Beyond
First
Impressions
A Human Capital Advisory and Leadership Intelligence firm that specialises in leadership and talent assessments.
Analytical, evidence-based, focused on understanding people in the context of the business and designed to inform action.
● Talent Due Diligence ● Managing Leadership Risk ● Realising Potential
First-order thinking makes decisions on initial impressions & intuition
Second-order thinking looks deeper to understand how people will impact execution, scaling and outcomes tomorrow. It is the discipline of looking past immediate, obvious observations to better understand your talent and their impact on performance.
Second Order Advisory is not a recruitment firm. It is built for recruiters, investors, boards and management teams who require evidence, frameworks and conviction — not impressions.
Evidence-based
Conclusions traced to data, not feel
Analytical
Structured frameworks, not subjective impressions
Evidence-based
Conclusions traced to data, not feel
Analytical
Structured frameworks, not subjective impressions
Science-backed
Grounded in established psychological and behaviourial research
Business Experience
Commercial experience brings context to insights and recommendations.
Evidence-based
Conclusions traced to data, not feel
Analytical
Structured frameworks, not subjective impressions
Science-backed
Grounded in established psychological and behaviourial research
Business Experience
Commercial experience brings context to insights and recommendations.
Principal
Rob Davies
25+ years at the intersection of psychology, leadership and business.
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Global & Multi-Sector:
Senior leadership and Board experience across Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, and Latin America spanning mining, manufacturing, technology, consumer, and financial services industries.
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Business & Commercial Perspective:
Has worked alongside boards, senior executives and leadership teams through growth, transformation, M&A, restructuring and complex organisational environments—bringing first-hand experience of how leadership decisions play out in practice.
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Organisational Psychology & practice:
With a Masters degree in organisational psychology, combines technical expertise in assessment with extensive hands-on leadership and organisational experience.
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Leadership in Context:
At Second Order Advisory, Rob examines the intersection of business, commercial priorities, strategy, stakeholders, organisational environment and the demands ahead to surface risks and strengths that conventional assessment can miss.
Assessment curated by an experienced practitioner who has been on both sides of the table
experience
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the mandate
01
Scoping
The decision is defined — the capital, the path, and what execution actually requires
02
evidence
Multiple independent vectors are triangulated; no single source settles a rating
03
framework
Findings are structured against the execution path, not against impressions