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Real-World Clarity — for Leaders Making High-Stakes Decisons
External, field-based intelligence for leaders, founders, and advisory firms navigating complexity.
Decision Clarity & Experience Intelligence
The Operating Shift
Business performance is no longer explained by dashboards alone.
Automation is accelerating. Labor is tighter.
Customer tolerance for friction is shrinking.
Leaders are further from day-to-day execution than at any point in modern operating history.
When reality changes faster than internal systems can see it, decisions are made on partial information.
Today’s Growth Partners exists to bring leaders back to ground truth — before the cost of being wrong compounds.
WHAT WE DO
External, Field-Based Decision Clarity
Most leaders receive a curated version of reality — filtered through reporting structures, incentives, habits, and internal politics.
Today’s Growth Partners provides decision-grade clarity from the field.
I enter real operating environments, observe execution in real time, and translate what I see into clear intelligence leadership can act on immediately.
What this looks like in practice
Competitive reality (not assumed positioning)
We assess your business against the strongest operators in your region — location by location — so leadership can see what excellence looks like inside your actual footprint and price point.
Execution inside real operating conditions
We evaluate how performance is shaped by trade areas, neighborhood behavior, staffing reality, and operational flow — the factors that rarely show up in reports but determine outcomes.
Experience and execution breakdowns leadership doesn’t see
We surface the friction points that quietly erode trust, loyalty, and repeat business — before they show up as a revenue problem.
Decision-grade clarity
Leadership receives a clear assessment of:
- what’s working
- what’s broken
- what’s no longer worth fixing
- where investment still makes sense
- where to stop spending time, money, or effort
How engagements begin
Every engagement starts with a 30-Day Field Diagnostic — a focused, on-the-ground assessment that gives leadership the clarity to decide what to correct, what to elevate, and what to exit cleanly.
The Decision-Clarity Practice
This work exists to answer one question before critical decisions are made:
What is actually happening — and what does it mean?
AI, Automation | Operational Reality
Most businesses are adopting AI and automation faster than they understand the downstream effects. The question is not whether to use AI.
The question is where it belongs, where it doesn’t, and what it is doing to performance on the ground.
The Risk
Automation reshapes the back end first — reporting, scheduling, ordering, routing, and communication. The front end remains human far longer than most leaders expect.
When automation is misapplied:
- signal is masked instead of clarified
- frontline engagement degrades
- customer friction increases
- leadership believes visibility improved, while reality declines
Dashboards improve. Operating truth erodes.
What I Assess
This is not a technology audit. It is an operational reality check.
I evaluate:
- whether systems improve execution or conceal breakdowns
- where automation supports judgment — and where it replaces it prematurely
- how tools affect attention, accountability, and staff behavior
- how customers experience the result (not the intent)
- whether leadership still has early visibility into drift
The outcome is not more data — it is a clearer judgment about where AI strengthens performance and where it quietly increases risk.
For Consulting, Design & Advisory Firms
Strategy and experience work fail most often at the same point:
execution in real environments.
Your teams design the model.
I validate the assumptions — in the field — before decisions harden into costly commitments.
I’m brought in to:
- test “what we think is happening” against operating reality
- surface blind spots leadership and internal teams can’t see from inside
- map where customer experience, staff behavior, and operational flow diverge from intent
- provide usable ground truth that sharpens direction quickly
Typical use cases
- transformation or turnaround
- experience redesign
- multi-site performance variance
- frontline operating model changes
- post-launch reality checks
Outcome:
Your firm protects outcomes, protects credibility, and delivers work that holds up in real life — not just in decks.
ABOUT MARY Douglas
Experience Operations Strategist, Today’s Growth Partners
Mary Douglas brings more than 30 years of hands-on experience inside customer-facing businesses — spanning frontline operations, multi-location leadership, and executive advisory work.
Her practice is grounded in direct, in-field observation. Mary enters real operating environments, observes how people, systems, and customers actually interact, and translates what she sees into decision-grade clarity that leaders can act on immediately.
She is brought in when:
- internal reporting no longer reflects operating reality
- performance varies across locations without clear explanation
- leadership senses drift but lacks direct visibility
- the next decision carries material financial or operational risk
Mary’s role is to provide external, unbiased field intelligence — identifying what is working, what is no longer viable, and where effort or investment should stop before mistakes compound.
Her experience spans grocery, retail, hospitality, healthcare services, distribution, and other field-dependent environments where execution, human behavior, and operating conditions determine outcomes.
In addition to commercial and operational engagements, Mary also supports mission-driven and faith-based organizations seeking clarity around leadership stewardship, internal coherence, and long-term sustainability. This work is approached with the same external, observational discipline — translated for environments where care, responsibility, and meaning intersect.
Mary is based in Northern California and works with founders, executive teams, and advisory firms across the West Coast and beyond.
Success Stories
Mary discovered me and my business at a trade show, and everything changed from there. She saw me. Since working together, my business has taken off. We now have solid plans to expand into multiple new locations. Mary helped us redesign our logo and implement grassroots marketing that’s truly expanded our reach. She’s not just a consultant; she’s become my new best friend. Thank you, Mary. You are incredibly gifted—and now I understand exactly why.
- Founder & Business Owner
Mary brought a different approach she helped me get out of my own way. Processes really don't change in business. It's how you do those processes that makes a difference. I was selling a product and Mary showed me a way to sell a service. She developed a CSR program for us and began to synergize us in the community. Customer service improved and sales went through the roof.
- CMO
Mary opened my eyes. She helped me realize that all the reasons I was holding myself back were just excuses. Her insights around money and mindset completely shifted how I think—and as a result, how I operate. At first, I thought she might be a bit too 'woo-woo' for me, but she challenged me in all the right ways. It was exactly what I needed. Thank you for an incredible month of transformation.
- CEO & Founder
Mary told me from the jump what was going on and I refused to see past my ego. I lost my startup and looking back I know why. I was not honest with myself. I will always be grateful for my coaching calls with Mary.
- CEO
I worked with Mary on several Leadership projects. We came together in such a light of newness and love for others in the communities we served. I was elevated, I grew , and I became a better leader because of Mary.
- CEO & Founder
Mary started with our Fortune 500 retail organization and quickly became sought after. She managed people, operations and sales like a champ. Her teams' results were consistently above expectations. I flew her out to our corporate offices to get to know her and how she was so successful. I learned all the different things she had implemented. They became company directives.
- CEO
Mary brought the word focus to another level. When the entire project was in full swing and we had so many moving parts to manage Mary was the go-to-person for facts, figures and details. She led my executive leaders through a praise training and the shift was outstanding.
- President
Mary pulled me in, coached me and listened. She really heard me. Someone finally saw me. Thank you for leading our Bee Hive of Consultants to an amazing level during Covid. Without your guidance I would have given up on my dreams.
- Mother and CEO
Mary brings it. She give 100% and receives 100% back from her teams. She showed seasoned leaders how to pivot, grow, and deep dive their "whys". She rallies people and people respect her unique way of being with them. Mary doesn't play. But she sure does care. Her results and metrics were always something to chase after.
A true Leader in the business.
- VP Operations
Mary hired an entire team and trained all my leaders how to manage all HR processes. She set our business up for success. Mary has a way to bring the unexpected hire onboard that is the perfect fit. She sees things in people that I would have overlooked. A top notch consultant.
- CEO
No one on our executive team ever thought of turning our bike shops into indoor cycling studios using our own equipment. Mary did. Her vision transformed our slowest season into one of our most profitable. In some locations, winter now outperforms summer. She didn’t just improve the business. She saw what it could be.
— East Coast, Executive Team Member
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