Choose the work worth doing. Build the capability to deliver.

Understand the business before defining the transformation

Assess transactional workflows alongside manufacturing, production, processing, and other engineering systems. Discovery defines the process improvements and operating conditions needed for innovation and business transformation.

Cory brings direct transformation experience across automotive, oil & gas, aerospace & defense, healthcare, and software.

4–6 weeks · $22,000–$40,000

• A comprehensive assessment of the agreed business and operational scope.
• Process and system maps, improvement priorities, and a proposed operating model.
• A transformation roadmap and executive decision brief with owners, dependencies, and next investment decisions.

The proposal fixes the duration, scope, milestones, and fee before work starts.

Build and test a useful capability

Start with one workflow and a named owner. Apply Agent Centered Design to determine how people and agents will participate, test a bounded improvement, and review what changed. The pilot gives the team a result review and a usable handoff.

Bring the process, relevant systems and the outcome you want to improve. The receiving team should be able to say what it will accept and who will operate the result.

If the work is still unclear, a paid workflow assessment can define a smaller next step.

An ACD Opportunity-to-Outcome Pilot

• An operating map of one workflow: context, responsibilities, permissions, and handoffs between people and agents.
• A Decision Thread connecting the question, owner, evidence, and outcome; a scoped experiment evaluated against agreed criteria.
• Operating documentation, known limitations and handover to a named receiving owner.
• Permitted data and actions, integration boundaries and acceptance evidence agreed before work begins.

Production rollout, ongoing support and technology licenses are separate scope decisions.

Build capability around actual business challenges

Build practical AI, innovation and entrepreneurship capability through actual business challenges. Teams can explore opportunities, frame problems, test ideas and develop new ventures or services where relevant. AI practice includes checking sources, identifying uncertainty and returning work a colleague can review.

Bring the team roles, business challenges and tools you want to work with, along with your data policy and accessibility needs. Agree the learning objectives, exercises and follow-up before delivery. A leadership academy is a possible scoped format, with its audience and work products defined in the proposal.

A team program built around practice

• Practical AI, innovation and entrepreneurship learning objectives shaped around the team’s roles and business challenges.
• Opportunity briefs, tested ideas or reviewable AI work products, with practice feedback and an agreed follow-up.
• Permitted or fictional examples, approved tools and clear human review.

A scoped program defines how practice will be reviewed. Attendance does not establish proficiency or certification; internal facilitator rights require a separate licensing discussion.

Give your innovation portfolio an executive owner

Cory Nation, Fractional Innovation and AI Executive. Cory helps established organizations turn complex operational and growth problems into a focused portfolio of commercially useful AI and innovation initiatives.

For CEOs, COOs, product and digital leaders, and business-unit leaders in mid-market and enterprise organizations, fractional means sustained executive ownership within an agreed mandate. Cory helps select the initiatives, connect cross-functional execution and build the internal capability to deliver.

His background spans systems engineering, enterprise transformation, venture building and hands-on facilitation.

Bring an executive sponsor, the operational or growth challenge, relevant data and the teams involved. Define the portfolio, resources and decisions the role may own before agreeing a start date.

Monthly executive retainer, scoped to outcomes

• An opportunity map and investment choices to help select the initiatives worth funding.
• A decision and workflow roadmap with named owners, priorities to test and criteria for scaling.
• A cross-functional delivery cadence connecting business, operations, engineering and technology, plus a capability plan for the team.

Agree an outcome-based scope with an executive sponsor, named priorities, work products, decision rights and a review cadence. Set the time allocation, escalation and continuity needed to carry the mandate.

Your organization retains funding, hiring and contracting authority unless specific authority is separately granted. Hands-on implementation and urgent support are included only where expressly scoped.

Create a regular decision cadence

Choose advisory when your team owns execution and wants an outside review of priorities and implementation choices. A recurring review helps keep the next decision connected to the evidence it needs.

Bring a sponsor, current priorities or decision briefs, and an internal execution owner. Agree the questions, review cadence and follow-up the retainer covers.

A retainer for review and advice

• Agreed leadership sessions and review of decision briefs.
• Decision notes, priorities and actions with a named customer owner.
• A bounded allowance for follow-up, with cadence and access agreed in the proposal.

Your team owns decisions and execution. Advisory does not confer executive authority or include an implementation team.

Choose where to invest

When there are more AI ideas than your team can evaluate, begin with the decision about where to invest. Compare the opportunities, establish what is known, and choose a useful next step. A finding that a proposed change is not suitable is a useful outcome.

Bring a sponsor, the priorities under consideration, and permitted examples of current work. If one workflow already stands out, scope a workflow assessment to clarify its process, constraints, and measures before committing to a build.

A focused, paid engagement with a decision to make

• A prioritized set of opportunities, with the business problem and constraints made explicit.
• Evidence gaps, baseline measures, and the questions that matter before committing resources.
• A recommended first initiative, a named owner, and the next decision for the sponsor.

The assessment is a scoped service. It does not include production changes, a software license or an automatic discount on later work.

Discuss internal program use

If your organization wants to run a program with its own facilitators, discuss the material package and internal-use rights needed. A proposal would identify the actual supplied materials and the boundaries of their use.

Bring the intended audience, facilitators and reuse needs. Package contents, rights and availability must be established for the proposed scope.

Materials and rights defined in the proposal

• An identified material package and its authorized internal use.
• Facilitator onboarding, updates and support specified separately.
• A named program owner, internal facilitator capacity and permitted tools.

Program licensing depends on a verified owned package. It does not include accreditation, partner/resale rights or unrestricted copying by implication. Customer tool and model costs are identified separately.