AI Strategy Pressure-Testing · Partnered with Microsoft on AI Frontier Acceleration

Fast-track to the AI frontier. Ten questions. One verdict.

Robert Ford created FRAME, the AI-era pressure test that stops leadership teams from executing brilliantly against the wrong strategy. AI proposes. Leaders decide. Every priority leaves the room with a decision, not a discussion.

See the FRAME test Book a pressure test

REDMOND, WA — GLOBAL PRACTICE — FOUNDED & LED BY ROBERT FORD, CEO, THE FORD CONSULTANCY GROUP

Our Lead Discipline

FRAME: the AI pressure test for corporate strategy

Most organizations put AI on top of the strategy they already had, and wait for the magic. It never comes. FRAME puts every strategic priority through ten pointed questions, with AI in the room as a live sparring partner, so leaders leave with a rewritten priority, a disposition on every tactic, and a 90-day plan with named owners.

The Five Elements

"AI does not belong on top of strategy. It belongs inside the formation of strategy."

F Frictions — where automation meets its boundaries

R Realities — what melts, what holds

A Ambition — sizing for exponential possibility

M Multipliers — compounding leverage

E Exposure — machine-speed risk

Two convictions underpin the test. First, leadership judgment is the only durable moat in a world where AI can generate answers on demand — AI proposes, leaders decide. Second, the raw material of that judgment is your invariants: the fixed points that appreciate as AI commoditizes everything around them. FRAME drafts them, ratifies them, and cashes them, all inside a single working session.

Element	#	Question
F	Q1	The Constraint Question
F	Q2	The Boundary Question
R	Q3	The Dead Scarcity Question
R	Q4	The Invariant Test
A	Q5	The Zero-Constraint Question
A	Q6	The Native Competitor Question
M	Q7	The Flywheel Question
M	Q8	The Compounding Question
E	Q9	The Pre-Mortem
E	Q10	The One-Way Door Question

The full prompts, scoring, and scarring are worked live, in the room, with your priorities.

Total Score, Out of 20

Score 16 – 20

Recast and run

The priority survived under pressure and got sharper. Proceed straight to the 90-day recast and fund with confidence.

Score 10 – 15

Reframe before funding

The core is sound but the framing belongs to a pre-AI world. Rewrite the priority, re-disposition the tactics, then fund.

Score 0 – 9

Rebuild from the invariants up

The priority as written cannot survive contact with the AI era. Return to the invariants and rebuild, or retire it.

Run FRAME on your strategy Two hours per priority. A half day handles two. A full day handles three.

Our Foundational Discipline

Digital Done Right™

Before FRAME, there was Digital Done Right™ — the enterprise transformation methodology behind Robert's decade of Microsoft leadership, now the operating model for 50+ global organizations.

A vision-led, tech-forward operating model

Built on the principle that technology should inform the business idea as much as enable it. Vision-led, tech-forward, priority-driven. Where FRAME pressure-tests strategy against AI-era disruption, Digital Done Right™ is the operating model that keeps the transformation running once the decisions are made.

"Vision without execution is hallucination."

Services We Offer

Strategic guidance, built for the room you're actually in.

[ PRESSURE-TEST ]

FRAME workshops

The ten-question AI pressure test, delivered live with C-suite leadership teams, in partnership with Microsoft's AI Frontier Acceleration program.

[ ADVISE ]

Executive strategy & coaching

Direct, experience-led guidance for Boards, CEOs, and CIOs driving digital and AI transformation at the top table.

[ EMBED ]

Interim executive

We step in when speed matters. Embedded leadership for organizations that need to move now, not next quarter.

[ SPEAK ]

Keynotes

High-energy, real-world keynotes on AI strategy and digital transformation that leave leaders with a plan, not just inspiration.

The Person Behind the Frame

Robert Ford

Founder & CEO, The Ford Consultancy Group

Also serves as Chief Strategy Officer, CoreStack

Robert Ford is a strategic advisor to Boards, CEOs, and CIOs, and the creator of FRAME and Digital Done Right™. He helps executive teams cut through AI hype and pressure-test their strategy against real competitive and operational realities, replacing wishful roadmaps with decisions leadership teams can actually stand behind. His work draws on a 30+ year career spanning senior strategy, marketing, and technology leadership roles at Microsoft and CoreStack, and has been applied by more than 100 Fortune 1000 and Global 500 organizations across financial services, healthcare, retail, and the public sector.

CurrentFounder & CEO, The Ford Consultancy Group. Also Chief Strategy Officer, CoreStack

PriorSenior Microsoft executive, EMEA & APAC. Former CIO, Northwest University

MilitaryBritish Army veteran, Royal Green Jackets

AuthorThe Skeptical Leader: 30 WTF Moments You'll Face on the Way Up

NonprofitCo-founder & President, LEARN2LAND

AcademicGuest lecturer, Columbia University MBA program

IPU.S. patent holder, cloud resource management. Creator of two trademarked frameworks

EducationExecutive education, Columbia, MIT, and NUS

The Book

The Skeptical Leader: 30 WTF Moments You'll Face on the Way Up

Robert's field guide to the moments every rising leader hits and no one warns you about, drawn from three decades in the room at Microsoft, CoreStack, and Fortune 1000 boardrooms. Direct, unfiltered, and built to be used, not just read.