Selling in or into the EU
For firms based in the EU, or winning customers there. The practice is run from inside the EU, so EU rules and EU buyers are home ground.
Performance, Built on Compliance and Quality
For leaders and managers in the EU, the UK and the UAE
Most owners who ring us want one thing before anything else: more sales. So that is where we start. We look at who you sell to and how, at what your sales people do with their week, at the way the department runs when the manager is on holiday, and at the compliance and quality behind each deal, because a sale that comes back as a refund in March was never really a sale. A lot of our clients are chasing buyers in the EU, the UK or the UAE who want to see how a supplier works before they sign anything. Plenty of others just want to be clearly better than the firm down the road. Stefan leads every engagement, and a small team of qualified people does the work with him.
The first 30 minutes are free, by video call. You tell us where things stand, and we tell you honestly whether the paid diagnostic is worth doing.
“We have seen a real improvement in efficiency and communication. The answers are reliable and competent.”
Advisor, a government ministry, 2023 · Stefan leads every engagement · More references
Everything we offer ends up in the same place: a sales team that sells more, and a business that holds on to what it sold. If sales is the number you want to move, start here.
How we work on sales → Offer 1We map the rules that apply to you, put the controls in, and make sure the evidence is there when someone asks. We work to ISO 37301 for compliance and ISO 31000 for risk.
How it works → Offer 2We build a quality system around how your people already work, then get it ready for an ISO 9001 audit if you want the certificate.
How it works → Offer 3For firms with nobody running operations. We come in one to eight days a month, and compliance and quality get checked as part of the job.
What the role covers → Offer 4Somebody in your firm is about to let a piece of software email customers in your name. Before it does, we write the three things it will need: a job description, an owner and a file.
How it works →The site covers advisory work, two writing series and Stefan’s own record, which is a lot to take in on a first visit. These four doors cover most of the people who land here.
Something else? See every starting point →
New: AI agents, governed. Somebody in your firm is about to let a piece of software email customers in your name. Before it does, we write the three things it will need: a job description, an owner and a file. How we do it, and why a digital worker needs a compliance manager. For the AI that helps a person do a job, see AI in operations.
Our own method
Every diagnostic and every engagement we run follows the 8X Method. We built it from our own work with owners, directors and managers, and we have sharpened it client by client.
How the method works →What all our work is for
Leaders and managers who decide faster and on better information. You see it in margin, cash, complaints and the time work takes.
Each rule that applies to you has an owner, and the proof is on file, so managers are not firefighting.
The work is done the same way each time and checked, so managers can trust the figures they get.
Free tools
We built these for founders who want a straight answer on their own. They are free and need no sign-up, and the health check runs in your browser, so your answers stay with you.
New: free sales tools
Twelve questions, a score out of 24 and the area we would look at first.
Open →02See how many selling hours a year you would win back.
Open →03See what share of last year’s sales never stayed in the business.
Open →04Check whether your open deals can get you to this period’s target.
Open →Our clients are businesses in the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, and businesses that want to sell into those markets. Large customers, public buyers and regulators in all three expect suppliers to show how they manage compliance and quality. The standards we work to, ISO 9001, ISO 37301 and ISO 31000, are international, so one well-run system answers those questions wherever you sell.
For firms based in the EU, or winning customers there. The practice is run from inside the EU, so EU rules and EU buyers are home ground.
For UK firms, and for firms that want UK customers. The same systems, built with UK law and UK buyers in mind.
For businesses in the UAE, and for firms selling there. Compliance and quality systems that give customers and partners the proof they ask for.
Ahead of the local competition
In many local markets, few firms have anyone looking after compliance and quality properly.
When you can show a buyer your records in minutes, and your work comes out right the first time, you stand out against competitors who cannot. Where national law needs a specialist view, in an EU member state, the UK or the UAE, we work alongside a local adviser. None of this is legal advice.
Credentials
Jobs from our own record, sales first. Client names are left out, and every figure is the one the client reported to us.
Sales · Importer
About 40× turnover
An importer grew its turnover about fortyfold in three years.
Sales · Professional services
+50% sales a year
Professional services companies we worked with put on around half again in sales, year after year.
Sales · Estate agency
6 to 20+ properties a year
An estate agency was selling six properties a year. It now sells more than twenty.
Quality
80% fewer returns
A distributor of industrial components had slow processes, and its departments barely spoke to each other. We rebuilt the work around a single workflow, from order to invoice, with one set of records everyone used. Six months later returns were down 80%, and the cash flow had settled.
Working to a standard
A 12-month qualification, passed
A global semiconductor manufacturer needed a moisture-controlled bag qualified for sensitive components. We delivered it on a documented control process, and it passed after a twelve-month testing cycle.
Governance and funding
Cases built for due diligence
For a property developer we built a five-year cash flow model to raise bank and investor funding. For an installations firm we ran a government investment incentive claim from start to finish, and the claim was secured.
How did they get there? The same way each time. First the diagnostic. Out of that came a sales strategy, written down. Then new technology, where the old way was costing sales, and new people, hired because the strategy said that was the job to fill. After that, a meeting every week with the new hires to see how they and the new tools were getting on, small changes, and the same again the following week, until sales were where the owner wanted them.
Compliance and quality work is often bought as insurance. We look at it differently. If the work is done properly, you should see it in three places.
We spend time with the people doing the job, watch how they do it, and write that down. Then we strip out the steps where things go wrong. Less rework. Fewer complaints. Fewer jobs out late. Your staff get back the hours they spent fixing last week's work.
A redone job, a refund, a credit note, a late fee, a fine, a customer who quietly goes elsewhere. None of these has its own line in the accounts. The American Society for Quality calls much of this the cost of poor quality. We go through the year's numbers with you, put a rough figure on it, and start with the biggest item.
