The entry mandate
Ten Days
Decide in ten days. Run it in six weeks.
Every leader we work with starts here. You bring one subject. We bring ten working days, a prototype on your real data, and a memo that says what to do, including when the answer is nothing.
What you hold on day 10
- A four-page decision memo: the decision, the numbers that carry it, the risks, and what we deliberately leave out.
- A prototype running on a real sample of your data, shown live, not on slides.
- A build plan with scope, timeframe and a fixed price, ready to sign or to put in a drawer.
- Or, when it is the right answer, the recommendation not to build, with a plan for what to do instead.
What you give
- Your presence on day 1, day 5 and day 10. Not a delegate.
- Access to the systems concerned and to a sample of real data, under a written agreement.
- Three key people, one hour each, between day 2 and day 4.
- One subject. If it is too wide, we narrow it together on day 1.
Ten working days
Day 1
Interview and access
Leadership interview, scope fixed in writing, access to systems and data sample granted.
Days 2 to 4
Reading
We read the existing systems and the data, and we talk to three key people for one hour each.
Day 5
Choice of track
Interim restitution to you. Two or three tracks on the table; you choose one.
Days 6 to 9
Prototype
We build a prototype on a real sample of your data. It performs no irreversible action.
Day 10
Restitution
Memo, live prototype, priced build plan, non-build plan. The decision is yours.
Three meetings with you
Day 1
Leadership interview
Two hours with you: the subject, the numbers you watch, what a good outcome looks like, what is off limits. Access is granted the same day.
Day 5
Interim restitution
What we read, what the data says, two or three possible tracks. You choose the one we prototype. One hour.
Day 10
Final restitution
The memo, the prototype running on your data, the build plan with its price, and the non-build plan. Ninety minutes, with the people who will live with the decision.
Four deliverables
The decision memo
Four pages. The decision, the numbers, the risks, what we do not do. Written to be read by your partner or your board without us in the room.
The prototype
A system that runs on a real sample of your data, demonstrated on day 10. It belongs to you, with its specific code, once the mandate is paid.
The build plan
Scope, weekly batches, timeframe of four to eight weeks, fixed price, who runs it afterwards. Ready to sign, never a condition.
The non-build plan
When building is not the answer: what to change in the way you work, what to buy off the shelf, what to revisit in a year. Delivered instead of the build plan, at the same price.
The memo may say: do not build
A house that builds has every reason to recommend building. We remove that reason: when the data or the economics do not hold, the memo says so, the non-build plan replaces the build plan, and the mandate costs the same. We track how many mandates end this way. The figure must exist, because it is the only proof of neutrality a leader can check.
Five rules
- You are present on days 1, 5 and 10. If you are not, we stop.
- No data leaves the country you operate in.
- The prototype belongs to you. Nothing built for you is reused for anyone else, cited anywhere, or added to a catalogue.
- During the mandate, no system performs an irreversible action: no sending, no payment, no deletion.
- Any system that talks to a person says it is an AI, from the first line.
When it does not fit
- You cannot give access to data in ten days.
- The mandate becomes a workshop: same memo, a clickable mock-up instead of a prototype on data, a lower price. We say so before signing.
- The subject is too wide.
- We narrow it on day 1 and write the reduced scope into the day 1 minutes. One subject, properly decided, beats three left open.
- You cannot be there on day 5 or day 10.
- We stop, and we invoice the days done. A decision taken without the person who carries it is not a decision.
What comes after
Build
Four to eight weeks, weekly batches you can see, acceptance per batch, security from the first batch. The first three months of operation are included.
Run
Monitoring, fixes, small evolutions, a monthly review. Optional after the included months, under a written agreement.
Leadership counsel
A quarterly committee, the roadmap kept current, written arbitrations when a decision is due.
Questions leaders ask
What does it cost?
A fixed price, written into the mandate before we start and known from the first conversation. We do not publish prices: a mandate is priced on your subject, not on a grid.
Who owns what?
The memo, the prototype and its specific code, your data and its outputs are yours once the mandate is paid. Our generic tools remain ours and are licensed to you for that use, free of charge. It is written in the contract.
How confidential is it?
Everything you share is confidential by contract, during the mandate and after it. Your data never trains a model used for another client, and we never cite your name, with or without permission.
Is it really ten days?
Ten working days, two calendar weeks, with your three dates fixed before we start. Delays on access extend the dates; they do not extend the price.
Which sectors?
Business services, distribution and retail, the finance of small and mid-sized companies, the circular economy, professional services. If your subject is a leadership decision about what the company does with AI, it fits.
How do we begin?
Write to us with your subject in two lines. We answer with a thirty-minute conversation, then a one-page mandate with your three dates and the price.
Start with Ten Days
One subject, ten working days, a decision you can defend and a prototype you have seen run.