Agreed before we start
Three months and a deck, or a plan you can start on and someone who stays to build it.
A big consulting project usually answers what should our strategy be? over many months, and ends with a slide deck you're left to put into action. Our audit answers a simpler question: what is the business actually doing right now, and what should we fix first? We come in, map how the business runs, and hand you a ranked plan you can start on this week — then we build it with you rather than leaving. When the deadline is your audit committee's — AI adoption evidence, ESG disclosure readiness, a smart-factory designation window — three to four months does not fit inside it and this does. This page sets the two side by side so you can pick the right one.
Fixed scope, agreed up front
English & Chinese
A plan you can act on
Ten things worth comparing.
These are the questions people ask us most when choosing between a short audit and a full consulting project. Each row names the trade-off plainly, not the sales line.
What you're comparing
A Our audit · short, hands-on
C A consulting project · traditional
The question it answers
What is the business actually doing right now, and what should we fix first.
What our strategy should be, over the next year or more.
How long it takes
Short and fixed. Length and scope agreed before we start.
Six to twelve weeks is common. Scope can grow as it goes.
Scope and change orders
Fixed scope, agreed up front. No surprise change orders.
Often billed by time, in phases. Extra scope means extra cost.
Who does the work
The person who scopes it runs it, named before we start. Specialists brought in when the work needs one.
Partners pitch; junior analysts often do most of the work. You may not meet them first.
Time on the ground
We spend real time in the business, watching how it runs and where it snags.
Mostly interviews and document review. Site visits are often short.
What you get
A plain write-up of what we found, a short list of fixes with owners and rough payback, a picture of how your systems connect, and a plan you can act on.
A strategy deck and a summary. Sometimes a high-level roadmap. Varies by firm.
Languages
English and Chinese, written by the people who did the work, not a translator.
Usually English first; a Chinese version, if any, comes later from someone else.
Can you act on it
Every fix has an owner and a rough payback, so your team knows what to start on Monday.
Advice at a high level; who owns what, and what to do first, is often left open.
After it ends
We can stay on a monthly retainer to help you work through the plan.
The deck is handed over. Ongoing help is usually a separate project.
Whose side we're on
We take no commissions from vendors we might recommend. The advice is ours, not sold.
Firms with big delivery arms can have a reason to recommend more work. Some manage this well; some don't.
Both can be worth it. They answer different questions.
Pick the one that fits what you actually need right now.
When a consulting project fits, and when our audit does.
A
Choose a consulting project when
You need a multi-year plan for where the whole company is heading, or a big strategic call across several business units, or a view to put in front of the board and investors. The horizon is a year or more, and the answer you want is direction, not day-to-day fixes.
B
Choose our audit when
You want to know what's really going on in the business and what to fix first, and you want it fast. You'd rather have a short plan your own team can start on than a deck to debate. The work spans China and the West, or needs both English and Chinese to get right.
C
Sometimes you want both
A consulting project can set the long-term direction, and our audit can show you what to do about it on the ground in the meantime. The two work well together: one points the way, the other gets you moving. They aren't rivals.
D
When we say no
Our audit isn't a legal or financial audit, a fraud investigation, or a long turnaround job. If that's what you need, we'll say so and point you to the right people rather than take the work.
Find it. Build it. Hand it over.
Find it
We go and find out where your growth is actually going to come from. The audit is this move, pointed at the inside of the business: which system holds the real number, what the gap is costing you, and what to fix first. Read it.
Build it
We build the fix with you — systems, owners and evidence — rather than leaving you a deck to act on alone.
Hand it over
We stop when your own team can run it. That is the goal of the engagement, not a caveat on it.
Most engagements start the same way: we go and find out where the growth actually is, at a scope agreed before we start, and you own what comes out of it whether or not we go further.
Questions people ask after reading the table.
Q.01 Is your audit a replacement for a management-consulting firm?
Not always. A big consulting project usually answers what your strategy should be, over many months. Our audit answers what the business is actually doing right now, and hands you a short list of fixes you can start on this week. The two can sit side by side. Often the audit is the cheaper, faster way to get moving.
Q.02 Why is your engagement shorter than a consulting project?
Because we agree the scope before we start. A big project spends its first weeks negotiating scope and handing work from partners to junior staff. We settle what is in and out on a short call, then get on site. The engagement is sized to the operation and agreed before we start — enough time to see how the business runs, check the numbers, and write a plan you can read in one sitting. If the work needs longer, we say so on the call.
Q.03 What do you hand over that a consulting project usually doesn't?
A plain, bilingual write-up of what we found, written by the people who did the work, not a translator. A short list of fixes, each with an owner and a rough payback. A picture of how your systems actually connect, drawn from watching the business, not from vendor claims. And a plan you can act on the next morning. A consulting project often leaves you with a slide deck and a summary. We leave you with something your own team can run with.
Q.04 Who does the work?
The person who scopes your engagement is the person who runs it, named before we start. We bring in a specialist when the work needs one. You are not sold by a partner and then handed to junior analysts you never met.
Q.05 Do you stay to help after the audit?
Yes, if you want us to. You can keep an operating lead on a monthly retainer, embedded in your team, to work through the plan. You are not left to implement a deck alone. A mutual NDA is available on request.
Q.06 How do you keep to a fixed scope?
Most businesses are more alike under the hood than people expect, so the scope can be settled on a short call. Fixed scope cuts out the weeks of scope talks a big project charges for. If your business really is unusual, we tell you on the call and pass, rather than start something we can't finish well.
Deferring the decision removes one of the options.
A three-to-four-month engagement needs three to four months. Wait a quarter and the long option is gone — which means the calendar chose for you.
01 · The long option expires first
It needs the runway it asks for
A consulting project scoped in months cannot start ninety days before a deadline. The option closes without anyone deciding to close it.
02 · The short one gets bought late
A good decision at ninety days, a rushed one at thirty
Finding out works best while there is still time to act on what you find. Bought late, it becomes a report rather than a plan.
Choose early and both options are real. That is the argument for reading this table now rather than in the week the deadline lands.