That’s usually where I come in.
Let’s talkABOUT THREE MINUTES
Six questions based on the things I'd want to know if I was looking at your partner ecosystem for the first time.
Where I tend to get involved
01 / Grow
It might be a new market, a new partnership or more from customers you already have. I tend to start with where the opportunity is, then look at what's getting in the way.
Not more activity. More valuable growth.
02 / Transform
Sometimes the strategy is fine. The organisation underneath it isn't. Roles overlap. Incentives pull in different directions. Decisions take too long. Everyone is busy, but the business still isn't moving as it should.
Start with the outcome. Then work backwards from what's stopping it.
03 / Scale
I've worked across more than 70 countries, and one thing is very clear: different markets don't need identical answers. But they do need clarity on where growth will come from, where resources should go and who owns the result.
Scale needs structure. Not more layers.
What clients say
“Madeleine Ellis is among the most capable senior leaders I have encountered in three decades of working with global technology organisations at the C-suite level. She took a fractured, underperforming ecosystem spanning multiple regions and rebuilt it into a coherent, commercially productive operation. I would endorse Madeleine unreservedly for any leadership position she chooses.”
At a glance, then in full
TRANSFORM / IN PRACTICE
The team was experienced and the markets were strong, but priorities, roles and ways of working had evolved differently across the business. We had plenty of activity. What we didn't have was one clear view of where growth would come from, where resources should go and who owned the result. Before changing anything, I listened. More than 100 conversations across the organisation before we started rebuilding the model.
“Madeleine understood that the partner strategy had to work for Sales, not alongside it. She brought much greater clarity around where we should focus, which partners could genuinely help us create and progress opportunities, and how the teams worked together. What I valued most was that she always started with the commercial outcome, not the channel activity. It made her a very credible partner to the sales organisation.”
SCALE / IN PRACTICE
Partner numbers can look impressive. They don't tell you where the next revenue will come from. We needed to know which relationships were creating value, which could create more, and where investment would actually make a difference.
“Quite frankly, the best person we ever dealt with in the company, by a country mile.”
GROW / IN PRACTICE
We knew the companies, the opportunities and what we wanted to sell. What we didn't always know well enough was the person making the decision, what mattered to them, what they were trying to achieve and what that meant for how we approached the opportunity.
AI + The Business
Most companies are already finding places where AI can save time and reduce cost. Saving the time is one thing. What you do with it is another. Does it improve margin? Create growth? Change how you sell? Change what customers pay for? Or do people simply become busier doing something else?
HOW DO YOU SELL?
AI changes propositions, sales cycles and what customers are prepared to pay for.
HOW DO YOU DELIVER?
Work that once required large teams may need fewer people, different skills and completely different ways of working.
HOW DO YOU PARTNER?
If the economics of implementation change, partner models, incentives and services revenue probably need to change too.
HOW DO YOU ORGANISE?
Some roles will change. New ones will appear. That changes the skills you need, who owns what and where human judgement really matters.
The AI Business Test
Where has AI actually changed your revenue model?
What work no longer needs to be done the way it is today?
If something now takes half the time, where does that value go?
Which roles, incentives or accountabilities now make less sense?
Can you point to a business result that changed, not just an AI metric?
So what changed?
Hours saved is not a business outcome. Did it increase revenue? Improve margin? Take genuine cost out? Improve the customer experience? Make the business faster?
DID IT ACTUALLY CHANGE THE ECONOMICS OF THE BUSINESS?
CHANGING THE TECHNOLOGY IS ONE THING. WHAT YOU CHANGE AROUND IT IS ANOTHER.
New economics create new choices about people, partners, pricing and how work gets done.
If you’re already working through those choices, that’s probably a conversation worth having.
Talk about itI work best with businesses facing a real commercial question: where to grow, what to change or how to scale without losing what works. Sometimes that means an executive role. Sometimes advisory, fractional or board work.