The unusual path to transformation consulting
Most transformation consultants have one story: they came up through strategy firms, learned frameworks, and apply them to client problems.
I have two parallel tracks that collided.
Track One: Building at Scale
I spent over 20 years in financial services, rising to MD and COO roles at firms like Man Group. I helped architect a c.$50bn investment division. The kind of work where one wrong decision cascades across people and billions in assets.
I learned how to:
Design and launch new divisions from concept to maturity
Lead cross-functional teams through high-stakes change
Navigate complex stakeholder environments and institutional politics
Build governance frameworks that actually work under pressure
Manage the gap between what the strategy says and what people actually do
Track Two: Understanding What Makes People Tick
Alongside my corporate career, I've been writing plays. Psychological thrillers about AI consciousness, moral compromise, identity under pressure. The kind of work where you have to understand what people want, what they fear, what they'll never say out loud.
In 2024, I won Best New Writer at the Ink Festival. I'm in the Bush Theatre's New Writer's Programme and the Criterion Theatre's New Writers Programme 2025.
Where They Collide:
Here's what I figured out: organisational transformation and dramatic narrative follow the same patterns.
Both require understanding:
What people want versus what they say they want
Power dynamics and who actually makes decisions
The story people tell themselves about what's happening
Why resistance looks like incompetence but is usually self-preservation
What needs to shift for the story to move forward
Most consultants see organisation charts and process flows. I see the human drama underneath. Those unspoken tensions, the competing motivations, the narrative that's actually driving behaviour.
That's not a metaphor. It's pattern recognition from two decades of high-stakes work in both worlds.
Meet Isabel Caetano da Rocha
Founder and Principal Consultant
When you work with Crescer, you get someone who:
Has built transformation at scale - I know what works in FTSE environments because I've done it. Helping build a $50bn division, managing multi-million pound budgets, navigating institutional politics. I understand the complexity you're dealing with.
Understands the human dynamics that kill most initiatives - The political tensions. The fear beneath the resistance. The middle managers protecting their teams. The executive who agreed but never intended to follow through. I read these patterns because I've lived them and studied them.
Can diagnose what's really happening - Not what the org chart says. Not what the strategy deck promises. What's actually driving behaviour in your organization - the unwritten rules, the power dynamics, the narrative people are living inside.
Knows how to shift it - I don't just build strategies. I help you understand and rewrite the story your organization is living. With frameworks, metrics, and interventions that create measurable change. Not hope.
What makes this work differently
I read people and organisations like plays
Every organisation and individual has a story it's telling itself. A story about who has power, what gets rewarded, what's safe to say. That story drives behaviour more than any strategy deck. I diagnose the narrative that's actually running, then help you write a new one that people (including you) can actually live inside.
I make culture concrete
Culture isn't ping pong tables and values posters. It's the unwritten rules: who gets promoted, what questions you can't ask, which meetings actually matter. I diagnose the behavioral patterns driving your organization, then design interventions that shift them - with metrics and frameworks, not hope.
I created #LeadTheConversation and Powerof10 - initiatives that moved the needle on inclusive leadership because they addressed actual behavioral patterns, not aspirations.
I’ve done this at scale and know how to make it work for you
Helping build a c.$50bn division teaches you things you don't learn in smaller organizations. The political navigation. The stakeholder complexity. What breaks when you scale. But I also know that most businesses don't need enterprise-level complexity. You get the strategic thinking that works in FTSE environments, adapted for organizations that need to move fast without the Big 4 overhead.
Beyond consulting
I volunteer fand teach financial literacy and cryptocurrency to young people who wouldn't otherwise have access to this knowledge.
I serve as a trustee for a domestic violence charity and sit on committees for musical organisations, bringing thinking to spaces that desperately need it but rarely get access to it.
I'm also currently studying at LSE because I believe in staying curious and challenging my own thinking.
And I created #LeadTheConversation and Powerof10 because I got tired of diversity initiatives that changed nothing. Real inclusion requires changing the behavioural defaults in your organisation. That doesn’t mean adding programs on top of broken culture.
Diverse companies aren't just more equitable. They're more resilient, more innovative, and better at navigating change. That's not politics. It’s simple pattern recognition from 20 years of watching what works.
When to call
You need Crescer when:
Your strategy is solid but execution keeps stalling
Your leadership team agrees in meetings then does their own thing
Your culture change produced posters instead of different behavior
You know something's wrong but can't diagnose what
Book a conversation and I'll help you see what's really happening