The Offer Ladder
One integrated model. Four ways in.
The right engagement depends on where pressure is arriving. One decision under scrutiny. One high-stakes season. One retained relationship. Or one full operating system build.
How the ladder works
The four tiers of the offer ladder are not a menu of independent services. They are one coherent commercial journey — sequenced so that most engagements begin with diagnosis, progress to installation where the binding constraint is clearest, and continue only where leadership wants sustained support.
The Diagnostic is the front door. Every tier above it is progression. The work, regardless of tier, is structured by the same five sequential moves — the 5D model from Decision Architecture.
Find what matters and surface what is misunderstood. Stakeholder interviews, decision inventory, and a map of the services that genuinely matter. The work that establishes what is actually being governed, rather than what the current reporting says is being governed.
See where confidence breaks. Evidence review, ownership test, failure-mode analysis. The work that surfaces the specific decisions that are not being made, by whom, and what is stopping them. Most organisations spend eighteen months remediating the wrong layer — this is the move that prevents that.
Choose the few changes that shift outcomes. Decision rights map, strategy on a page, board calendar. Design is not a deliverable; it is a choice about what the architecture will carry and what it will refuse to carry.
Turn choices into owned execution. Decision log, evidence map, action tracking. The work that converts a designed architecture into an installed one — where decisions produce records and records produce learning. Structural change, not framework refresh.
Keep the system alive and stop the drift. Weekly review, monthly steering, quarterly board agenda. The move most organisations skip — which is why the first four moves rarely hold beyond eighteen months without it.
The four tiers
The front-door engagement. A structured executive review of the three layers — Risk Taxonomy, Decision Architecture, Decision Infrastructure — against the integrated model, producing a named finding of the binding constraint and the highest-value next move.
Best for: Organisations that sense something is structurally wrong but have not yet identified the specific layer where the constraint sits. Commissioned proactively before a regulatory review, a board succession, a material transaction, or a scheduled audit.
What is delivered: A layer-by-layer review conducted against the model, a structured executive intake, and an Executive Findings Brief naming the constraint and the next structural move. The engagement is scoped to produce immediate executive value on its own.
A focused installation engagement scoped to the layer the Diagnostic has named. Typically runs six to twelve weeks, producing the specific artefacts, rights, and cadence required to make the named layer operational.
Best for: Organisations ready to act on a Diagnostic finding. Leadership is engaged, the binding constraint is named, and there is a defined window — a regulatory cycle, a board change, a transformation kickoff — inside which the installation must land.
What is delivered: Depending on the layer under install: a working taxonomy with named owners and thresholds; a decision-architecture map with named decision rights and escalation logic; or a decision-infrastructure rhythm with structured records, cadence, and a defined scoreboard. Delivered inside the existing governance apparatus, not alongside it.
Retained monthly advisory for board preparation, executive decisions, evidence freshness, and governance under pressure. A high-trust relationship rather than a project engagement.
Best for: CROs, CISOs, and board chairs who want ongoing structural counsel — a named adviser to test decisions against before they reach the committee. Typically commissioned after a Diagnostic or Installation has established the working relationship, or independently where the leader already knows the shape of the support required.
What is delivered: Monthly strategic counsel, pre-committee board-brief review, support on material decisions as they arise, and quarterly posture reviews of the installed layers. Engagement structured by leadership cadence rather than project milestones.
The full enterprise installation of the integrated model — all three layers, sequenced across a twelve to eighteen-month programme, governed to a defined end-state.
Best for: Organisations committing to install the model as the durable operating layer of the risk function. Typically undertaken by mid-to-large enterprises with elevated regulatory exposure, following a Diagnostic that named weaknesses across all three layers rather than one.
What is delivered: Full installation of Risk Taxonomy (with named owners, thresholds, and an active governance mechanism); Decision Architecture (with documented decision rights and escalation logic across every category); and Decision Infrastructure (with a system of record, cadence, and a measurable scoreboard). Programme governance, progress reporting to the audit or risk committee, and a final-state review at handover.
How to choose the right entry point
Most organisations begin at Tier 01. The Diagnostic is deliberately scoped to be the correct first step regardless of where the constraint sits — because the constraint is rarely in the layer leadership would have named without the review.
Beginning at Tier 02 (Installation) is appropriate when an external party — a regulator, an auditor, a board chair — has already named the specific layer that requires remediation, and leadership wants installation without a preceding Diagnostic.
Beginning at Tier 03 (Advisory) is appropriate for leaders who do not yet need structural installation but want a named adviser for material decisions and committee preparation.
Beginning at Tier 04 (Programme) is appropriate only for organisations that have already diagnosed all three layers as requiring installation, and have the leadership commitment and governance capacity to sustain a twelve-to-eighteen-month engagement.
Entry points by audience
Different senior roles typically enter the ladder through different tiers, depending on the pressure each role is carrying.
Typically enter through the Diagnostic when oversight pressure is rising, or through Advisory when a committee chair wants sustained counsel on board-level risk posture.
Typically enter through the Diagnostic or through Installation when funding, alignment, or decision speed is the immediate constraint. Advisory is commonly adopted afterward.
Typically enter through the Diagnostic when risk is being noted but not turned into funded action, or through Programme when the function is being rebuilt following a change of leadership or a regulatory event.
Typically enter through the Diagnostic or Installation when evidence quality, traceability, or repeat findings are the primary pain. Layer 03 installation is often the specific scope.
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