Climb In Consulting

This is a special episode for two reasons: firstly, this marks the 70th episode of Climb In Consulting a huge milestone and one that we have to say a big thank you to you, our listeners for. Without you this show wouldn’t have even got off the ground! And secondly, this week we bring you a slightly different type of episode. Instead of my usual interviews, this episode is a panel discussion all about how you can start your career in consulting.

We’re a huge believer in broadening the reach of our industry and helping those who may not know about consulting or may have misconceptions about what it is and what it isn’t. So, when we were asked by Deri Hughes to chair this panel on behalf of Explore Consulting we was so excited. We knew this was going to be an amazing opportunity to bring you advice from some brilliant consultants and ex-consultants who are doing great things, know all about our industry and could provide an honest and in-depth insight into the world of consulting.

For this session we were joined by a fantastic panel who brought such refreshing and honest perspectives to the discussion. In this episode you’ll hear from:

Tamsin Chislett, Co-Founder and CEO at Onloan

Harriette Foster, Social Impact Investment Manager at Impetus

Darren Ashby, Partner at businessfourzero

Julianne Ilebode-Akisanya, General Manager at ENT UK

In this conversation our panellists dig into what it’s really like to work in consulting, the benefits that it’s given them and some of the challenges you need to consider too.

They also answer a range of questions from people like you, giving their take on the topics that graduates and those looking to make their first move in to consulting really want to know about.

We had a great time chairing this session and we’re really pleased to be able to share it as part of this podcast.

If you’re at university right now and currently considering your career options or you’re early on in your career and considering a move in to consulting, we know you’ll find this episode extremely valuable.

To find out more about the panellists, follow the links below:

Tamsin Chislett – www.linkedin.com/in/tamsinchislett/

Onloan – onloan.co/

Harriette Foster – www.linkedin.com/in/harriette-foster/

Impetus – impetus.org.uk/

Darren Ashby – www.linkedin.com/in/darrenashby/

Businessfourzero – businessfourzero.com/

Julianne Ilebode-Akisanya – www.linkedin.com/in/julianne-ileb…isanya-11356324/

ENT UK – www.entuk.org/

Teach First – www.teachfirst.org.uk/

To find out more about Explore Consulting visit there website - https://exploreconsulting.careers/

In today’s episode I speak with Jeff Cronkshaw, Founder and Group Managing Director of LanciaConsult. The rapidly growing multinational consulting firm with offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany and here in the UK.

I got to know Jeff through one of my previous guests; A former boss, mentor and role model of his who he’d heard on this podcast. Jeff and I had a few conversations, he shared his story and hearing the journey he’s been on with LanciaConsult, I knew he’d make a great guest for the show.

There are many things in Jeff’s story that are unique and firsts for Climb In Consulting. He’s had a truly global career and has spent half of his working life in Asia, where he and his wife founded LanciaConsult. Not content with simply starting a consulting business based in Singapore, Jeff and his wife set out to launch a global business and have deliberately focused on growing their geographic footprint over growing within one specific region. Something that no other guest that I’ve interviewed to date has done.

In today’s episode we dig into the Lancia story, and talk about what it’s like to grow a global business from day one and all of the challenges and complexities that come with it. We cover so much ground in this conversation, including:

- Why Jeff and his wife decided to move to Singapore in the first place and his advice for anyone thinking of making a similar move.

- The LanciaConsult journey, how Jeff and the team have successfully grown the business across multiple regions so quickly and the lessons he’s learnt from the last 8 years of building the firm.

- And Jeff’s top questions for anyone thinking of going out on their own. What you need to ask yourself, and what you should talk about with your life partner, especially if you’re thinking of going into business together.

This was a great conversation and one that I really enjoyed. Jeff was kind enough to make the trip to our office in Bath for a real, live, in person, socially distant interview. It made for a great conversation, a great dinner afterwards and so much great advice for you to learn from.

With 2021 fast approaching, if you’re currently thinking about new years resolutions and have moving abroad or starting your own consulting business on your bucket list, then I know you’ll get a ton from this conversation.

You can get in touch with Jeff at – https://www.linkedin.com/in/cronkshaw/

Visit LanciaConsult at – https://www.lanciaconsult.com/

Specific things we discussed in the show:

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike - https://amzn.to/36HpADY

Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship - https://amzn.to/3dluk3x

In today’s episode I speak with Tricia Nelson, Partner at EY and head of their 300 person strong People Consulting Business.

This is an interview that’s been almost two years in the making and I’m pleased to say, it was certainly worth the wait.

