For business-unit and transformation leaders
Drive the change.
Without all the answers.
I help leaders set the direction, get their people behind it and make it happen.
Six years at Google. Two at Amazon, leading a 100-person organisation. CPO of a listed company. Trained and collaborated with Marty Cagan.
Companies I’ve worked with
16
large organisations worked with
19
programmes run with them
400+
people worked with directly
€250bn+
their combined annual revenue
Where change gets stuck
AI, or something just as big, is changing your market and how the work gets done, and it’s on you to work out what that means. Most leaders I work with are wrestling with at least one of these:
Five leaders, five answers.
Lots of pilots, little change.
Decisions get made and pilots get launched. Months later, the way the business works is much the same, because the old way is still what gets rewarded.
Change fatigue.
Your people have been through restructures, new tools and new priorities. They’re anxious about what AI means for them, and short on the energy and skills the next change needs.
All eyes on you.
Everyone’s looking to you for answers you don’t have yet. You’re confident in the room, and less sure at 11pm.
The AI question.
You can see AI changing your market. You don’t yet have a view of what it means for this business that you’d bet on.
Free 5-minute checkup
The Transformation Checkup
See where the change is stuck, what’s already working, and the conversation to have with your team next.
5 minutes · no email
What it looks like when it works
Ask your leaders where you’re going, and you hear one answer.
The pilot that worked is now just how the work gets done.
Proposals start from the customer, and they get signed off.
Product managers bring a business case to the decision.
Your people know what the change means for their jobs, and they have the energy for the next step.
You have a view on what AI means for this business that you’d stand behind.
The work, named plainly
Strategy offsite
A day or two with your leadership team to agree one direction.
You leave with: a short strategy your leaders agreed together, and the first decisions that follow.
Working Backwards (Amazon’s PR/FAQ)
Teams learn Amazon’s way of starting from the customer, on their own real ideas.
You leave with: teams who start from the customer, and proposals that show it.
Product-management training
A programme built around your product managers’ real business cases.
You leave with: product managers who think commercially and can make the case.
AI strategy
What AI changes for your customers, your product and the way you work, and what you’ll do about it. Strategy, not tool training.
You leave with: a view you’d stand behind, and the first decisions.
Coaching for leaders
One-to-one coaching for the leaders running the change, and the people growing into bigger jobs because of it.
A large European e-commerce marketplace taught its product managers Amazon’s PR/FAQ. At least four of the eight product ideas they wrote up went on to launch.
A European insurer’s innovation coordinator rebuilt a product idea around customers with Amazon’s PR/FAQ. It launched 18 months later, and he’s since been promoted to head of innovation.
A European telecoms operator brought Amazon’s Working Backwards to the teams who design and sell its products, with a two-day workshop and a talk for about 300 staff.
Results
Leaders in bigger organisations got their teams deciding in writing, agreed one strategy, and turned new ways of working into how the work gets done.
“
The conference was one of the best, if not in fact the best conference I have attended… we actually produced something during the two days… And we achieve what we in the Leadership Team had set up as a goal, to get the mindset on the team to work together at "row" in the same direction going forward!
Håkan Johansson
Lead Business Developer
Tietoevry
“
Richard skips the buzzwords, and helps you see things from an angle you hadn’t considered... A conversation with him always leaves you with clarity you didn’t have an hour earlier.
Alberto Grazi
Engineering Leader
What people in the room said
I liked the idea of involving people in building rather than just selling at the end.
Participant
Makes you think strategically… too often we develop without feedback and realise the customer doesn't need it when it's in production.
Sales team member
I think the OKRs have really helped us this year as a forcing function not to get lost in lots of like busy work…
Managing director
Really liked the real examples and not too much theory.
Team leader
Thank you for the engaging session you facilitated today. I appreciate your flexibility and the way you worked with the group exactly where their needs were. It was exactly what I was hoping for.
Executive development lead
Coaching
Coaching for leaders
The change is on you, and so is everything that comes with it: a bigger remit, people looking to you for answers you don’t have yet, and a business that still rewards the old way. Coaching gives you somewhere to think it through with someone who’s sat in that room.
What leaders bring:
A bigger job, in the middle of the change.
You’ve taken on more, and the ground is moving under it.
All eyes on you.
Confident in the room, less sure at 11pm.
Five leaders, five answers.
