Who We Help
The Common Thread
“The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it”
Establishing, strengthening and protecting your position.
Successful organisations and individuals navigate strategic competition, balance competing priorities to optimize portfolios, triage uncertainty and options, recognize opportunity in fragmented, frontier and exhausted markets, draw inspiration from the world around them, and define their own pathways to success.
How do they do it?
In public life as in private, the case for informed judgment, for strategic direction that’s evidence-based and intelligence-led, is unequivocal.
SENIOR EXECUTIVES & STRATEGISTS
Senior leaders want sophisticated analysis they can trust to guide them through strategic competition, destabilizing frictions, potential threats to business performance, and emerging opportunities.
PORTFOLIO & PROJECT MANAGERS
Effective managers rely on detailed field, operational and supply chain data to design and plan projects, make informed decisions about resource allocation, anticipate delivery challenges, and maintain stakeholder confidence.
PATRONS, FOUNDERS & ENTREPRENEURS
Founders and entrepreneurs demand reliable information to validate business concepts, identify target markets, and make critical decisions about products, processes and market entry strategies.
INSTITUTIONAL & PRIVATE INVESTORS
Investors count on independent review and specialist insight to minimize financial risks, safeguard stakeholder interests, screen management claims and company performance, identify hidden agendas and liabilities, and identify opportunities.
SOLO PROFESSIONALS & PRACTITIONERS
For independent operators, cost-effective access to high-quality information, analysis and surge support, without requiring significant infrastructure investment or full-time research staff, is a vital differentiator.
CREATIVES, DESIGNERS & DEVELOPERS
Creative professionals need access to rich streams of curated information and effective soundboarding to fuel inspiration, validate creative decisions, support design concepts, and ensure projects meet aesthetic and functional requirements.
Making it real
Successful start-ups are led by mission-minded innovators and visionaries who’ve done their homework, identified an opportunity, and taken their first steps en route to something of enduring value.
Expanding operations
Ambitious scale-ups have already validated their start-up visions and established a toehold in the market - then took stock, scanned the horizon, and identified a new way forward.
Maintaining equilibrium
Mature enterprises in a steady-state don’t neglect the intelligence required to continue running smoothly, stay competitive, keep competitors at bay, and sustain operations for the long haul.
Testimonials
“For any office dealing with public assets, international regulation, and strategic exposure, managing geopolitical risk and operational resilience is high stakes business. We brought CKS in to help us think through the problem. Mike Innes reviewed our plans and made recommendations that helped us avoid expensive mistakes and identified cost-effective alternatives. I can’t recommend him and his team highly enough.”
“What impressed me most was Mike’s understanding that good intelligence isn’t just about gathering information - it’s about delivering practical insights that drive results. The strategic intelligence he provided directly contributed to our winning new business.”
“CKS Director Mike Innes has the ability to bridge the worlds of academic research, intelligence analysis, and legal operations. It made him an invaluable strategic advisor. He brings to the table a combination of hands-on experience, intellectual rigour, and astute operational judgment. An exceptional consultant.”
“I don’t know anyone outside of engineering and developer circles who researches AI as much as these guys do. Everyone in my entourage is an AI user. Mike takes it up a notch - applying it to quality assurance, for research, as an investigator, as a psychologist, as an anthropologist... Next level.”
