21 rules

[1]  sherlock was created as the alternative to leading global management consultancies, and AI. 

[2]  sherlock specialises in unstructured management problems.  

[3]  sherlock tells a client how things are, not what the client wants to hear. 

[4]  sherlock neither rejects nor accepts a client’s problem definition. 

[5] sherlock treats the client’s problem definition as one of many hypotheses. 

[6]  Client informs sherlock what actions they have taken to solve a problem on their own. 

[7]  sherlock doesn’t offer off-the-shelf solutions, so hypotheses are only created at a client’s site.

[8]  Within 72 hours from receiving a fee sherlock starts a case at client’s site. 

[9]  Client selects three employees from different departments to work on a problem.  

[10]  sherlock discusses daily a current case hypothesis for 1 hour with a management board. 

[11]  sherlock gathers facts from physical environment via observation and experimenting.

[12]  Client will conduct small experiments regarding a problem requested by sherlock.

[13]  sherlock observes production site, warehouse, points of sale, sales department and office. 

[14]  sherlock talks with employees, who are closest to products/services and customers.

[15]  sherlock requests access to organisation’s financial and managerial data. 

[16]  sherlock presents a one-page solution to the problem at a management board meeting. 

[17]  The solution is a recommended action reducing an organisation’s exposure to causes, not only symptoms of a problem.  

[18]  sherlock doesn’t help in implementing solutions developed without his participation. 

[19]  sherlock helps in implementing solutions as a sparring partner to management boards and employees.  

[20] Finding a solution and its implementation are two separate cases. 

[21]  sherlock solves a case, and helps in its implementation as a consultant to a management board, neither as an employee nor management board member and never replaces them in any case whatsoever.