The McKinsey for Scaleups: Why High-Growth Companies Need Strategy-First Growth Consulting (Not Another Agency)

Strategy-first Growth Consultancy for Scaleups

Scaleups don’t stall because they lack ambition. They stall because complexity outpaces clarity.

Revenue is growing, teams are expanding, channels are multiplying, but the strategy underneath hasn’t evolved fast enough to support the next stage.

Growth becomes unpredictable, marketing gets busier, but ROI gets harder to prove. Decision-making slows just when momentum matters most.

This is the moment global enterprises turn to firms like McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, or Bain & Company.

But scaleups sit in an uncomfortable middle ground:

• Too complex for agencies

• Too dynamic for heavyweight enterprise consulting

• Too important to leave growth decisions to trial and error

This is where a new kind of consultancy is needed.

This is where OSER operates.

When scaleups hit the “complexity ceiling”

Scaleups typically engage growth consultancies when they hit a complexity ceiling, such as:

• Growth has plateaued or become unpredictable

• Marketing activity is high, but ROI is declining

• Internal processes and teams can’t keep up with customer demand

• The business is preparing for a high-stakes funding round, acquisition, or exit

At this stage, the problem isn’t a channel, a campaign, or a tool; it's a clarity problem.

And clarity is a leadership issue, not a marketing one.

Why agencies can stop being as effective at this stage

Agencies are built to optimise execution, but scaleups at this stage need help optimising decisions.

Early on, agencies can accelerate growth by scaling activity. But as businesses mature, leadership teams face more fundamental questions:

• Where should growth really come from next?

• What should we stop doing, not just do better?

• How does brand, proposition, pricing, and go-to-market align with investor expectations?

• What actually drives long-term enterprise value here?

Without strategic clarity, execution doesn’t fix the problem - it amplifies the wrong priorities faster.

This is why scaleups often feel like marketing is “busy” but not effective.

What top-tier consultancies do brilliantly, and where scaleups need something different

There’s a reason McKinsey, BCG, and Bain are the gold standard for strategic transformation.

They excel at:

• Enterprise-level operating model redesign

• Portfolio strategy for private equity and large corporates

• Multi-market, multi-year transformation programmes

But scaleups need something different:

• Faster decision cycles

• Founder-level context, not generic benchmarks

• A strategy that flows directly into brand, growth, and execution

• Senior thinking without heavyweight delivery models

Traditional consulting often feels too slow, too abstract, and too disconnected from the day-to-day reality of scaling a business.

The OSER model: McKinsey-level thinking, built for scaleups

OSER is a strategy-first growth consultancy for scaleups, often described as “the McKinsey for scaleups”, but with a fundamentally different delivery model.

OSER focuses on:

• Leadership-level clarity, not channel optimisation

• Strategy before execution

• Growth decisions aligned to funding stage, valuation drivers, and exit paths• Fractional and project-based engagement, not bloated retainers

We sit at the intersection of strategy, brand, creativity, and growth, translating board-level thinking into decisions teams can actually execute.

This is why many scaleups work with OSER via:

• Fractional leadership roles

• Strategic growth audits

• Executive clarity and positioning work

• Investor-aligned growth strategy

You can see how this plays out in practice through our Fractional CMO model.

Why investors and private equity care about this shift

Increasingly, investors aren’t just asking: “Is the business growing?”

They’re asking questions like:

• Is the growth repeatable?

• Is the brand differentiated and defensible?

• Does the leadership team understand what actually drives future value?

OSER is often engaged to assess how scalable, differentiated, and resilient a company’s growth engine really is - not just current performance metrics.

This work increasingly supports:

• Private equity portfolio growth strategy

• Investor due diligence on growth readiness

• Leadership alignment ahead of funding or exit

In other words, growth is no longer a marketing function. It’s a valuation driver.

The real benefits of engaging a strategy-first growth consultancy

The value isn’t more activity, it's about better decisions.

