Owner dependency: hand the rule-based decisions to a system
Much of what lands on your desk follows rules you already apply without thinking. Strategyc writes those rules down with you and installs systems that apply them, on accounts you own. You see the exceptions.
$3,000, credited in full toward your install if you go ahead within 30 days.
TL;DR
Owner dependency is when the business can't price a job or approve a change order until you look at it. Many of those calls follow rules you already apply. A system can apply them and send you the exceptions. Strategyc's $3,000 audit maps what a system can take off your desk. It's credited in full if you commission an install within 30 days. Installs run $12,000 to $35,000 per system, with a delivery guarantee.
What is owner dependency?
Owner dependency is when a business can't make routine decisions or answer customers without the owner involved. It caps the business at the owner's hours and makes it harder to step back from or sell.
In a contracting business, the estimator walks the bid to your desk for the final number and every change order waits for your signature. The month-end work-in-progress report doesn't exist until you sit down and build it. Some of that needs you. Plenty of it follows rules you could explain to a new hire in one sentence, and a system applies a written rule the same way every time.
What does it look like when everything runs through the owner?
Nothing big goes wrong. You spend the week answering questions other people could answer if the rules lived somewhere besides your head.
- The superintendent calls at 6am to confirm tomorrow's crew numbers.
- It's bid day and the estimator needs you for the final number and the exclusions.
- A purchase order over a set amount sits until you're back in the office.
- Only you know which general contractors pay late, so only you can decide whether to bid their next job.
- The month-end report waits for a Sunday night.
Every one of those is a decision. Most of them follow a rule you already use. The rule just isn't written anywhere a person or a system can read it.
How do you sort your decisions into rule, review and judgment?
Write down every approval or answer that reached you last week. Then put each one in one of three piles.
- 1
Rule
You could explain it to a new hire in one sentence. Bids under a set size in your core scope go out at your standard margin. A system can make this call.
- 2
Review
A system can do the legwork and draft the answer, and you sign off in a minute. A change order backed by signed time-and-materials tickets is a good example.
- 3
Judgment
It depends on a relationship or a risk you can't write down. The final number on a big bid stays with you.
Count the rule pile. That's the work a system can take off you, and it's the number worth bringing to the audit.
Where do you start when everything runs through you?
Start with the decision that reaches you most often. A frequent decision costs you the most hours and gives the system plenty of past examples to check against.
Owner dependency usually shows up in several places at once: quoting, approvals and reporting. The audit ranks them by payback. You build one system first and see it working before you decide on the next.
How much of my time does the install take?
Most of it comes early. The first part of the build is you explaining how you decide. We write that down as rules for you to correct.
After that the building is ours. Your time goes into checking what the system drafts before go-live and into the training. When it's live, the decisions in scope stop coming to you.
Should you rent, buy or build the fix for owner dependency?
There are three ways to get decisions off your desk. Each one suits a different business.
| Comparison area | Rent an agency | Buy software | Build and own (Strategyc install) |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | People or a platform that handle a task for you, on their accounts | A tool for one job, such as approvals or scheduling, that your team sets up and runs | Systems that apply your written rules to routine decisions on your accounts and send the exceptions to you |
| Who sets it up | The agency | You or your office manager | Strategyc, from your audit, with your team trained to run it |
| What it costs | A monthly retainer. At $5,000 a month, that's $60,000 a year, every year. | Per seat or per month, for as long as you use it | $12,000 to $35,000 per system, one time, after a $3,000 audit credited in full if you go ahead within 30 days |
| What you own | Nothing, once you stop paying | Your data, inside their product | The system, the accounts, the data and the runbook |
| If you stop paying | It stops the same day | You lose the tool and the setup your team put into it | It keeps running. Managed operations is optional and you can cancel anytime. |
| Best when | You want a task gone and don't mind never owning how it's done | One off-the-shelf tool fits the decision as it stands | The decisions are specific to how you run jobs and you want them to keep working after we're gone |
Whoever you talk to, ask what still runs the day you stop paying them.
How does Strategyc take decisions off the owner's desk?
We start with the audit, because owner dependency is rarely one system. Then we build the system at the top of the map on your accounts and train your team to run it.
The audit is one working session with Alastair, then a written map of where AI removes cost, hours or lag in your operation. It names the systems, ranks them by payback and puts them in build order, with a buy-vs-build call on each. If the numbers don't clear the bar for an install, you get that in writing too.
What it costs
- AI Opportunity Audit: $3,000. It becomes your first payment on the build if you go ahead within 30 days, while the map is current.
- AI System Install: $12,000 to $35,000 per system, one time.
- Managed AI Operations: optional, $1,500 to $6,000 a month, cancel anytime. The system keeps running if you cancel.
Every install is scoped by proposal from your audit, and the price changes only if the scope does.
The guarantee
For owner dependency, a good pass-or-fail line is a count: how many of the decisions in scope still reach you in a normal week after go-live. You set the number before we build.
Your scope document sets a go-live date and a pass-or-fail line for every system in it. Miss the date and we keep building at our own cost until it works as scoped. If we still can't deliver it, we refund the install and you keep everything we built, in your accounts, with the documentation.
We take on two to three installs per quarter. Build weeks are blocked in advance, so installs start on fixed dates.
Every install is scoped and led by Alastair Macartney, Strategyc's founder. He's a former British Army Major who directed the UK's Defence Courier Service. More about Alastair
The full offer, the audit and how the guarantee works are laid out on our AI implementation partner page.
What do owners ask about owner dependency?
Strategyc's audit is $3,000, credited in full toward the install if you go ahead within 30 days. Each system costs $12,000 to $35,000, one time. Owner dependency often needs more than one, and the audit tells you which to build first.
The audit takes one to two weeks. A single system is typically a few weeks of build once it's scoped. The go-live date is written into your scope document, and the guarantee is tied to that date.
That's where they usually are. Part of the build is getting them out. You explain how you decide, and we write it down as rules for you to correct until they match what you'd do.
For decisions that follow a rule, yes, and it applies the rule the same way every time. Judgment calls get drafted for you to approve, or stay with you entirely.
If you're under $2M in revenue, probably not yet. At that size an off-the-shelf tool usually does more for less money. Between $2M and $3M, Alastair reads every application himself before the calendar opens.
Which of your decisions can a system take?
Before the call
Count the approvals and answers that reached you last week. Bring the number.
Apply for the AI Opportunity Audit
A working session with the founder, plus a written map of where AI pays off in your specific operation, ranked by payback. $3,000, credited in full toward your install if you go ahead within 30 days. We run a small number of these each month. If your numbers clearly fit, you'll see the calendar straight away. If it's not obvious either way, Alastair reads the application himself and replies within one business day.