Fractional transformation leadership
Director-level change leadership, one day a week.
Twenty-five years turning complexity into measurable outcomes — at BT, in the not-for-profit sector, and across the SME market. Available to your organisation without the cost, the recruitment risk or the commitment of a full-time hire.
The gap most organisations fall into
Too small for a big consultancy. Too complex for a generalist.
If you need senior transformation leadership — a data strategy, an AI adoption plan, a programme that has stalled, a CRM decision you cannot afford to get wrong — the market offers you two bad options.
The usual options
- A large consultancy: excellent people, a rate card built for enterprise budgets, and a team that rotates
- A generalist contractor: affordable, but without the pattern recognition that comes from having done it at scale
- A full-time director: a six-figure commitment plus recruitment risk, for a problem that may not need a permanent role
- Doing nothing, and letting the decision make itself
What Flexicom Solutions offers instead
- One senior person, accountable to you, for one to three days a week
- Fixed scope and fixed price — you know the cost before you commit
- Enterprise-grade practice, translated honestly to your scale and budget
- Start with a short review; expand only if it earns its place
A point of view worth hearing before you spend
On AI adoption
Most AI projects fail for the same reason: a customer-facing tool is bolted onto internal ways of working that have not changed. That does not fix the problem — it automates it, visibly, in front of the people you most want to impress.
The alternative is to sequence the technology with the change in how people actually work, in contained stages, each one proving its value before the next begins. It is slower to promise and considerably faster to deliver something that lasts. That principle applies equally to a new CRM, a data platform, or an AI pilot.
How to work with us
Three ways in, starting small.
Every engagement begins with a fixed-price review, because neither of us should commit to something larger before we know what the problem actually is.
Readiness Review
Fixed price · 2–3 weeks
A short, focused diagnostic on one question: are you ready to do the thing you are considering, and what would need to be true first?
- Interviews with your leadership and delivery teams
- Assessment of data, systems, process and governance maturity
- A clear written verdict — including if the answer is "not yet"
- Prioritised, costed recommendations you own
Fractional Director
1–3 days a week · rolling
Ongoing senior leadership for a programme, a function or a period of change — embedded in your organisation, accountable for outcomes.
- Technology, data and AI strategy
- Programme and portfolio leadership (APM qualified)
- Operating model and governance design
- Supplier and stakeholder management
- Mentoring your existing leaders as you go
Fixed-Scope Programmes
Defined deliverable · fixed fee
A specific piece of work with a beginning, an end and a price agreed in advance.
- Data strategy and governance frameworks
- CRM selection, recovery or implementation oversight
- GDPR and data protection readiness
- AI use policy and responsible adoption plan
- Board-level advisory and risk review
What the first ninety days look like
A delivery rhythm, not a discovery phase.
Long discovery exercises are how consultancy budgets disappear without anything changing. This works in ninety-day cycles, each one delivering something you can point to.
DAYS 1–15
Diagnose
Understand the real constraint — which is rarely the one named in the brief. Talk to the people doing the work, not only those commissioning it.
DAYS 16–30
Prioritise
Map activity against value and effort. Agree explicitly what stops, what continues and what starts — and what success will be measured by.
DAYS 31–75
Deliver
Ship the first contained change. Prove the value before asking for the next commitment. Adjust on evidence rather than on plan.
DAYS 76–90
Hand over
Embed the change with your team so it survives without me. Set the next cycle, or agree the engagement has done its job.
Delivered, not theorised
Three engagements, three different scales.
Not-for-profit sector
Technology, data and AI under one operating model
Four siloed functions — technology, digital, CRM and data — converged into a single operating model with outcome-based governance. A core versus non-core value assessment decided what the organisation continued, stopped or reprioritised.
Fulfilment review projected to save £100k+ a year
Data & CRM transformation
A stalled programme recovered and delivered
A complex data and CRM transformation brought back on track by simplifying technical dependencies and realigning investment to customer and operational benefit, alongside consolidated service management and executive oversight.
75% fewer incidents · 41% fewer complaints · +40% income
SME / start-up
From stuck to £15m in a single year
An RFID asset-tagging start-up enabled to win NHS and BT Openreach contracts by installing ninety-day agile delivery cycles and two operating metrics that mattered: lead-to-cash and ticket-to-resolve.
£15m first-year revenue
Who this tends to suit
Organisations where every pound has to work twice.
Charities and not-for-profits
Trustee and chair experience, and a working understanding of boards, funders and the scrutiny that comes with both.
Public sector bodies
Governance, procurement and social value fluency — including as a Cost of Living Commissioner for Richmond & Wandsworth Councils.
SMEs and scale-ups
Fifteen years of independent consultancy to the SMB market, from operating model design to GDPR implementation.
Boards needing a second opinion
Non-executive and advisory input where a decision is significant and the internal view is understandably invested.
Who you'd be working with
Arshad (Ash) Daud
Founder & Principal Consultant
Twenty-five years leading technology, data and transformation programmes — through senior programme, strategy and commercial roles at BT Group, as founder of Flexicom Solutions, and most recently converging technology, digital, CRM, data and AI under a single operating model within the not-for-profit sector.
I lead every engagement personally. Where a piece of work needs specialist input, I bring in people I have worked with and trust — but I remain your point of accountability throughout, and I do not hand you to a team you have not met. What you are buying is the judgement of someone who has run these problems at £2bn scale, at start-up scale, and inside organisations where every pound has to work twice.
Public appointments & governance
Cost of Living Commissioner
One of fifteen independent commissioners appointed to the Wandsworth Cost of Living Commission (2022–23), examining the systemic drivers of hardship across the borough. The Commission heard evidence from over ninety witnesses and published thirty-five recommendations to the Council, regional and central government.
Non-Executive & trustee roles
Board-level governance experience across education and mental health charities, including trustee appointments at Al-Risalah Education Trust and Mindworks UK. Further roles available on request.
Chamber of Commerce
Former Board Director of Merton Chamber of Commerce, and delivered a GDPR readiness workshop to Merton Chamber members in March 2018, ahead of the implementation deadline.
Qualifications
Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) Foundation & Practitioner, APM Group. Postgraduate Diploma in Commercial Management, Manchester Business School. BA (Hons) Economics.
“His consultative approach and knack for connecting the dots to arrive at a business case — tying technology capabilities to business needs — are exemplary.”Amit Sharma — Managing Director & CEO, Tata Consulting Engineers
Free, and genuinely useful
Before we talk, read one of these
Free guide · charities & not-for-profits Implementing a new CRM — without the usual regrets Most CRM projects fail on the data, the people and the leadership around them — not the technology. Seven phases, twelve lessons and four templates you can fill in and export. Read it free Deadline: 31 January 2027 The copper phone network is being switched off A compulsory, dated change affecting alarms, lifts, card terminals and older broadband as well as phones. Free audit of what you’re actually running. Am I affected?Start with a conversation, not a proposal.
Tell me what you are trying to change and I will tell you honestly whether I am the right person for it — and if a short Readiness Review would help you decide. No charge for that conversation, and no obligation after it.
Prefer to talk? Call 0203 912 0008