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Recurring problems are rarely a shortage of capable people

Karamawari helps CEOs and leadership teams uncover what capable people have been missing, so costly problems stop returning.

When the same problem survives multiple fixes, the natural response is to try harder: another process, restructure, technology investment, consultant or transformation. But recurrence is evidence that something important remains unresolved. Karamawari works alongside the people who understand your organisation best to uncover the conditions, assumptions and behaviours influencing the decisions that keep recreating the problem. We make those hidden connections visible, help your people determine what needs to change, and build the internal capability to prevent recurrence: reducing avoidable cost, recovering capacity and improving performance without creating dependency on us.

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Karamawari's Vision

A world where organisations stop paying for the same problems twice.

Karamawari's Mission

To help leaders and their people uncover what keeps costly problems coming back, change the conditions that recreate them, and build the capability to keep them solved.

Karamawari's Values

Curiosity before certainty

We resist the pressure to reach an answer before we understand the problem. We question what appears obvious, distinguish evidence from assumption and remain willing to discover that our first explanation was wrong.

Respect for capability

We know the people closest to the problem are capable and possess knowledge outsiders don't. Our role isn't to replace their expertise but to help reveal what has been difficult to see from inside the system.

Courage over comfort

Persistent problems sometimes survive because important things are difficult to say, challenge or change. We surface uncomfortable evidence respectfully and are prepared to challenge assumptions, including our own.

Evidence over opinion

Plausible explanations aren't enough. We look for evidence connecting conditions, assumptions, behaviours, decisions and impacts before we recommend you propose solutions.

Simplicity from complexity

Organisations are complicated enough. We help you identify the smallest number of meaningful changes capable of altering the conditions that recreate the problem rather than adding layers of process, governance or bureaucracy.

Capability over dependency

Success isn't making our clients dependent on Karamawari. We work alongside their people, transfer understanding and capability, and leave the organisation better able to solve difficult problems itself.

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Karamawari's Beliefs

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    We believe capable people rarely wake up intending to make bad decisions.
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    We believe every decision has a context that made it seem reasonable at the time.
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    We believe recurring problems survive because something capable of recreating them remains unchanged.
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    We believe symptoms deserve attention, but recurrence demands deeper investigation.
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    We believe assumptions should be tested against evidence, not strengthened by repetition.
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    We believe another solution isn't the answer when the problem itself hasn't been properly diagnosed.
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    We believe complexity should be reduced, not added to.
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    We believe organisations should become more capable through our involvement, not more dependent upon it.
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    We believe organisations should stop paying for problems they've already paid to fix.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the name Karamawari mean?
The name is derived from the Japanese word karamawari (空回り) which translates to “spinning without engaging” or “turning without traction.”
Karamawari, when applied in a business context, aptly describes problems that recur, not through sheer lack of effort expended on a solution, but effort and cost that is wasted because the solution fails to solve the problem.
The company was named after the very challenge it solves whilst working alongside clients.
What kind of problems do you help with?
Karamawari helps CEOs, senior leadership and their teams understand why persistent problems keep returning. We work alongside your capable people to uncover the conditions, assumptions, behaviours, and decisions that continue to recreate the problem, so the organisation can stop applying temporary fixes and start changing what actually needs to change.
How are you different from a typical consulting firm?
Typical consulting often moves quickly from problem to solution: a roadmap, workstreams, operating model, benchmark, or implementation plan.
Karamawari starts earlier. We ask why the problem has survived previous solutions. Our focus is not simply what to do next, but why what has already been done has not changed the result.
Why have we struggled to solve this ourselves?
You may already have much of the knowledge needed to solve it. The difficulty is that the knowledge is usually fragmented across teams, functions, data, history, and lived experience.
Karamawari helps bring those pieces together safely and clearly. We do not replace your team’s judgement; we help sharpen it.
Will this make my team feel blamed or exposed?
No. This is one of the most critical points. The work is not about finding who got it wrong. It is about understanding why decisions made sense at the time and what conditions continue to recreate the problem.
Persistent problems are usually produced by patterns, not villains.
The aim is shared clarity, not blame.
We do not work with leaders who want to go on a witch hunt to make an exampel of or fire people who made honest mistakes.