The Work
Decisions often don't fail because the analysis was wrong. They fail in the landing.Gibb Advisory works with leaders ahead of significant transitions — providing an independent read of where exposure is forming and what needs to be considered before they commit.The transition might be a leadership change, an acquisition, a restructure, a major public commitment, or a partnership that is more exposed than it looks. The kind of moment that will define the next two or three years.The most useful counsel at moments like these is genuinely independent. Gibb Advisory is a sole practice. There is no firm, no network with its own interests, no financial stake in the outcome. The only obligation is to the client.The gap between aspiration and real-world reception is where the risk lives. Working on that gap early — before the options begin to close — is how you move with confidence.
The Gap
Most decisions don't fail because the risks were invisible. They fail once they meet the internal dynamics, governance structures, and external stakeholder pressure they were never fully examined against.That gap is where an independent read changes what is possible. It is where Gibb Advisory works.
The Foundation
The work draws on ongoing primary research with senior leaders: how transitions actually played out, what signals were present but not acted on, where the gap between internal conviction and external reality opened without warning.Not a judgment on the calls that sat behind them. A read of what was visible, what was missed, and what that pattern suggests about the transition in front of you now.No adviser inside the situation has access to that pattern. An independent read, grounded in how these moments have actually behaved, is what changes what is possible.That is the foundation of every engagement.
HOW WE WORK
Gibb Advisory works across four engagement types. Each is designed around a different moment and a different need. All are grounded in the same principle: independent counsel, at the point when it matters most.All engagements begin with a scoping conversation.
Independent Sounding Board
A single conversation for a specific moment. Up to 60 minutes by phone, Zoom or in person, followed by a short summary note capturing the key points and considerations. For leaders who need an independent read on something forming, before it becomes a decision or a commitment. For many leaders, this is where the relationship begins.
Focused Transition Engagement
For leaders who are close to a moment and need to move quickly. Two working sessions over up to two months, with check-ins between, focused on triaging immediate exposures and identifying the next steps most likely to stabilise the situation and regain clarity and momentum.Closes with a summary note on key findings and priorities.
Forward Engagement
For leaders with a significant transition on the horizon and enough lead time to prepare properly. Three to four working sessions over up to three months, with an independent read across the full picture: the environment, stakeholder dynamics, internal and external context, and the patterns of risk and opportunity most relevant to what is ahead.Closes with a review note setting out key findings and a prioritised view of where to focus before the moment arrives.
Retained
A standing relationship for leaders who want independent counsel as a constant rather than a one-off. A monthly session of 60 to 90 minutes as the backbone, with responsive access between sessions for the moments that won't wait.A light review every quarter to step back from the immediate and take stock of what is developing and what is on the horizon. The retained relationship accumulates something the other engagements don't: context. Over time, the read becomes sharper because the landscape is already known.Minimum three month commitment. 30 days notice to cancel thereafter.
Fiona Gibb
More than 20 years inside senior leadership — including eleven as a Global Managing Director at HSBC, on the executive committees of its two largest and most complex global businesses. What that time built is a practiced ability to read how decisions behave under pressure. Where the gap between what a leadership team believes and what is actually happening tends to open. What is visible at the point before commitment, and what is not.That is not a skill that belongs to large institutions. The dynamics of transition — the stakeholder pressures, the distance between internal conviction and external reality, the signals that are present but not acted on — are present wherever leaders are making decisions that matter. The work is grounded in ongoing primary research with senior leaders across sectors, examining how transitions have actually played out and what they reveal about the moments that preceded them.
START A CONVERSATION
Every engagement begins with a scoping conversation — a short call to establish whether there is a fit and what the right approach is.If you are approaching a moment that matters, or can see one on the horizon, the right time to have that conversation is before the options begin to close.
We’ll only use your details to reply to you. Our privacy notice is below.
