40 stakeholders across clients, operations, and end users and built the framework that let the whole organization function again.
At Toyota what started as a webpage redesign became a cross-functional infrastructure project spanning marketing, communications, dealerships, and manufacturing. I saw the real problem before the client did, expanded the scope to match it, and delivered $150K in annual savings and a 50% reduction in internal data collection time.
At Heineken I was embedded in an R&D function reporting directly to the US CEO, navigating global teams, regulatory complexity, and internal politics to pioneer a first-of-its-kind direct-to-consumer model. They created a global role that didn’t exist before I showed up.
I ran similar work at MetLife alongside their global head of CX and CMO during a full brand relaunch, facilitating executive workshops across their NYC offices and interviewing local market leads globally. At AB InBev I helped a marketing lead bring enough structural clarity to a politically complex process that she became the undeniable subject matter expert in her own room inside one of the most cutthroat organizations in the industry.
And then there was Hanes. My strategy team was a week and a half out from a multi-day workshop. They couldn’t fill their slot. I wasn’t on the account. Someone said we need Frank. I asked a few questions, built the workshop, flew down, and ran it in a room full of senior operators from multiple agencies and the client. Before the day was over the client asked me to stay for the rest of the engagement. He’d seen the other workshops. Mine stood out.
Additionally I’m currently an Experience Strategist and Adoption Advisor for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, advising companies on US market entry and organizational complexity.
The pattern across all of it is the same. It’s not about knowing your industry. It’s about knowing the process, the questions, and the people to ask to unlock clarity in rooms where complexity has made everyone too close to see it.
It’s not about knowing your industry. It’s about knowing the process, the questions, and the people to ask.
What This Looks Like In Practice
Every engagement starts with a Discovery Conversation. No pitch, no proposal, no agenda beyond understanding what’s actually going on and whether I’m the right person to help with it.
From there the work takes shape based on what the situation actually needs.
Sometimes it’s a structured diagnostic sprint. Sometimes it’s ongoing advisory. Sometimes it’s facilitated sessions with the leadership team. The form follows the problem, not the other way around.
If it’s not the right fit I’ll tell you that in the first conversation. That’s not a sales tactic. It’s how I work.
If any of this sounds familiar, the right move is a conversation.