For senior leaders at mid-market companies who need change made, not recommended — THG is the operator-led, AI-native execution firm where former CxOs run every engagement, paired with AI as the execution layer. Experience matched by AI. The most human firm in the age of AI.
Brand Book · v1.3Internal · vendors welcomeOwner · Tom Ellis
What we are, what we're against, and why anyone should believe us.
The single page the CEO can read once and recite on a sales call. Everything below ladders back to it.
For senior leaders at mid-market companies who need change made, not recommended, THG is the operator-led, AI-native execution firm where former CxOs run every engagement, paired with AI as the execution layer. Senior operators. AI-speed execution. One firm.
38 words · CEO can recite
The short version — homepage hero, deck cover, LinkedIn:
Senior operators. AI-speed execution. One firm.
7 words · founder-approved hero
Three reasons to believe
Pillar 01
Former CxOs run it.
Every engagement is led by a former C-suite operator who has actually run the function — a former CIO leading CIO work, a former CMO leading the brand reposition, a former CFO running close.
Walt Carter — 3 digital transformations, 20+ enterprise programs (named CIO/transformation receipt)
Marty Smith — operator-grade GTM & growth (named CMO-adjacent receipt)
13+ decades of senior-exec experience · 50+ executive consultants
Executive Bench Placement (service line #6) puts former CxOs in the seat as a product
Pillar 02
AI is how we ship.
AI does the labor; the operator does the judgment. AI is the execution layer underneath every engagement — not a service line we sell. When AI commoditizes the analyst layer, the senior human in the room is the only thing left worth paying for.
Service line #3 — Technology, Data & AI Enablement (delivery, not pitch deck)
AI Operations Council + AI Deep Dive Council — peer-org production signal
Outcome-priced economics — the math only works if we ship faster
The most human firm in the age of AI — defends against AI-only build shops AND big-firm partner-with-junior model in one frame
Pillar 03
One firm, full surface.
Seven coordinated service lines, six peer councils, one principal, one bench, one bill. No PM tax on top of seven vendors who have never met each other.
7 service lines covering the full operator surface (incl. Executive Bench Placement)
6 peer councils as the firm's listening post
50+ executive consultants behind the named leadership
Division of Alba International Services — real infrastructure
Receipts discipline
What we can claim today vs. what we'll name at scoping
For CIO and growth-led work we name the operator on the website today (Walt Carter, Marty Smith). For CMO, CHRO, COO, and CFO engagements, the named former CxO is identified at scoping — drawn from the bench of 50+ executive consultants and the council network. We don't sell an engagement we can't staff with a peer-level former operator.
What we're against
The old way
Slide-deck consulting — 60-page reports that "consider next steps"
Junior-leveraged delivery — partner pitches, 26-year-old runs the work
AI without operating judgment — models nobody asked for
Big-firm tempo — "draft for the steering committee in 8 weeks"
What we're for
Judgment in the room — peer-level former operators, not deputies
Execution out the door — change made, not recommended
Weeks not quarters — AI compresses the labor, not the thinking
One accountable principal from sales call through close
Six primary personas at mid-market companies, $75M–$500M revenue, 200–2,500 employees. Ownership-agnostic (PE-backed strongest urgency signal; founder-owned and family-owned in-bounds). Fortune 500+ — including divisional buyers — is anti-ICP. Full bios in brand/audience.md.
CEO
CEO under the clock
Mid-market portco CEO, board has flagged the plan yellow, two quarters from the moment that defines their tenure. Economic buyer and champion both.
Killing objection
"I've spent on consultants before. I got a deck and an invoice. My board is going to ask what I actually got."
CIO
CIO with an AI mandate
90 days into a new seat or a post-acquisition integration. Inherited tech debt, a CEO who promised the board an AI agenda. Influencer, rarely closer.
Killing objection
"I've been burned by 'AI consultants' who sent me a 25-year-old with a notebook and an opinion."
CFO
CFO on a broken close
Close cycle slipping past day twelve when the sponsor or board wants day five. Refinance or audit coming. The room's blocker more often than its champion.
Killing objection
"What's the fixed fee, and what's the deliverable I can put in front of the audit committee on date X?"
CMO
CMO defending the spend
Board questioning marketing investment, martech stack can't tell ROI, AI tooling sprawl, CRO churn. Brand position out of date with the business strategy.
Killing objection
"If you can't tell me what AI changes in the way demand and brand actually run, I don't need another agency."