When you hear about a senior leader like Trish, in one of the world’s biggest consulting businesses, it’s easy to think they’ve followed the traditional consulting career path. Went to a good university, got on the right grad scheme and made the right moves to climb the ladder from there.

But as you’ll hear in today’s interview, Trish’s story has been anything but.

In today’s episode we dig into Trish’s story and discuss the hugely important topic of diversity. An area that Trish is extremely passionate about having seen first-hand many of the challenges that underrepresented groups face in climbing the career ladder in our industry.

In this episode, we go deep into the topic of diversity and inclusion and cover some really important and impactful areas, many of which I’ve not covered with any guest before, including:

- The challenges for young people right now and Trish’s own experiences of building a career having left school at 18 and not going to university at a time when this wasn’t the done thing.

- The challenges that our industry faces when it comes to diversity and what consulting leaders like you can and should be doing to help increase awareness and accessibility of consulting as a career and supporting those from underrepresented groups to thrive within the industry.

- And the unseen diversity impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the hidden challenges that the new ‘remote working world’ creates that consulting firms need to think about.

In an industry that is still largely dominated by white men, Trish is both a fantastic role model and a true champion for those underrepresented in our industry.

Whether you’re a woman who’s looking for advice and guidance on how to climb within the industry or you’re one of the privileged many – white men like myself – that want to know what you can do to help those in your team to thrive, you’re going to love this episode.

You can get in touch with Tricia at - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tricia-nelson-826a8212/

And visit EY at - https://www.ey.com/en_gl

Specific things we discuss in the show:

Beyond the Boys’ Club: Achieving Career Success as a Woman Working in a Male Dominated Field

- https://amzn.to/2Sb4S73

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

- https://amzn.to/2EIF7rF

How Remarkable Women Lead: The Breakthrough Model for Work and Life

- https://amzn.to/30fu94i

The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity

- https://amzn.to/2EIdb77

What Color Is Your Parachute? 2020: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers

- https://amzn.to/3jdtMyx

Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

- https://amzn.to/33gMHDf

After our short summer break I’m pleased to say the podcast is back and what a guest we have to kick us off for the autumn.

Today’s guest is James Callander, Managing Director of Freshminds, the leading resourcing and research firm for the consulting industry.

As you’ll hear in today’s interview, freshminds have a long history in our industry and were actually one of the very first search firm that I signed up for when I was looking to make the move in to consulting almost a decade ago. I still remember scouring their weekly newsletter for potential roles and it was great to get a chance to catch up with one of the people behind it all and find out about James story with Freshminds over his almost 18 year career with the firm.

Unlike many of my guests, James’s career actually started while he was still in school, running various business ventures from the school printing press to leading sales for the school magazine.

Deciding he wanted to move to London following university James began his formal career with two extended internships, firstly at the strategy consultancy Roland Berger, then followed by another at the then leading public relationships firm Bell Pottinger.

It was these early experiences that led James to take the bold step and become a freelance researcher for the, at the time, small start-up research consultancy Freshminds. The rest as they say is history and over the last almost 18 years James’s career has grown alongside the business, which he now runs as Managing Director. Leading a team of over 140 people to reshape the future of resourcing and consulting.

Given James’s wealth of experience there was so much for us to cover and we discuss some really interesting topics in this conversation including:

- James entrepreneurial start, how his teenage business ventures shaped his career, and how the skills he learnt from that period have helped him get to where he is today.

- His almost 18-year career with Freshminds, how he was able to climb from a freelance researcher to Managing Director of the firm and his advice for anyone looking to emulate his success.

- And his career advice for those of you looking to take the next step in your career, be that moving to another consulting firm or jumping out and becoming an independent contractor.

I really enjoyed this conversation with James. As his story shows you don’t have to follow a structured consulting career path to reach the top in our industry and that with hard work and dedication, anything is possible.

Whether you’re at the start of your career and looking to break in to consulting or you’re an experienced consultant looking at what the best next step is for you, I know you’re going to get so much from what James has to say.

So, with the intro done and dusted, sit back, relax and enjoy my interview with James Callander.

To get in touch with James find him either through LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamescallander/

Or through Email - [email protected]

You can find out more about Freshminds at - https://www.freshminds.co.uk/

James' book recommendations:

Too Big to Fail: Inside the Battle to Save Wall Street - https://amzn.to/32EHSDo

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup - https://amzn.to/35G7q53

Today’s guest is Mike Newlove, Managing Partner and UK Practice Leader at Wavestone, the leading global consultancy with over 3,500 people working across 8 countries to help their clients deliver their most critical transformation programmes.

