Plate 01
One decision at a time
Nº 07
Autumn
2026
The cover story
How a nine-day order became a three-day one
Issue 07 · Autumn 2026
Aldermere Advisory Quarterly
Advice worth reading twice.
Aldermere is a small advisory practice in Bristol. We help owners and leadership teams decide what to do next, then put the plan on one page they can run.
Bakeries
Software firms
Housing trusts
Engineering
Coach operators
Independent grocers
Charities
Care providers
Bakeries
Software firms
Housing trusts
Engineering
Coach operators
Independent grocers
Charities
Care providers
01 · The practice
Aldermere Advisory, Bristol. Six advisers, one flat fee for each piece of work.
We have run the things we advise on: a bakery, a housing trust, two software firms. So we write short plans that work on a Monday.
13 years
independent, with no parent firm and no targets to sell
212
engagements finished, each with a written handover
Fixed fees
quoted before we start and kept to
Exhibit 1 · From the first case
Most delay is waiting, not work.
We followed 40 real orders through a wholesale bakery supplier. Of nine days, only 26 hours was anyone doing anything. The rest was orders sitting in a queue nobody owned.
Exhibit 1
Where nine days went, hours per order
56 h
44 h
52 h
38 h
26 h
Credit
Pick
Loading
Transit
Work
Source: 40 orders followed by hand, March to April 2025. Client details changed.
02 · Engagements
Five ways to work with us.
04 · The numbers
Across 212 finished engagements
31%
median cut in the time work takes to reach a customer
9 of 10
clients ask us back for a second piece of work
6 wks
typical length of an engagement, start to handover
0
lock-in contracts, retainers we cannot cancel, or slide decks over 20 pages
05 · Method
How an engagement runs.
Every piece of work follows the same four moves. You will always know which one you are in, and what you will have at the end of it.
01 · Listen
Week 1
We talk to the people who do the work, not only those who run it, and read the last year of numbers.
You get: a one-page summary of what we heard, checked with you.
02 · Measure
Weeks 2 and 3
We follow real orders, real invoices, real customers. Every claim in our report points at something you can check.
You get: the evidence, laid out so anyone can follow it.
03 · Decide
Week 4
We bring three options with their costs. You choose. We write the plan on a single page with an owner against every line.
You get: a plan your team helped write and will run.
04 · Hand over
Weeks 5 and 6
We help start the first steps, then step back. A month later we ring to check it held.
You get: a written handover and a call from us in 30 days.
We had been told for years that the delay was the ovens. Aldermere showed us it was an approval step nobody owned.
Ruth Stott
Managing Director
Harlow & Stott
06 · Insights
Columns from the Quarterly.
Strategy
The three-line strategy: a test for any plan
If a strategy cannot be written in three lines, it is not a strategy yet. Here is the test we use on every plan we are shown.
7 min read
Reporting
Why your monthly report is not helping
A monthly pack of forty charts tells you what happened. It rarely tells you what to do. Here is how to cut it to one page.
6 min read
People
Hiring your first head of operations
The founder who has done everything is the hardest person to replace. Here is how to hire your first head of operations, and how to let go.
8 min read
Pricing
Price rises without the panic
Customers rarely leave because of a price rise. They leave because of how they were told. A short guide to doing it well.
6 min read
Practice
What a good diagnostic actually contains
Before you pay for a diagnostic, know what you should get back. Here is what ours contains and why.
9 min read
Exhibit 2 · Where to start
Fix the big, easy things first.
We plot every idea on two lines: how hard it is, and how much it changes. Most clients find that two or three ideas sit in the top-left corner, and that the expensive one they had planned does not.
1
Check credit on entry
2
One price page
3
Train new managers
4
Monthly board page
5
Buy new software
6
Rename departments
Effort →
↑ Payoff
1
2
3
4
5
6
07 · Fees
You will know the price before you say yes.
Every piece of work is quoted as one fee. These are the starting points; your quote is written after a free first conversation.
Diagnostic
£6,500
one-off, 2 weeks
A short look at one problem.
Interviews and a numbers review
A one-page written answer
Fixed quote for any next step
Free to walk away
Strategy sprint
£24,000
one-off, 6 weeks
A plan the whole team owns.
Everything in the diagnostic
Three options with their costs
A twelve-month plan on one page
A call from us after 30 days
Interim adviser
£4,800
per month, cancel any time
A senior adviser, one day a week.
A standing weekly day with you
Board and team support
Monthly one-page report
One month’s notice, no lock-in
08 · Questions
Things people ask before the first call.
How much does it cost?
Do you only work with big companies?
How long until we see something?
Will you tell us what we want to hear?
Can we cancel part-way through?
Do you work outside Bristol?
First conversation
Thirty minutes, free, no slides.
Tell us what is bothering you. We will say whether we can help, and if we cannot, who probably can.