Richard Clissold-Vasey
Strategic Adviser on Climate-Integrated Business Performance.
I have spent more than three decades in strategy execution, enterprise transformation and governance. This work has taken me across the economics, customers, assets, supply chains and delivery of complex businesses. This has taught me how the parts fit together, and where a change in one part creates consequences in another.
Today I apply that judgement to climate, energy and resource pressures. I trace how a changing condition reaches the business, where it becomes a financial or operating exposure and which commitments and decisions it affects. Then I help identify what should change, in the decision itself and in how the business plans and governs, so the same gap does not reach the next plan.
You work directly with me. I lead and facilitate the work, bringing evidence, structure and constructive challenge so your team reaches a credible answer together. Your leaders retain ownership of the decisions, implementation and results.
The experience behind the judgement
My career includes enterprise transformation, operating-model change and complex delivery across global and private equity-backed organisations, including as Group Change Delivery Director at BSI.
That experience helps me understand how commitments are made, where accountabilities sit and why a sensible recommendation can fail when budgets and commercial pressures take over. I ask what the evidence means, who needs to decide and whether the response can hold through delivery.
"Richard's greatest strengths are in developing and activating strategy, leading transformation and driving behaviour change. He is highly skilled at breaking down complex challenges into practical steps and actions. He sees the bigger picture, but also grasps the detail. He does all this in a highly collaborative, motivating and engaging way."
Will Galgey, CEO, Kantar Insights Division, UK & Ireland
What I bring to the work
A connected view of the business
I bring together evidence from strategy, finance, operations, procurement, risk and sustainability to reveal dependencies and assumptions that can be missed when each function looks separately.
Commercial judgement
We test the consequence for cost, margin, cash, supply, assets or customer commitments, distinguishing evidenced findings from questions that need further investigation.
A practical route to action
I help senior people resolve trade-offs, agree ownership and identify the planning or governance changes that allow a response to survive normal delivery pressure.
Who I work with
I work with strategy directors and senior leaders in UK-based FMCG, consumer goods, retail and asset-intensive businesses, typically above £100m in revenue, before more cost, risk or missed value is locked in.
Most work starts with the Business Plan Pressure Diagnostic, a focused review of a live plan, investment or sourcing decision. This usually takes four weeks and produces an impact heatmap, leadership findings, priority changes and an outline 90-day plan.
Not sure yet whether this applies to your business? Start with the Business Plan Pressure Test, five questions answered from what you already know. Take the Pressure Test
Why this work matters
I believe business has a real part to play in reducing climate and environmental impact. Much of the change will be decided inside companies, in capital allocation, supplier choices, product decisions and operating plans.
There are often strong commercial reasons to act on climate and resource pressures. Building them into planning, investment and governance helps leaders understand both the business’s impact and its exposure, and make the trade-offs explicit. Commitments that sit alongside the plan tend to fade when commercial pressure rises. Commitments built into it are far more likely to last.
That is why I work at the point where these pressures become business consequences, while leaders still have room to choose differently.
"Richard is a superb change agent. Not only does he have the planning and organisational skills needed to deliver complex organisational and digital transformation programmes, but he role models the leadership skills, capabilities and values that ensure that people go with him."
Jonathan Chocqueel-Mangan, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, BSI
