Strategic Advisory

We start by
listening.

The strongest buildings stand because their foundations were built properly. The same is true of any organisation facing a significant challenge. Rush to the solution and you build on sand. Invest the time to listen, understand, question, and listen again — and everything that follows is stronger for it.

That is how the Goodway Advisory works. We stay in that loop until we know what we actually know. Only then does the work begin.

Start a conversation  →

15+

Years frontline leadership

MBE

Awarded 2023

BBC

National recognition

London

& national reach

Mark Goodway MBE

About

Judgement earned through pressure.

MBE 2023 BBC Panorama The Guardian Bloomberg Finalist Former CEO

Mark Goodway MBE is the founder of Goodway Advisory and the former Chief Executive of The Matthew Tree Project, one of the UK's most innovative crisis support organisations, whose work was recognised at the highest levels of national policy and media.

Over fifteen years, he designed and delivered the Rebuilding Lives model: an integrated approach to crisis support that demonstrably prevented homelessness at a fraction of the cost of responding after it occurs.

"The learning accumulated over fifteen years of frontline delivery can now do more good in the hands of the many."

The Goodway Advisory was founded in 2026 on the conviction that what works at the frontline must reach the leaders, funders, and commissioners who shape systems at scale. That includes the writing. The 50p Lettuce puts fifteen years of evidence into the hands of people with the power to use it.

MBE, 2023, for services to disadvantaged people and charity
BBC One Panorama: Hungry Britain, 2014
BBC One Inside Out West, twice featured
Full-page editorial, The Guardian, 2013
London Assembly Zero Hunger City, cited as best practice
Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge, Pan-European Finalist
APPG Inquiry into Hunger in the UK, contributing evidence
Expert panel member, Bristol Fairness Commission, 2014

Advisory

Organisations facing real pressure.

The following describes the challenges where this kind of advisory engagement makes a genuine difference. If you recognise your organisation here, that is where the conversation should start.

01

Funding volatility and strategic uncertainty

Navigating a funding landscape that has fundamentally shifted. Needing to think clearly about what comes next.

02

Leadership pressure and board challenge

Decisions that require more than process. They require perspective earned through experience under real pressure.

03

ESG, social impact and resilience

Funders and commissioners needing to understand what genuine impact looks like in practice, and how resilient system design actually works.

04

Integrating AI without losing what matters

Foundations and funders are under growing pressure to adopt AI, for due diligence, reporting, and grant-making decisions. The technology is moving faster than the ethics. We help organisations integrate AI capability thoughtfully, without sacrificing human judgement, relational grant-making, or the trust that underpins the work.

05

Strategic review and diagnostic

A structured conversation that identifies what is actually happening, and what the organisation needs to do about it.

06

Speaking, training and publications

Events, conferences, and development programmes, alongside a body of written work that extends the argument beyond any one engagement.

"We are not providing pre-defined solutions. We are providing judgement, experience, and clarity under pressure."

Every engagement begins with a conversation, not a proposal. The right advisory relationship is shaped by what the organisation actually needs, not by a packaged offer.

If you are facing the kind of challenge where the standard answers are not working, that is precisely where our experience matters most.

Publications

Coming soon

The 50p Lettuce by Mark Goodway MBE, published by Spero Cura Publishing
Spero Cura Publishing

Why does a lettuce cost 50p? And why does the answer matter for every system you lead?

Not because the system is working. Because the real costs have been transferred elsewhere: to the atmosphere, to depleted soil, to NHS budgets, to supply chains most of us will never see.

The same logic runs through the welfare system, the housing system, and every crisis support service in the country. Cut the benefit and record a saving. Make the referral and close the file. The costs do not disappear. They migrate, compounding in A&E departments and emergency housing, at five times the original cost, for the rest of people's lives.

Drawing on fifteen years of frontline experience designing the Rebuilding Lives model, Mark Goodway argues that the systems we have built are not failing by accident. They are failing by design. And that the assets required to build something better are already there, waiting for someone to ask a different question.

This is not a theoretical argument. It is an evidence-based one, written for the leaders, funders, and commissioners with the power to change the systems that need changing.

Publication forthcoming. Register interest or enquire about speaking engagements via the contact page.

The Series

The 50p Lettuce is the first of three. Together, the trilogy moves from diagnosis, to delivery, to a different way of building the systems we all depend on.

The Blueprint: A Practitioner's Guide to Delivering Rebuilding Lives

Book Two  ·  In preparation

The Blueprint: A Practitioner's Guide to Delivering Rebuilding Lives

The detailed delivery guide for the organisations, funders, and commissioners who want to put the argument into practice. The model is transferable. The framework is usable. This is the guide to doing it.

Foodtures: A Vertically Integrated Local Food System by Mark Goodway MBE

Book Three  ·  In preparation

Foodtures: A Vertically Integrated Local Food System

Good for people, good for the environment, good for the economy. Where the 50p lettuce began — a model for local food systems that count their true cost honestly, and build resilience into communities from the ground up.

Insights

Thinking on the systems that matter.

Published writing on resilience, funding systems, and the hidden costs of efficiency. Updated as new thinking develops.

27 May 2026  ·  Grant-making  ·  AI

The AI Application Wave Is Not the Problem. It's the Signal.

Every grant-maker facing an AI-driven surge in applications is treating it as a volume problem. That is a reasonable response. It will probably help. But it is not sufficient. If it is the only response, it will produce a more efficient version of the same problem.

Read article  →

Adapted from The 50p Lettuce, forthcoming from Spero Cura Publishing.

30 May 2026  ·  Systems thinking  ·  Charity sector

What a Lettuce Taught Me About Fifteen Years in the Charity Sector

For years, the same question came up in meetings, from funders, from well-meaning professionals trying to be pragmatic. It took fifteen years, a charity that closed despite everything it achieved, and a book to work through what was really wrong with it.

Read article  →

Adapted from The 50p Lettuce, forthcoming from Spero Cura Publishing.

4 Jun 2026  ·  Policy  ·  Systems change

The Commission Was Right. But Ten Years On, a Failure to Invest — and the Issues Remain the Same.

In 2014, the Bristol Fairness Commission produced fifty recommendations and genuine analysis of what a fair city would require. One was delivered well. The rest quietly evaporated. Not because anyone opposed them — but because nothing was built to hold them.

Read article  →

Drawn from experience as expert panel member, Bristol Fairness Commission, 2014.

Follow Goodway Advisory on LinkedIn for updates on new articles and publications.

Contact

The right conversation
starts here.

The Goodway Advisory works selectively with organisations where the fit is right and the work is meaningful. If you are facing a challenge that requires direct experience rather than a methodology, get in touch.

Telephone 020 3137 6038
Email info@goodwayadvisory.com
Web www.goodwayadvisory.com
Address 167-169 Great Portland Street
5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF
Company Registered in England & Wales
No. 17195891