Live simulations for high-stakes commercial interactions where you don’t get a second chance.

Before the real meeting, I sit opposite you as the potential client, investor, buyer or other decision-maker. We run the interaction, examine what builds or weakens my confidence in you and your proposition, then work through the moments that need to change.

Senior executive facing three empty chairs across a boardroom table.

Typical situations

Two senior teams facing each other across a boardroom table.

Selling a company or seeking investment

Buyers and investors will examine the numbers. They will also test whether the management team understands the risks, agrees on the story and can deliver it.

Winning major new business

You have made the shortlist. Several firms can do the work. The client is deciding whose judgement they trust and who they want beside them when things get difficult.

Critical renewals and account expansion

You know the client. That can make it easy to assume you know what matters to them now. The next conversation needs to uncover concerns and earn their commitment to continue or expand the relationship.

CEO and board interactions

You need the board or chair to back a decision. How you handle objections, uncertainty and disagreement can strengthen or weaken their confidence in your judgement.

What you are trying to convey and what the other side interprets are rarely the same.

You know your numbers, your proposition and the case you want to make.

The other side is also noticing how you listen, what you avoid and how you respond when challenged.

While you’re talking, they’re asking themselves:

Do I believe them?
Do I trust their judgement?
Do I want to commit?

Confidence can be read as arrogance. Composure as distance. Passion as pressure.

Two people facing each other as one line divides into two interpretations.

That interpretation shapes what they decide.

If you are responsible for the outcome

You may be advising on a company sale, preparing a management team for investors or overseeing a major client pitch.

I run the interaction before the real meeting, so you can see how the team holds up when someone outside the preparation starts asking questions, and what builds confidence or creates doubt.

What happens

First, we work through the situation: what is at stake, who you are meeting, what matters to them and where they are likely to push back. I use that context to build a credible counterpart. Where the argument needs attention, we can work on that too.

Then we run the interaction.

I stay on the opposite side of the table. I ask the awkward question, challenge an assumption or remain unconvinced.

‘Who actually runs this business without you?’

‘What happens to your numbers if we say no today?’

We stop at the moments worth examining. I explain what I believed, what I doubted and how your response affected my confidence in you and the proposition.

Then we replay those moments. You try a different response and see what changes.

Same interaction replayed, first with a loop in the line and then with the line running cleanly.

You leave knowing what to keep, what to change and what needs further work before the real meeting.

Why this works

The feedback you normally never get

You may eventually learn whether you won, lost or progressed. You rarely hear which answer created doubt or what the other person concluded about you.

Here, you get that feedback immediately, while there is still time to act on it.

Most feedback is too general to act on. The useful detail is usually missing.

You rarely hear how you actually came across.

You may be told the result, but not which answer created doubt, what prompted it or what you could do differently.

Immediate feedback is more useful than abstract advice.

Feedback given straight after a live interaction, while you can still remember it, is easier to act on than tips given days later.

Behaviour is interpreted, not just heard.

The person opposite is continually deciding what your behaviour means. Confidence, composure or conviction can be read very differently from how it was intended.

Replay lets you change something and feel the difference.

The important moments are run again, so you can adjust your response and immediately experience how the exchange changes.

Human Counterpart does not predict exactly how your client, investor or buyer will behave. It gives you the opportunity to discover how a credible counterpart may interpret and respond to you before the real interaction.

Relevant experience

Much of this work is confidential. The examples below are deliberately anonymised.

Worked with the management team of a subsidiary of a multibillion-dollar US technology group during a company-sale process, using live simulations to prepare for conversations with private-equity and strategic buyers. The work included in-person sessions in Europe and the United States, alongside virtual preparation and follow-up.
Worked with senior professionals in the technology and financial-services practices of a leading global professional-services firm across Europe and the United States, using live client simulations to strengthen important client interactions.
A former global practice leader subsequently asked me to provide similar live simulation work within a new specialist professional-services business.

Why my involvement matters

You need someone across the table who can test the business case and notice when the way you respond starts to undermine confidence in it.

My earlier corporate career was followed by more than 25 years advising CEOs, senior teams and experienced professionals. I have conducted business in over 40 countries and lived in four.

I combine international business experience, clear and precise messaging, and a deep understanding of human psychology.

My work has been published in Harvard Business Review and INSEAD Knowledge, and featured in the Financial Times, Sunday Times and Wall Street Journal.

Why Roger?

I kept seeing capable people leave important meetings with a different impression from those sitting opposite them.

The facts could be right and the argument sound. Something in the exchange had still gone wrong.

My corporate career took me from West Africa to New York. I have since spent more than 25 years advising CEOs, senior teams and experienced professionals.

I hold an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and an Executive Master's from INSEAD focused on clinical organisational psychology.

That combination is at the heart of Human Counterpart. I pay attention to the moment an answer creates doubt, a concern goes unanswered or the team starts contradicting itself. Then I bring the conversation back to that moment so we can work through it.

For teams who do this regularly

When did someone last watch your team with a client and tell them plainly what they noticed?

For senior client-facing teams, we can work together regularly, using situations from their own work to examine habits, practise difficult exchanges and revisit what needs attention.

Questions people ask

You may already rehearse internally or prepare clients as part of your advisory work. Human Counterpart adds a dedicated focus on the human interaction: how people respond under pressure and what those responses communicate across the table.

Roger combines commercial experience with deep psychological know-how gained at INSEAD. Taking the role of buyer, investor, client or chair, he examines where intentions and interpretations diverge. Confidence can become defensiveness, explanations can create doubt, and team dynamics can undermine credibility.

Live simulation, feedback and replay allow participants to recognise those moments and change their approach. This specialist focus complements the commercial, financial and strategic preparation already in place.

I do not pretend to become the exact individual. Nobody can.

I build a credible counterpart from their role, interests, incentives, concerns, history and commercial context, and then respond from their perspective rather than yours.

Yes. I lead each engagement. When the situation benefits from several counterpart perspectives, another experienced senior practitioner can join me.

One-to-one, small teams and live sessions with larger groups at conferences. Sessions can be held in person or virtually. We agree the format around the situation and the people involved.

Use it. AI can generate questions, challenge arguments, analyse information and create scenarios.

But another human changes the interaction as it happens. Tone, silence, interruption, irritation, status and misunderstanding alter your response; your response then alters theirs.

That reciprocal human dynamic is the territory Human Counterpart works on.

The boundaries are agreed upfront.

Human Counterpart is designed to improve performance, not to operate as covert assessment or performance management. Feedback is direct, specific and confidential.

All engagements are covered by NDA. Confidentiality is fundamental to the work.

Your high-stakes interaction should not be the first time you discover what works.

Senior executive now facing three decision-makers across the table.

Discuss an upcoming high-stakes interaction

A complimentary 20-minute strategy conversation to clarify what’s at stake, where you may be exposed and whether live simulation would help.

Email RogerWhatsApp Roger

Confidential initial conversation.