Three ways to engage, each designed for a specific moment in the decision cycle.
All engagements are principal-led — no associates, no delegation. The value of the practice is the cross-case pattern that twenty years of direct experience has built. That cannot be delegated.
Decision-makers at pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturers.
Site Heads & General Managers
Facing a major IT or digital investment decision — or managing the aftermath of a go-live that did not deliver what was promised. Needing an independent view of what the data is actually showing.
VPs of Operations & Manufacturing
Navigating multi-site digital programmes, MES deployments, or the question of why the last major investment did not produce the capability gain it was supposed to deliver.
CFOs & Finance Leaders
Evaluating investment cases that arrive with technical justifications but unclear business value. Needing a business-level translation of what the system will actually enable — and at what FC Model™ level.
Quality & Regulatory Leaders
Preparing for regulatory inspection, managing a validation crisis, or building the data integrity governance that inspectors actually find defensible — across FDA, EMA, HSA, MHRA, and TGA.
IT & Digital Leaders
Seeking a principal-level advisor who understands both the technical landscape and the business context — to strengthen the investment case or challenge assumptions before scope is fixed.
Boards & Investment Committees
Evaluating digital transformation proposals for pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturers. The FC Model™ diagnostic provides a structured framework for assessing what level of maturity the investment is actually targeting.
Three engagement types. One consistent standard.
Each engagement type is designed for a specific moment in the digital investment cycle — before approval, at a moment of crisis, or as an ongoing advisory relationship. All are principal-led.
For organisations navigating complex IT decisions over time — where the landscape is changing, the investment pipeline is active, and the value of having principal-level judgment accessible without scheduling a separate engagement is clear.
A Strategic Advisory Retainer provides continuous access to FC Lim across the full decision cycle: before investment approval, during implementation, and after go-live — including the six-month post-go-live window where the most valuable FC Model™ questions are almost never asked.
What a retainer engagement typically includes
- Regular advisory sessions — frequency and format agreed at the start of the engagement
- FC Model™ diagnostic of the current digital landscape, applied at the start and reviewed at agreed milestones
- Investment case review before approval — the FC Model™ level the scope is actually targeting, and whether it matches what the organisation needs
- Access to principal judgment between sessions for emerging situations requiring rapid advice
- Post-go-live advisory — the integrated data questions the investment was designed to answer, asked six months after go-live
For specific problems requiring structured analysis and a clear recommendation — not an ongoing relationship. A Diagnostic Engagement applies the FC Model™ framework to a defined question: a pending investment decision, a post-go-live assessment, or a digital landscape that is not delivering the capability it was supposed to.
The deliverable is a written assessment and prioritised set of action recommendations — at the FC Model™ level the organisation actually needs to reach, not the level the current approval process has defaulted to.
When a Diagnostic Engagement is appropriate
- Before a major digital investment is approved — what FC Model™ level is the scope designed to reach, and is that the level the organisation needs?
- Six to twelve months after a major go-live — what is the integrated data actually telling the organisation across the three FC Model™ value dimensions?
- Before a multi-site programme begins — data standards, governance, and the one decision that determines whether Level 2 is possible when all sites are live
- Before an ERP upgrade — whether the programme is structured to produce Level 1 compliance or Level 2 business capability
- Before a regulatory inspection — an independent assessment of whether the validated state is as defensible as the internal team believes
For regulatory inspections, MES go-live failures, and time-sensitive situations where experienced principal-level judgment is needed immediately — not in two weeks, after a formal engagement process.
Critical Moment Support is available with short notice. The value is not principally in the speed of the engagement — it is in the cross-case pattern that makes it possible to recognise what is actually happening and what needs to happen next, in situations where the internal team is too close to the problem or too junior to say what needs to be said.
Critical moments this engagement is designed for
- Regulatory inspection in progress — systems data challenged, batch record traceability under scrutiny, or a 483 observation requiring immediate structured response
- MES go-live failure or interface instability — the specific situation in Case 7 of the book, where interface success rate was dangerously below threshold five months before regulatory inspection
- Investment approval meeting in 48 hours — the FC Model™ level the scope is actually targeting needs to be assessed before the approval is granted
- Post-merger IT integration in progress under regulatory audit — the situation that requires both technical understanding and regulatory credibility in the same room
- An internal team that knows what the right answer is but cannot say it — a situation the book describes directly
Every engagement begins with the FC Model™ diagnostic.
Before an engagement delivers anything else, the FC Model™ diagnostic establishes where the organisation's digital investment currently sits across the three value dimensions — Customer Value, Product Value, and Operational Value — and at which of the three maturity levels.
That diagnostic is what makes the advice specific rather than generic. The cases in the book are all examples of the FC Model™ applied — and the pattern they collectively reveal is the foundation of every engagement.
"Across Customer Value, Product Value, and Operational Value — is your digital investment creating the level of maturity your organisation actually needs? And does everyone in the room agree on what that level is?"— All Seven Cases, Before the Next Digital Investment
From first conversation to clear recommendation.
Every engagement begins the same way: a thirty-minute conversation to establish whether there is a clear problem, a specific decision, or a moment of organisational uncertainty where principal advisory adds genuine value.