Our approach is distinctive. It's meant to change how you think about strategy and how you act to make it work - immediately. We do so by keeping you, rather than us, at the center of the process and by working the issues that have the most leverage. You'll notice a few things as soon as we start talking. For instance:

• We'll take great care to understand exactly the problem you're trying to solve and how our involvement can help you solve it.
• We'll insist that you commit senior people to active roles on the project team.
• We'll focus on changing the way you and others in your organization act today to achieve competitive advantage - instead of producing a dense report that you're not going to read.
• And finally, we'll keep you focused on taking strategic actions that you have the resources and capability to implement now - even while you're building for the future. It's the tension between where you are and where you want to go that creates the energy to implement the strategy.

All of this and other things are explained in greater detail in

First River’s partners are James Moss and Tony Taccone who until 1997 led the North American office of, an international steel industry consulting firm.

We both have over ten years of strategy consulting experience and we've consulted on some of the most complex restructuring projects in the North American steel industry. We therefore have a very substantial expertise in steel - which is where we still do a lot of our work. Each of us has helped major steel companies in South America, Europe, and Asia on key strategic issues.

In addition to our work with senior managers and board members, we've also advised governments, banks, private investors and unions. And aside from steel, we do work in other capital intensive industries, like aluminum, pharmaceuticals, and paper.

If you'd like to download a PDF version of this introduction, then go here. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0, which is downloadable for free here