CHRO
CHRO running a culture reset
Post-acquisition integration, leadership transition, the "AI will replace people" board conversation that needs adult handling. Workforce plan under pressure.
Killing objection
"I need someone who's actually run a workforce through this — not a deck about future of work."
COO
COO redesigning the operating model
CEO wants margin expansion. COO has to figure out the operating model, the automation play, and what's actually shippable in the next two quarters.
Killing objection
"Don't tell me what's possible. Tell me what ships in 90 days and who does it."
The single most load-bearing political fact (when PE-backed)
The sponsor's operating partner is the secret champion of the deal — not the CEO. Most engagements that close fast close because the operating partner had already heard our name.
A divisional CMO/CIO/CHRO/COO at a $200M–$1B unit inside a strategic IS in-bounds — only enterprise-wide F500 programs are out. Full anti-ICP reasoning in brand/audience.md.
04 · Voice & tone
How the brand sounds.
Four attributes. One rule above the rules.
A veteran C-suite operator wrote this — not a marketer pretending to be one.
The single rule
Attribute 01
Operator-direct
Peer to peer. Short sentences. Real verbs. The subject is usually a person doing a specific thing.
Attribute 02
Earned, not asserted
Every adjective has a receipt within two sentences. If we can't prove it, we don't claim it.
Attribute 03
Plain English
Use beats leverage. Ship beats operationalize. Smallest correct word wins. Read it aloud.
Attribute 04
Confident, not theatrical
Senior-partner temperature: calm, specific, slightly impatient with anything that isn't.
Do · Don't
Do
"Walt led three digital transformations in financial services."
"A former CMO leads the brand reposition; AI compresses the segmentation and creative cycle."
"The engagement ships in weeks."
"He ran the function for six years; he runs your engagement."
Don't
"Our seasoned team leverages deep expertise to drive transformative outcomes."
"We empower organizations to navigate complexity."
"Best-in-class capabilities."
"Ready to revolutionize your business?"
Banned words
Buzzwords are a tell. If any of these appear in copy, send it back.
New in v1.2/1.3: "advisor" and "fractional" are banned as our self-applied category/service nouns (per Greg Head, quoted by Walt: in PE these read as not an operator and retired exec looking for a payday). Used descriptively — "advising a CFO," "the fractional CIO market" — they're fine. The firm wordmark "THG Advisors" stays; the ban is on the category noun.
"Veteran" means senior-executive experience — never military. Use "former CxO," "senior operator," or the function-specific variant when in doubt.
The five-question voice check
Before any new copy ships, run it through this.
Is the subject of every sentence a person or a thing doing a specific verb?
Does every adjective have a receipt within two sentences?
Are there any banned words?
Would a CEO say this on a sales call? Read it aloud.
Did we pick a fight? Is the contrast against the old model visible?
Rewrite drills
Worked examples from the current homepage, rewritten in the new voice. Two more drills (Why-THG block, Services intro) live in messaging/voice-and-tone.md.
Drill 1 · The hero
Current: "Experience. The Difference." / Customized solutions to help businesses navigate through complex challenges and reach their full potential. / Connect With An Expert
Diagnosis: tagline-shaped pun says nothing; subhead could be written by any firm; CTA is generic.
Senior operators. AI-speed execution. One firm.
Every engagement at THG is run by a former CxO who has actually run the function — a former CIO leading your CIO engagement, a former CMO leading your brand reposition, a former CFO running your close — using modern AI and automation to ship the change in weeks, not quarters.
Why this works: headline is the 7-word positioning, founder-approved. Subhead names the credential (former CxO), the mechanism (AI speed), and the synthesis ("experience matched by AI"). Function examples span CIO/CMO/CFO. CTA is something no competitor can credibly offer.
Drill 2 · The "Why THG" features block
Full drill in messaging/voice-and-tone.md. Summary: rewrite "Innovative Solutions / Award-Winning Expertise / Dedicated Support" into the three pillars — Former CxOs run it · AI is how we ship · One firm, full surface.
Drill 3 · The services intro
Full drill in messaging/voice-and-tone.md. Summary: replace "Solutions to Transform Your Business" with "Seven service lines. Each one led by a former CxO who has run it."
05 · Messaging
The pillars, the lines, the receipts.
Every piece of copy ladders to one of three pillars. Every pillar carries its receipts. Full house in messaging/messaging-house.md.
Pillar 01
Former CxOs run it.
