How it works
We do the homework before we take your time.
Traditional advisory often begins with meetings. We prefer to begin with information.
Tell us what matters. Give us enough context to understand the business. Then let our research and intelligence systems do the groundwork before senior people spend your time asking questions we could have answered ourselves.
The result is a more informed starting point — and a better conversation if the relationship continues.
Get Your CEO Opportunity Report
Start with the CEO Opportunity Report
Give us the view from your chair.
The first step is a structured assessment covering you, the company and the priorities currently competing for your attention.
We ask about areas such as:
- the business and its stage
- your current priorities
- growth and commercial objectives
- major constraints
- the decisions in front of you
- what is working
- what concerns you
- where your own time is being consumed
- what success looks like over the next 90 days and 12 months
You can also provide supporting material such as a pitch deck, company overview or other relevant documents.
It is designed to collect useful context without becoming an hour-long discovery exercise.
We research around the business
What you tell us is only one part of the picture.
Once we know who you are and which company we are looking at, the system begins building the surrounding context.
That can include information from your website and other available public sources relating to:
- products and services
- market position
- competitors
- leadership
- recent developments
- funding and growth signals
- partnerships
- customer journey
- brand and trust signals
- hiring and expansion activity
and other strategically relevant information.
We are looking for context, not volume.
The objective is to find information that could materially improve the CEO-level view of the business.
We analyse the business from several angles
Different questions reveal different things.
The information is then assessed through multiple strategic lenses.
These can include:
- Strategy & business model
- Where is the business going, and what does the current model depend on?
- Sales & growth
- How does demand become revenue, and where could growth be constrained?
- Market & competition
- How is the company positioned relative to alternatives?
- Leadership & CEO bandwidth
- Where is senior capacity being consumed?
- Operations & execution
- What dependencies could slow the plan down?
- Capital & commercial readiness
- Where relevant, is the business ready for the next capital or transaction decision?
- Brand, digital & trust
- Does the external experience support the commercial proposition?
- Opportunities
- What credible upside may not be receiving enough attention?
The objective is not to manufacture problems.
It is to identify the issues, opportunities and questions that a useful senior counterpart would put on the table.
We challenge the findings before you see them
AI can find patterns. It should not be allowed to invent certainty.
Before the report is released, the system checks the evidence behind material findings.
We distinguish between:
- Confirmed
- information that is established or confirmed
- Observed
- something directly visible in a reliable source
- Inferred
- a reasonable interpretation, but not an established fact
- Opportunity
- something worth evaluating
- Question
- an issue that requires validation
- Contradicted
- where two credible sources do not agree
- Insufficient data
- where there is not enough evidence to reach a useful conclusion
At launch, every CEO Opportunity Report also goes through an internal human QA review before release.
If something material is unclear, we may contact you for clarification.
We do not require a free consulting call simply to unlock your report.
You receive the CEO Opportunity Report
A strategic baseline, not a generic AI summary.
Your report brings the important information together into a concise executive view.
Depending on the business, it can include:
- executive snapshot
- what we understand about the business
- your stated CEO priorities
- major strategic and commercial observations
- strengths worth protecting
- areas requiring executive attention
- questions that deserve validation
- opportunity map
- immediate 0–30 day priorities
- 31–90 day priorities
- longer-term opportunities
- methodology and material sources
The report is designed to help you see the business from outside the day-to-day.
It should give you value whether or not you continue with us.
If there is a fit, we recommend the next step
We recommend. You decide.
We do not ask you to pick from a menu before we understand the situation.
Where deeper support appears justified, your report will identify the relationship we believe best matches the company's needs.
For new ongoing relationships, the foundation is the
CEO Strategic Blueprint + Implementation Plan
That deeper stage converts the initial analysis into an ordered plan of action.
Alongside it, we may recommend one ongoing support level:
- CEO Strategic Advisory
- for recurring judgement and strategic challenge
- CEO Office
- for strategic partnership plus continuous intelligence and proactive support
- Embedded CEO Office
- for deeper involvement, coordination and implementation support
You can see the recommendation, understand why it has been made and decide whether you want to proceed.
Shown within an approved individual report where applicable.
We build the Blueprint
From “what matters” to “what happens next.”
The CEO Strategic Blueprint goes beyond the initial report.
We work through the business in greater depth and turn the priorities into an implementation structure.
The output can include:
- strategic diagnostic
- prioritised opportunities
- major dependencies
- 90-day implementation plan
- 12-month roadmap
- responsibility matrix
- KPI framework
- technology and AI opportunities
- executive dashboard priorities
- first actions and ownership
The objective is straightforward: clarity on what should happen, why it matters, who owns it and what happens first.
The ongoing relationship begins with context already built.
One of the biggest inefficiencies in traditional advisory is repeatedly explaining the company to new people.
An Extra Chair is designed differently.
The research, priorities, decisions and working context built through the Report and Blueprint become the foundation of the ongoing relationship.
That means your strategic partner and wider support system become more useful as the context accumulates.
Depending on your service level, the relationship may include:
- regular CEO sessions
- asynchronous decision support
- continuous intelligence
- opportunity identification
- priority tracking
- management coordination
- specialist support
- board preparation
- major-project support
- implementation follow-through
You should not have to restart the story every month.
You remain in control.
Support for judgement. Not a substitute for it.
An Extra Chair is designed to improve the CEO's decision environment — not take over the CEO's authority.
- We can research.
- We can challenge.
- We can identify opportunities.
- We can prepare.
- We can recommend.
- We can help coordinate execution.
But the final decisions remain with you and your leadership team.
That distinction matters.
The simple version
- You tell us what matters.
- We research the business.
- The system analyses the opportunities, risks and dependencies.
- A human reviews the output.
- You receive your CEO Opportunity Report.
- If there is a fit, we recommend the appropriate next step.
- You decide whether to proceed.
See what we see.
The best way to understand An Extra Chair is not another sales call.
It is to let us look at your business.
Get Your CEO Opportunity ReportA better outside perspective starts with better context.