Working with Creatively Commercial
Hands-on.
Not theoretical.
Creatively Commercial engagements are hands-on, structured, and time-bounded. We implement the AIOS operating model with your leadership team — not for them.
Every engagement begins with a diagnostic phase. We assess your current commercial operating tier, identify the critical gaps, and define the implementation sequence. The engagement then follows that sequence — component by component, in the right order.
The Engagement Structure
What the engagement covers.
Diagnostic
- Full commercial operating assessment
- Current tier confirmed, gap analysis documented
- Implementation sequence and timeline agreed
Implementation
- Financial foundation established or formalised
- Booking standard introduced and trained
- Margin truth view built and live
- Revenue recognition rules defined
- Decision cadence launched
- Commercial Operations Lead role defined and resourced
Handover & Platform Onboarding
- Leadership team trained on the AIOS platform
- Data layer migrated or connected
- First solo decision cadence facilitated by the client team
- Creatively Commercial steps back. The framework runs independently.
Timeline varies by tier and agency complexity. Foundation tier engagements typically run 8–10 weeks. Full AIOS engagements typically run 14–18 weeks.
Fit Assessment
Who this is for.
Right-fit signals
- A founder or MD-led agency, whatever the size or discipline
- Growing revenue but margin feels unpredictable
- MD or founder is absorbing commercial operations alongside everything else
- Leadership team makes decisions but lacks the data to make them confidently
- A significant client event (loss, win, restructure) has created urgency
Not the right fit
- Agencies that want to outsource their commercial thinking entirely without building internal capability
- Agencies not ready to commit leadership time to a structured implementation process
- Agencies expecting results without any change to how they work or track performance
- Agencies without leadership buy-in for a structured commercial engagement
Clarity
What it is not.
It's not a training programme
We implement alongside you, not in a classroom.
It's not a software implementation
The platform supports the operating model; it does not replace it.
It's not automatically ongoing retained consultancy
The core engagement is designed to leave your team operating independently. That said, for agencies that want continued commercial support, we offer a fractional basis arrangement where Creatively Commercial stays involved at a defined cadence post-implementation.
It's not a strategy review
AIOS is operational, not strategic. We don't tell you which markets to enter. We make sure you can afford to enter them.
The Team
Who you're working with.
Creatively Commercial is led by a principal with 26 years of agency-side operating experience. Engagements draw on a network of senior advisors — former agency CFOs, CEOs, and COOs — each with 15 or more years of experience inside creative and marketing services businesses.
These are not consultants who have studied agencies. They are operators who ran them. Their experience spans independent firms, network agencies, and multi-market operations across the UK, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
You have a single accountable principal relationship throughout — one person who knows your business and owns the engagement. Specific phases draw on the right advisor for the domain. The advisory network is not a staffing model — it ensures the thinking behind every engagement is stress-tested by people who have seen the same problems from the inside.
Disciplines
Agency CFOs, CEOs & COOs
Geographies
UK, Europe & Southeast Asia
Experience
15+ years inside agencies
About the Principal
Most creative agencies are built by people who are exceptionally good at the work. The commercial layer underneath — how margin is actually made, where risk accumulates, what the P&L is really telling you — often gets built late, or not at all.
That gap shows up quietly at first. Utilisation that doesn't reflect real capacity. Margins that look healthy until they don't. Revenue growing but somehow not landing anywhere visible. Leaders making resourcing calls on instinct because the data they need isn't there in a form they can use.
Twenty-six years inside agencies — Group MD and GM roles across network and independent firms in the UK, Europe, and Southeast Asia — most of it spent at the point where ambition outpaces operating models. What that experience produces is direct: the commercial infrastructure should have been there earlier. That's what we build.
If this sounds like the right fit, the first step is a conversation — not a proposal.
We'll spend 45 minutes understanding your current commercial position and whether an AIOS engagement makes sense. No deck. No hard sell. Just a direct conversation about where your agency is and what it would take to get it to where it should be.