Before the diagnosis makes sense

The Board Briefing

Some boards need a different conversation before either diagnostic means anything to them. If ecommerce or AI has become a standing item without a shared understanding of what it actually is in the room, that gap is worth closing on its own terms, in plain language, before anyone tries to diagnose a specific problem against it.

Half a day. Whichever the board needs oriented on, ecommerce or AI. No jargon assumed and none introduced. Built from the same operating experience behind the Review and the AI Diagnostic, but pitched at literacy, not diagnosis.

Before you appoint an agency, define the problem it is being asked to solve

What it covers

Ecommerce, plain and structural: what the channel actually is, how it makes and loses money, and the handful of decisions that matter more than the rest.

AI in retail, without the vendor noise: what it can and cannot yet do, where the genuine payback sits, and the difference between a capability and a decision to build one.

Either can stand alone. Some boards want both.

What it is not

It is not a diagnosis of your business. It produces no finding, and no binding constraint, because it is not looking at your business specifically, it is building the language to discuss one.

It is not a sales conversation for the Review or the AI Diagnostic. It stands alone, and whether either of those makes sense afterward is entirely the board’s call, made once the room actually has the vocabulary to make it.

How it connects

For a board that already has a specific problem in view, the Review or the AI Diagnostic is the right starting point, not this. The Board Briefing exists for the room that is not there yet.

Contact

You do not need the board fluent before you talk to Steve.
That is what the briefing is for.

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BOOK THE CONVERSATION

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Barking Cat, Commerce Advisory

Barking Cat Advisory is an independent ecommerce and commercial advisory practice for UK retail and consumer businesses, giving boards and private equity investors an operator’s judgement before they commit to technology, transformation or growth investment. Founded by Steve Webster, who has run retail and ecommerce P&Ls since 1999.

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