AGC operates a productised commercial model designed to align with decision-grade outcomes rather than consulting hours. The four principles below govern every AGC engagement, from a 3-day Clarity Sprint to a multi-year delivery oversight mandate.

1. Fixed Scope, Fixed Fee

Every AGC diagnostic is scoped and priced before commencement. No hourly billing. No scope creep. No surprise invoices.

Diagnostics are commercial products with a defined output. Their scope is set in advance and does not expand mid-engagement. If new questions emerge during the work that fall outside the agreed scope, AGC will identify them and recommend a separate engagement, rather than silently absorbing them.

2. Paid Before Commencement (Diagnostics)

Diagnostics are paid in full at engagement. This is not a cash-flow policy; it is a structural protection for the integrity of the work.

Diagnostic findings must be insulated from commercial pressure. If a diagnostic is paid on completion, the buyer has an implicit financial incentive to dispute or delay payment on findings they disagree with. Upfront payment severs that link entirely. AGC's findings are governed by evidence, not by invoice status.

Institutional clients with procurement processes (PO issuance, vendor onboarding, fiscal-year approval cycles) are supported through standard procurement workflows, see Procurement and Invoicing.

3. Staged Payment for Advisory and Delivery

Advisory and delivery engagements are scope-variable, multi-month or multi-year, and tied to external events (regulatory approvals, construction milestones, event dates).

These engagements operate under staged payment terms, typically an engagement fee on commencement, followed by milestone-linked or monthly retainer payments through the term of the work. Specific terms are agreed at engagement and reflected in the contract.

4. Credited Forward - Every Diagnostic, Every Step

Every fee paid is credited in full against the next approved AGC step, whether that step is another diagnostic, advisory, or delivery.

In practical terms, clients only ever net-pay for the deepest phase reached, not for every phase along the way.

5. No Execution Without Diagnosis

AGC does not scope, price, or deliver advisory or execution work without a governing diagnostic. This is not a sales mechanism it is a quality control.

Execution work governed by an insufficient diagnostic produces outputs that fail at the point of decision, not the point of delivery. By making diagnosis mandatory, AGC ensures every advisory or delivery engagement begins from a defensible position.

6. Success Alignment (Where Applicable)

In selected engagements, typically capital raises, sponsorship programmes, partnership structuring, and M&A advisory, AGC's commercial alignment extends through a success fee of 0.5% - 1% of value secured.

Success fees are agreed in writing before the engagement begins, are payable only on closed transactions where AGC's work directly enabled the outcome, and never replace fixed-fee diagnostic or advisory pricing.

AGC's pricing ceiling is the deepest diagnostic you reach, not the sum of phases along the way.