Our approach

Leaders do not always need another specialist opinion. Sometimes they need someone who can step outside the existing structure, understand what matters and give them an independent view.

We work directly with CEOs and senior leaders, often alongside existing advisers and internal teams. Our role is to keep the commercial objective in view, help make sense of different advice and external pressures, and say plainly what we think should happen next.

Assignments range from a single piece of advice to ongoing support as a situation develops.

Find straight answers to commonly asked questions about consulting
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Start with the objective

Before discussing the route, we establish what success actually looks like. Difficult situations often become much clearer once the destination is properly defined.

Say what we think

Good advice should leave a client better informed and better placed to make a decision. That does not necessarily mean agreeing with them. Sometimes the most useful advice is the advice a client would rather not hear.

Work with the reality

Organisations rarely work exactly as they appear on paper. We look at how decisions are really being made and where responsibilities or relationships are helping or getting in the way. We work with the people already involved where that helps the objective, and challenge the arrangement where it does not.

Stay close to the outcome

Some assignments need a single piece of advice. Others need someone to stay involved as the situation develops. We stay close enough to the work to help turn advice into an outcome.

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Our founder

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Daragh Quinn

Daragh founded QLT Strategic to provide businesses, investors and leadership teams with senior advice grounded in experience and practical judgement.

Before founding the firm, he advised successive Prime Ministers on communications and strategy, following a 15-year career in politics. He started working at 16 and went on to run local and national campaigns, as well as advising MPs, Shadow Ministers and senior politicians in Westminster and at the Welsh Assembly.

That experience taught him how decisions are made in practice, particularly when formal structures do not reflect where influence or responsibility really sits. He now applies that judgement more broadly, helping clients see what is getting in the way and what needs to change.

Today, Daragh advises investors, FTSE 100 companies and other organisations on commercial and political matters, including major projects and periods of change.

Questions answered

  • Straightforward advice, practical support and a genuine interest in the outcome.

    We are not particularly interested in producing lengthy reports that sit on a shelf. Most clients come to us because they want help achieving something in the real world.

    Our job is to contribute to that effort in whatever way is most useful.

  • Extensively.

    Good advice should be informed by evidence wherever possible, and developments in data analysis, artificial intelligence and other technologies have created valuable new tools for advisers and clients alike.

    We make extensive use of these technologies to improve research, accelerate workflows, reduce administrative burdens and allow more time to be spent on analysis, strategy and client support.

    At the same time, most important decisions involve factors that cannot be fully captured in a report, model or dataset. Commercial realities, personalities, incentives, timing and relationships all matter.

    Our view is that the best decisions combine the advantages of modern technology with experience, context and an understanding of how organisations and people actually operate.

  • We see ourselves as a complement to management, not a substitute for it.

    The strongest engagements tend to be those where there is an open exchange of information and ideas. Internal teams bring detailed knowledge of the business. We bring external perspective and experience from similar situations, with additional capacity where needed.

    Neither works particularly well without the other.

  • An important one.

    Business is conducted through relationships. The same is true of investment. It is equally true of politics and regulation.

    Strong relationships rarely guarantee success, but they can create opportunities and improve understanding. They can also help good ideas receive a fair hearing.

    Building and maintaining those relationships is therefore an important part of many assignments.

  • Trust.

    Most of our work comes from long-standing relationships and introductions.

    That is not because clients face the same challenge repeatedly. It is because they know how we work, what we are good at and that they will receive an honest view when they ask for one.

    Over time, that familiarity tends to become more valuable than any individual piece of advice.