Sound Familiar?
You built something that works. Now it's growing, and somewhere along the way the business started running you. It usually sounds like this:
Blind Spots
You're worried you're missing something crucial.
The Data Hunt
The data you need for a decision is never where you need it.
System Sprawl
Your systems have multiplied, and you suspect you're overpaying for half of them.
The Bottleneck
Too many decisions still have to go through you.
Process Fog
Processes exist, but people keep asking you what they are.
The Next Change
You can feel that growth, a pivot or a new offer is going to hurt.
None of this means anything is wrong with your business. It means your business has outgrown its foundations. That's a good problem, and it's one we love to fix.
What this is (and what it isn't)
Not a consultant. Not a heavy hire.
There have always been two ways to get senior operations capability: hire a full-time COO, or bring in a consultant. One burdens your P&L with a heavyweight salary before you're ready for it. The other hands you a deck and disappears before the hard part starts.
Creative Grid is the third way: an experienced operator, embedded in your business one to three days a week, accountable for outcomes rather than recommendations. I don't drop a deck and run - I roll up my sleeves and come along for the journey, facing down the challenges with the rest of the leadership team.
How I Help
1
Fractional COO
Senior operations leadership, inside your business, without the weight of a full-time hire. I take ownership of the operating engine - finance, governance, people, delivery, systems - so problems move off your desk and onto mine. One to three days a week.
2
Transformation
For the chapters where the business has to become something new: growth that demands restructure, a pivot, a merger of teams, a systems overhaul. Twenty years of transformation experience, from global agency groups to twelve-person studios - delivered with empathy and without drama.
3
AI Operations
Every creative business now needs an AI constitution: clear governance for how AI serves your values, cuts your admin and protects your creativity - never the other way around. I design and implement AI-enabled operations as standard, so you lead the dance rather than being led.
Two ways to work with me
Engage me on an embedded basis from £900 per day + VAT, with small business and startup discounts available (just ask). Or start with an advisory session: an hour of experienced operational eyes on any of the above - £200 + VAT, fixed, no strings. If it's useful, there's more where that came from.
Built in the creative industries, not observed from outside
I built the operational infrastructure of DICE from seed round through Series A, as it beat Ticketmaster to Music Week's Ticketing Company of the Year. I took a beer brand from a standing start to over a million units sold, inside a joint venture with the world's largest brewer. I consolidated a global agency's 22 business units into four regions on a single operating model. Most recently, I spent eighteen months as embedded COO at Trippin & All Corners, building their complete operating engine - finance, governance, people, delivery, knowledge and AI operations - through Creative Grid.
Chaos is just energy looking for a direction
I've spent 20 years turning that energy into value at some of the most exciting and entrepreneurial businesses in the creative industries and the cultural sector. My point of difference has always been that I'm as fascinated by the frameworks that enable commercial and organisational excellence as I am immersed in the organic, legitimate culture in which creativity thrives.
The first question I ask any founder is: what do you really care about? A company is, in essence, a sum of its values. Scaling those values is as much my practice as anything to do with process.
"
Ross Allmark
Founder & Principal, Creative Grid
Our Approach
Creative Grid works to a simple model: align People, Process, Platform and Productivity, and the business delivers maximum value with minimum friction. Guided by design thinking and grounded in real operating experience, I work alongside you - through collaborative workshops, proven frameworks and hands-on delivery - so that execution matches vision and the team feels the change as relief, not disruption.
Our Principles
Collaborative by Design
Partnering with you to develop strategies that align with your vision.
Practical and Proven
Grounded in real-world insights and frameworks that deliver measurable results.
People-First
Prioritising trust, clarity, and engagement to empower your teams and leaders.
When you don't need me
I'm a builder and a fixer. I'm at my best in the chapters where things change: growth that's straining the seams, a pivot, a restructure, a business becoming something new. If your operation is steady, your systems serve you, and the next year looks like the last one - you don't need me, and I'll tell you so. Likewise, if what you need is someone in the engine room every day, that's a brilliant ops manager, not a fractional COO - and I can help you hire one.
Work
Nicky Badenoch
Co-Founder, Genie
“Thanks to Ross's human-centred insights, we’ve crafted a process that brings people with us and therefore drives real, lasting success"
Sam Blenkinsopp
CEO & Co-Founder, Trippin
"Working with Ross was nothing short of transformative. Rather than simply parachuting in a solution, he got under the hood and developed a genuine understanding of our values and the leadership team’s vision. His approach brought clarity and confidence, empowering us to move forward with purpose."
Jason Leavy
MD, VICE Arabia
“In a period of turbulence, transformation and radical change in the creative services sector, there are few people better equipped to help companies find a path forward that is characterised by productivity, innovation and growth.”
Andy Inglis
Founder, 5000
"Ross's diversity of knowledge across many sectors of the creative industries meant he was able to bring a multidisciplinary approach to our business mentoring sessions, leading to insights I would not have considered without him, and positive actions I would not have otherwise taken. Plus he likes food as much as me"
John Sinclair
Co-Founder, ustwo
"Ross's ability to cut through the noise to conceptualise, build and execute business processes from the ground up is quite remarkable. The fact that he’s able to do so without ever losing sight of the user however is his superpower - that is how innovative businesses scale."
Russ Tannen
President, DICE
"Ross is the best operational expert I have had the extreme joy of working with. A builder, a leader and a great hang."
Thinking
