FOR FOUNDER-INFLUENCED 7-FIGURE BUSINESSES
Growth should not make your business harder to run.
When decisions still return to the founder, valuable know-how is trapped in a few people and the same friction keeps resurfacing, the business may have outgrown the way it currently works.
Pragmatic People helps you make the complex simple—without making it simplistic. We work with you to clarify what is creating the drag, focus on the few changes that matter most and embed stronger ways of working that do not depend on constant founder rescue.
We confirm fit, the right pathway and start timing before onboarding begins.
Not ready to commit? Get an initial view of where complexity may be creating the most drag.
Your business is not broken. It may have outgrown the way it works.
Growth adds customers, people, tools, handovers, decisions and exceptions. When the operating design does not keep pace, the business becomes heavier to run—even when everyone is working hard.
For founder-influenced businesses ready to address a live complexity constraint with structured, done-with-you support.
Get an initial view of where complexity may be creating the most drag.
Choose the level of support your business needs next.
Both Accelerators are structured, done-with-you programmes for founder-influenced businesses that want to reduce recurring complexity without adding another layer of generic advice. Choose the path that best reflects the problem you are ready to address. If you are unsure, start with the free Scorecard.
Choose based on the problem—not the pressure.
Both programmes require active leadership participation. The right choice depends on whether you need to resolve one or two priority constraints, or strengthen the wider enterprise design carrying the next stage.
Choose the path that feels closest to your situation.
The next page sets out the programme in more detail—including what your investment includes, the time you will need to commit, the working rhythm, payment options and the First-Session Confidence Guarantee—before you complete secure payment.
If you are unsure, start with the Business Complexity & Scale Readiness Scorecard instead.
Pragmatic SME Focus Accelerator
Six months to resolve the one or two complexity issues creating the most drag.
Choose this when:
You can point to one or two stubborn problems—such as a founder bottleneck, broken handover, delivery failure, value leak or capability gap— but the improvement does not stay fixed.
What you will work on
Over six months, you will work through one or two focused 90-day SCALE cycles to clarify the priority gap, understand the conditions sustaining it, test practical interventions and embed a more reliable way of working.
Each cycle helps the leadership team simplify the view, clarify what is connected, assess enough evidence, leverage proportionate change and embed what works.
How we work: Six months of structured business coaching and advisory around one or two live complexity issues.
What changes:
A tested, practical improvement around the issues doing most of the damage—clear enough for the team to run without constant founder rescue.
Investment
€2450
when paid in full
Prices exclude applicable taxes.
Availability:
Places currently available.
Standard onboarding confirms the starting focus and practical start date.
Pragmatic SME Scale Blueprint
Twelve months of strategic and operational support to build an enterprise that can carry the next stage.
Choose the when:
The business has outgrown the way it works. Improvements in one area keep creating friction elsewhere, and leadership, value flow, capability, systems and ways of working no longer form a coherent whole.
What you will work on:
Over 12 months, you will work through four connected 90-day SCALE cycles to clarify the intended future, strengthen the enterprise conditions carrying the next stage, and redesign what is no longer fit for purpose.
Each cycle helps the leadership team simplify the view, clarify what is connected, assess enough evidence, leverage proportionate change and embed what works.
How we work: Twelve months of strategic coaching and advisory to strengthen the enterprise for its next stage.
What changes:
A stronger, more capable enterprise that can create, deliver and sustain value with less dependency on founder heroics.
Investment
€6,950
When paid in full
Prices exclude applicable taxes.
Availability:
Places currently available.
Standard onboarding confirms the starting focus and practical start date.
Choose with confidence:
If the standard Programme Start Process shows that the other Pragmatic People Accelerator pathway is clearly more appropriate, your payment can be transferred in full to that pathway. If the alternative programme costs less, we will refund the difference. If it costs more, you can choose whether to pay the difference or remain in your original programme.
This does not replace the programme terms, cancellation policy or applicable statutory rights.
Not sure which programme fits?
Take the free Business Complexity & Scale Readiness Scorecard for an initial view of where complexity may be creating the most drag.
What happens after you join?
