Built around staying.
ClearPeak is a business consulting firm. AI is what we lead with right now because it creates the fastest, most measurable wins for SME businesses. The deeper work is helping businesses see where they are, decide where they want to go, and build the path between.
Two friends. One conviction. A firm built on partnership.
ClearPeak started as a conversation between two friends. We saw the opportunity AI was creating for businesses, and we wanted to help SME owners actually capture it.
Ruan was running an aluminium business and using AI to compete with companies many times his size. What he saw, most owners hadn't yet. AI was not just a productivity tool. It was a way for small businesses to operate at a level they previously could not reach. The kind of competitive lift that used to take years of headcount, capital, and infrastructure was now available to a small team with the right tools and the right thinking.
That insight was the spark. The conviction underneath it was something we both already cared about. SME owners are some of the most committed, hardworking people in any economy. But they often lack the strategic support, the operational thinking, and the practical guidance that bigger businesses take for granted. They need a partner who can help them see where they are, decide where they want to go, and walk the path with them. Not a vendor. Not a once-off plan. A real partner.
So we built ClearPeak. A business consulting firm focused on SME businesses. AI implementation is where we lead, because it is where we deliver the fastest, most measurable difference for our clients. The deeper work, helping businesses move forward with clarity and confidence, stays the same regardless of which tools matter most.
We started this together in 2025, both of us already running other businesses, both of us choosing this because we genuinely believe in it. What we bring is operator depth. We run real businesses today. We use these tools every day.
Two directors. One firm. Real partnership.
Different strengths, complementary perspectives, joint accountability for every engagement.
Ruan
Strategy and AI implementation
Ruan is the strategic and analytical side of ClearPeak. He sees the bigger picture, builds the path to it, and pushes the work forward.
His core work is financial analysis, strategic thinking, and building businesses from idea to operating company. He spent years in management accounting in the UK, working across charity, engineering, and cross-border businesses. The work involved cash flow, balance sheet, and P&L analysis, plan-to-actual variance reporting, project performance tracking, and writing commentary for executive teams and boards.
Alongside ClearPeak, he co-founded and runs an aluminium business that imports high-end European systems into the South African market. He built it from vision to operating company, including positioning, brand and corporate identity, supplier and import relationships, marketing, sales, financial management, and the operational systems that hold a client-focused custom-design business together. The business is now fully operational with a real client base and a competitive position in the market.
Earlier in his career, he co-founded a fresh-meal delivery business that grew from an idea into the largest operation of its kind in their area within a year, on the back of a brand and a service standard that did not exist in the local market until they introduced it. Before that, he worked on a large commercial farm of over 450 workers, sitting on the management team where he built the quality control framework and designed a stock-taking system for pest-control chemicals that prevented supply gaps the operation could not afford. He studied agricultural management originally, before moving into finance and building from there.
Most consultants have only worked in consulting. Ruan has built businesses from the ground up, run financial analysis at the level executive teams and boards rely on, and managed the full lifecycle of a current operating company. SME owners are not getting advice from someone who has only read about running a business. They are getting it from someone who is doing it now, in real conditions, with real consequences.
Helping businesses refocus on their goals and their vision, then building the path to get them there. Helping owners see what is actually going on, identifying where the real leverage sits, and translating big-picture thinking into practical next steps.
Chrisna de Clerk
Training and AI implementation
Chrisna runs the training and AI implementation side of ClearPeak. She refines and delivers every training course we put out, leads custom training engagements directly with client teams, and works hands-on with clients to build AI workflows that fit how their teams actually work. She also helps run the business day-to-day.
She is the energy of the firm. The one who keeps momentum and reads the room with clients. She brings a warmth to the work that does not happen naturally in most consulting firms. Clients feel it.
Her background includes co-running a previous business with her husband, alongside several other ventures. When ClearPeak started, she dove fully into AI, learned the tools deeply, and built the practical, hands-on capability that lets the firm actually deliver implementation rather than just talk about it.
Making AI land. She is exceptional at working alongside team members to set up the systems and processes that actually work for them, then showing them how to use it confidently. That accompanied implementation work is what turns a training session into something that genuinely changes how a team works.
Five beliefs that shape every engagement.
These are not slogans. They guide who we work with, how we scope, and how we deliver.
- Belief · 01
The best strategy is the one that gets executed.
A simple plan that gets implemented beats an extravagant plan that sits in a drawer. We would rather build something practical than something extravagant. The work that matters is the work that actually happens.
- Belief · 02
AI is not the answer. AI is a tool. The answer is your people.
Technology only works when the humans using it are trained, confident, and supported. We will never implement a tool your team cannot actually use.
- Belief · 03
We don't succeed unless you succeed.
Our measure isn't hours billed or reports delivered. It is whether your business measurably improved.
- Belief · 04
Businesses transform from the inside out.
We don't parachute in with answers. We work alongside you, build capability within your team, and stay until the change is embedded.
- Belief · 05
Clarity comes before strategy.
Strategy is just the path between where you are and where you want to be. Until both are clear, no plan is worth much. We spend the time on clarity because that is where the real work starts.
Curious how this could work for your business?
Start with a Strategic Snapshot. It's free, it's tailored to your business, and you'll walk away with clarity, even if you never work with us again.
Everything you share with us stays between us.