A buyer's lawyers or a bank's credit team usually ask to see licences, contracts, the complaints log, the incident log, and how the firm runs when the owner is away. Every gap turns into another question. Some turn into a lower offer. We would rather you found those gaps now than in a data room. The sale, the valuation and the loan are for your lawyer and accountant. We get the records in order.
The research. Two studies worth reading. Levine and Toffel, 2010 (free 2008 report): Californian firms with ISO 9001 against matched firms without it. The ISO firms were likelier to survive, and their sales, jobs and payroll grew faster. Ponemon Institute, 2017: 53 multinationals, mostly on data protection. On average, non-compliance cost them about 2.71 times what compliance did. Neither is a promise for your firm. What we will do is go through your figures with you and show you where we think the money is leaking.
We run each engagement in the same order, and you are free to stop after any stage. If the Performance, Compliance and Quality Diagnostic shows that you need nothing more, we will tell you so.
Before any fee: a free 30-minute call. We talk by video call for 30 minutes, at no charge. You tell us what worries you, and we tell you whether a diagnostic is worth doing. If it is not, we say so, and that is the end of it. Book it here.
Start with the Performance, Compliance and Quality Diagnostic if you are not sure. Half the point of it is to find out whether you need a project in the first place. If you sign a Build project within 60 days of the findings call, we credit the Performance, Compliance and Quality Diagnostic fee in full against the project fee. For the detail, go to the compliance management page or the quality assurance page.
Fractional COO
In some firms the owner does the operations job at night, after everything else. The fractional COO role is for that firm. It is one to eight days a month, part on site and part off site. On those days we chair the monthly review and go through the processes and the registers with the people who own them. We look at suppliers and at staff sign-offs. You get one report from us every month. Nobody from the practice is appointed as a director, and we do not take a role that needs a regulator's approval.
Fractional COO Packages and pricesWe design and run compliance, risk and quality systems to internationally recognised ISO standards. Alignment is a design principle, not a badge: the structure and intent of the standard shapes the system, sized to how your organisation actually works, and built so it holds up when someone checks.
Compliance
ISO 37301
Compliance management systems
The backbone of how we build a compliance framework: governance, obligations, controls and evidence that stand up under scrutiny.
Risk
ISO 31000
Risk management
Risk assessed and managed as a discipline, so the register drives real decisions instead of sitting in a drawer.
Quality
ISO 9001
Quality management systems
Quality systems that keep the work consistent, documented and audit-ready, day to day.
Anti-bribery
ISO 37001
Anti-bribery management systems
Controls proportionate to your exposure, from third-party due diligence to gifts and hospitality.
The practice
Stefan leads every engagement, and our team does the work with him. You deal with Stefan from the first call until the work is signed off, and he reviews what the team delivers before it reaches you. Each member of our team holds at least a degree and has experience in or close to quality, curriculum development or accreditation. He checks the certificates and the experience himself before anyone works on a client engagement. Before the work starts, we tell you who will be working on it and what each person will do.
The practice is run from inside the EU, and Stefan is in the United Kingdom regularly. It takes work in the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. Stefan owns other businesses. Before we accept an engagement we check it for a conflict of interest with any of them. You can read how an engagement is run, and what happens to your information, on the Trust page. My own record is on the About page and the CV.
These are short pieces taken from two of Stefan’s books. Each picks one compliance or quality model and tells it through a real company. Each ends on a question you could ask at your own management meeting this week.
Key Compliance Models
Three teams were watching the risk. All three had gone slack at the same time. That is the HSBC story in one line.
Key Quality Models
Most people change how they work and never check if it helped. They just move on. Next month, the same problem is back.
Key Compliance Models
UBS did not lack a process on paper. A process that is not lived is not a control. It is a document.
It does two things. On the compliance side we build frameworks to ISO 37301 and risk management to ISO 31000. For firms in regulated sectors we also build training and competence frameworks, and we get an organisation ready for whichever duties apply to it. On the quality side it is ISO 9001 systems: processes, document control, internal audit and getting ready for certification. We work with businesses, public bodies and NGOs. All of it is advice given to one organisation at a time, and the documents are written for that organisation. There is also a part-time role, the fractional COO, in which we apply both inside one firm's operation.
In three ways. It goes after the cost of work done twice, refunds, late fees and fines, most of which never shows up as its own line in the accounts. It lets managers decide more without going to the owner. And when a buyer, a bank or a large customer asks for your records, you have them, so there is less for them to pick at. We cannot promise a figure. We can show you where we think the money is going and start with the biggest item.
Stefan Gauci Scicluna leads every engagement, and you deal with him from start to finish. Our team does much of the work with him, and we tell you who is working on yours before it starts.
No, and no adviser can. An ISO certificate comes from an accredited certification body. Our part is to build the system with you and prepare you for the day. The decision is theirs, and we will not promise you an outcome.
For compliance or quality work, we recommend starting with the Performance, Compliance and Quality Diagnostic. It takes two or three days of our time, costs a fixed €2,250 excluding VAT, and leaves you with scored findings and a 90-day plan. If you want a fractional COO, you start with the Operations Diagnostic instead: one day or four days, at the fixed fees on the packages page, credited in full against your first package if you sign up within 60 days. If you already know what you need, skip both and use the contact page. We will want to know who you are, what is putting you under pressure and when it has to be done. You will usually hear back within a couple of working days.
The EU, the UK and the UAE. The practice is run from inside the EU. We work from the law of the place you trade in, and Scotland does some things differently from England. Our own ground is United Kingdom and European Union rules. For UAE law, or the national law of another EU member state, we work alongside a local adviser.
Start a conversation
Tell us what you want done and by when. You will get a plain yes or no on whether we are the right team for it, and if we are, how we would go about it.