About us — Robots & Humans

Structured where it matters, human where it counts.

A consultancy designed for post-covid economies. Focussed, agile, and reactive where it’s needed. We operate with ruthless pragmatism, eliminating complexity and focusing exclusively on commercial impact, guided by the multiplier principle: every solution must create compounding value across marketing, product, systems, and culture.

We help

CEOs, boards and business leaders of challenger and mid-tier businesses. Our clients come to us when there is desire - or pressure - to grow, but the business is stalling, performance isn’t coming easily, or teams aren’t delivering.

We often work with leaders where marketing, product or service design creates the most friction. In many cases, there’s no clear view on how to fix recurring challenges that have already burned through multiple attempts at solutions.

Sometimes our clients need an honest assessment to understand what’s really going on. Other times, they need a trusted pair of hands - and our delivery team - to stabilise, clarify and help drive growth.

Our approach

We bring fresh perspectives and momentum from people and capabilities you wouldn’t normally have on hand. And we help CEOs turn uncertainty into confident, repeatable action by keeping technology and human judgement working in sync.

We cut through complexity with plain language, sharp questions and clear thinking — the kind that turns stalled conversations into real progress.

The value

With a fresh, external perspective, we go further faster, sharpening your positioning, building a customer-focused culture, restructuring teams for revenue instead of output, and putting measurement into place that connects customer behaviour to conversion.

By giving you access to the right tools, talent and capability, we cut what doesn't build pipeline and double down on what does. The result: maximised performance and a faster, more confident growth trajectory.

Why trust us? Robots & Humans has been twenty years in the making

"We've spent two decades motivating people to act through marketing, communications and culture. We've risked our own capital, lived through failures and successful exits, worked for global organisations and launched our own startups.

Robots & Humans is the partner we wish we'd had: senior consultants who've been there, helping us through times where we’ve not had the answers and not with just theory, unread decks or tactics without strategy.

And so we’ve built something different. Strategic diagnosis and implementation. Same team, no handoff. Senior consultants, direct access to specialists. No account managers. No extended discovery.

We identify what's blocking growth, fix it, and help you navigate forward. And to put our money where our mouth is, Robots & Humans is currently doubling in size year-on-year."

Ian & Lucy Thatcher, Founders, Robots & Humans

The people you’ll work with

Ian Thatcher

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Ian sees what others miss. A strategist and marketer who finds patterns in data, evidence and market signals that unlock new paths to growth.
From touring as a DJ, taking Mr Tumble into the app store, producing content for HM Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday celebrations to leading successful brand campaigns for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, his career has been built on making unconventional connections and turning them into results.
Lucy Thatcher

DIRECTOR

Lucy has led a twenty-year career developing communications, marketing and internal engagement programmes for clients. She has an eye for sorting the most complex problems into simple, repeatable actions for growth and brings operational calm and planning to any and every client engagement.
Her experience covers technology and telco sectors for global brand such as BT, Virgin Media 02, Verizon, Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft as well as public sector work with the NHS and several councils in England.
James Powell

SENIOR CONSULTANT

James has a wonderful intuition for human need and a rare talent for uncovering insights that spark powerful creative expression and strategic clarity.
He was formerly Head of Research at Nationwide, a PA Consultant running projects spanning the 2012 Olympics legacy to tech investment, and a government economist in the Home Office and Department for Education. He now assists CEOs in developing leadership capability and embedding ways of working, processes and cultures that improve efficiency, reduce friction and enable growth.
Lindsey Kay

SENIOR CONSULTANT
Lindsey has a knack for piecing together puzzles - seeing the big picture while spotting the details, and asking powerful questions to uncover what’s really going on and what needs to happen next.
She’s a strategist and commercial leader with experience across BT Group, leading functions spanning strategy and growth, professional services, strategic alliances and analyst relations. She brings commercial breadth, structured thinking and a strong grounding in communications to help clients refine their go-to-market and unlock better performance from their teams. She also speaks French, German and Spanish.
Jo Marsh

ASSOCIATE CONSULTANT
Jo has devised brand and communication strategy for some of the world’s greatest significant and cultural organisations.
Paul Bramwell

ASSOCIATE CONSULTANT
Paul was formerly the Managing Director of MediaCom regional business, one of the world’s largest media agencies. He advises Robots & Humans and its clients on media planning.