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AI · Strategy · Transformation

From AI noise to first wins — for boards and chief executives.

Orec is operator-led AI advisory for trans-Tasman CEOs and boards. We help mid-market leadership teams move past AI uncertainty to measurable first wins — anchored in strategy, proven through 90-day pilots, and built by someone who has actually run the businesses.

Book a 30-min board briefing → See our approach
Boards C-Suite Audit & Risk Committees Executive Teams
The challenge

AI isn't held back by technology.
It's held back by how we run the project.

After three decades inside the COO and CCO seats, the patterns that slow mid-market AI down are remarkably consistent. These are the three we see most often in trans-Tasman boardrooms — and what to do instead.

01

The pilot nobody owns

Someone runs an LLM pilot in a corner of the business. Interesting outputs. No owner, no P&L line, no KPI. It quietly dies — and the board's confidence in AI dies with it.

02

The vendor pitch that became the strategy

A platform partner walks the leadership team through a slick demo. Six weeks later that demo has become "our AI roadmap." Procurement, dressed up as strategy.

03

The 60-page deck that never ships

A consultancy delivers a thick strategy document. The CEO nods. The board nods. Nothing ships. The technology moves faster than the paper.

The Orec approach

Strategy-led. Outcome-anchored.
Built for the boardroom.

We don't sell models. We don't build pilots for the sake of it. Our work moves leadership teams through three stages — each one ending in a tangible artefact you can present, sign off on, and act on.

Stage 01 · Orient

Get the board on the same page.

A focused diagnostic of where AI fits in your strategy, your operating model, and your risk posture. We translate the technology landscape into the language of value, capability, and governance.

Outcome: AI Position Paper for the board
Stage 02 · Plan

Identify the first wins worth chasing.

We map AI opportunities against your strategic priorities, score them on value, feasibility and risk, and surface the two or three first wins that will move the dial in 90 days — not 18 months.

Outcome: Prioritised 12-month AI roadmap
Stage 03 · Execute

Run the first plays, build the muscle.

We work alongside your team to deliver the first quick wins, install the governance scaffolding, and build internal capability — so you're not dependent on outside advisors twelve months from now.

Outcome: Measured business impact + capability uplift
How we engage

Four ways to work with Orec.

Sized for the question you're trying to answer — from a single half-day board session to ongoing fractional advisory across a transformation programme.

01 · BoardHalf-day

Board AI Briefing

A facilitated session that brings the board to a shared understanding of the AI landscape, the questions they should be asking management, and the governance posture that fits your organisation. Plain language. Board-grade.

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02 · CEO90 days

AI Quick-Win Sprint

A focused 90-day engagement to identify, scope, and deliver the first measurable AI win in your business — and to set the foundation for what comes next. For CEOs who need proof of value, fast.

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03 · Executive3–6 months

Strategy & Transformation Roadmap

An end-to-end engagement that defines your AI strategy, prioritises the portfolio, designs the operating model and governance, and sequences the transformation into deliverable waves. For organisations going beyond pilots.

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04 · OngoingMonthly retainer

Fractional AI Advisor

Senior advisory on tap. Monthly executive sessions, board paper review, AI-related decision support, and access to the network — for organisations that want trusted counsel without the cost of a full-time chief AI officer.

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Richard Harrison, founder of Orec
Why Orec — operator, not consultant

An operator's view of AI — for the seats we've actually sat in.

Most AI advice comes from one of two extremes. Technologists who can build it, but can't connect it to enterprise value. Consultants who can frame it, but have never delivered it inside a real business. Orec sits between the two.

Richard Harrison founded Orec after 30+ years as COO and CCO across trans-Tasman retail, e-commerce and direct-to-consumer — pioneering New Zealand's first online supermarket at Woolworths, senior commercial leadership at Myer in Australia and The Warehouse in New Zealand, and operating at HealthPost. Transformations delivered, $300M+ in P&L scope, and the scars that come with delivering them.

The point of difference is straightforward: operator depth, translated for the boardroom. Not a strategy deck nobody ships. Not a vendor pitch dressed up as a roadmap. The view from inside the seat — applied to one of the most important commercial decisions your business will make this decade.

Start where you are. Do the boring stuff well. Let it compound. Then go bigger, with confidence.

30+ Years COO · CCO
$300M+ P&L scope delivered
3 Trans-Tasman transformations
NZ & AU Mid-market focus
Insights

Writing for the people in the seat.

Short, sharp pieces on AI, strategy and transformation — written for the executive who needs the signal, not the noise.

Board · Briefing

The five AI questions every board should be asking management.

A short guide to moving the AI conversation in your board meetings from "are we doing it?" to "are we doing it well, and who owns the answer?"

Strategy

Why 73% of AI pilots stall — and the pattern that breaks them out.

Most AI pilots fail for the same three reasons. Each one is a strategy problem dressed up as a technology problem.

Transformation

The 90-day AI quick win — what 'good' looks like.

A quick win isn't a pilot. It's a measurable business outcome delivered fast, with the right governance, and with the muscle memory to repeat it.

Start the conversation

Ready to move past AI uncertainty
and into first wins?

Share your email and a sentence about what you're working on. We'll come back within one business day to set up a 30-minute board briefing — no obligation, no slideware.

Or write directly: richard@orec.co.nz