The seniority claim. Every engagement is led by a former operator who has actually run the function we're advising on.
Pillar 02
AI-speed execution.
The speed claim. AI is the execution layer underneath the engagement, not a service line on the price sheet.
Pillar 03
One firm, full surface.
The integration claim. Seven service lines, six councils, one principal — no PM tax across vendors.
Tagline library
Click any line to copy.
Tagline
Use case
Senior operators. AI-speed execution. One firm.
Primary · homepage hero · founder-approved
Former CxOs. Shipping at AI speed.
Short lockup · logo-adjacent · business card
Experience matched by AI. The most human firm in the age of AI.
LinkedIn bio · synthesis surface · founder-letter opener
Every engagement run by a former CxO who has actually run the function.
Sales-deck cover · keynote title
Skip the analyst. Talk to the former operator.
LinkedIn paid · Google search ads
Former CxOs. Ships in weeks.
Conference signage · booth backwall
Manifesto
The long-form essence. The About-page voice. The keynote opener.
Most consulting engagements end with a deck. The work doesn't.
A PE-backed CEO has a value-creation plan and a quarter to move it. The big firms send a partner to win the deal and a 26-year-old to run it. The boutiques send a senior advisor who writes a strong memo and goes home. The AI shops can ship a model in a week, run by people who have never sat through a board meeting where the model is the line item being defended. Each of them is excellent at the half of the job they do. None of them does the whole job.
We built THG against that half-measure.
Every engagement here is run by a former CxO who has actually run the function — a former CIO leading the CIO work, a former CMO leading the brand reposition, a former CFO running the close, a former CHRO inside the culture reset, a former COO redesigning the operating model. Not advised the function. Run it. The judgment in the room is the same judgment the buyer is hiring — a peer who has decided this question before, under similar pressure — not a deputy two pay grades down.
And AI is how we ship. Not a service line we sell — the execution layer underneath everything we do. Discovery, analysis, documentation, code, change-management collateral, segmentation, modeling, close mechanics — compressed by tooling so the operator's judgment is what the engagement costs you, not the labor under them. That is AI speed: weeks not quarters, decisions made not studied, change shipped not recommended.
One firm. One principal. One bench. The change actually gets made.
That is the offer. Everything else is a deck.
06 · Logo
The mark. How to use it. How not to.
One primary mark in v1. Horizontal, stacked, and divisional lockups (Alba International Services parent endorsement) are in production for v2.
Keep clear space at least the height of the "H" on every side
Minimum size: 24px on screen, 0.5in in print
Use the mark on quiet surfaces — white, ink, or signal-green
Always use the SVG; raster only when a vector workflow is impossible
Don't
Stretch, skew, or rotate the mark
Recolor outside the dark / light / signal-green system
Place on busy photography or gradient backgrounds
Add drop shadows, outlines, or "lift" effects
07 · Color
The palette. The semantic tokens. How they pair.
Light-default. White is the canvas. Green is the CTA. Blue is the link. Click any swatch to copy the variable; shift-click for the hex.
Brand anchors
Ramps
Six 11-step ramps. Click any step to copy the variable.
heading · primary text
midnight · dark surfaces (footer, feature blocks)
paper · light surfaces
signal-green · brand / CTA
signal-blue · link / interactive
error · destructive only
Semantic tokens
What components reference. Light is the canonical theme; [data-theme="dark"] overrides exist for the toggle.
Token
Role
Light → maps to
--color-surface
Default page surface (white)
#FFFFFF
--color-surface-sunken
Alternating section band
--c-paper-300 · #D8DBE5
--color-surface-dark
Footer + dark feature blocks
--c-midnight-700 · #0D0C2B
--color-heading
Primary heading text
--c-heading-700 · #0C1E21
--color-text
Body copy
--c-heading-400 · #364E52
--color-text-subtle
Captions, meta
--c-paper-500
--color-border
Hairline default
--c-paper-200
--color-brand
Primary CTA fill
--c-signal-green-700 · #116032
--color-brand-text
Green body text on white (AA)
--c-signal-green-700
--color-accent
Link / interactive text
--c-signal-blue-500 · #1A65A8
--color-focus-ring
Keyboard focus
--c-signal-green-500
Contrast — WCAG AA verified
ink-950 text on white19:1 AAA
signal-green-700 on white5.4:1 AA
signal-blue-600 link on white5.6:1 AA
ink-on-green CTA text8.3:1 AAA
white on signal-blue-5003.5:1 AA · large
ink-500 muted on white7.2:1 AAA
⚠ #37CA37 and #188BF6 at the 500 step are CTA / large-fill colors, not body text. For body text on white, use the 700 step (green) or 600 step (blue).
