McLeod Learning Group
McLeod Learning Group was spawned out of a need to help companies learn quickly about their market places, their competition, and ways to address both more effectively
Many small companies start with great ideas of how they can make an impact on the market. These ideas, while grand, need lots of detail and development to better succeed. Developing a simple, but robust value proposition is essential for initially capturing customers and then must be followed up with exceptional discipline of execution.
We examine this value chain to reduce links, optimize handoffs, and assure connections are proper.
Example Engagements
Geospatial Building Information Management Joint market research study commissioned by two of the world's leading design and geospatial software vendors, exploring an emerging market at the intersection of GIS and BIM. Involved 21 structured interviews across 31 individuals in 10 countries over approximately eight weeks, producing a formal intelligence report with strategic recommendations for both clients.
Civil Infrastructure Multi-sector market engagement study for a top-three global CAD/BIM software vendor, covering Roads & Highways, Rail, Water, and Land Development. Delivered a structured research report examining buyer behavior, competitive positioning, and growth opportunity across four distinct infrastructure segments.
Energy & Maritime Back-to-back discovery workshops for two software companies recently acquired by a private equity firm operating in the energy data sector. Each engagement produced a formal baseline report covering business model, value proposition, and go-to-market priorities — delivered within a compressed post-acquisition timeline.
Process Simulation & Digital Twin Software Strategic Pulse Workshop for a process simulation software provider operating within a large global engineering group. Engagement focused on re-establishing market focus, clarifying the value proposition, and identifying realistic scale opportunities within the parent organization's broader market footprint.
Construction Technology Ongoing strategic advisory retainer for an early-stage construction project intelligence startup pursuing market traction. Scope included investor pitch development, sales framework design, and go-to-market strategy — working directly with the founding team across multiple engagement phases.
Motorsports Strategy and growth planning engagement for a professional North American racing team. Focused on business development, commercial partnerships, and organizational growth planning outside the core competition operation.
Our Approach
Who We Are
Senior practitioners with decades of real-world commercial experience.
McLeod Learning Group is a boutique strategic advisory practice built on direct commercial experience, not theoretical frameworks. Founded on the principle that good advice can only come from people who have actually done the work, MLG brings decades of senior-level engagement across sales strategy, market research, business development, and organizational growth. Every engagement is led by an experienced practitioner — there are no junior consultants, no account managers, no hand-offs. Clients work directly with the person whose judgment they hired. The practice has served organizations ranging from seed-stage technology startups to some of the world's largest software corporations, across North America, Europe, and beyond — spanning industries as varied as infrastructure, geospatial technology, maritime, construction, process simulation, and motorsports.
How We Work
Discovery first, formal deliverables always, outcomes over presentations.
Every MLG engagement begins with deep discovery — understanding the real state of your business before recommending anything. We do not arrive with pre-packaged solutions. What follows is structured, deliberate work that produces formal written deliverables: research reports, strategic assessments, workshop outputs, and advisory documents that you can act on, share with your board, or build your next plan around. We stay engaged through implementation rather than handing over a document and stepping away. Engagements are scoped clearly at the outset, managed transparently throughout, and measured against outcomes — not the quality of a presentation.
Our Obligations to You
Confidential, independent, and commercially honest — always.
MLG operates under strict confidentiality in every engagement. Client information, strategies, and commercial data are never shared, referenced, or leveraged beyond the bounds of the engagement for which they were provided. We do not represent competing interests within the same engagement, and we will not accept work where such a conflict exists. Beyond legal obligation, we hold ourselves to a higher commercial standard: telling clients what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. If the market opportunity is smaller than hoped, the pricing strategy is wrong, or the sales approach needs a fundamental reset, we will say so clearly — and back it with evidence. That independence is the most valuable thing we offer.
What Good Advisory Looks Like
You should be better positioned after the work than before.
The measure of a good advisory engagement is not a well-received presentation or a polished report — it is whether the client is meaningfully better positioned after the work than before it. Good advisory is uncomfortable at times. It asks hard questions, challenges assumptions, and resists the temptation to validate what a client already believes. It is also deeply practical — grounded in commercial reality, executable within real organizational constraints, and honest about risk. We have walked away from engagements that were not the right fit and recommended approaches that were not in our own commercial interest. That is not idealism. It is the only way to do work worth doing.