I’m Antony Draper. I work with founders of UK businesses, typically with 20–50 employees, where too many decisions, customer problems and delivery issues still come back to the owner.
Together, we clarify who owns the work, what the team can decide, and when your involvement is needed.
Client feedback on a structural readiness audit
“The audit not only validated several instincts I had about our operations but also gave us a clear path forward, including a structured 30-60-90-day plan to strengthen our foundations.”
Alisha O'Neill, Co-Founder & Director — Phoenix Rising Consulting Group
How I work with a founder-led team
Diagnose: follow a real decision, customer problem or delivery issue that keeps returning to you. Establish where it gets stuck and why.
Design: agree an owner, the decisions they can make, the information they need and the exceptions that should reach you.
Embed: work with you and your leaders to put those agreements into practice, review what happens and adjust where the work still comes back.
Royal Navy · 1994–2005
I served in the Royal Navy from 1994 to 2005. That experience shaped how I think about responsibility and judgement under pressure.
People need clear intent, authority and standards to act. Without them, responsibility travels upwards. I see the same pattern in growing businesses.
From military service into complex business
After leaving the forces, I worked across HP, Capita and complex public-sector and defence environments in sales, account management, programme delivery and operations.
The scale was different, but the operating question was familiar: who can decide, who owns the outcome, and what needs escalation?
I have also learned what happens when it goes wrong
I also launched a business that failed. I dealt with the financial consequences, rebuilt and returned to business with a sharper understanding of cash, control and operational discipline.
That experience informs how I work with founders carrying the decisions and consequences themselves.
The founder should still be visible
Founder Independence does not mean founder absence. The founder still sets direction, creates value and makes the decisions that genuinely require their judgement.
The objective is to stop making the founder the company’s default approval system, information hub, quality controller and escalation point.