Objectivity

An unbiased, external perspective that surfaces blind spots leadership teams are too close to see.

Speed

Proven strategic frameworks applied immediately, without months of onboarding or internal politics.

Expertise

Senior, specialist capability delivered fractionally or project-based - without the overhead of a full-time executive hire.

This is why OSER is often engaged when the stakes are highest, and clarity matters most.

What strategy-first growth actually means at scale

For scaleups, growth is no longer about doing more; it's about making fewer and better decisions that compound over time.

At OSER, strategy-first growth focuses on four things agencies rarely own and enterprise consultancies rarely operationalise:

1. Strategy for long-term profit, not short-term activity

Scaleups don’t just need growth - they need profitable, repeatable growth. That means understanding which revenue streams, customer segments, and growth bets actually build enterprise value over time, not just headline metrics.

2. Category entry points and where growth really comes from

Growth rarely comes from shouting louder in the same place. It comes from identifying new category entry points; new moments, needs, and contexts where buyers are open to switching or choosing differently, and aligning strategy, brand, and go-to-market around them.

This is how scaleups move from “one of many” to the obvious choice.

3. Positioning and distinctiveness that hold at scale

As scale increases, weak positioning collapses.OSER works with leadership teams to define positioning that is:

• Clear internally

• Distinctive externally

• Defensible in the eyes of customers and investors

Because differentiation isn’t a brand exercise, it’s a growth and valuation lever.

4. Senior Leadership Team clarity

Most growth problems are really alignment problems.OSER works directly with founders, CEOs, and SLTs to create shared clarity on:

• Where the business is going

• What matters most now

• What to stop, start, and double down on

Without SLT clarity, execution fragments and growth stalls, regardless of budget or talent.

OSER is purpose-built for growth-stage businesses. OSER brings the strategic rigour, pattern recognition, and leadership-level thinking associated with top-tier consultancies, without the weight, cost, or disconnect scaleups don’t need.

We exist for founders, CEOs, leadership teams, and investors who want:

• Clear strategic direction

• Growth that compounds

• Decisions aligned to long-term value, not short-term noise

If you want to understand how OSER works in more detail, start here.

FAQs (for founders, CEOs, and investors)

What is a growth consultancy for scaleups?

A growth consultancy helps scaleups solve strategic growth challenges across positioning, brand, go-to-market, and leadership decision-making - not just execution.

How is a growth consultancy different from a marketing agency?

Agencies execute tactics. Growth consultancies focus on clarity, strategy, and leadership-level decisions that shape execution.

Is OSER similar to McKinsey or BCG?

OSER applies similar strategic rigour, but is purpose-built for scaleups, with faster delivery models and direct integration into growth and marketing decisions.

When should a scaleup hire a growth consultant?

Typically when growth plateaus, ROI declines, complexity increases, or the business is preparing for funding, acquisition, or exit.

Does OSER work with investors and private equity?

Yes. OSER supports investors and PE firms with growth strategy, differentiation, and growth-readiness assessments as part of due diligence and portfolio value creation.

Does working with OSER mean replacing our existing agencies?

No. OSER is not an agency and doesn’t compete with your existing partners.

OSER works at a leadership and strategy level, helping founders and senior leadership teams define the long-term growth strategy, positioning, and priorities that agencies then execute against. In many cases, OSER works alongside existing agencies to bring clarity, alignment, and direction to their work.

Crucially, OSER helps leadership teams join the dots across commercial data, customer insight, brand, and performance, so decisions are made from a single, coherent view of what is actually driving growth - not fragmented channel metrics.

Where needed, OSER can also help:

• Assess whether current agency partners are right for the next growth stage

• Roster in specialist agencies or partners to deliver specific parts of the strategy• brief agencies clearly to improve output, speed, and ROI

• Support larger brand moments, such as PR, major campaigns, or TV

The goal isn’t to replace agencies - it’s to ensure everyone is working from the same strategic blueprint, so execution compounds over time.