Corporate
Senior intervention. Defined outcome. Stated exit.
For UK and EU corporates whose technology or cyber function needs to be reset, stabilised, optimised, or rationalised on a timeline measured in weeks and months. The seniority of a Big Four engagement, the urgency of a turnaround firm, the accountability of a principal-led model.
The challenge
The problem is not strategy. It is operational drift.
Strathberg is engaged when one of four buyer triggers has fired:
- A precipitating event — a cyber incident, an audit or regulator warning, a programme failure, a leadership departure, an insurer escalation, or a board paper that did not survive contact with the audit committee.
- A loss of confidence — two or three missed milestones, an unexpected cost overrun, or a peer-group benchmark that lands badly.
- A planned shift not happening — a declared AI strategy that has not produced operating change, a stalled cloud migration, or a control framework that has been started three times.
- A pre-emptive reset — a new CFO, audit chair, or chair takes the view that the function should be tested before it has to perform under pressure.
Fragmented delivery
Teams, tools, and services have grown unevenly. Handoffs break down. Nobody owns the end-to-end, and execution suffers.
Leadership confidence drops
Boards see missed priorities, inconsistent execution, and weak reporting. The function loses credibility faster than it can rebuild it.
Cost base drifts upward
Vendors, platforms, and duplicated activity add cost without matching value. Rationalisation stalls because no one has a clear picture of what runs what.
Control gaps widen
Functions become reactive. Operating models end up too heavy in some areas, too thin in others, and increasingly difficult to defend to the board.
What we do
Four shapes of engagement
Department reset
Reset fragmented or reactive functions. Diagnose, rebuild structure and ownership, define outcomes, stabilise critical teams, and hand back a turnkey department ready for steady-state operation. Typically 12 to 20 weeks.
- Rapid operating diagnostic
- Accountability and governance reset
- Prioritised delivery roadmap
Run-state optimisation
Simplify how the function runs. Operating model redesign, workflow simplification, tooling rationalisation, embedded operating disciplines, and reporting the board trusts. Typically 10 to 16 weeks.
- Operating model simplification
- Delivery framework and cadence
- Board-ready performance reporting
Cost rationalisation
Run-rate spend has crept up. Vendors overlap, licensing is loose, the board has asked for double-digit savings. Vendor and platform rationalisation, contract renegotiation, and stronger vendor performance management — without weakening resilience. Typically 8 to 14 weeks.
- Vendor and tooling rationalisation
- Contract renegotiation
- Cost-benefit reporting
Senior interim coverage
A CIO, CTO, or CISO has departed (or needs to). Senior coverage during the search, plus stabilisation. Board attendance included. We do not push for permanent placement and we have no recruitment economics — our role is the bridge and the handover. Typically 4 to 9 months.
- Direct CIO / CTO / CISO cover
- Board and audit committee attendance
- Stabilisation plan and clean handover
How we operate
Four principles behind every engagement
Commercial first
Stronger performance and lower cost — not transformation theatre.
Proportionate by business
Calibrated to actual risk, complexity, and economics. No standard templates.
Diagnosis to execution
Assessment followed by action. No endless strategy phases.
Operating clarity
Clear accountability, clean reporting, and a function that can defend its model.
Sector focus
Where our credentials are strongest
Retail and eCommerce
Direct CTO and CISO operating credibility from a €20bn global retailer and ASOS. The sector is under sustained pressure from cyber incidents, replatforming risk, AI-led merchandising and supply chain transformation, and the cost discipline that thin retail margins require.
Telecommunications
Credibility from senior technology roles at Vodafone and Sky. The sector is NIS2 by default, mid-cycle on legacy decommissioning and network virtualisation, and absorbing AI in customer operations.
Media
Credibility from News UK and Sky. The sector is dealing with subscription churn, content platform consolidation, AI rights and provenance issues, and the cyber risk that comes with high-profile brands.
Manufacturing
Operating credibility from cybersecurity programmes at the LEGO Group (factory floors, energy generation, NIS2-scope OT) and from cyber turnarounds spanning factory environments at a €20bn global retailer. Manufacturing IT and OT are converging — the boards we work with are absorbing this convergence under regulatory pressure.
Intelligence and adjacent regulated services
Credibility from the UK Ministry of Defence and ongoing NCSC and NCA advisory roles. Not a sector we market publicly, but it sits behind the credentials and produces specific opportunities through trusted networks.
Healthcare, life sciences, and pure financial services sit outside our lead-with sectors. We will not pretend domain credibility we do not have.
