Five services grouped under three capability themes — leadership, the management operating system, and commercial clarity. Engage one, or weave them together.
The five services we offer fall naturally into three themes. Most engagements draw from one pillar; deeper engagements draw from two; a small number of clients work with us across all three.
The work of leading well at every level — from the founder behind the business to the manager running a team of six. Cohort programmes, executive coaching and the leadership questions that sit underneath both.
The mechanics of running the business well: how teams are organised, how performance is held, the cadence of meetings, the standard for one-to-ones. The unglamorous work that decides how the company feels to work in.
The lighter-touch advisory work that brings the numbers and the strategy back into one view. Where pricing is leaking margin, where the marketing spend has lost discipline, where the next move actually is.
Longer-form descriptions of the five services, written for the person who needs more than a one-line summary before bringing us in.
Leadership development at Ace & Co. is delivered in cohorts of six to twelve people, run over three to six months. The cohort is the engine: managers learn alongside peers facing similar problems, the conversation is honest because the room is small enough to hold honesty, and the work between sessions is real work the cohort is already doing.
We design the curriculum after meeting the cohort, not before. The model and structure come from us — the cases, language and assessments are taken from the business itself. Sessions are in person where it matters, online where it makes sense, and shorter than most programmes — three hours rather than six — because attention costs the company money.
Most managers in British SMEs were promoted because they were good at the work they used to do. Management is a different job, and it can be taught. We run focused training in the management mechanics that quietly decide how a team performs — one-to-ones, delegation, feedback, performance conversations, hiring well, and letting people go properly when it has to happen.
Training is built as workshops, multi-session programmes, or a blend of both. We work with the actual managers who will be running the work, not with a wish list of who might be. And we hand the practice back to your business in a form your people can keep using after we leave — a one-page operating standard, a manager's playbook, the shape of a useful one-to-one.
Coaching is the most private of our services and the one most commonly bought by individual leaders rather than by HR. Engagements run for six months by default, on a twice-monthly cadence, and are contracted around something specific — a transition into a bigger role, a period of acute pressure, a habit that is starting to cost the leader more than it earns.
It is held to a standard of honesty rather than encouragement. We are not your cheerleaders. The contract is reviewed at the halfway mark, renewable in three-month blocks, and ends cleanly when the work is done. Sessions are in person in Colchester or central London where possible, otherwise on a private video line.
Commercial Clarity is the lightest-touch service we offer and often the most useful one to start with. It is a short series of working sessions for owner-managers whose business has grown faster than their picture of it — where pricing has drifted, where the margin story is no longer obvious, where the question of which lines to grow has become harder than it should be.
It is not a strategy deck. We do not arrive with slides. We arrive with questions, the right people in the room, and a way of working through the picture until the next two or three decisions become obvious. Most commercial clarity engagements are three to five sessions, run over six to ten weeks.
Marketing is the area where owner-managers most often feel like the spend has run ahead of the result. We come in as an older hand — not as an agency — and look honestly at what is working, what has quietly stopped working, and what is being paid for out of habit. We do not bid for the work that follows, which keeps the counsel cleaner than the alternative.
Engagements run as a short review followed by a working session with the founder and, where relevant, the head of marketing. The output is a small number of decisions — what to keep, what to stop, and what the next twelve months of spend should be aiming at. Where useful, we stay on a light retainer to hold the line on the decisions made.
Every service can be engaged in one of three shapes. The shape is chosen at the diagnostic, not before, and is allowed to change as the work makes itself clearer.
A small group, usually of six to twelve, moves through a structured programme together. Sessions in person where it matters, online where it makes sense, with real work between modules and shared language by the end.
Confidential coaching with one of our senior consultants. Twice-monthly cadence, six-month contract by default, reviewed at the halfway point. Most commonly used by founders, MDs and senior operators in transition or under pressure.
A standing monthly seat at the table. One working session, scheduled calls in between, and a discreet sounding board for the decisions you would otherwise carry alone. Reviewed every quarter and never auto-renewed.