Description

A focused course, tailored for you

Consultancy Delivery Director's Portfolio Defence Playbook

How a delivery director protects a specific portfolio when a strategy-tech consultancy runs its first-ever layoffs.

A strategy-tech consultancy ran its first-ever layoffs. Delivery directors carry the portfolio. Either the portfolio is framed as defensible, or it gets re-allocated.

$199 one-time

Tailored to your situation. Access within 24 hours. 30-day money-back.

Includes a hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access, generated for your specific situation.

Why this course

A strategy-tech consultancy with a long-standing claim of never having done layoffs ran its first round. The narrative shift is permanent. The operating-model review that produced the first round produces the second one twelve to eighteen months later.

Delivery directors carry the specific portfolios. The portfolio is read in the workforce-mix review as either a defensible book of sold work or a collection of engagements that can be re-allocated to other directors. The directors who survive the second cycle are the ones whose portfolios were framed as defensible before the second review arrives.

What decides defensibility is the same across consultancy operating-model reviews: a portfolio narrative that reads as one book of sold work with a margin and renewal profile finance protects, a capture pipeline the firm's BD leadership quotes, and a weekly portfolio-state artefact the practice principal forwards. The directors with all three keep the portfolio. The directors without get the work re-allocated.

This playbook is the portfolio narrative, the capture pipeline, the weekly artefact, and the 90-day move to defensible-portfolio framing.

What you walk away with

A portfolio narrative for your current engagements that reads as one defensible book of sold work.
A capture pipeline brief the firm's BD leadership will adopt.
A weekly portfolio-state artefact the practice principal will forward.
A scope statement that distinguishes director from senior-engagement-manager work defensibly.
A defensible answer when the next operating-model review asks why your portfolio cannot be re-allocated.
A migration plan from 'delivery director' to 'specific portfolio owner the firm protects'.

The 12 modules

Module 1. Reading the first-cycle layoff for what it announces about the second

First-ever layoffs at a consultancy with a never-laid-off history change the firm's narrative permanently. Second cycle arrives within 12 to 18 months. The diagnostic for the director layer specifically.

Module 2. Portfolio as book vs portfolio as collection

Two different framings of director portfolios. Book of sold work the firm finance protects, vs collection of engagements that can be re-allocated. The structural difference. The artefact each requires.

Module 3. Your portfolio narrative

Frame your current engagements as one book. The margin profile, the renewal rate, the expansion pipeline, the cross-engagement leverage. The narrative document the practice principal adopts.

Module 4. Capture pipeline brief

Capture pipeline is the BD-facing pre-sale work. The brief that documents pipeline value, conversion probability, and your role in capture. The artefact BD leadership adopts.

Module 5. Weekly portfolio-state artefact for the practice principal

Format, cadence, content of the weekly portfolio-state artefact the practice principal forwards. Three worked examples calibrated for strategy-tech consulting portfolios.

Module 6. Scope statement: director vs senior engagement manager

The scope statement that puts you in the director seat defensibly. The language. The framing. The conversation with your principal.

Module 7. Working with finance and FP&A on portfolio defensibility

Finance reads portfolios through margin, utilisation, and renewal. The artefacts finance adopts. The conversations that put your portfolio in the protected column.

Module 8. Cross-portfolio leverage and reusable IP

Directors who survive operating-model reviews have cross-portfolio leverage: reusable IP, methodology you've authored, sellable patterns. The pattern with your bylines that strengthen the portfolio defensibility story.

Module 9. Client-relationship retention through firm narrative change

Clients notice firm narrative changes (first-ever layoffs). The conversations that retain client confidence. The artefacts that demonstrate continuity of leadership through the cycle.

Module 10. Promotion mechanics: director to senior director or principal

Internal path from delivery director to senior director or principal. The promotion artefact. The two reviewers who matter.

Module 11. External market for tier-one consultancy delivery leadership

External market for proven delivery directors. The CV moves, the LinkedIn moves, the interview prep specific to the consultancy-leadership transition. Useful regardless.

Module 12. Your 90-day move to defensible-portfolio framing

Day-by-day plan. Portfolio narrative v1 in week one. Capture pipeline brief in week two. Weekly artefact running in week three. Finance conversation in month two. Defensibility conversation in month three.

