Andy Bass
Growth stalls, and the instinct is to buy a solution in from outside. The answer is more often already inside the business – but existing resources go unrecognised, and commercial and technical teams have learned to treat each other as the obstacle. Managing that internal conflict is what consumes leaders who should be driving growth.
Andy Bass, author of The Suits & Geeks Trap and Start With What Works, and founder of BassClusker Consulting, helps senior leaders find the growth already inside their organisation by resolving the tension between commercial and technical teams.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Andy Bass
- His Suits & Geeks Trap framework gives leaders a named, structured diagnosis for one of the most persistent and underacknowledged barriers to growth in technology-driven businesses – the breakdown between commercial and technical functions – and a clear method for resolving it.
- His Start With What Works thesis (Pearson) challenges the default assumption that growth requires new investment; the argument is that most organisations are sitting on underused capabilities, relationships and knowledge that can be mobilised before new capital is sought.
- His C.E.O. Roadmap from Committed Action – Curiosity, Exploration, Ownership – gives leaders a specific, repeatable method for moving people from passive compliance to genuine ownership of strategic priorities.
- His PhD in Software Engineering and early career at BT Research Labs give him standing inside technical organisations that a leadership generalist cannot credibly claim – he can hold the room with engineers and commercial directors simultaneously.
- Inducted into the Million Dollar Consulting Hall of Fame (2017) and named to Ogilvy’s #ogilvychange Big Thinkers panel – external recognitions of consulting practice, earned outside the speaking circuit.
Biography highlights
- Founder and principal of BassClusker Consulting; advisory work spanning more than 30 industries across 12 countries
- PhD in Software Engineering and BSc in Computer Science and Ergonomics, both from Aston University; career began at BT Research Labs, Human Factors Division
- Executive educator at Oxford Saïd, Warwick, Aston and Strathclyde Business Schools; Visiting Professor in Consulting Practice, Birmingham City University
- Inducted into the Million Dollar Consulting Hall of Fame (2017) by Alan Weiss
- Author of five books including The Suits & Geeks Trap, Start With What Works (Pearson) and Committed Action
- Named to Ogilvy’s #ogilvychange ‘Big Thinkers’ panel of experts
- Corporate clients include L’Oréal, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, KPMG and International Automotive Components Group
Biography
In technology-driven organisations, one of the most consistent barriers to growth is not the strategy, it is the relationship between the people who build things and the people who sell them. Andy Bass, founder of BassClusker Consulting and author of The Suits & Geeks Trap, has spent over two decades working on that specific problem: helping senior leaders diagnose and close the gap between strategic intent and organisational execution.
His Suits & Geeks Trap framework identifies a pattern that recurs across industries: commercial and technical teams defaulting to stereotyping and blame, with leaders drawn into refereeing internal politics rather than facing the market. The framework, developed through advisory work with organisations ranging from Deutsche Bank and L’Oréal to mid-sized growth businesses across 12 countries, gives leaders a structured way to reverse that dynamic and redirect energy toward the customer.
His parallel argument, developed in Start With What Works (Pearson), challenges what he calls one of the most persistent thinking traps in business: that growth requires new investment. Bass makes the case (supported by client work across 30 industries) that most organisations have more usable capability than they recognise. The book presents practical tools for identifying and deploying those hidden assets before leaders turn to capital-intensive alternatives.
His third major framework, the C.E.O. Roadmap from Committed Action, addresses the question leaders ask most consistently: why their people do not engage with strategic priorities as fully as intended. Bass’s answer, structured around Curiosity, Exploration and Ownership, gives leaders a repeatable method for building genuine commitment rather than managed compliance. His credentials span both sides of the technical-commercial divide he studies: a PhD in Software Engineering from Aston University, an early career at BT Research Labs, executive education delivered at Oxford Saïd, Warwick, Aston and Strathclyde business schools, and induction into the Million Dollar Consulting Hall of Fame in 2017.
Key speaking topics
- Commercial and technical team alignment
- Organisational learning and execution
- Growth strategy using existing resources
- Leadership and committed action
- Change management and strategic engagement
- Organisational culture in technology-driven businesses
- Executive decision-making and capability development
Ideal for
- CEOs and MDs of technology-driven, engineering-led or innovation-focused organisations managing persistent commercial-technical friction
- Senior leadership teams where execution consistently falls short of strategic ambition
- CHROs and organisational development leads working on engagement, ownership and culture in mixed commercial-technical workforces
- Professional services, financial services, manufacturing and growth-stage businesses navigating rapid change
Audience outcomes
- A named framework for diagnosing commercial-technical team friction – and a clear method for resolving it before it becomes a leadership crisis
- Practical tools for identifying underused organisational assets and applying them to growth priorities, before seeking new capital or resource
- The C.E.O. Roadmap – a three-stage method for building genuine team commitment rather than surface-level compliance
- Sharper understanding of how leadership behaviour, not strategy alone, determines whether execution succeeds
- Specific questions and diagnostic approaches leaders can apply immediately to unlock stalled priorities or disengaged teams
Talks
A practical session on resolving the commercial-technical divide that forces leaders to referee internal conflict rather than drive the business forward, drawing on Bass’s book of the same name and advisory work with organisations across 30 industries.
Key takeaways:
- Identify the root causes of tension between commercial and technical teams, and the stereotyping patterns that sustain it
- Practical strategies for improving communication, cooperation and shared focus on the customer
- A framework for keeping both groups aligned around market priorities rather than internal politics
A presentation making the case that most organisations are sitting on underused capabilities, relationships and knowledge – and showing leaders how to identify and deploy them to drive growth with less risk and lower capital outlay.
Key takeaways:
- Recognise the cognitive biases and organisational habits that cause valuable resources to be overlooked
- Three lenses for identifying hidden assets within existing people, processes and relationships
- Approaches for creating new growth by recombining what the organisation already has
A leadership session on moving people from passive compliance to genuine ownership of strategic priorities, structured around Bass’s C.E.O. Roadmap introduced in his book Committed Action.
Key takeaways:
- Identify and remove the Commitment Killers that quietly reduce engagement and slow execution
- Apply the three-stage C.E.O. Roadmap: inviting Curiosity, encouraging Exploration, transferring Ownership
- Diagnostic questions and practical frameworks leaders can use to evaluate progress and generate new action
Videos
Testimonials
Books
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Asia Pacific | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Europe | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Middle East & Africa | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| South America | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| United Kingdom | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| US East Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US West Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Virtual | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |