Independent executive advisory

Experienced judgment for businesses navigating change.

Parrott Advisory helps CEOs, founders and leadership teams solve complex business problems at the intersection of strategy, AI, technology, data, growth and operations. More than three decades of operating experience, brought to the problem without a software product, implementation team or consulting bench waiting behind the recommendation.

How I can help

Three areas

01 — Transformation

AI, technology & data

AI creates enormous opportunity — and an enormous amount of noise. I help leadership teams separate the two. The work starts with the business, not the technology: where can AI, data or automation materially improve performance, and what has to change to make that real?

Typical work

AI opportunity assessment and practical roadmap
Business process redesign and automation strategy
Data strategy, governance and readiness
Technology and vendor decisions
Salesforce and enterprise platform strategy

The objective

Start with the business problem, not the tool
Prioritize opportunities with measurable value
Avoid expensive technology looking for a use case
Leave the team with a path it can actually execute

02 — Performance

Growth, revenue & operations

When growth stalls, the visible symptom is rarely the whole problem. I help leadership teams determine whether the constraint is strategy, demand, sales execution, pricing, process, organization, measurement — or some combination of them — and then focus the business on the few changes that matter most.

Typical work

Growth and go-to-market diagnosis
Sales strategy, pipeline and forecast discipline
Pricing, channels and partner strategy
Operating model, metrics and accountability
Organizational and process redesign

The objective

Find the real constraint before prescribing a solution
Turn strategy into operating priorities
Create visibility into what is and is not working
Build accountability without adding bureaucracy

03 — Leadership

CEO, founder & board advisory

Some decisions do not fit neatly into a consulting category. They need an experienced, independent person who can understand the business quickly, challenge assumptions and help a leadership team make a consequential decision with greater clarity.

Typical work

CEO and founder counsel
Strategy and business model review
Product, market and go-to-market decisions
Organizational and leadership questions
Technology, operational and commercial diligence

How it works

Project-based or standing advisory relationship
Direct access to the person you hired
No referral fees or implementation incentive
No obligation to manufacture more work

Sometimes the assignment starts with a question

Examples

“Where should we actually be using AI?”

Not where AI can be inserted — where it can create enough business value to justify changing how the work gets done.

“Why aren't we growing?”

Separate market, demand, product, sales and execution problems before investing more money in the wrong one.

“Do we have a sales problem or a product problem?”

Use the evidence across customers, pipeline, positioning and delivery to identify the real constraint.

“Should we buy this technology?”

Evaluate the business case, operating impact and alternatives before the vendor's implementation plan becomes your strategy.

“How should we reorganize the company?”

Start with the outcomes and decisions the organization needs to produce, then design roles and accountability around them.

“Something isn't working. Can you figure out what it is?”

Often the most valuable assignment begins before the problem has been neatly defined.

How engagements run

Terms

Define the problem first

Every engagement starts by getting clear about the decision, problem or outcome that matters. The scope follows the problem — not the other way around.

Stay only while I add value

Projects have a defined objective and standing advisory relationships have an easy exit. Independence matters more when there is no incentive to keep an engagement alive.

Advice should lead to action

The goal is clarity about what to do next. Recommendations should be practical enough for the people who own the work to act on them after I leave the room.

Who you're hiring

Principal

Parrott Advisory is Steve Parrott. Engagements are delivered by the person you hired — there is no bench, no handoff to a junior team, and no name on the proposal who disappears after the kickoff call.

I have spent more than 35 years building, leading and transforming businesses — from entrepreneurial and high-growth companies to global organizations. My career has included serving as CEO of Legacy.com, where we tripled revenue and profitability; leading global businesses within CNET and CBS; serving in President and COO roles; and advising organizations on data, technology, Salesforce, AI and business transformation.

I've sat on both sides of the consulting table: as the executive hiring advisors and technology firms, and as the advisor helping leadership teams determine what they actually need. That experience has made me particularly skeptical of complicated solutions to problems that have not been clearly defined.

Today my work sits at the intersection of business strategy, AI, technology, data, revenue and operations. The common thread is not a particular platform or methodology. It is helping leadership teams understand what is really happening, decide what to do about it and turn that decision into action.

The practice is deliberately small. I take on a limited number of engagements so clients get direct access, senior attention and advice that is independent of whatever might be sold next.

Most engagements begin with a conversation about the problem you're trying to solve. If I can help, we'll define the next step. If someone else is better suited to it, I'll tell you that too.

steve@parrottadvisory.com