Independent strategy practice

Strategy work carried through to implementation.

Schrage Consulting works with owner-managed businesses, mid-sized companies and corporate teams on growth, cost structure, value creation and commercial due diligence — from the analysis that settles a decision to the measures that deliver it.

Credentials
McKinsey & Company / London Business School

Strategy experience and analytical training behind the practice.

About the practice

The same standard of work, without the apparatus around it.

Work of the standard produced by the large strategy firms is rarely inaccessible because of the analysis itself. It is inaccessible because of what surrounds it — the staffing structures, the layers of review, the engagement lengths that only large budgets can absorb.

Schrage Consulting is built to remove that. Clients get the engine rather than the apparatus: direct access to the work as it is being done, at a scale set by the decision rather than by the firm delivering it.

Most companies do not need a six-month programme. They need one question answered properly — quickly enough to act on, and thoroughly enough to defend.

Analysis is only worth what it changes. Questions are sized, benchmarked and modelled until the decision is clear — and the work then continues into the measures themselves, sequenced and owned, adjusted as results come in.

That is the part most advice never reaches, and the part where the value actually appears.

Capabilities

Four areas of work

Functional rather than sector-specific. Scope is defined case by case against the decision in front of management.

01

Growth and Commercial Strategy

Market sizing, customer segmentation and competitive position; go-to-market design across channels and geographies; portfolio priorities set out as a sequenced plan rather than a list of options.

02

Cost Structure and Benchmarking

Cost base broken down by function and activity, then benchmarked against comparable companies to quantify the gap and locate it — overhead, procurement, footprint and make-or-buy.

03

Commercial Due Diligence

Market, customer and competitive assessment behind a target or partner, with financial modelling and a view on where value would realistically come from — and what would have to be true for it to.

04

Partnerships and Post-Deal Support

Assessment and structuring of strategic partnerships, governance design, integration planning, and support to management through the execution period when most value is won or lost.

Value creation

Levers named, sized and brought to ground

Most value creation plans fail on specificity: levers are listed but never quantified, so nothing is prioritised and little is implemented. Each lever here is sized against the business's own numbers, ordered by impact and by what the organisation can absorb, and translated into measures with owners and timing.

Revenue levers

  • Pricing structure, discount governance and realised-price analysis
  • Product and customer mix
  • Segment prioritisation and share of wallet
  • Channel design and route to market
  • Retention, churn and win-back economics

Cost levers

  • Cost structure analysis by function and activity
  • Benchmarking against comparable companies
  • Overhead and administrative cost review
  • Procurement and supplier spend
  • Make-or-buy, footprint and capacity

Structural levers

  • Portfolio priorities, including divestment options
  • Operating model and organisational design
  • Partnership and outsourcing alternatives
  • Asset-light delivery models
  • Business plan and financial model rebuild

From there it becomes a delivery plan: each measure with an owner, a start date, an expected effect and a way of telling whether it is working — tracked until the value is visible in the company's own reporting, not only in the plan.

Where we help

Situations that typically bring us in

"Growth has flattened and the reason isn't obvious."
We separate the possible causes rather than assuming one: demand shifting to different needs, a competitor changing the terms of the market, or an offer that no longer matches what customers now buy. Each calls for a different response, and we size where growth realistically remains by segment and channel.
"Customer expectations and competition are moving faster than we are."
We establish how demand is actually shifting in the segments that matter and what competitors have already changed, then set out what the offer, channels and pricing need to become — and in what order, given what the business can carry.
"Costs feel high, but nobody can say by how much."
We build a cost structure view by function and activity and benchmark it against comparable companies, so the gap is quantified rather than suspected. We then separate what is realistically addressable from what is structural, and put the addressable part into a plan.
"Margins are drifting and pricing has become inconsistent."
We examine realised prices, discount practice and mix across customers and products, quantify what recovery is achievable, and set out the pricing rules and governance needed to hold it once recovered.
"An acquisition or partnership is on the table and there's no capacity to assess it properly."
We assess the market, customers and competitive position behind it, build the model, and set out where value would come from — including the assumptions the case depends on, the conditions under which it fails, and what integration would actually require.
How we work

Built around your decision, not a standard package

Scoped to the question

Each engagement starts from the specific decision in front of management. Scope, timeline and deliverable are agreed before work begins, and the work stays inside them.

Analysis built to be examined

Market sizing, cost benchmarks and financial models are built to withstand scrutiny — from a board, a lender or a counterparty — rather than frameworks applied from the outside.

Alongside you in delivery

Where it helps, the work continues past the recommendation: measures sequenced with owners and expected effect, and support to the team while they are carried out.

Contact

Enquiries

Address
Blk20 Lot 4, Hibok Hibok
Amsic
City of Angeles
Pampanga 2009, Philippines

A short description of the situation is enough to begin — what decision is in front of you, and by when it has to be made. Initial conversations are normally arranged within a few days, and are without obligation.

The practice works with clients internationally. Engagements are delivered remotely, with time on site where the work requires it.