innovation in practice
Consulting Services
Obsidian North delivers consulting across strategy, management systems, technology enablement, and operational risk with a focus on practical execution. AI and automation are integrated only where they strengthen decision-making, improve outcomes, and support long-term operational stability.
Consulting by discipline
Services Built for Execution
Obsidian North offers a defined set of consulting services designed to resolve recurring constraints inside growing organizations. Rather than a long menu of disconnected offerings, services are grouped into four consulting disciplines to create a clear structure for selection and prioritization. Service offerings within each discipline are deliberately scoped, allowing leaders to engage with the right level of support at the right time—without adding complexity or committing to indefinite work.
direction & priority
Strategic Consulting
Strategic consulting defines where the organization is going and what matters most. We help leaders set direction, prioritize initiatives, establish performance visibility, and prepare the organization to scale intelligently. This includes identifying where AI, data, and automation can support strategy—without over-investing before the organization is ready to absorb change.
Scalable Growth Strategy
Designs structured growth models that balance ambition with operational readiness, ensuring people, processes, and systems scale without introducing inefficiency or unmanaged risk.
Strategic Initiative & Portfolio Management
Establishes governance and prioritization across initiatives so resources focus on the highest-value work while dependencies, risks, and outcomes are actively managed.
KPI Framework Design & Performance Oversight
Defines meaningful performance indicators aligned to strategy and establishes review structures that enable early risk detection and informed executive decision-making.
Executive Reporting & Decision Support
Creates executive-ready reporting that translates complex data into clear insight, enabling timely, confident decisions grounded in facts and trends.
Enterprise Change Enablement
Supports organizational change through structured planning, communication, and adoption strategies that ensure initiatives deliver intended outcomes.
Issue & Risk Escalation Management
Implements disciplined issue identification and escalation frameworks so emerging risks are surfaced, addressed, and resolved at the appropriate leadership level.
Execution & Control
Managerial Consulting
Managerial consulting ensures strategy is executed consistently by strengthening leadership effectiveness, accountability, and decision-making structures. This work focuses on turning intent into operating rhythm—clear ownership, fewer bottlenecks, and better follow-through—while leveraging modern analytics and AI-enabled insight where appropriate.
Human Capital Strategy
Aligns workforce structure, roles, and capabilities to business objectives while supporting accountability, engagement, and long-term performance.
Resource & Capacity Optimization
Evaluates how time, talent, and budget are allocated to reduce bottlenecks, improve utilization, and support critical priorities.
Executive & Leadership Development
Provides targeted coaching and development to strengthen leadership effectiveness, judgment, and accountability at senior levels.
Management Operating Model Design
Designs management structures, roles, and operating rhythms that clarify ownership, improve coordination, and enable disciplined execution.
Governance & Decision-Making Frameworks
Establishes clear decision rights, escalation paths, and governance structures that reduce ambiguity and speed execution with appropriate risk awareness.
ENABLEMENT & INTELLIGENCE
Intelligent Technology & Infrastructure Consulting
This discipline translates innovation into working systems. We modernize architecture, implement intelligent automation, and unlock insight through analytics—ensuring technology reduces friction, supports decision-making, and scales with the business.
Innovation & Intelligent Automation
Identifies and implements automation and AI-enabled solutions that reduce manual effort, improve consistency, and support better decision-making.
Process Intelligence & Mining
Uses data-driven analysis to reveal how processes operate, identifying inefficiencies, delays, and control gaps.
Enterprise Systems Architecture
Designs scalable, secure system architectures aligned to business strategy and long-term growth.
Analytics & Reporting Dashboards
Develops intuitive dashboards that consolidate key data into actionable, role-based views.
Workflow & Automation Development
Builds streamlined workflows that integrate systems and reduce friction, errors, and cycle time.
control & governance
Operations & Risk Consulting
Operations and risk consulting strengthens execution reliability through improved controls, efficiency, and governance. We ensure innovations, especially AI-enabled processes—is deployed safely, remains auditable, and continues to perform under regulatory and operational scrutiny.
Risk & Control Assessments
Evaluates control environments to identify gaps and provide practical, prioritized risk-reduction recommendations.
Business Process Audits & Optimization
Reviews end-to-end processes to improve effectiveness, efficiency, and control alignment.
Operational Efficiency Assessments
Analyzes workflows and cost structures to identify scalable efficiency improvements.
Regulatory & Compliance Readiness
Assesses compliance obligations and operational readiness for audits and examinations.
Data Governance & Oversight
Establishes frameworks ensuring data quality, ownership, security, and appropriate use.
CORE DIFFERENTIATOR
AI-Enabled, Not AI-Obsessed
AI is most valuable when applied intentionally—inside real workflows, decision processes, and governance structures. Obsidian North uses AI and automation to reduce manual effort, improve insight, and support better judgment, not to replace it. Every engagement evaluates where intelligent automation creates advantage without adding additional bloat.
Intentional Application
AI creates leverage only when applied to real workflows and decisions. We start with friction and outcomes—not tools.
Human Judgment Preserved
AI supports decision-making by improving inputs, subsequent outputs, and visibility. Accountability stays with people, not software.
Governed by Design
Controls, auditability, and data integrity are built in so innovation remains reliable as the business scales.
Embedded, Not Bolted On
Automation and AI live inside operating systems—management cadence, reporting, governance—not in parallel processes.
The Delivery
Obsidian Engagement Models
All Service Offerings are delivered through three engagement models: each reflecting the involvement of Obsidian North. This framework defines the balance between guidance and execution—ranging from executive-level advisory through hands-on partnership focused on implementation and outcomes. The purpose is to allow leaders the choice of engagement at the level that fits their needs, capacity, and internal maturity, while keeping scope and expectations clear.
Advisory
Clarity, direction, and executive decision support.
Advisory engagements focus on diagnosing constraints, clarifying priorities, and helping leadership make informed decisions. The work centers on assessment, insight, and structured guidance—resulting in clear recommendations, sequencing, and roadmaps. Responsibility for execution remains with the client team.
Advisory is ideal when clarity, alignment, or a credible outside perspective are preferred before committing to change.
Build
Design and delivery of operationally usable solutions.
Build engagements move beyond recommendations into hands-on design and delivery. We create concrete assets—operating models, workflows, dashboards, governance structures, and tooling—that are ready to deploy and use. These engagements include direct implementation support to ensure the solution works in practice, not just in theory.
The Build Engagement Model is designed to create tangible progress and functioning systems; not just direction.
Embed
Temporary integration to drive adoption, stability, and transformation.
Embed engagements place Obsidian North directly into the organization for a defined period to support execution, adoption, and stabilization. Rather than delivering assets and stepping away, this model provides hands-on leadership during critical transitions—helping teams operationalize new systems, reinforce decision-making, and build internal capability.
Embed is appropriate when change needs focused, experienced support to ensure momentum holds, risks are managed, and ownership successfully transfers to the internal team.
next steps
Choose the Right Level of Support
Whether you need executive guidance, ready-to-deploy assets, or hands-on partnership through execution, we will scope the engagement around outcomes and match the level of support to what your organization needs.
