Strategic Change Consultancy
Get the business behind your change.
The Sponsor Advantage Scorecard™ reveals and measures your initiative's alignment, buy-in, and credibility to mobilise the business behind your change.
Find out more.
The Sponsor Advantage
My name is Manuel Giudice, London-based founder of Change Vanguard since 2017. For 15 years I have partnered with sponsors, project directors, and change leaders in private and public companies, non-profits, and global SMEs to deliver high-stakes complex change programmes.
Between 2022 and 2025, we hosted 19 leadership intensives across London, Dubai, Paris, Athens, Amsterdam, Milan, Riyadh, and Vienna (300+ leaders, 500+ hours) designed to mobilise businesses, reduce implementation risk and protect the return on multi-million programmes. Initiatives include: target operating models, digital transformations, culture change, workforce strategies, talent and leadership development, reward transformations, mergers & acquisitions, and organisational design.
Across industries and geographies, there are similar patterns: why initiatives fail to mobilise people, face reputational risk, and struggle to achieve objectives. These insights shaped the Sponsor Advantage Framework, a way to identify where risk is highest and how to address it. It links tactical, operational, and strategic layers, helping sponsors to mobilise the business behind the change, and protect multi-million initiatives by anticipating and addressing risks associated with buy-in, and credibility.
We reverse-engineer large scale change at the intersection of change delivery, leadership capability, and culture giving sponsors tremendous advantage and strategic foresight when leading high-stakes change.
Organisations include: Arqiva · Oxford University Press · Allegis · Tate & Lyle · Verizon · Asahi · Spire Healthcare · Affinion · Shell
The Sponsor Advantage Scorecard™ reveals and measures improves your initiative's alignment, buy-in, and credibility to mobilise the business behind your change.
The Reality
Research shows that a transformation is 5.8 times more likely to be successful at organisations where CEOs communicate a compelling, high-level change story, and 6.3 times likelier when senior leaders share aligned messages about the change effort with the rest of the organization (McKinsey, 2021). However70% of change initiatives fail to achieve their goals (McKinsey Quarterly) - evidence that the system is biased towards technical build & delivery without sufficient focus on realised business value, behavioural alignment and change.
Prosci finds that sponsors have the greatest impact on outcomes and can raise success rates from 25% to 85% (2025) - yet most are never given the backing to mobilise the business strategically.
Today's Change Leader
Today's change leader lead high-stakes complex initiatives, facing the pressure to guarantee results, protecting the business while ensuring the change lands well across audiences and cultures.
Many leaders are already resourceful, focused, and ambitious.
Optimistic, often resilient, going above and beyond to deliver value while championing a culture that is both performing, and sustainable.
Self-reliant, committed, and aligned to their company’s values.
The Challenge
Despite all these efforts, it’s often challenging to bring the business on board with the vision. Colleagues don't always give the initiative the benefit of the doubt often overwhelmed by complexity, an evolving culture, changing strategies and structures.
The hidden costs of a leader's commitment can be significant:
- Audiences are overwhelmed and can become cynical about the change or not fully appreciate its value.
- Leaders are expected to carry more than their fair share, which can cause a disconnect at the top.
- It's becoming harder to trust the advice received or even the integrity of the source when AI is used without much discernment.
After experiencing the tremendous pressure modern leaders face, Change Vanguard aims to be a trusted partner to the leader navigating change, its complexities, both strategically and tactically.
Impact & Recent Results
STRENGTHENED ALIGNMENT
- 300+ cross-functional leaders across 8 industries with 4.7/5 participant rating.
- Aligned HR / Talent functions as strategic business partners.
- Delivered 19 leadership accelerators across 7 countries (London, Dubai, Paris, Milan, Vienna, Amsterdam, Riyadh).
ACCELERATED BUY-IN
- Achieved 94% adoption rate during a global divestment (7,600 employees, Asahi)..
- Protected multi-million transformations across telecoms, healthcare, publishing, and energy.
- Minimised risks via role clarity, accountability and governance.
PROTECTED CREDIBILITY
“You have truly helped us to build a Brand that has created an Identity and underpins the new IS organisations capability" - CIO, Beverage
“The most structured and effective transformation to date" - Executive team, UK Telecoms
“Our functional leads can now plan, map, and stay on track of commitments " - Programme Lead, Publishing
The Sponsor Advantage Scorecard™. Look beneath the surface of your change, and receive a personalised scorecard revealing areas of improvement.
Partnering
The research is clear. Formal change-management interventions have limited predictive value for success within an organisation, often happening through informal channels (Homan, 2017). Real change emerges from informal conversations, meaning-making, and off-stage behaviour, not centrally managed strategies.
The Sponsor Advantage Method leverages existing power dynamics, organisational discourse, and meaning-making to mobilise your business systematically.
Every engagement begins with a situational analysis of your culture, strategy, and initiatives and follows a five-stage process, that reveals the intervention to maximise impact.
01
The Sponsor Advantage Scorecard
An evidence-based diagnostic that benchmarks your initiative’s buy-in, agility, and credibility.
You’ll get a snapshot of where risk and opportunities are highest, and receive immediate recommendations.
02
Discovery Session
A 45-minute conversation exploring the context of your change, leadership dynamics, and initiative's objectives.
We clarify challenges, priorities, and the scope of potential support.
03
Bespoke Engagement
Based on findings, and only if there is fit, we design a tailored intervention aligned to your strategy and culture.
No templates, no assumptions, no off-the-shelf solutions.
04
Mobilise Your Business
We partner with your sponsor and leadership teams to activate buy-in, alignment, and credibility across the organisation.
This may include advisory, leadership accelerators, leadership coaching, or capability workshops.
05
Track & Review
Through regular reviews and the Sponsor Advantage Scorecard, we measure adoption, behavioural change, and credibility gains, ensuring momentum is sustained.
Disclaimer: Based on historical feedback, with consent sought where possible, otherwise anonymized.
"The Best Seminar I've ever attended"
- EMEA Head of Ops
"Invaluable insights, we got everyone on the same page"
- Head of Operations
"You have truly helped build a brand that underpins our IS organisation’s capability. Your clarity and communication brought the entire team on this journey..."
- Programme Director Asahi Breweries
"He transforms complex ideas into clear, actionable insights with remarkable efficiency"
- Chief People Officer
The Sponsor Advantage Scorecard™. Look beneath the surface of your change, and receive a personalised scorecard revealing areas of improvement.
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