Our Advisory Services
Four disciplines, quietly practised across a lifetime in private service: research, refinement, sourcing, and household audit, held to a single standard.
Household Audit
A great house deserves to be seen as its guests see it, and as its principal rarely can. Our audit is that clear and discreet mirror: a diagnosis first, and a design for the future thereafter.
Every great house benefits, from time to time, from being seen with fresh and expert eyes. Our Household Audit is a confidential Current State Diagnostic: a structured assessment of how your residence truly operates, from the standards observed at table and behind the scenes to governance, reporting lines, manuals, and inventories, and the morale and conduct of staff. We observe without disrupting and we listen without judging, concluding with a sealed written report for the principal alone: clear findings, honest priorities, and a practical programme of refinement. Where you wish it, the diagnostic becomes the factual foundation for a Target Operating Model, establishing how the household is intended to function in practice, which our office may then help you implement.
What this includes
- A confidential Current State Diagnostic of daily service, formal occasions, and the household's quiet routine
- Structured private interviews with principals, senior staff, and key suppliers
- Review of governance, authority and reporting lines, manuals, rotas, inventories, and security procedures
- Benchmarking against the standards of the finest private houses
- A sealed written diagnostic with findings, priorities, and a Target Operating Model for the household
- Implementation support: refinement, leadership development, and targeted training of the household team
How we work
- 01
Current State Diagnostic
Our senior consultants spend agreed days in residence, observing the household exactly as it runs and speaking with principals and senior staff individually and in confidence.
- 02
Target Operating Model
The findings are translated into the future architecture of the household: who holds authority, where responsibility sits, and how consistent standards are maintained across your residences.
- 03
Implementation
Once approved, our office helps you deliver the model through refinement, leadership development, and targeted training, reviewed after an agreed interval.
“No household can refine what it has not first seen clearly. The diagnostic is the beginning of every lasting improvement.”
Research & Documentation
"What is written down endures. The household that records its own practice protects it against the passage of people and the passing of years."
For principals who wish to preserve, codify, or refine the operating standards of their residences, we conduct in depth research and prepare the documents that govern a great house. This work is undertaken in close collaboration with your existing staff, with absolute discretion, and yields a private archive of standards manuals, position descriptions, contingency plans, and reference works. It is the institutional memory of your household, made tangible.
What this includes
- Bespoke household manuals, written to the standards of your own residences
- Position descriptions and progression frameworks for every role in the house
- Contingency and emergency protocols, prepared in coordination with security
- Inventory and provenance records for fine art, wine, silver, and personal collections
- Travel, residence transfer, and seasonal relocation procedures
- Confidential reference works on protocol, etiquette, and family tradition
How we work
- 01
Quiet Observation
We spend time in residence, in conversation with the staff who hold the house's tacit knowledge, before a single line is drafted.
- 02
Considered Drafting
Each manual is written by hand, in the voice of the household, then reviewed in successive private sittings with the principal.
- 03
Living Archive
Documents are bound in print and held in our encrypted client archive, updated with the seasons and the years.
“The household manual is not a list of rules. It is the written conscience of a great house.”
Refinement & Training
"Refinement is not the polishing of manners. It is the patient cultivation of judgement, so that the household's standards become second nature."
We design and deliver bespoke refinement programmes for household teams of every size, from a single principal valet to a court of one hundred or many more. Sessions take place at your residences, never in classrooms, and are led by our senior consultants who have themselves served at the highest level. The curriculum is shaped to your household's traditions: silver service, table setting and wine pairing for one family; protocol, precedence, and the receiving of heads of state for another. Every programme concludes with a written standards manual, prepared for your house alone.
What this includes
- Bespoke curricula for butlers, valets, housekeepers, chefs, governesses, and security
- Formal service at table: silver, plated, Russian, English, Continental, and more
- Wine, spirits, and cigar stewardship, with cellar audits where appropriate
- Protocol, precedence, and the receiving of dignitaries and royalty
- Wardrobe care, fine textiles, leather, and the conservation of personal collections
- Discretion, communication, and the cultural literacy required of a global household
How we work
- 01
Household Audit
A quiet observation of the house in its ordinary rhythm, usually a week and sometimes a fortnight, before any recommendation is made.
- 02
Bespoke Programme
A written curriculum, agreed with the principal or chief of staff, delivered in residence and tailored to the team in place.
- 03
Standards Manual
A printed and digital reference for the house, so that what is taught is preserved beyond the tenure of any single member of staff.
“True refinement is the quiet certainty that everything has been anticipated before it is required.”
Sourcing & Recruitment
The right appointment is rarely the most decorated résumé. It is the one whose temperament matches the rhythm of the house.
Our search begins long before a brief is written. We maintain an enduring, hand-cultivated network of senior private service professionals across Europe, the Gulf, Asia, and North America, many of whom we have known for decades. Each appointment is shaped to the particular weather of your household: its language, its calendar, its quietness, or its movement. We present a small, deliberate shortlist of candidates whose character we know personally, never a directory.
What this includes
- Confidential international search across all senior household positions
- Multi stage vetting, including background and reference verification across jurisdictions
- Discreet on site interviewing at residences of your choosing
- Psychometric and household fit assessment, conducted in-house
- Contract drafting, relocation, and right to work coordination
- A six month placement guarantee and a quiet replacement protocol
How we work
- 01
Confidential Brief
A private conversation with the principal or chief of staff, capturing not only the role but the household's voice.
- 02
Hand Selected Shortlist
Two to three candidates, each personally known to us, each interviewed at length and matched to the residence.
- 03
Placement & Aftercare
We accompany the appointment through its first six months, a quiet hand on the tiller while the new rhythm settles.
“A great household is held together by people whose names are seldom spoken outside its walls. Our work is to find them.”
Immediate Response
Beyond our four disciplines, our office maintains the quiet capability to assist principals and households when circumstances become urgent. Readiness is not improvised at the moment of need; it is sustained so that execution is immediate when required.
“Speed without composure is of little value to a principal. Our response remains measured even when rapid: controlled in footprint, limited in the number of individuals involved, and never communicated beyond the necessary circle.”
For principals retained on an ongoing advisory basis, this readiness is pre-established through confidential Crisis Briefs and a dedicated 24-hour line of contact.
Three Houses, One Standard
Each engagement is shaped to the residence it serves. The essays below describe the houses we know best.
A Conversation, Not a Proposal
Our office accepts a small number of engagements each year, by personal introduction. The first step is a private conversation with our principals, without obligation on either side.
Request a private conversation