PRIVACY NOTICELast updated: 20 October 2026
1. Who we are
This notice explains how Gibb Advisory Limited uses personal information. We are a company registered in England and Wales, company number 17226298, with our registered office at Midway House Herrick Way, Staverton, Cheltenham, England, GL51 6TQ. We are the controller of the personal information described here and are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, registration number ZC245146.
If you have any questions, or want to use any of your rights, email [email protected].
2. Whose information we hold
We are a small advisory firm, so we hold information about a limited number of people:
• people who contact us through this website or by email
• clients, and people at client organisations we work with
• business contacts, including people we would like to work with and people who introduce us to others
• people who take part in our research interviews
• people who subscribe to our writing
3. What we collect and why
Who What we hold and why Our legal basis
If you contact us Your name, email address, organisation and what you tell us, so we can reply and, if you want, discuss working together. Our legitimate interest in responding to enquiries, or taking steps you have asked for before entering a contract.
Clients Contact details and the information needed to deliver and invoice our work, including notes of conversations and documents you share with us. Performing our contract with you or your organisation, and complying with legal obligations such as keeping accounting records.
Business contacts Your name, role, organisation, work contact details and notes of our conversations, so we can stay in touch about work that may be relevant to you. Our legitimate interest in developing our business with people in professional roles. You can ask us to stop at any time.
Research participants Your name, role, contact details and what you tell us in an interview, so we can understand how organisations handle major decisions. We publish findings only in anonymised form. Our legitimate interest in carrying out research. If we record an interview, we ask for your agreement first.
Subscribers Your email address, so we can send you our writing. Your consent, which you can withdraw by unsubscribing.
We do not ask for sensitive information, such as health details. If you share it with us, we will only keep it if it is necessary, and we will not include it in anything we publish.
4. Where we get information from
Most of the information we hold comes from you. For business contacts, it may also come from people who introduce us, from LinkedIn, or from public sources such as company websites, annual reports and news coverage. In that case we hold your name, role, organisation and work contact details.
5. Who we share it with
We do not sell personal information. We share it only with organisations that help us run the business, under terms that require them to protect it:
• our website and contact form provider (Carrd)
• our email, document and file storage providers (Microsoft 365)
• our accounting software provider and our accountant
• our newsletter platform (Substack), which also has its own privacy policy for subscribers
• professional advisers and insurers, where needed
We use AI tools to help with drafting and analysis, under terms that do not allow our data to be used to train their models. We may also share information where the law requires it.
6. Information sent outside the UK
Some of our providers are based in, or store data in, the United States or elsewhere outside the UK. Where this happens, we use providers that protect it through UK adequacy regulations or the contract terms approved for international transfers. You can ask us for details.
7. How long we keep it
• Enquiries that do not lead to work: up to two years after we last heard from you.
• Client records: six years after our work ends, to meet legal and tax requirements.
• Business contacts: we review our contacts every two years and remove people we are no longer in touch with.
• Research interviews: we delete recordings once our notes are complete, and we keep notes until the research is finished. Anonymised findings may be kept indefinitely.
• Subscribers: until you unsubscribe.
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This website does not use analytics or advertising cookies. Any cookies it sets are strictly necessary for the site to work.
9. Your rights
You have the right to:
• ask for a copy of the information we hold about you
• ask us to correct it
• ask us to delete it
• ask us to limit how we use it
• object to how we use it, including asking us to stop contacting you about our work, which we will always do
• ask us to transfer information you gave us to another organisation
• withdraw your consent where we rely on it
To use any of these rights, email [email protected]. We will respond within one month. We do not make decisions about people by automated means.
10. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first at [email protected]. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and tell you what we have done about it.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.
11. Changes to this notice
We will update this notice if the way we use personal information changes. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.
© GIBB ADVISORY LTD 2026. All rights reserved. Registered in England and Wales, company number 17226298. Registered office address: Midway House Herrick Way, Staverton, Cheltenham, England, GL51 6TQ.