Proof
What this looks like for the board
Selected outcomes our partners have delivered in prior roles, organised by the engagement shape they most closely map to.
Department reset
ASOS — cybersecurity rebuild
From exposed to defensible.
ASOS sells high-value brands to consumers — a permanent target for organised fraud and cyber-enabled crime. George Mudie reset the cybersecurity function from a weak posture and a cyber-as-a-service model returning no tangible improvement, into a defensible operation covering fraud, payments, identity, and incident response. The board moved from receiving status reports to receiving evidence the controls held.
Run-state optimisation
A €20bn global retailer — GRC build and operating uplift
Greenfield to ISO27001-aligned operation.
At a €20bn global retailer, Dan Vale built the global GRC function from greenfield to an ISO 27001-aligned operation across 10 brands, 72 markets, and ~120,000 colleagues — and ran the operating uplift across the cybersecurity organisation. The function stopped consuming leadership attention on basic operating questions and started answering compliance and audit questions directly.
Cost rationalisation
A €20bn global retailer — technology contracts and cyber run-rate
€10m+ run-rate, €15m+ fraud exposure, validated commercial discipline.
Group SAP and Microsoft contracts negotiated under George Mudie's commercial leadership were independently audited by BCG Inverto as the strongest agreements they had reviewed. Alongside, Dan Vale delivered >€10m in cyber run-rate savings through automation, consolidation, and rationalisation, and reduced fraud-loss exposure by >€15m. Cost came out without weakening the controls that mattered.
Senior interim coverage
CIO / CTO / CISO bridge
Cover, stabilise, hand over.
When a CIO, CTO, or CISO has departed, the partners cover the role personally — board attendance included — for the four to nine months a senior search typically takes. George's operating credentials at Group CTO and CISO level (€20bn retailer, ASOS) and Dan's senior cybersecurity leadership at LEGO Group and a €20bn global retailer are the seniority backing the bridge. The shape is bridge-and-handover; we do not push for permanent placement and we have no recruitment economics.
Outcomes reflect engagements led by Strathberg's partners in prior roles. Work delivered by Strathberg Limited will be reported separately as those engagements complete.
Common questions
What does a corporate technology turnaround involve?
A turnaround starts with a rapid diagnostic — understanding where accountability has broken down, what the operating model actually looks like, and where delivery is failing. From there, we build a practical roadmap and move into execution: rebuilding structure, fixing handoffs, and restoring delivery confidence. Every engagement carries a written outcome, a stated review point, and a stated exit.
Can Strathberg cover a CIO, CTO, or CISO during a search?
Yes. Where a CIO, CTO, or CISO has departed (or needs to), one of the partners covers the role personally during the search and stabilisation period. Board attendance is included. The shape is bridge-and-handover — typically four to nine months. We do not push for permanent placement and we have no recruitment economics; our role is to stabilise the function, run the agenda the board needs run, and hand over cleanly to the permanent hire.
How do we know you will not over-stay the engagement?
Engagement contracts include a written outcome, a stated review point at week six, and a stated exit. Extension is by mutual agreement against the original outcome — not by drift. We will not propose extensions where the original outcome has been achieved. Our economic interest is in the next engagement and the reference, not in stretching the current one.
What if our situation needs forensic incident response or specialist capability you do not deliver in-house?
Where forensic incident response, full security operations, or other specialist capability is required to complete the engagement, Strathberg engages trusted and proven third parties under our oversight. The buyer gets the capability without managing the vendor relationship; we retain accountability for the outcome. We do not stand up an offshore delivery centre and we do not dilute principal-led delivery — but we will not take on an engagement and quietly pretend we deliver every specialism ourselves.
How does Strathberg reduce cyber costs without weakening resilience?
We identify cost that does not add operational value — duplicate vendors, overstaffed functions, tooling with no clear owner, and activity that exists because of inertia rather than risk. Cuts are made with a view to maintaining the controls that matter, not stripping across the board.
What is the difference between Strathberg and a Big Four consultancy?
Strathberg partners lead and deliver the work directly. There is no junior delegation, no conflict from audit relationships, and no incentive to expand scope. Our advice is grounded in running these functions, not analysing them from the outside. The cost base reflects that.
How does Strathberg approach AI in corporate technology and cyber functions?
AI is already changing the cost base of both technology and security operations. We help corporate functions identify where AI and automation create real value — in fraud detection, threat response, service operations, code generation, or run-state delivery — and where the hype outruns the benefit. We also help functions put the data foundations and governance in place that let AI-enabled gains hold. We are operator-led on AI, not theoretical.