Both Accelerators are designed to begin with a clear first priority—not a generic workshop or a long discovery phase. Once you have chosen your programme and completed secure payment, the Programme Start Process prepares the business for its first 90-day SCALE cycle.
01
Choose your Accelerator
Select the six-month Focus Accelerator or 12-month Scale Blueprint that best matches the business challenge you are ready to address.
02
Complete secure payment
Confirm your place through the relevant secure Stripe payment page. Your place is confirmed for the next available start.
03
Complete the Programme Start Process
Share the essential starting context, prepare the people and information required, and agree the practical conditions needed to begin well.
04
Begin the first SCALE cycle
Receive your practical start date and begin the first 90-day cycle: simplify the view, clarify what is connected, assess enough evidence, leverage proportionate change and embed what works.
No generic reset. No pressure to fix everything at once.
You begin with the priority issue or enterprise condition that will create the most useful leverage now.
BUILT FOR REAL OPERATING PRESSURE
Ash Holliday is a Simplification Architect, Systems Mechanic , a practical business coach and advisor.
For more than 30 years, Ash has worked across technical systems, operations, leadership, programme delivery and organisational change—helping people see what is connected, find the constraint behind recurring problems and build practical ways of working that hold.
As a coach and advisor, he works alongside founders and leadership teams through the real decisions, trade-offs and operating pressures of growth—not from the sidelines with a generic playbook.
Pragmatic People brings enterprise-grade thinking to founder-influenced businesses before growth makes a valuable organisation harder to run, harder to change and too dependent on a few people.
- 30+ years of systems thinking: Across technical, programme, consulting, leadership and SME contexts.
- 20+ years of root-cause analysis: Across technical, operational, strategic, people and culture systems.
- 15+ industries and complex environments: Including Defence, engineering, transport, aviation, healthcare, government, education and technology.
- Adelaide University MBA facilitator Systems Thinking, Strategic Alignment, Leadership and Influencing.
What SME leaders say about the work
Practical systems work should leave leaders clearer about what matters, more confident in the next decision and less dependent on founder heroics.
Case Study
A complex SME is still an enterprise system.
Ricky and Anastasia run a hospitality group spanning pubs, short-stay accommodation and events—with a winery planned for the future. Like many growing SMEs, the business carries multiple sites, seasonal demand, casual staffing, suppliers, regulation and tight margins.
The useful work is not simply adding another process. It is making visible how decisions, handovers, information, customer commitments and capability interact—then improving the few conditions that create the most recurring drag.
The industry may change. The enterprise patterns are often familiar.
“Every session ends with clarity on what to do next.”
“The Accelerator program helped me strip away unnecessary overthinking and focus on what really matters. We look at the business as a whole, have honest conversations and finish each session with a clear direction.”
Ricardo Catanho
Owner & Manager Catanho Group
“We gained the focus and motivation we desperately needed.”
“Ash’s approach is methodical, down-to-earth and backed by deep research and experience. The programme helped us see our business through a different lens and build a clear strategy to improve and grow.”
Anastasia Mamaeva-Catanho
Owner & Manager Catanho Group
Practical systems thinking for businesses that want less founder dependency, clearer decisions and stronger ways of working.
FIRST-SESSION CONFIDENCE GUARANTEE
Join the Focus Accelerator or Scale Blueprint and attend your first working session.
If, within seven days of that session, you decide the programme is not right for you, email us and we will refund 100% of your programme fee.
The Accelerators require real participation, honest conversation and practical follow-through. We do not want you to stay in a programme that does not feel right for your business, your team or the challenge you are ready to address.
All we ask is that you attend the first session ready to engage, share the essential starting context and give the process a fair opportunity to begin.
Subject to the Programme Terms and applicable statutory rights.
Ready to make the business easier to run?
Choose the level of support that matches the challenge in front of you. Start with a clear priority, work through practical 90-day SCALE cycles and build stronger ways of working that do not depend on constant founder rescue.
Places currently available.
The Accelerators are for leaders ready to work on a live business challenge—not for people looking for a quick fix, a generic template or someone else to take responsibility for the business.
Not sure which path fits?
Take the free Business Complexity & Scale Readiness Scorecard for an initial view of where complexity may be creating the most drag.