You have built something real. Now make it work harder.
Reaching £1M is proof of concept. Scaling beyond it is a completely different challenge.
At this level, the problems are no longer about survival — they are about structure, leadership, data, and the decisions that get harder as the business gets bigger. We work alongside founders and senior teams to identify what is holding growth back, and fix it at the root. Not with a report. With execution.
The things that got you here are not always the things that scale.
Between £1M and £20M, the most common failure points are not in the product or the market — they are internal. Weak management structures. Poor data use. Distribution that has grown without margin discipline. Leadership that has not kept pace with company size. Teams that are busy but not aligned.
We have seen these patterns across hundreds of brands on five continents. We know how to address them — because we have held full P&L responsibility and sat inside businesses at this exact level, in London and in New York.
We are not here to validate what you already believe. We are here to show you what your numbers, your team, and your structure are actually telling you — and to build the plan that addresses it. That requires honesty. We do not soften it.
Where are the real constraints in your business?
Rate yourself honestly. Green means you are solid. Amber means it needs attention. Red means it is costing you money right now.
| Area of business | Green — Ready | Amber — Review | Red — Act now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clear wholesale growth strategy | ● | ||
| Margin discipline across all channels | ● | ||
| Export and international market plan | ● | ||
| Management structure and accountability | ● | ||
| Dashboard and data-driven decisions | ● | ||
| Retail and DTC performance optimised | ● | ||
| Open-to-buy and merchandising plan | ● | ||
| Senior team capacity and capability | ● | ||
| Leadership development and succession | ● | ||
| Pricing coherent across geographies | ● | ||
| Operational processes documented | ● | ||
| External expert or advisor in place | ● |
Mostly green — you are well-structured; focus on the next growth lever. Mostly amber — the business works but is not performing at its potential; this is the highest-value intervention zone. Mostly red — growth has outpaced the infrastructure; urgent, fixable, requires honest prioritisation.
Request your senior diagnostic review
Every lever, not just the obvious ones.
At £1M+ the interdependencies between business areas become critical. Fixing sales without fixing operations creates a delivery problem. Fixing marketing without fixing margin creates a cash problem. We look at the whole picture — and we work on the whole picture.
From strategic advisory to embedded executive.
We position ourselves wherever your business needs us most. Some clients need a rigorous strategic sounding board. Others need someone embedded in the operation, making things happen. Most eventually need both.
Board-level thinking applied to your specific challenges. We review strategy, challenge assumptions, and provide the outside perspective that internal teams cannot give themselves. Also available as Non-Executive Director.
We work at the highest operational level — shaping and supervising execution across departments, sitting in on key negotiations, reviewing proposals and contracts, and holding your team accountable to the plan. This is where the most significant results come from.
For specific projects, critical periods, or gaps in senior capacity. We step in as thinker and doer — managing a trade show, leading a market entry, restructuring a team, or covering a leadership transition.
Rigorous from the first conversation.
We send you a structured pre-work diagnostic covering strategy, commercial performance, operations, team, and leadership. Designed to surface the issues that are costing you the most — before we speak.
A focused call with Thierry Bayle. We review your diagnostic, identify the three highest-priority areas, and give you a clear perspective on what needs to change and why. You leave with insight you can act on immediately.
We agree on the scope, the position — trusted expert, COO, or interim executive — and the cadence. Month by month. No long-term lock-in. We invoice only after your approval, only for work you have agreed to.
We work inside your business and with your team. Every month there is a clear output — a decision made, a process improved, a negotiation completed, a market entered. Execution is always superior to planning. We live that principle.
We have held P&L responsibility in London and New York.
Thierry Bayle has worked alongside some of the world's most recognised fashion names — as well as hundreds of SMEs navigating exactly the challenges you face now. That breadth is what makes the 360° approach credible, not just claimed.
"Working with GFM transformed how we approach our wholesale strategy. The honesty was sometimes uncomfortable — but that is exactly what we needed."
"Thierry is the person you can trust."
"You will be working with someone who has enormous knowledge of every aspect of business growth, and the top contacts to support you worldwide."
The first conversation is on us.
Request the growth diagnostic. Get a senior perspective in 30 minutes. Walk away with clarity — whether or not we continue together.
