Decision Scenarios | Digital Advisory

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Decision Scenarios

Recognisable executive moments and how to navigate them: a split board, a bold consultancy recommendation, a frozen budget.

Every scenario here starts from a moment leaders will recognise, then works through the incentives, hidden risks and questions that decide how it plays out. Use them when the situation on this page looks uncomfortably like the one in your calendar. Scenarios are the situations; Decision Patterns describe the recurring dynamics underneath them.

Find the moment you are in

Each scenario starts from a recognisable situation. If one matches yours, it will tell you what to ask next and what to pressure-test.

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CEO Wants to Replace Salesforce

A direct instruction from the top to replace a widely deployed CRM platform puts the CIO between a determined sponsor and a system the business runs on. This scenario maps the tension before anyone drafts an RFP.

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Procurement Shortlisted Three Vendors

The scoring matrix says the race is open. Everyone in the room knows it is not. This scenario examines what a three-vendor shortlist actually decides, and what it conceals.

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Board Split on an Acquisition

Half the board sees a strategic necessity, half sees an overpriced distraction, and the chair sees a vote that will damage someone whichever way it falls. This scenario looks at what a split board actually needs before it decides.

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Consultancy Recommends a Large Transformation

A short diagnostic ends with a polished readout and a recommendation for a multi-year programme, to be led (naturally) by the firm that ran the diagnostic. This scenario unpicks the decision hiding inside that proposal.

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AI Recommends One Option, Leadership Prefers Another

An analytics or AI system the organisation paid to trust has produced a recommendation the executive team does not like. This scenario is about resolving that standoff without pretending either side is neutral.

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Competitor Enters Your Core Market

A well-funded entrant has landed in the segment that pays for everything else you do. The instinct is to respond fast and visibly. This scenario is about responding correctly.

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Marketing Wants to Double Media Spend

A confident CMO, an attribution model showing strong returns, and a request to double down. This scenario examines what that model can and cannot prove, and what to establish before the money moves.

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Finance Freezes the Budget

A freeze stops spending, not the situations that needed it. This scenario looks at how to run the exceptions process honestly, protect the few commitments that must survive, and avoid the damage a freeze does on its way through.

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PE Owner Pushes for Cost Reduction

The operating partner arrives with a benchmark pack and a number. This scenario is about the space between that number and the ways of reaching it. The fund will never see the cost of some of those ways. Management will.

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Customer Research Conflicts With Internal Beliefs

Commissioned customer research has contradicted the assumptions a strategy was built on, and the organisation must now choose between its evidence and its identity. This scenario is about making that choice deliberately.

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Flagship Project Is Late and Over Budget: Continue or Kill?

The steering committee keeps approving extensions because every option looks worse than one more quarter. This scenario maps the incentives that keep failing programmes alive and the single question that cuts through them.

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Vendor Announces a Big Price Increase at Renewal

The increase arrives late, the timeline is short and the vendor has already modelled your dependence. This scenario separates negotiating noise from the real options, including the case for paying.

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A Key Supplier Was Just Acquired by a Competitor

The announcement promises continuity; the integration will decide otherwise. This scenario covers the change-of-control rights that expire, the data now visible to a rival, and how quickly optionality must be built.

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The Board Wants an AI Strategy

A non-executive asks the question, the CEO promises a paper, and the strategy team inherits a brief with no problem statement attached. This scenario is about answering the board without commissioning a performance.

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Two Functions Want the Same Budget

One line in the plan, two credible cases, and no common unit to compare them in. This scenario examines how the arbitration actually gets decided, and how to make it a comparison rather than a contest.

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A Major Client Demands a Price Cut

The letter is polite, the deadline is short and the account is too big to lose. This scenario is about what the demand reveals, what the account team's fear does to the analysis, and the options between capitulation and defiance.

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The New CFO Reviews Every Committed Project

Six weeks into the role, the CFO re-baselines everything the organisation thought was decided. This scenario distinguishes a healthy reset from a political one, and shows sponsors how to come through either.

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