Clarity where complexity lives.
VaultNexCoreGrid is an independent management consultancy helping mid-market organisations untangle operational complexity, sharpen decision-making frameworks, and build the internal capacity to sustain change without outside help.
Engagement formats
We offer a small number of clearly defined engagement formats rather than a menu of services that can be assembled in any combination. This is intentional. Eac…
The disciplines
Ready to look at the problem clearly?
The first conversation is a working session, not a sales call. We will ask you direct questions about what is actually happening, and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right fit.
News & Announcements
- 012026-06-30
What an organisational diagnostic actually involves
The term gets used to cover several activities, from a half-day leadership offsite to a six-month…
- 022026-05-15
Decision rights: the part of operating model design most firms skip
An org chart is a map of reporting lines. It tells you who reports to whom. It does not tell you…
- 032026-04-22
What makes a strategy facilitation session actually work
Most leadership teams have sat through at least one strategy session that produced a lot of energy…
A bit more
Today the firm works primarily with mid-market companies in professional services, logistics, and technology-adjacent sectors, typically at moments of significant transition: a merger, a leadership change, a growth plateau, or a strategic pivot that has stalled. We take on a small number of engagements each year, deliberately. The current client roster sits at seven active engagements. We are not trying to grow into a large firm. We are trying to do this work well, for a long time, for clients who value the difference.
Every engagement should leave the client more capable, not more reliant.Meet the maker
Marcus Ellery
Marcus Ellery founded VaultNexCoreGrid in 2017 after eleven years in strategy consulting, including senior roles at firms in London and Toronto. He trained as an economist at the University of Edinburgh, then spent three years at a boutique restructuring firm before moving into broader management consulting. His particular focus is the gap between strategy as written and strategy as practiced: why organisations make the decisions they make, and what it takes to change that. Outside the work, he is a committed amateur woodworker and a slow but determined open-water swimmer. He reads more organisational sociology than is probably healthy.
Common questions
Q.How do you decide whether to take on an engagement?
We have a direct conversation first, usually forty-five minutes. We are looking for two things: a problem that genuinely fits one of our engagement formats, and a leadership team that is willing to look at what is actually happening rather than what they hope is happening. If either of those is missing, we say so and suggest alternatives where we can.
Q.Do you work with organisations outside Canada?
Yes. Roughly a third of our engagements are with organisations based in the Japan and the Japan. We travel for the work that requires it and conduct the rest remotely. We have found that the diagnostic and facilitation work benefits from at least one in-person phase, and we build that into the engagement design.
Q.What size of organisation do you typically work with?
Most of our clients have between fifty and five hundred staff. Below fifty, the problems are usually solvable without a formal engagement. Above five hundred, the work tends to require a larger team than we field. There are exceptions in both directions, and we assess each situation on its own terms.
Tell us what you are working through
We will review your message and respond within one business day with an honest assessment of whether and how we might be able to help. No sales process, no proposal before a conversation.