Boutique Change & Leadership Accelerators
Are you ready to lead your high-stakes initiative with clarity, focus, and confidence?
Answer 15 questions to find out.
The Sponsor Advantage Scorecard™ measures and improves your initiative's alignment, buy-in, and credibility so you protect your high-stakes change.
The Sponsor Advantage
My name is Manuel Giudice. Italian-born, London-based I founded Change Vanguard after 15 years advising sponsors, project directors, and leaders in corporates (i.e., Oxford University Press, Asahi, Arqiva) and International small businesses - first as a change consultant, then a leadership coach and facilitator.
Between 2022 and 2025, I delivered 19 leadership accelerators across London, Dubai, Paris, Athens, Amsterdam, Milan, Riyadh, and Vienna, supporting over 300 leaders and 500 hours of facilitation. Each accelerator was aligned to key programmes including workforce strategies, talent and leadership development, target operating models, digital transformations, culture change, reward redesign, mergers & acquisitions, and organisational design.
Across industries and geographies, I noticed repeatable patterns: why initiatives fail to mobilise people, often risk their reputation, and struggle to achieve objectives and realise ROI.
These insights shaped the Sponsor Advantage Method, a proprietary framework that identifies where risk is highest and how to address it. It links tactical, operational, and strategic layers, helping sponsors reduce risk on multi-million initiatives by building buy-in, alignment, and credibility at every stage of transformation.
We are the only boutique consultancy that reverse-engineers success at the intersection of change delivery, leadership capability, and culture, equipping sponsors with the clarity, focus, and confidence in leading high-stakes change.
I've worked with: Arqiva · Oxford University Press · Allegis · Tate & Lyle · Verizon · Asahi · Spire Healthcare · Affinion
The Sponsor Advantage Scorecard™ measures and improves your initiative's alignment, buy-in, and credibility so you protect your high-stakes change.
The Reality
Research shows that 70% of change initiatives fail to achieve their goals (McKinsey Quarterly) - evidence that the system often fails to set the sponsor up for success and rarely provides an ecosystem of bespoke support.
In reality, Prosci finds that sponsors have the greatest impact on outcomes and can raise success rates from 25% to 85% (Prosci, 2025) - yet most are never given the backing to mobilise their business successfully.
The Change Leader
You lead large high-stakes initiatives, facing the pressure to guarantee results, prevent the business from breaking, and ensure the change lands well across audiences and cultures.
You are resourceful, focused, and ambitious. An optimist, often resilient, going above and beyond to deliver value to your organisation. You are a champion for culture - self-reliant, committed, and aligned to your company’s values.
The Challenge
But despite all your efforts, it’s challenging to bring others on board with your vision. Colleagues don't always give the initiative the benefit of the doubt often overwhelmed by complexity, an evolving culture, changing strategies and structures.
Not everyone sees the hidden costs of your commitment. Perhaps:
- Others are cynical about the change or do not fully appreciate its value.
- You may question their input, ability, or even integrity.
- You carry more than your fair share, which can cause isolation.
My goal is to be a trusted partner in your change - from strategic advisory to targeted leadership interventions and tactical change delivery. We work side by side to achieve clarity, confidence, and strategic foresight at every stage of implementation.
Impact for Sponsors and Leaders
STRENGTHEN ALIGNMENT
- Upskilled 300+ cross-functional leaders across 8 industries with an average 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).
ACCELERATE 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 aligned roles and governance.
PROTECT 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 project commitments " - Programme Lead, Publishing
Take the Sponsor Advantage Scorecard™. It only requires you to answer 15-questions.
You will get immediate recommendations and it's free.
How to Work Together
Every engagement begins with a situational analysis of your culture, strategy, and initiatives. The Sponsor Advantage Method follows our five-stage process, revealing whether we can help, where to focus, and how to maximise the impact of your transformation.
01
The Sponsor Advantage Scorecard
An evidence-based diagnostic that benchmarks your initiative’s buy-in, alignment, and credibility.
You’ll get a snapshot of where risk is highest, and where the greatest opportunities are.
02
Discovery Session
A 45-minute conversation exploring your programme's context, leadership dynamics, and initiative's objectives.
Together, we clarify challenges, priorities, and the scope of potential support.
03
Bespoke Engagement
Based on findings, we design a tailored intervention - advisory, coaching, or leadership acceleration - 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 team to activate buy-in, alignment, and credibility across the organisation.
This may include leadership accelerators, sponsor coaching, or capability workshops.
05
Track Progress
Through regular reviews and the Sponsor Advantage Scorecard, we measure adoption, behavioural change, and credibility gains, ensuring transformation momentum is sustained.
Take the Sponsor Advantage Scorecard™. It only requires you to answer 15-questions.
You will get immediate recommendations and it's free.
Articles
Trade Confidence for Clarity
Confidence without clarity leads to bias, and amplifies confusion. Trade confidence for clarity.
Turn Information into Insight
Insight brings about change in behaviour. Mere exposure to information often creates confusion. Turn information into insight and your impact will increase.
Environment Determines Performance
Your habitual environment - places, people, things - determines how you see your world. You must become a collector of deeper, and more pertinent insights for your actions to yield better results.
Three Types of Discomfort
Excessive comfort is the invisible glass ceiling that holds you back. Excessive discomfort overwhelms you. Intentional, guided discomfort holds you in your zone of genius (The 4% Rule).
How you Be determines the impact of what you Do
Leadership presence has become more important than ever before. Activity without congruency leads to cynicism.
Give, yet Expect
People who give the most are both the most successful and the least successful. The formers are the ones that can set tactical boundaries.
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