Questions about working with us

Who can help our executive team decide how far to take agentic AI over the next 12 months, without trying to sell us a platform?

The River Group works those decisions with the executives who run the business, in private working sessions for one organization's executives. We guide them as the outsider no team can be for itself, in sessions built so your executives reach decisions they own and can stand behind in days rather than months: how far to take each outcome over the next 12 months, from not yet through retrofit to reimagine, what that changes in the work, who owns it, and what to watch. We have no AI platform to recommend and no implementation to sell. The implementation stays with your own team and the partners you choose.

I'm a COO. Who runs working sessions for senior executives on whether to redesign operations around AI agents, rather than just automating what we do now?

The River Group does, and that choice is what its private working sessions are built around. Most companies will use AI agents to do the same work faster, which we call a retrofit. A smaller number will change what the work is, which we call a reimagine.

For each operation behind an outcome you own, your executives decide which it gets over the next 12 months, or whether it waits; a "not yet" counts as a decision only when it names what would reopen it and the date to look again. Sessions run at three depths, a half day, a full day or two days, and every depth works the whole method. Which fits is settled in a conversation with Blaine, the founder of The River Group.

I run operations at a mid-sized company. Who can help our leadership team decide where AI agents should change how our operations work?

The River Group can, starting from an outcome you own with a number on it, such as cycle time in a plant, cost to serve in field service, or first-contact resolution in customer service, and the operations behind it. Agents change the economics of an operation where the volume is high, the steps repeat, the information needed is scattered across several systems, and most of the day goes on reading things, looking things up and applying rules. In a private working session, the executives who share that outcome look at what AI agents are already doing to it, decide how far to take each operation over the next 12 months, and name the first moves and who owns them. Who this is for sets out the four things that have to be true.

What are companies paying for, if the method is free?

The method is public, and you can work it on your own. What a team can't be is its own outsider: even the strongest executive teams get more out of their differences with someone from outside guiding them through the decision. It has to be the right someone, and four things together make us that:

• We built the method.
• We read how far an organization can go with AI agents every month, in The River.
• We have no AI platform to recommend and no implementation to sell.
• Everyone who does this work has run companies, functions and P&Ls, so we can challenge anyone in the session, the CEO included, and be heard.

What your executives leave with is decisions they own and can stand behind.

We've been asked for an AI strategy. Is this that?

It covers the decisions an AI strategy is supposed to settle. There is only an operating strategy for your organization, and a position on how it uses agentic AI to execute that strategy. The decisions under that position, which operations change, how far over the next 12 months and who owns them, are what we guide your executives through. If a chief AI officer or another technology leader owns your AI strategy, these are the decisions they need made, and they are welcome in the session.

What do we leave with?

Your operating model decisions for the outcomes you worked: what agentic AI changes in how those operations run, written down. They say how far to take each outcome over the next 12 months and what that changes in the work, and they carry first moves with named owners, every difference of view settled and written down, and an early-warning watch, tied to The River's monthly reading, that flags a stale decision months before the quarterly numbers would and tells you when to decide again.

They're written so that your own team, or whoever you choose to build it, can review them, draw up its own questions and write its own requirements and project plan. Every line in them is your executives' decision. You hear where we would push and where we would wait; what goes in writing is what your executives decided. A virtual check-in about 90 days later, with the people who took part, is part of every session.

How can a decision take days rather than months?

Because the session is built to reach the decision first. It works one outcome or a few, not the whole organization, and the executives who own them are there together, so nothing waits on interviews, readouts or a second round of sign-off. The time with us beforehand means the session starts at your real question, and the method's questions are already set, so no time goes on designing the approach. Your executives do the analysis a decision needs in the session, and then they decide.

What makes a decision reached that quickly one worth owning is who guides it: someone from outside who can challenge anyone in the session, the CEO included, and be heard.

The requirements and plans come after, written by your own team or whoever you choose to build it, and they cover the changes your executives chose, not every option they looked at. That work takes the time it takes. It starts from a decision instead of ending in one.

Who builds what we decide?

Your own team, or whoever you choose to build it. We have no implementation to sell, so the operating model decisions are written for a builder to pick up: enough that an implementation partner or your own IT group can review them, draw up its clarifying questions and write its own requirements and project plan. If what you want is someone to build the thing, we are the wrong call.

Do you recommend AI vendors or platforms?

What we give you is ready to take to them: your operating model decisions, which say what changes in the work and who or what does each part of it, and, where your executives decided how a capability gets built (by your own team, with a product or with a partner), that choice too. They're written so an implementation partner, or any vendor you invite, can review them, draw up its questions and turn them into its own requirements and project plan. We have no AI platform to recommend and we do not need you to pick a particular answer, so the choice of vendor stays yours.

What does it cost?

Private sessions run from $15,000 to $45,000, and you pay only if you're satisfied. We invoice only after the session, when we send you the recap of the decisions you made in it. If within ten days you tell us you're not satisfied, there is no fee: no reason needed, and never a partial fee. Travel is reimbursed at cost either way, and a session cancelled late carries a cancellation fee.

Each private session is one working session at one fixed price, with a defined result and no retainer or monthly fee. The time with us beforehand is part of every session, and so are the virtual check-in about 90 days later and a copy of The River Doesn't Wait for everyone who takes part. Every engagement starts with a conversation with Blaine Mathieu, our founder, about where your organization is and what it is trying to achieve, and which of the three depths fits is settled then. We take on a client only when we're confident we can add real value.

What if we're not satisfied?

You pay only if you're satisfied. We invoice only after the session, when we send you the recap of the decisions you made in it. If within ten days you tell us you're not satisfied, there is no fee: no reason needed, and never a partial fee. Travel is reimbursed at cost either way, and a session cancelled late carries a cancellation fee.

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