Method/Strategy & Management
Discipline V
Strategy & Management
Growth, org design, and succession — read from the principal's chair.
The Position
Structure is where growth plans fail.
Growth plans rarely fail for lack of ambition. They fail at structure — an organization drawn around the people who happened to be there, a founder still holding operating detail that should have been handed off years ago, a succession everyone assumes and no one has named. The plan says grow; the structure says not yet.
The work is threefold. A growth thesis that is actually resourced — not a number on a slide but a claim the org chart can carry. An organization designed around the work rather than inherited around the people. And succession named while there is still time to name it well, because the alternative is a decision made under pressure by whoever is left in the room.
The engagement is standing counsel, held to a quarterly review where commitments are written down and read back. It is not vision coaching: every recommendation we make carries an operational commitment with an owner and a date, and the review exists to ask whether it happened.
Who This Is For
A Good Fit
- Principals ready to hand off operating detail and hold the enterprise instead
- Founders whose growth has outrun the organization underneath it
- Owners with succession assumed but not yet named or structured
- Family enterprises formalizing management for the first time
Not A Fit
- Vision coaching without operational commitment — every recommendation here carries an owner and a date
- Capital raising or investment advice — we do not offer it
- Engagements the principal will not personally attend
The Lifecycle
Diagnostic
The structured reading across all seven dimensions — the enterprise as it actually stands.
Growth Thesis
The claim the next three years will be built on — tested, resourced, and written down.
Org Design
The organization drawn around the work to be done, not the people who happen to be there.
Quarterly Review
Commitments read back against results — the cadence that keeps the thesis honest.
Engagement
Retainer
MonthlyStanding counsel to the principal — the monthly cadence and the quarterly review, held.
Diagnostic Session
A single sessionThe structured reading alone — the beginning of every engagement, complete in itself.
Principal Hours
By the hourThe principal's reading of one decision, one hire, one structure — by the hour.
Terms are set out in the letter of engagement.
Every engagement begins the same way.
Begin The DiagnosticAdjacent Disciplines
What This Engagement Covers
Maison de Thu is a design and owner's-side house. We hold design, owner's-representation, and diagnostic engagement contracts. We do not hold construction contracts, do not provide legal representation, and do not offer investment advice. When a project requires construction, we help our clients select and manage a properly licensed general contractor — we do not become one.