Consultancy and coaching

Chalkstream’s MD Ben Verinder has over 20 years’ experience as a strategic advisor to a wide range of boards and senior teams.

 

Consultancy clients include ZSL, NATO, the UK Government, Cunard, City & Guilds and Quadram Institute of Bioscience.

 

His coaching offers leaders the space to apply strategic thinking to their role, support in advising senior colleagues on communication, cultural and change management and guidance to enable growth and continuous professional development.

AI consultancy and support

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Our consultancy and support typically takes the form of briefings and audits. It includes:

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• Executive or board briefing: Research-informed sector-specific updates for senior leaders on AI trends, deployment opportunities, reputation risks, and best practice.  
   

• AI and PR briefing: Forward-looking analysis of AI implications for public relations and what they mean for an organisation and its PR function.
   

• AI adoption assessment: Comprehensive review combining primary research and organisational analysis to map current public relations capabilities, contextualize IT infrastructure alongside budgets and broader policies, and identify the main opportunities presented by AI. Outputs: a roadmap of quick wins, 3 to 6 month action plan, and longer-term recommendations.
   

• AI implementation review: Detailed evaluation of 3 to 5 high-value tasks where AI has been deployed.  Assessment includes checks relating to hallucination, tone of voice, prompt efficiency, bias, copyright and disclosure. Output: Prioritised (RAG) improvement plan.
   

• Policy assessment: A review of existing AI governance frameworks for clarity, coverage and reputation risk management. Outputs: annotated policy and recommendations for future iterations.
   

• Transparency and disclosure framework: Strategic guidance on AI disclosure across collateral. Outputs: plain-language labels for policies, digital platforms and other channels.

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Other consultancy and coaching topics include: 

 

• Reputation management

• Stakeholder engagement  

• Brand, message and narrative development

• Public relations, marketing and reputation management strategies

• Change management

• Merger and acquisition

• Issues and crisis management on very wide range of issues, including:

  • Insolvency

  • Departure of senior postholders

  • Regulatory intervention

  • Employment tribunal

  • Fatalities

  • Business closure

  • Financial irregularities.

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