Building Momentum with Chris Nicholl

A significant part of Chris's focus has been on building genuine relationships and having honest conversations with organisations across a range of sectors, particularly within manufacturing.

Rather than leading with ready-made solutions, these discussions have centred on listening, understanding context, and exploring the real challenges that sit behind growth, complexity and operational pressure.

Through this work, Chris has been speaking with leaders who are balancing day-to-day delivery with longer-term ambitions. Conversations often return to familiar but complex themes such as:

• scaling operations without adding chaos
• modernising legacy technology without disrupting delivery
• improving visibility across teams and workflows
• building confidence to invest while protecting what already works

As Chris reflects:

"Manufacturing has always been a sector close to my experience, so it's been good to bring that background into conversations at True9. It helps ground discussions in reality and focus on changes that genuinely make a difference."

This external perspective has also had a direct impact internally at True9.

Insights from these conversations are shaping how we think about our services and how we support organisations at critical moments in their growth journey. This thinking has already influenced recent client work, including projects where a structured people, process and technology view helped reduce delivery risk and restore confidence as platforms scaled.

Building on this momentum, we've begun developing new offerings informed by real-world challenges, designed to help businesses gain clarity on where to focus their efforts as they plan their next phase of growth.

As Chris puts it:

"My first months at True9 have been a whirlwind, busy, energising, and full of great conversations. The opportunity to share knowledge while learning fast myself has been both enjoyable and exciting."

How does your role at True9 differ from what you were doing before?

For the previous ten years, every business decision, and everything delivered, ultimately came down to me. It was incredibly rewarding, but also pretty full-on.

That experience gave me exposure to a huge range of organisations, from small startups right through to businesses with billion-pound turnover. It was a brilliant way to understand how challenges change at different scales.

What I realised along the way is that I'm genuinely interested in people, the problems they face day-to-day, and how they work through them. At True9, I get to focus on that for a wider group of organisations, backed by a talented team who can deliver real, practical solutions.

What have you been focused on since joining True9?

Listening first, and learning as much as possible.

Internally, I've been getting to know the breadth of expertise across the team and how we deliver value to clients. There's a depth of skill here that has been really impressive to understand.

Externally, my focus has been getting close to what businesses are dealing with day-to-day, understanding the real problems behind the symptoms, and helping more of the right organisations recognise what True9 can offer.

You've been here a couple of months now, how has it been going?

It has definitely been a whirlwind, but in a great way.

Joining a new team is always revealing, you learn a lot about culture, dynamics and ways of working very quickly. What has stood out most to me is the capability of the True9 team. They genuinely thrive on solving complex problems, and that shows in the quality of their work.

What has been the most rewarding part so far?

Client feedback is always positive, but the most rewarding part has been seeing teams feel more confident, less under pressure, and clearer in their decision-making.

When delivery feels less risky and people feel more in control, you know the work is making a real difference.

You often talk about people, process and technology. Why does that matter?

Most problems are not purely technical.

In many cases, the real friction sits between people and process, and technology simply becomes the visible pain point. If you only fix the system without understanding how teams actually work, you don't truly solve the problem, you just delay it.

Looking at all three together is what creates change that lasts, builds confidence, and leads to stronger, longer-term relationships.

What makes True9 different to other consultancies?

I wouldn't say others get it wrong, it's more that True9 approaches things differently.

There's a common assumption that scale automatically delivers quality and speed, but we've seen plenty of situations where that simply isn't true. Our approach is more personal, more pragmatic, and more focused on outcomes that actually matter to clients.

The proof is in the results we deliver, and in the feedback we receive from organisations who have come to us after larger agencies couldn't resolve their challenges.

What's next for you and True9?

Growth with purpose is the aim, both for the business and for me personally.

Externally, I want more organisations at different stages of growth to feel confident starting a conversation with True9.

Internally, I'm excited about helping the team grow and supporting the next generation of problem-solvers within the business.

Personally, I want to keep making a meaningful impact and doing justice to the brilliant work the True9 team delivers every day.