Mike’s story is a hugely interesting one and challenges many of the commonly held assumptions about what it takes to have a successful career in consulting.

Although a self-proclaimed introvert, Mike started his career in sales with BT before being headhunted to join Deloitte. It was while at Deloitte that Mike met Harry, his future business partner. Following a particularly tough negotiation for a US based client Mike and Harry decide the time was right to strike out on their own and launch Hudson & Yorke, a specialist consultancy focused on helping their clients navigate the world of network services.

Following a roller-coaster journey with Hudson & Yorke, something we discuss at length in today’s show, the business was acquired by Solucom, now Wavestone, in 2015. Mike continues to lead Wavestone in the UK and sits on the global executive committee helping to shape the business for the future.

Mike is as open as he is honest and in this interview he gives his candid take on a whole host of topics including:

- The key differences between working in industry and working in consultancy, how he found the transition and the advice he gives to candidates thinking of making the jump.

- How he decided that the time was right to strike out with his business partner and launch Hudson & Yorke and the key role that his now wife played in supporting him through this time.

- And becoming part of Wavestone, what led Mike to stay on and lead the UK business and why he’s excited by what the future holds for them.

I really enjoyed this interview with Mike, as his story shows, you don’t have to follow the typical career path or have many of the assumed typical personality traits to be successful in consulting.

If the current pandemic has led you to think about setting up on your own or maybe you’re considering a career move and trying to decide what type of consultancy to join, I know you’ll find this interview invaluable.

You can find out more about Mike on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-newlove-747469/

You can find out more about Wavestone at - https://www.wavestone.com/en/

This is the third and final episode of our three-part series in collaboration with Garwood Solutions and Honeycomb PS.

In times like this you need to adapt and respond. The traditional consulting BD approach of meeting people for coffees isn’t an option and you have to do something different.

That’s where effective digital marketing comes in!

In this episode I explain how you can use digital marketing to help you respond to the current climate while setting your business up for long term success.

I take you through the exact framework we use with our clients to help them develop effective marketing strategies that deliver results and explain some of the tactics you should be using right now to help you generate new conversations for your business.

We had a ton of great questions as part of this session and highly recommend listening to the end of show to get all of the content that we shared in this one.

Our 3 Pillars of Post-Lockdown Success webinar series was great fun to be a part of and I really enjoyed working with Rob and Deri to put it together. We got some great feedback from those who attended the live webinars and I hope you get just as much from the podcast versions too!

If you haven't listened already, check out parts one and two of our Post-Lockdown series to continue the discussion about our remaining Pillars.

In the second of our three part series looking at what consulting leaders like you need to be focusing on to achieve post-lockdown success, Deri Hughes, founder of Honeycomb PS walks you through the exact frameworks he uses with his clients to create highly scalable, flexible and controllable operations functions.

When it comes to operations, there’s two key areas to focus on: Flexibility and Control. Flexibility on costs, to respond to changing client needs, and to capture opportunities that present themselves. Control to manage the risks to your business – cashflow, people and clients.

In this episode Deri explains:

– How to identify the critical capabilities that you need in the new world

– The proven ways to build Flexibility and Control into your operating model

– The digital tools that you can deploy quickly, at low cost, to deliver immediate impact

I hope you enjoy today’s episode and that Deri’s advice will help you to develop your own effective operations strategy as life returns back to normal

You can find out more about Deri on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/derihughes/

You can find out more about Honeycomb PS at – https://www.honeycombps.co.uk/

If you missed part one of our Post-Lockdown Success series: ‘Renewing the V&P in your Value Proposition to accelerate your exit’, be sure to check it out.

Today’s episode, or episodes should I say, is a first for this podcast and one I’m really excited to share with you

Last month, I teamed up with two of the industries leading experts to bring you a truly comprehensive series to explain what you need to focus on to help you succeed as we come out of Covid-19 and beyond.

Over three webinars, myself and my co-hosts, Rob Garner from Garwood Solutions and Deri Huges from Honeycomb PS shared the three elements that you need to focus on to set your business up for success.

If you’ve followed this podcast so far, or you’ve read our eBooks, you’ll know that at Create Engage we’re big fans of both collaboration and repurposing content. This series is an example of doing both of these things.

Now, back to the series.

If you’re currently building a consulting business, I suspect lockdown has thrown a spanner in your growth plans!

Regardless of whether you were looking to scale your business or on a path to sale, the current pandemic has at best set you back or at worst, left your business close to edge.

Fortunately, there is a way through – by focusing on the three pillars that you need to build the foundations of success for your consulting business post-lockdown.

