Strategy consultant in Atlanta, from someone who has run the company.
I work with CEOs, founders, boards and operating partners across the Atlanta metro on the decisions that set a company’s next three years: where the growth actually comes from, how to integrate what you bought, how to restart a transformation that has stalled, and where AI pays. I did the work here. I founded the company that became Web.com in this city and took it public on Nasdaq, and I led the cloud transformation inside Cox Automotive, one of Atlanta’s cornerstone companies.
Most of my practice runs nationally. For Atlanta companies the work can happen the old way: across a table, in your boardroom, on your site, or on Zoom when that is easier. I keep the in-person side to a few Georgia engagements at a time.
The strategy questions on the table in Atlanta.
The decisions Atlanta CEOs and boards bring me cluster in six places. Most of them are about growth, and most of the hard ones are about sequence.
Growth past the first market
Taking a business that works in the Southeast to a national footprint without breaking the unit economics or the team that built it. I took an Atlanta company from a rented floor to a Nasdaq IPO, so I know which decisions compound and which ones only look bold.
Integrating the company you bought
A platform built from three or four acquisitions, or one deal whose growth case has not shown up. The thesis written down and sequenced, one commercial engine, one operating model, and the people you need to keep. More on integrating growth after an acquisition.
A transformation that stalled
Announced with energy, six months in, the middle of the company quietly waiting it out. I have restarted one from the inside; the method is in what I look for when a transformation stalls.
One go-to-market motion
Sales, product and marketing each running their own plan, a flat pipeline, and a board asking why. The fix is a decision about who the company sells to and what it sells first, then an operating rhythm that holds it.
AI that pays for itself
The CEO wants an AI answer for the board; the pilots work and nothing reaches production. Workload by workload, with the number the board will hold you to. More on AI consulting.
Ready for the next round or the exit
The decisions a buyer or an investor will test, made before they are asked: the operating model, the numbers that hold up in diligence, and the leadership team that stays.
Three levels of ownership, in person in Atlanta.
The level is picked together on the discovery call, and it can change as the work does.
Advise
Standing counsel to the CEO, the board or the operating partner: a cadence of sessions, in person or on Zoom, with access between them when the decision will not wait. Retainer.
Enable
A defined piece with a start and an end, a go-to-market reset, the first hundred days after a deal, an AI adoption plan, with your people doing the work and me keeping it honest. Project fee.
Drive
I take the problem and drive it directly as the executive responsible, in consultation with you: integrating an acquisition, restarting a stalled transformation, change too big to advise from the sidelines. Priced like the operating commitment it is.
This metro is where I did the work.
I moved to Atlanta from Florida in 1997 because it had the lowest cost of living with the highest density of dark fiber, rented the 14th floor at 34 Peachtree, and built the company that became Web.com: from nothing to a Nasdaq IPO, then through the merger of two public companies, with the legal issues settled at 3 a.m. and CNBC on the line that morning. Strategy there was not a deck. It was the next decision, made with the numbers we had.
The enterprise transformation on my record happened here too: a $250M budget, thousands of servers moved to the cloud, inside Cox Automotive, kicked off across the table from AWS’s Andy Jassy. And I have run national roles from Atlanta, commuting to the West Coast each week and flying around the world for keynotes. When we talk about your Atlanta company, I know the ground: the boards, the investors and the operators here.
Strategy consulting in Atlanta: the questions people actually ask.
Do you work in person in Atlanta?
Yes. Board meetings, offsites, working sessions and the standing advisory cadence in person across the Atlanta metro, at your office or in your boardroom, with Zoom between them when that is easier. My office is north of the city, so in-town meetings are easy.
What does strategy consulting cost?
It depends on the level of ownership: standing advisory runs on a retainer, scoped projects carry a project fee, and transformation leadership is priced like the operating commitment it is. What moves the number is the scope, the cadence and how much of the work is on-site. We agree the number on the discovery call, once we both know the shape of the work.
Are you a firm, or one person?
One person, by design. The person on the discovery call is the person in the room and the person accountable for the result. Where the work needs more hands, your own team does it with me, which is how the capability stays in the company after I leave.
How is this different from the big consulting firms’ Atlanta offices?
The firms are excellent at producing evidence and staffing a large program. They are structurally unable to own an outcome. If the problem is a decision rather than an analysis, and you want someone accountable for what happens next, you want a person who has run the company, not a team that has studied it.
Do you work with PE-backed and founder-led companies in Atlanta?
Yes: portfolio-company troubleshooting, integrating a bolt-on, leadership transitions, AI value creation and exit readiness, for the sponsor and for the company. I spent a decade as a venture managing partner on boards, and I founded an Atlanta company that went public, so I have sat on each side of that table.
Can you help us integrate an acquisition?
Yes. The thesis written down and sequenced, the commercial engine, the operating model and who decides, the people you need to keep, and the number tracked against what you paid for. The full approach is on the strategy consulting page.
Bring me the decision.
Forty-five minutes, no pressure, no pitch. Bring the decision that is actually on your desk, and we will work out together whether you need advice, a project, or an operator, and whether I am the right one. In person in Atlanta or on Zoom.
- Send the note, or book the call if you would rather pick a time.
- Forty-five minutes, on video or across a table in the metro.
- A scope and a number if it makes sense to work together, and a straight no if it does not.
Or reach me directly:
(629) 304-8755
ken@kengavranovic.com
- Strategy consultingThe national practice: advise, enable or drive.
- Strategy consulting in AlpharettaHome base at North Point, and North Fulton in person.
- Executive coaching in AtlantaCoaching for CEOs, founders and senior executives across the metro.
- AI consultingWhere AI pays, workload by workload.
- Offsites and strategic planningDecisions with owners and dates, run by an operator.