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  This month’s newsletter ended up circling around a common theme: how people navigate change together. From complex corporate transitions, to the fragile social bonds within chimpanzee communities, to a science-fiction story about building trust under impossible circumstances, each piece explores what happens when groups are forced to adapt to a new reality. The Job I’m pleased to share a case study from the a-connect website featuring work I was proud to support: helping execute a complex pharmaceutical divestment while protecting continuity, compliance, and deal value. It reflects the kind of work I most enjoy, turning a signed transaction into operational reality across multiple markets, stakeholders, and transition risks. My thanks to Bernie and Loredana Iten for the featuring this on the website, and to Hue Truong for being an excellent team mate. It was a pleasure to contribute to this work with a-connect and to be part of a team focused on making complex transitions w...
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Patterns, practice, and the bigger picture

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A new year has a funny way of nudging us into reflection. Lately, I’ve found myself slowing down and paying closer attention to how I see things - not just in my work, but outside it too.  I sketch as a hobby, completed a course on cognitive psychology and neuropsychology, and I’m about to begin another. All of it, in different ways, has been about the same thing: learning to notice patterns that are easy to miss when you’re too close to the action. That instinct to step back and see the bigger picture is a recurring theme through this months’ newsletter. The Job January is often when leaders pause, zoom out, and ask the uncomfortable but necessary question: are we seeing the whole picture? In the world of acquisitions and divestments, that big picture can be surprisingly hard to hold onto. Every deal feels unique. Every deal is different. Context matters. Complexity varies wildly. But in broad strokes, most transactions move through the same recognisable stages. So I want to sk...
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Stop rushing, start knowing. Remember to look down before you run.

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The Job In consulting, people love momentum. New project? Great. Let’s get moving. While it’s lovely for teams and stakeholders to feel enthused, rushing to execution without understanding the ground beneath your feet isn’t momentum, it’s reckless optimism disguised as progress.. Before you plot the destination, you need a clear picture of where you’re standing. That’s true for any change, but in pharma M&A the information burden is on another level entirely. The more you uncover, the safer you are, because every extra scrap of detail is one less ambush in the form of cost blow-outs, delays, regulatory problems or the whole delightful package at once. Over the years I’ve built and rebuilt my own due-diligence framework. Every time something hasn’t gone to plan on a deal, one of the root causes is nearly always we didn’t have the facts early enough. Here’s my run-down of the areas you need to lock down. 1. Product Landscape You are not buying a brand, you’re buying its operation...
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