This isn’t just one of those made up models that seem to be cropping up right now though. This is based on real world, real life experience, building on Rob’s own journey as a consulting entrepreneur, and someone who has built and sold multiple 8 figure consulting businesses

To help you understand what you need to be focusing on to accelerate your business out of lockdown, I teamed up with Rob and Deri bring you a series dedicated to the three pillars that you need to be prioritising right now:

✅ Your Value Proposition

✅ Your Operations

✅ Your Marketing

In today’s episode Rob Garner explains the impact that Covid-19 is having on the growth, development and change of the professional services sector and what it means for you and your consulting business.

He walks through the implications for your business strategy and why you need to be focusing on your client value proposition right now if you want to set your business up for success and realise the growth target or exit you’re aiming for.

With all the uncertainty at the moment, I’m sure that you’ll get a lot of confidence and clarity from what Rob has to say.

You can find out more about Rob on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/garnerrobert/

You can find out more about Garwood Solutions at – https://garwoodsolutions.com/

Check out parts two and three of our Post-Lockdown series to continue the discussion about our remaining Pillars.

For regular listeners to the show you’ll know that alongside the interviews from inspirational leaders in our field I like to mix it up and give you a range of different types of episodes to listen to.

Early on in the series I shared a recap episode, bringing together the career advice from all of my guests up to that point.

That episode proved so popular I decided to make it a regular feature on the show. Gathering up my guests answers to the last question that I ask in every interview. To give you a comprehensive guide to help you on your career, whether you’re just starting out, in the middle grades, or approaching partner.

Today’s episode is round 3 of advice from the best in the business. Where my guests from the last 9 months give you their answer to a simple yet powerful question. What one piece of advice would give to each of the following three people, one just starting out in their career, one around manager and one who’s approaching Partner.

In today’s episode you’ll hear the answer to this question from:

- Richard Goold

- Jess Frame

- Rob Garner

- Adam Blomerley and Rob Ferrone

- Irene Molodtsov

- Ian Price

- Alex Gurr

- Paul Collins

- Chris Gibson

- Simon England

- Hannah Farrar

And my own answers to these questions that I shared in episode 50.

I’ve personally found the answers that my guests give to this question hugely helpful in my own career and I’m sure you’ll get a ton out of them too.

Today’s guest is Hannah Farrar, Chief Executive of Carnall Farrar, the specialist management consultancy dedicated to the healthcare industry.

Hannah has recently been recognised as one of the top 100 women in healthcare leadership, so naturally I couldn’t wait to sit down with her for this interview and explore her incredible career journey.

Following a successful career in the NHS, Hannah and her co-founder Ruth Carnall decided that the time was right to strikeout on their own and set about launching Carnall Farrar, or CF as it’s now known.

Launching your own business is a daunting enough prospect but even more so when you’re a single mother with two young children to support. Something we go in to detail on in today’s show.

Since starting the firm over 7 years ago, CF has gone from strength to strength, growing from just the co-founders in to a firm of over 70 consultants working across health care and life sciences.

If that wasn’t enough, alongside her packed schedule running CF, Hannah is also a member of the Kings Fund General Advisory Council, and a non-executive director for Lantum.

We cover a huge amount of ground in today’s conversation and there's a ton of valuable insights for you in this one, including:

- Why and how Hannah made the leap from a successful career in the NHS to launch Carnall Farrar and her key lessons for anyone thinking of doing the same.

- Hannah’s candidate experience of growing a business as a working mother and her advice for other parents out there, on how to achieve the often-difficult balance of creating both a successful career and a successful home life.

- And the unique obstacles that women face in the consulting sector and Hannah’s take on what the industry needs to do to overcome them; both for junior consultants climbing the ranks as well as for senior leaders running their own consulting firms.

As we recorded this earlier in the year, Covid-19 is actually the one topic we don’t speak about, but as I know many of you are getting tired of hearing about it I’m sure that’ll be music to your ears.

That said, given the current environment, we couldn’t be releasing today’s interview with Hannah at a more appropriate time and it was fantastic to get her perspective from being on the front line of change and transformation in healthcare.

If you’re a working parent yourself, thinking of moving into healthcare, or considering starting up your own consulting business as a result of the current economic situation then this episode is a must-listen.

You can find out more about Hannah on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-farrar/?originalSubdomain=uk or Twitter https://twitter.com/hannahjfarrar?lang=en.

You can find out more about Carnall Farrar at - https://www.carnallfarrar.com/

Specific things we discuss in the show:

The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N9OQOJ2/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Stanford University Executive Education - https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/exec-ed

David Gilroy at Conscious - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgilroybs8/