Getting your peers and your own team behind one plan.
The old way still pays.
Changing what gets rewarded, without losing the people who were good at the old game.
Your own people, tired of change.
Helping them through what it means for their jobs.
The board, the group, the stakeholders.
Making the case upwards, and holding a line.
What it looks like when it works:
You go into the hard meeting knowing what you think, and you say it.
Your peers are behind one plan, and you didn’t have to win every argument to get there.
Your team takes on more, so your time goes where the change needs you.
The bigger job starts to feel like yours.
“
The conversation I had with Richard got me to an insight I definitely wouldn’t have reached on my own. It’s going to shape how I show up and the impact I make as I step into this new role... I recommend him extremely highly.
Bella Bardswell
Senior Director
Sage
How it works:
1
We talk
A free 20-minute Clarity Call, then a free Strategy Session, where we go through what you’re responsible for, what isn’t working and what you want to be different, and you leave with a plan.
2
We agree the goals
A few written lines, so you, and your sponsor if there is one, know what good looks like.
3
Then we work
Sessions every week or two, over a few months, on the real decisions in front of you. Individual and confidential. If your sponsor wants to stay closer, we add short three-way check-ins, where you tell them how it’s going.
Coaching often runs alongside a workshop for your leadership team, so the change and the people leading it move together.
Neurodiversity: every brain works differently, so I shape the work around how you think best. You don’t need a diagnosis, or to tell me anything.
A global head of department with ADHD swapped burnout and self-criticism for leading from her strengths, and has moved from telling her team what to do to coaching them.
Who I help
You run a business inside a bigger one: a unit, a subsidiary, a product line with a P&L. AI is changing what your customers will pay for, and it’s on you to decide what to do about it.
That might mean:
leading an AI or digital transformation
moving from projects to products
becoming more customer-centred
changing an operating model or organisational structure
taking on a broader leadership role while the business itself is changing
You might be a business-unit leader, CEO, CPO, CTO, COO or transformation leader.
The title matters less than the responsibility: making this change happen is on you.
How I work
Find out which one it is.
We start with what needs to change, what’s happening now and what’s getting in the way. Then the work follows the problem:
No clear view on AI: strategy work with you and your leadership team, until you have a view you’d bet on.
Five leaders, five answers: a facilitated session that ends with one plan, written down, that everyone can explain.
Pilots that don’t change anything: clear owners, decisions on what to scale or stop, and changing what still gets rewarded.
Change fatigue: deciding what to stop, helping people through what the change means for their jobs, and building their capacity for the next change.
All eyes on you: 1:1 coaching, with someone who’s been in that room and will tell you what he sees.
Something else: we work out what’s in the way and design the work around it.
Most leaders have more than one. My job is to help you work out which matters most, then turn that into something people do differently.
I've been there
I spent six years at Google, then two at Amazon, where I led a 100-person organisation with over $1B in revenue impact. Since then I’ve worked with leaders running transformations, from the Fortune 500 to ten-year-old startups.
I know what it’s like to make difficult decisions with incomplete information, lead people smarter than me, and sit in the room where everyone expects you to know what the big change means for the business.
I’ve also been CPO at a listed company, and worked as an operator, executive and consultant. Transformation needs more than good leadership: strategy, incentives, structures, skills and politics all matter.
Today I bring that experience into my work as an ICF-accredited professional coach.
Know someone this would help?
Here’s a line you can paste:
Richard helps leaders in large organisations set the direction for a big change, get their people behind it, and make it happen.
Here's the page: https://richardrussell.co/transformation
Next steps
1
Book a call
A 20-minute Clarity Call. Free, confidential, no preparation needed.
2
Then a Strategy Session
Free, with the right people on the call. We go through what you’re responsible for, what isn’t working and where the problem really sits, and you leave with a plan.
3
A clear proposal
Shaped around the change you need to make: 1:1 coaching, facilitation or training. A clear scope and price, so you can say yes or no.
Frequently asked questions
What if I'm not leading an AI transformation?
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Do you work with individuals or teams?
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Is this consulting or coaching?
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Do you help with AI strategy?
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Will you train us on AI?
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Will you help with our technical implementation?
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Will you tell us which AI models or tooling to use?
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Can I pay for coaching myself?
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Not quite what you’re looking for?
Your own company is outgrowing how you run it?
Wondering whether this is still the work you want?