Meet the founder

About Us

Commercial leadership. Practical strategy. Delivery that lasts.

Steve Dougherty, Founder · Chester, UK

Strategy grounded in experience

Steve brings a career spanning commercial and operations leadership at Victrex, Cabot, ICI and Ineos. His experience combines the scale and discipline of FTSE 250 and Fortune 500 businesses with direct board advisory work for an SME.

He has owned global business performance, built teams and growth platforms, and led complex commercial transitions. That breadth shapes Nistalco’s approach: understand the business, make clear choices, build the capability to act, and keep delivery on track.

For B2B SME leaders, he brings a practical perspective on the link between market opportunity, customer value and the organisation needed to deliver it.

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Why Nistalco exists

I set up Nistalco because independent, senior strategic thinking is hard for growing businesses to come by. Owners lack access to key strategic capabilities to complement their own unique talents; CEOs need a view free of internal politics; MDs face growth, restructuring or succession without budget for a permanent strategy hire; investors see portfolio gaps too small for a full-time executive but too important to ignore.

Working fractionally, a few days a month, I bring a practical perspective on the link between market opportunity, customer value and the organisation needed to deliver it. You deal directly with the person doing the work.

Our logo is the little apple tree in my garden.

Left to itself, it would put its energy into leaves and tangled branches and give a modest handful of fruit. Managed properly, it produces an extraordinary yield for its size.

The difference isn’t more effort. It’s knowing where the tree stands, deciding which branches to keep, training growth in the right direction, and coming back every season to check and adjust.

I’ve spent my career seeing the same thing in business. Companies often have more potential than they realise, but it’s spread in too many directions. Nistalco exists to bring boardroom structure to businesses that don’t need, or can’t afford, a full-time strategist: diagnose where you are, decide where to grow, build the operating model to get there, and keep it on track.

The tree became our logo, and the arrows show the point: growth with direction.

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What is on your mind? Start with a conversation about your business and where you need support.