Turn executive ambition into AI investment your operations will own.
The Executive Value Day is a full-day working session for your leadership team. The morning is ideation and value creation. The afternoon takes the best ideas back into the operations each executive is accountable for, and formalises them as one-page opportunity charters. Nothing goes on a charter that cannot pay back inside nine months.
When a Value Day is the right start
An AI line in the plan, no owners
The board expects AI investment and nobody in operations has signed up to deliver a return from it.
Ideas that never leave the strategy deck
Leadership has talked about AI before and nothing reached the people who run the work.
A portfolio, not a project
You want a ranked shortlist across functions, not one more pilot chosen by whoever asked first.
A finance team that wants the maths
Every idea needs a return case your CFO will accept before anything is scoped.
What you would be buying
One working day, with pre-work, that turns your leadership team's AI ambition into ranked opportunity charters, each owned by an executive and tested against a nine-month return.
What you receive
- Executive pre-work workbooks, issued ten business days before the day
- A first-pass enterprise value map, agreed with your sponsor five days before
- One-page opportunity charters: problem, owner, measure, return case and nine-month test
- A ranked investment shortlist
- A decisions log of what was agreed and who owns it
- Written follow-up within three business days
What you provide
- Eight to twelve attendees: the CEO or COO as sponsor, the CFO, the accountable executives and the CIO or CTO
- Each attendee's workbook, about 45 to 60 minutes
- A 30-minute sponsor call before the day
How success is measured
- Every charter has a named owner and a measure
- Every charter passes, or is parked by, the nine-month return test
- The first charter is specific enough to scope a Business Process Workshop without rediscovery
The Value Day sizes opportunities roughly enough to rank them. The baseline that proves a saving is set in the workshop that follows.
What can hold it up
- The accountable executives attending the whole day
- Workbooks returned on time, so the value map is built from your evidence
After it goes live
Charters, shortlist and decisions log are yours to keep. If you go further, a Business Process Workshop is scoped to the first charter.
Deliverables and measures describe the standard shape of this engagement. Exact scope, duration and commercial terms are agreed and confirmed in writing before work starts.
How we do the work
Pre-work that saves the day
Each attendee completes a short executive workbook ten business days before. We synthesise the answers into a first-pass enterprise value map five days before, and agree it with your sponsor.
Enterprise value map
Where time, cost, risk and revenue are being lost across the business, played back on the morning so the day starts from evidence rather than opinion.
Ideation and sizing
How AI changes the economics of the work you do, then each idea sized roughly enough to rank, with the assumptions written down.
Back into your operation
In the afternoon each executive takes the strongest ideas into the operation they are accountable for, and tests them against how the work really runs.
Opportunity charters
One page per opportunity: the problem, the owner, the measure, the return case and the nine-month test. These are what a workshop or build is scoped from.
Investment shortlist and decisions log
A ranked portfolio and a record of what was agreed, who owns it and what happens next, issued within three business days.
Why this matters
AI investment fails in the gap between the boardroom and the operation. Executives agree an ambition, the operation is never asked whether it is real, and the first pilot is chosen by enthusiasm rather than return.
The Value Day closes that gap in one day. The same executives who set the ambition own the charters, and every charter carries a measure and a nine-month return test.
Charters, not slides. Every opportunity leaves the room with an owner, a measure and a return case.
The nine-month return test
Every idea on the day is tested against one question: can it pay back inside nine months?
Ideas that cannot are parked, not deleted. Some need a platform or a data fix first, and those go on the roadmap in the right order. What reaches a charter is work that can show a measured return inside a financial year.
That test carries through the rest of the route. A Business Process Workshop is scoped to the charter, a proof of value tests the first priority process, and a pilot build is measured at 30 days, 90 days and month nine.
How the day runs
Pre-work
Executive workbooks out ten business days before, a first-pass value map five days before, and a 30-minute sponsor call.
Morning: value
The value map played back, how AI changes the economics, ideation and sizing.
Afternoon: ownership
Ideas taken back into each executive's operation and formalised as one-page opportunity charters.
Portfolio and commitments
The shortlist ranked, owners named, and the decisions recorded before anyone leaves.
Follow-up
Value map, charters, shortlist and decisions log within three business days, with an optional route into a Business Process Workshop scoped to the charter.
Often delivered alongside
Timing, cost, access and ownership
How long does it take?
One working day, with pre-work: a workbook for each attendee ten business days before, and a sponsor call. Written follow-up arrives within three business days.
Is there a charge?
No, for qualified sponsors. We agree with your sponsor beforehand that the room, the pre-work and the decisions at the end of the day are real.
Who needs to be there?
Eight to twelve people: the sponsor, the CFO, the executives accountable for the operations in scope, and the CIO or CTO, for the whole day.
What do we keep?
The value map, the charters, the investment shortlist and the decisions log, whether or not you work with us afterwards.
What happens next?
If you go further, a Business Process Workshop is scoped to the first charter. A typical route runs from the Value Day to a workshop in months one and two, a proof of value in month three, build and go-live in months four to six, and returns measured in months seven to nine.
About this service
What is an Executive Value Day?
A full-day working session for a leadership team that turns AI ambition into ranked, one-page opportunity charters, each owned by an executive and tested against a nine-month return.
Who should attend?
Eight to twelve people: the CEO or COO as sponsor, the CFO, the executives accountable for the operations in scope, and the CIO or CTO.
What happens after the day?
You receive the value map, the charters, the investment shortlist and the decisions log within three business days. If you want to go further, a Business Process Workshop is scoped to the first charter.
What is an opportunity charter?
A one-page statement of a single opportunity: the problem, the accountable owner, how success is measured, the return case and whether it passes the nine-month test.
Which executive would own your first AI return?
Tell us about your leadership team and what the board expects. We will tell you whether a Value Day or a shorter briefing is the better start.
Around four minutes. Indicative guidance based on your answers.