First Principles Consulting

You Can't Outwork a Broken System

Does your site rely on heroics or workarounds?

Are you chasing “Silver Bullet” tech projects?

Are you trading long term performance for short-term gains?

Your strategic plan promises predictable returns, but your daily reality is a constant firefight.

This is the Execution Gap. The difference between ambitious plans/targets and operational reality.

If this sounds familiar, you are accruing Operational Debt. Just like financial debt, it compounds...

Eventually, the bill comes due in the form of missed targets, downgraded guidance, safety incidents, and burnout.

This isn’t a failure of effort. It’s a failure of the system.

Book Coming Soon

From Turbulence to Autopilot

In finance, Alpha is the return on investment above the benchmark.

In mining, Operational Alpha is a site that's moved from Turbulence to Autopilot.

You can’t control the commodity price or the orebody.

The only lever you control is Operational Capability. This is the Invisible Engine that reliably turns strategy into bankable results.

The good news, once the operational state is known, the steps to fixing it and moving from chaos to stability, are so mechanical and predictable, we've turned it into the Operational Alpha Blueprint.

Benchmark Your Site

Phase

Assess

Get your tailored Operational Alpha Blueprint.
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We identify the critical capability gaps limiting operations, and provide a roadmap to resolve them.

Phase

Mobilise

We identify and empower your “Early Adopters” (Volunteer Army) to drive the change from the ground up, avoiding resistance and change fatigue.

Get Your Personalised Blueprint

Phase

Transform

We provide the toolkit for your Volunteer Army to implement the Operational Performance Framework, creating speed to value.

Get Your Personalised Blueprint

The Doom Loop

When performance fails to live up to the potential, it’s because capability has been overlooked.

This instigates the search for silver bullets that will easily and instantly eliminate the symptoms.

This creates a destructive cycle where companies lurch from one grand program to another, trying to manufacture a breakthrough.

Stop Guessing

Most operational leaders self diagnose, mistaking symptoms for the underlying cause.

When the solution doesn’t work, they change course. The result? A series of half built bridges.

With a clear plan and timeline, operations and results become consistent, predictable, and reliable.

Are You In A Doom Loop?

Status Quo

The Productivity Paradox: Spending more for less.

Continued Chaos: Perpetual firefighting, chaos, heroics, and instability.

Missed Guidance: Stressing about another bad quarter.

Career Risk: Uncertainty, and low delivery confidence.

Outperformance

Operational Alpha: Resilient, consistent value creation.

Predictability: Hit targets safely and consistently.

‍Sustainability: A system that works without intervention or heroics

‍Profit: Less waste, lower costs, better margins.

Book (coming soon)

Find Out Now

A flexible and agile boutique consultancy that strengthened our operations base and developed a cohesive management team through effective processes and efficient tools.

Mark Boon, Executive Manager at MAB Mining Services Pty Ltd

Former General Manager Queensland Operations at Evolution Mining (2015)

Unlocked great value by improving systems and creating visual tools that facilitated a step change in our ability to identify bottlenecks, with an uplift in performance that paid back the investment multiple times over.

Stephen Fitch, former UG Mine Manager (2019)

Newcrest

The STARR process for capturing, tracking, actioning and closing out priorities was desperately needed and has delivered impressive results that can be built upon for future improvements.

Neil Meadows, former COO (2015)

Karara Mining

FPC was the key that unlocked our project's hidden potential, skillfully addressing a challenging cultural environment through detailed operational review and targeted MOS implementation.

Russell Taylor, GM, Surface Mining Australia (2017)

Macmahon Contracting

Created a working environment conducive to improved cooperation and collaboration between stakeholders, with significant improvements in planning through execution and review cycles.

Manager, Performance, Telfer Operations (2018)

Newcrest

Built visual tools that enabled us to easily identify issues and ask the right questions to ensure better results, while providing crucial coaching on accountability.

Mark Day, former UG Project Manager (2019)

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