Do · Don't
Do
White is the canvas — keep surfaces quiet
Green at 500 is the CTA fill (with ink text)
Blue at 600 is the link text on white (AA)
Pair color with weight or icon — never color alone
Don't
Put green-500 or blue-500 as body text on white (fails AA)
Combine green and blue as competing accents on one screen
Use signal-green as a page background
Mix in extra brand colors — three signals = no signal
08 · Typography
Two families. One scale. One rule per weight.
Mona Sans (variable, 400–900) for everything display and body. Inter as fallback / accent. System mono for code. Sourced from the live thgadvisor.com font stack. Full system in brand/design-system.md.
Display + body
Mona Sans
Variable axis (200–900). Carries display, body, and meta. The live site's primary face — confident, modern, slightly editorial. Use for everything that isn't fallback or code.
400 · 500 · 600 · 700 · 800
Fallback / accent
Inter
Fallback when Mona Sans isn't loaded; also used for eyebrows and small caps where its open shapes track cleaner. Don't introduce a third face.
400 · 500 · 600 · 700 · 800
Code-context monospace uses the system stack (ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, Menlo) — no third type-face dependency.
Type scale
--fs-display-xl40 → 64 / 1.05Hero · one per page
Former CxOs.
--fs-display-l32 → 48 / 1.10Section opener
Senior operators.
--fs-display-m26 → 36 / 1.15Sub-section
AI-speed execution.
--fs-heading-l24 / 1.25H2 long-form
One firm covering the full operator surface
--fs-heading-m20 / 1.35H3
A former CxO runs every engagement.
--fs-body-l18 / 1.55Lede paragraph
For senior leaders at mid-market and upper-mid-market companies who need change made, not recommended.
--fs-body16 / 1.60Default body
A peer CMO running the brand reposition, with AI and automation as the execution layer underneath the work.
The building blocks. Live, copy-paste-able, no screenshots.
Every component is rendered with the brand's CSS. If the system breaks, this section breaks first.
Buttons
<button class="btn btn--primary">Talk to a former operator</button>
<button class="btn btn--accent">See the bench</button>
<button class="btn btn--ghost">Skip</button>
Links & inline
A paragraph with an inline link and a go-to-page link. Inline code renders on a quiet tinted surface. Highlighted text uses signal-green at low opacity.
Form fields
Stat blocks
Bench13+Decades of senior-executive experience
Service lines7Coordinated, one firm, one bill
Councils6Peer networks feeding every engagement
Accordion
What's a peer council?
A curated group of senior leaders meeting regularly to compare notes. THG runs six. Membership is by invitation.
How are engagements priced?
Outcome-priced where possible, fixed-fee where the scope allows. We don't sell time and materials.
Can a fractional operator turn into a full-time hire?
Yes — and frequently does. Service line #6 supports both interim engagements and conversion to permanent placement.
Chips
DefaultBrandAccentBanned
10 · Resources
Where the source files live and who owns what.
If the brand book is wrong, the source files in this repo are the truth.
If the rule needs to change — open a GitHub issue with the section anchor (e.g., #voice) in the title.
If the file is right but the rendering is wrong — open an issue tagged brand-book-render.
Urgent — DM Tom Ellis.
Versioning
Brand book v1.3 — positioning refresh. Four strategic shifts from the Walt Carter transcript landed: (1) "advisor" / "advisory firm" / "fractional" banned as self-applied category / service-line nouns per Greg Head's PE-coaching frame; (2) ICP narrowed back to mid-market only — $75M–$500M, 200–2,500 employees, Fortune 500+ (including divisional) explicitly anti-ICP plus the enterprise-CIO-returning-ego dynamic named as a do-not-chase; (3) human × AI synthesis frame woven into Pillar 2, the manifesto, and a new LinkedIn variant — *"Experience matched by AI. The most human firm in the age of AI"* (Schaefer's thesis adopted); (4) service line #6 renamed from "Interim & Fractional Executive Placements" to Executive Bench Placement. Category claim shifted from "operator-led, AI-native advisory firm" to "operator-led, AI-native execution firm" — "execution" is now load-bearing. Primary tagline preserved verbatim. Previous v1.2 visual refresh (real palette, Mona Sans, light-default fix) carried forward.
