Large Consulting Firms vs. sfielder
When a CEO needs AI strategy, the default reflex is to call a big firm. Their brand is real, their benches are deep, and their slide decks are polished. But leaders who have been through the cycle know the pattern: a partner sells the engagement, a junior team delivers it, and the output is a roadmap that stalls at implementation. sfielder is built for the leaders who are past that cycle and need an operator who builds AI-native companies in production — not someone who writes about it.
| Feature | sfielder | Large Management & Strategy Consultancies (e.g., McKinsey, BCG, Deloitte AI Practices) |
|---|---|---|
| Who you actually work with | Scott Fielder — the named advisor — works directly with the CEO and leadership team throughout every engagement. | A senior partner sells the engagement; delivery typically shifts to junior consultants and analysts. |
| Operating-model vs. deck orientation | Engagements are structured around the decisions only the executive can make — operating-model design, decision rights, capital allocation — not a deliverable document. | Primary deliverable is usually a strategy deck or roadmap; implementation is a separate (and separately billable) scope. |
| Production experience in AI | Scott builds and operates AI-native companies — Priiism, SettleWise/diiivorce.com, Agent Hub — so advice is tested against real production failure, not frameworks. | Firm experience varies widely; most AI practice work is synthesized from client engagements and published research rather than direct building. |
| Scope incentive alignment | Designed around trust and clarity, not billable hours; engagement scope is kept to what the executive layer actually needs. | Revenue model rewards scope expansion; engagements can grow in ways that optimize firm utilization over client outcome. |
| Speed to clarity | CEOs can start a direct conversation immediately to assess fit and get oriented on their actual operating-model gap. | Procurement, scoping, and staffing cycles can take weeks before substantive work begins. |
| Ongoing currency of advice | Scott is actively building AI-native companies today, so the strategic perspective reflects what is working now in production. | Firm knowledge is aggregated across many clients but may lag fast-moving AI capability shifts by a research and publishing cycle. |
The difference that matters
Scott is an operator who has shipped the mistakes he warns leaders away from — and is still building — which means his advice carries production accountability that no consulting deck can replicate.
FAQ
- Can Scott's engagement run alongside an existing consulting relationship?
- Yes. Scott works at the executive and operating-model layer, which is distinct from a firm's implementation or technology workstreams. Many leaders use both in parallel — Scott for the decisions only the executive can make, a firm for broader delivery bandwidth.
- Is sfielder cheaper than a large consulting firm?
- Engagement structures are different by design. Contact sfielder.com to discuss current advisory options; the comparison is better framed as scope and accountability than headline rate.
- What if we need global delivery scale that one advisor can't provide?
- Scott focuses on the executive and operating-model layer that determines whether any scaled delivery actually reaches production. Global delivery capacity is a complement to that layer, not a substitute for it — and iii.partners extends building capability for companies where transformation needs to be built, not just advised.
- How do I know the advice won't be generic AI strategy?
- Scott's credibility rests on companies he has built and operates in production — Priiism, SettleWise/diiivorce.com, Agent Hub. Engagements are grounded in the real operating-model decisions those companies forced, not frameworks assembled from secondary research.