How this addresses your situation

Specific modules that map to what you said you are dealing with.

Modules 1 and 2 cover the diagnostic for a delivery director at a consultancy in or facing a second operating-model cycle.

Modules 3 to 5 produce the three artefacts (portfolio narrative, capture pipeline, weekly artefact) every defensible-portfolio director has.

Modules 6 to 9 cover the scope, finance partnership, cross-portfolio leverage, and client-relationship continuity.

Modules 10 to 12 cover the promotion mechanics, external market, and 90-day execution.

What you get with this course

The 12-module course delivered as text plus downloadable templates.
Templates for the portfolio narrative, the capture pipeline brief, and the weekly portfolio-state artefact.
A hand-built implementation playbook generated for your specific portfolio (delivery director at a strategy-tech consultancy in a first or second operating-model cycle).
Three worked examples of the weekly portfolio-state artefact (calibrated for different consultancy portfolio types).
Scripted talking points for the finance conversation and the specific portfolio-owner conversation with your principal.

What you will have in hand by Day 1, Week 1, Month 1

Day 1: Portfolio narrative draft 1; capture pipeline brief target chosen.

Week 1: Portfolio narrative v1 reviewed by one peer director; capture pipeline brief v1 drafted.

Month 1: Weekly portfolio-state artefact landing with practice principal; finance conversation completed; defensibility conversation scheduled.

Before and after

Before

You run a portfolio of engagements. They are on track individually. The first-ever layoff round happened. Your principal has not said anything specific about your portfolio. Finance has not engaged your portfolio specifically. The second operating-model review is somewhere on the calendar.

After

Your portfolio is framed as one book the firm finance protects. The capture pipeline brief is in BD leadership's hand. The practice principal forwards your weekly artefact. The next operating-model review names your portfolio as defensible. The senior-director conversation is scheduled.

What happens if you do not address this

Consultancy operating-model reviews that produce first-ever layoffs produce second-cycle layoffs within 12 to 18 months. Directors whose portfolios were not framed as defensible find the portfolios re-allocated. Once re-allocated, the director seat is read as redundant. The window to frame it defensibly is the months before the second review arrives.

Who it is for

For Delivery Directors, Engagement Directors, and senior client partners at strategy-and-tech consultancies running first or second cycles of operating-model review.

Who this is NOT for. Engagement Managers below director level (the portfolio framing does not yet apply). Directors at firms with no active operating-model review. Directors at the Big4 (the operating model is materially different).

How it arrives

Text-based course via LMS, plus downloadable templates and the hand-built implementation playbook.

Time investment. Roughly 12 hours of reading and 12 to 16 hours producing your real artefacts against your live portfolio. Most directors finish the portfolio narrative in week one.

Why $199 is the right number

Internal director training inside consultancies is general (Harvard Business Review again). External consulting communities cover practice not the defensibility move during an operating-model cycle. A senior principal mentor would cover maybe four of these 12 modules informally. $199 buys the focused playbook plus the implementation document for your live portfolio.

FAQ

Will my principal actually forward the weekly portfolio-state artefact?

Module 5 is built so the artefact lands as a time-saver in the principal's existing reporting cadence. Three worked examples included.

What if my portfolio has only two engagements?

Module 3 covers that case. Even a two-engagement portfolio can be framed as a defensible book if the margin and renewal profile is strong. Worked example included.

Why pay for this instead of reading free consulting-career content?

Free content covers framing in general. This covers the specific defensibility move at director level during a consultancy first or second operating-model cycle. Different artefacts, populated for your live portfolio.

What if finance has not yet engaged my portfolio?

Module 7 covers that case. Director-led finance engagement is the move that lands the portfolio in the protected column. Scripted conversation included.

What is in the implementation playbook for me specifically?

A populated portfolio narrative against your current engagements; a draft capture pipeline brief against your real pipeline; a 90-day visibility plan with scripted conversations against your principal and the finance partner for your portfolio.

30-day money-back guarantee. If after a week of working through the materials this is not what you needed, reply to the receipt email and a full refund is processed. No questions, no forms.

Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned and the tailored implementation playbook is delivered alongside it.