1. Over 15 years we’ve built a personal brand in the marketplace. At the end of the day, it’s all about proving what we do well and how we do it. Through our publications, our presentations at conferences/seminars and the specialist networks that we contribute to, we can demonstrate our capabilities in a huge range of sectors.
2. We have conversations with our clients about creating improvement; we don’t create “decks” of slides every time we want to share an idea with them.
3. There aren’t enough hours in the day to seek perfection; we can only afford “excellence”. We don’t have back offices full of analysts to crunch numbers to the nth degree and, frankly, how much value does it serve?
4. We have to operate lean, value-adding processes. Every single activity we do on an assignment for a client adds value and moves things on. There’s no time for “meetings about meetings”.
5. We take responsibility for our own personal development; we have to keep up-to-date and we have to invest in our capabilities. Every assignment is a learning opportunity with knock-on benefits for the next client.
6. We are organised around one simple dimension: our clients. There’s no Head Office, or Practice Teams, or Sector Groups and not even any organisation structures to get in the way. All our time can be devoted to clients.
7. We don’t have expensive overheads to maintain and, by working with a team of associates and partners, we don’t have to worry about “consultant utilisation”. There are no benches full of consultants who have to be earning fees and who end up on assignments for which they aren’t qualified, just to get their “utilisation” up. So, while we don’t claim to have the lowest fee rates, you’re certainly not paying for the inefficiencies or the egos you’ll find in bigger consultancies.