How We Work
These are not marketing lines. They are in our contracts.
A short set of promises decides how we take on work, price it, deliver it and report on it, on every file, whichever side of the table hired us.
The promises.
You set the direction, from the first conversation.
Every job starts with what the Nation or organization wants to achieve, not what we think it should want. You set the direction. We bring the hands, the structure and the delivery.
We move at your pace.
Chief and Council decisions take consultation. Community processes take the time they take. We do not push outside deadlines onto a community, and we teach our industry clients why that patience is what makes their projects succeed.
We make the plan and we do the work.
Most consultants hand over a plan and leave. We deliver the plan and the systems together: the business case and the website, the joint venture and the contact system, the plan and the doing.
Alongside, not in place of.
We work beside First Nation leadership and staff. We do not replace Band staff. We do not compete with Nation-owned businesses. We do not take over community projects. Every job is built to leave the Nation more able than it found it.
All in for our client, the way a good lawyer is.
When we take a job, for a Nation or for a company, we work for that client's best outcome with full commitment. We will push back and give you our honest read from thirty years of experience. And we hold one limit that protects every client: we will not land a deal today that causes problems tomorrow. The test is a deal both sides would sign again in ten years. We turn down work that fails it. That is not divided loyalty. It is why our word is worth having on your side.
Honest about what we are.
Willow-ICS is not Indigenous-owned. We are a non-Indigenous firm that works for Indigenous clients: First Nations, Inuit and Métis. We do not give legal, tax, investment or accounting advice. We help you through those questions and connect you with qualified specialists, and the legal papers are drawn up by your own lawyer.
Both sides hire us. Here is how that works, in writing.
Working for Nations and for companies only earns trust if the rules are clear. These are ours.
Willow-ICS is not a law firm, and these are not professional legal duties — they are business-conduct commitments we write into our engagement letters and hold ourselves to contractually.
Never both sides of the same file.
We never work for a company and a Nation on the same project, deal or negotiation. Ever.
We check for conflicts before we start.
Before any engagement letter is signed, we check the new job against every current and recent client, and turn it down if there is a conflict.
We tell you who hired us, in the first conversation.
When we come to a Nation's table as a company's advisor, we say so plainly, right away, and we tell the Nation to get its own independent advice.
Experience travels. Information does not.
What a client tells us stays with that client. We carry what we have learned from job to job. We never carry confidential information.
Our right to walk away is in the contract.
If a deal fails the ten-year test, we can decline it or withdraw from it. That right is written into our engagement letter, with notice, and your information stays confidential after we leave.
How a job runs.
Discovery conversation.
A thirty-minute call to understand your situation, work out what you need, and decide whether Willow-ICS is the right fit. No commitment.
Scope and funding.
If the fit is right, we set out the work, the timeline, and how it gets paid for: a grant, a partner, a government program, or a fee.
Engagement letter and kickoff.
A simple engagement letter confirms the work, what you will receive, the timeline and the terms. Then we get moving.
Delivery and reporting.
We do the work and report progress at the pace your governance needs. Everything we produce is built to be used, not filed.
Handover.
Every job ends with a proper handover: the systems, documents, processes and know-how your team can run on its own from then on.
Why we don't post prices.
The price depends on the work, how it is funded, and what the client wants. For Nations, many jobs are paid for by federal or provincial programs, industry contributions or grants, so the cost to the Nation is often far below a normal fee, and sometimes nothing. Two rules protect you: we never take a percentage of grant money we help you win, and we never take money from a company sitting across the table from you. For companies, work starts with a fixed first mandate, usually in the low-to-mid five figures, followed by a monthly retainer with success milestones.
The first call is the right place to talk about budget, funding and scope.