Board Readiness and Performance Analytics
The technology and AI story the board can actually hold you to, on one defensible page.
A 2 to 3 week engagement that produces a board-facing scorecard, a tightened narrative, and the supporting math underneath. Built for the CIO, CTO or CFO who has watched the technology line item generate the most board questions and the fewest useful answers.
When the board asks how technology and AI are creating value, what answer can we defend in one page? The deliverable is the page, the math under it, and the narrative the executive can speak from without notes.
| Week 1 | KPI architecture. Identify the three to five operating metrics that translate technology and AI investment into financial outcomes. The hard part is what to leave out. |
| Week 2 | Scorecard build and narrative draft. The one-page artifact and the supporting backup pages. Scenario modeling where it earns its place. |
| Week 3 | Stress test. A working session with the executive going in front of the board. We run the toughest questions, sharpen the answers, and lock the document. |
- The last two board packs and a list of the questions they generated.
- Technology and AI program list with current spend and operating context per initiative.
- Access to the executive going in front of the board for two to three short working sessions.
- The 12-month plan or budget the technology line is rolling up to.
- One named board member you are most worried about, and what they are worried about.
Representative deliverables:
1. The page. Three to five operating metrics tied to financial outcomes, each with a current value, a trend, an owner, and the one decision the board is being asked to support. Twelve cells of useful content. Replaces, in most engagements, a forty-slide deck.
2. The backup. Eight to fifteen pages of math the executive can hand to the board chair or finance committee if pressed. Not in the deck; in the file. Written so the executive does not need a deck author to update.
3. The narrative. A written script the executive uses to walk the page. Two to three pages, in their voice, not mine.
4. Director questions, anticipated. The eight to ten questions the board is most likely to ask, with the answer drafted for each, in the executive’s language.
If the issue is that the underlying strategy is wrong rather than poorly communicated, Growth Strategy or AI Strategy and Capital Allocation come first. If the issue is that the executive does not yet have the relationship capital to deliver a sharper message, the work is Executive Advisory, not Board Readiness. The page is only useful if the executive can carry it.
“I walked into the meeting with one page. The board chair stopped me on slide two of the old deck and asked why we had not been doing it this way the whole time. The technology line item passed without a single follow-up question.”
CIO, Mid-market insurance carrier, $340M revenue
Illustrative. Composite of recent mid-market engagements, not a single named client.
RLK Consulting is Ryan King, sole founder. She spent nearly 15 years at McKinsey and Deloitte advising Fortune 50 clients, and now runs a strategy practice in Richmond, Virginia serving the mid-market. The person you pay is the person who does the work.
To begin
If your next board cycle is six weeks out or less, do not wait. A 30-minute scoping call.