The world moves in days, not months. It's time to demand the same speed from your strategic advisors.
The Pace Paradox: The New Imperative for Speed
The modern business world is defined by constant volatility and the swift pace of change. Market shifts, customer behavior changes, and competitive threats emerge in days, not quarters. Yet, when facing critical commercial issues with long-term implications, many organisations still fall into the trap of the "traditional" consulting model: a long, drawn-out diagnostic phase that takes weeks, if not months, to deliver a verdict.
This creates a "Pace Paradox." By the time the final report lands on the CEO's desk, the data is stale, the opportunity is gone, or the crisis has deepened.
This need for speed is not just our opinion; it's a market imperative, supported by extensive research:
Gartner consistently highlight that a significant majority of CEOs believe agility is the primary new currency of business success. Critically, many leaders feel their current advisory partners are not keeping pace with this requirement.
Wall Street Journal, in the past 12 months, has frequently illustrated the significant financial and market share loss associated with companies that fail to adapt quickly to disruption, showcasing the high cost of slow decision-making and inaction.
Harvard Business Review 2023 article ‘What Fast-Moving Companies Do Differently’ noted, the "need for speed" is paramount because the value of information and insight depreciates rapidly in a fast-moving market.
At PACH Solutions, we believe the traditional slow-moving and drawn out diagnostic approach is obsolete. Over 17 years we have developed and refined a radical, 5-day commercial diagnostic model designed for the speed of today's market. It’s not a superficial look; it’s a lean, incisive, and senior-led approach that delivers a board-ready strategy in one business week for high-impact issues such as:
When your commercial strategy and market reality have clearly drifted apart.
When your customer relationships have become purely transactional and you’ve lost your strategic edge.
When your teams are busy, but you have no clear data on what "good" productivity looks like.
When a significant budget is spent on promotions that have become a habit rather than a strategic choice.
The Problem with "Project Diagnostics"
Traditional diagnostics are often a necessary evil, but they come with significant baggage:
Data Overload and Analysis Paralysis: Weeks are spent gathering every data point imaginable, often leading to a report that identifies symptoms without isolating the core, actionable triggers.
Junior Staffing: Clients often pay for partner-level expertise but receive junior-level execution, with senior staff only appearing for key meetings, a common pain point in the industry.
Loss of Momentum: A long study can kill internal momentum and create a sense of drift, making implementation a greater challenge once the recommendations finally arrive.
Speed with Substance: Real-World Commercial Clarity in 5 Days
Our Monday-to-Friday model provides the immediate clarity that clients in volatile markets require. It’s a rigorous approach designed to cut through the noise and expose the critical "triggers-for-change." We provide a verdict, not just a report.
Here are a few examples of how our partners have applied this rapid, focused approach to drive immediate results:
Client A - The Strategy That Time Forgot
🗒️ Context: A mutlinational beverages company with a sales team operating as if it were 2015, despite radical shifts in shopper behavior post-COVID.
🔍What We Found: Sales teams chased case volumes while customers wanted joint planning. Head Office assumed the old model worked until profitability fell 15%.
🎯 Trigger for Change: Strategy and market reality had drifted apart.
🕒 Why It Needed a 5-Day Diagnostic: The issue wasn’t lack of data, but outdated commercial practice. In a single week of field immersion and interviews, we mapped exactly where the go-to-market model no longer fit how customers buy today.
Client B - When Functions Stop Talking
🗒️ Context: A global food group where Sales, Marketing, RGM, and Finance each had their own agenda. New product launches were brilliant on paper, chaotic in execution.
🔍 What We Found: Conflicting KPIs, competing priorities, and zero shared accountability for outcomes.
🎯 Trigger for Change: Misalignment between commercial functions.
🕒 Why It Needed a 5-Day Diagnostic: It didn’t require months of process mapping—just structured interviews and a few key meeting observations to pinpoint where decisions and ownership broke down. The insight was delivered in five days.
Client C - The Competitor Consolidation Response
🗒️Context: Surprise consolidation of the two largest competitors demanded a rapid commercial response from this European bakery company.
🔍 What We Observed: Four major markets operated with differing models and uneven capability; no clear design for the new competitive reality.
🎯Trigger for Change: Commercial organisation not equipped for a more concentrated market.
🕒 Why It Needed a 5-Day Diagnostic: Speed was critical. In four weeks PACH completed four in-country observations, field visits and interviews, producing a board-ready set of recommendations and securing approval before competitor integration was complete.
The 'Monday-to-Friday' Model: A Blend of Four Ingredients
Our approach is different by design. It's built on a proprietary methodology that is structured, rigorous, and rapid, blending four key ingredients:
Real Business Experience: Every consultant at PACH Solutions has held senior roles in the environments they diagnose. They recognize the trade-offs, politics, and practicalities because they’ve lived them.
Cross-Functional Interviews: We conduct interviews that benchmark real experiences against proven commercial capability models, ensuring we get to the heart of the issue, not just the symptoms.
Pattern Recognition Over Perfection: We focus on connecting recurring themes and insights instead of getting bogged down in verifying every number. The speed of insight generation is paramount.
'Triggers-for-Change' Benchmarks: This is where our proprietary difference matters. We benchmark our observations against a rigorous set of ‘triggers-for-change’, observable characteristics identified as indicators of poor performance among leading companies that reveal weak points in sales, route-to-market, or planning rhythm.
The 'Monday-to-Friday' Execution
This unique blend of ingredients is executed through a disciplined schedule:
Monday: The Kick-Off. We meet the CEO and key stakeholders to align on the core challenge and get immediate access to the field.
Tuesday & Wednesday: The Front Line. Two senior partners, and only two senior partners, are on the ground. We observe sales personnel in action, meet with a cross-section of customers, and conduct leadership interviews. We believe the most valuable insights aren't just in a spreadsheet; they are in the unfiltered interactions between your people and your market.
Thursday: The Analysis. This is where our proprietary difference matters. We apply our 'Triggers-for-Change' benchmarks to instantly separate noise from signal and identify the root cause of the issue.
Friday: The Board Presentation. We present our findings and a clear set of actionable recommendations to the Board.
The Role of AI: A Useful Accelerator, Not a Panacea
Technology has undoubtably changed the game, and AI now shortens the analytical front-end, condensing data work at the press of a button. This allows us to move even faster and deliver insights more efficiently.
However, AI doesn’t solve commercial problems; people do. AI highlights the patterns; humans decide what they mean, interpret the nuances, and determine how to respond.
At PACH Solutions, AI supports the commercial diagnostic work, not the other way around. It accelerates analysis so we and our partners can spend more time on the part that matters most: interpreting findings in specific context, aligning stakeholders, and mobilizing teams people around the necessary changes.
Conclusion: Demand a Verdict, Not a Study
The days of the leisurely "project diagnostic" are over. In today's fast-moving world, the value of consulting lies in the speed and accuracy of the insight, not the volume of slides or the number of billable hours. As publications like McKinsey Quarterly consistently argue, a business must operate at "speed and scale" to adapt to unexpected market shocks.
If you have a critical commercial challenge with long-term implications, such as misaligned commercial functions, or trade spend that has become a habit rather than a choice, you have to ask yourself: Can you wait three months for an answer?
Contact PACH Solutions today to discuss if our 5-day commercial diagnostic is the right fit for your immediate needs…click here
By Chris Bennfors Founding Partner at PACH Solutions Ltd