In this episode, John is joined by Jenny Burns, CEO of Magnetic, an innovation consultancy that helps organisations solve complex problems and create new products, services and experiences at pace. Jenny’s career spans more than 25 years across large corporates and smaller businesses, before an unplanned move into leading and growing her own firm.

Jenny describes herself as “the accidental CEO”, having never set out to run a business but instead following opportunities, taking risks and learning along the way. Her journey includes scaling Magnetic, navigating the sale of the business to a larger consultancy and, more recently, buying it back to restore its independence.

This conversation stands out for its honesty about what leadership actually feels like, particularly in moments of uncertainty and transition. Jenny shares a grounded perspective on building a business – not just as a commercial exercise but as something deeply human.

Jenny and John discuss:

• What it really feels like to step into the CEO role, including the emotional weight and shift in responsibility
• Why smaller businesses are not inherently simpler than large corporates and how leadership “shadow” shapes culture at any scale
• The reality of selling a business, including the intensity, isolation and unpredictability of the due diligence process
• Why Jenny chose to buy the business back and how independence enables a more agile, differentiated position in today’s market
• The ongoing tension between structure and agility and how to avoid over-engineering a growing consultancy
• How personal brand, leadership style and culture come together to shape both client relationships and long-term business value

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and are navigating growth, change or leadership for the first time, this conversation offers a refreshingly candid view of what that journey actually involves.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you do not miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Jenny Burns, CEO of Magnetic

In this episode, John is joined by Andrew Laird, Chief Executive of Mutual Ventures, a specialist consultancy focused on public service reform and local transformation.

Andrew co-founded Mutual Ventures over 15 years ago with a clear but unconventional ambition: not to build a large consulting firm, but to create a vehicle for doing meaningful, impactful work in public services. Since then, the firm has grown steadily, building a strong reputation for combining central government policy insight with practical, on-the-ground delivery.

Now, as the business enters a more deliberate phase of growth, Andrew reflects on what has changed, what has stayed constant and what it really takes to scale a consultancy without losing the culture and values that made it successful in the first place.

A central theme throughout the conversation is the idea that growth should be a consequence of value, not the objective itself. Andrew shares a candid perspective on the consulting industry, highlighting where it adds real value and the areas where he thinks it falls short, particularly in public services.

Andrew and John discuss:

• Why Mutual Ventures was never built for growth in the traditional sense and what has prompted a more intentional shift towards scaling the business
• How culture, team structure and internal investment underpin sustainable growth, even in smaller consultancies
• What it takes to embed business development across a team and why consulting “sales” is fundamentally about relationships, not selling
• The role of thought leadership in building credibility, creating demand and differentiating in a crowded market
• Andrew’s perspective on the legitimate role of the consulting industry, including the importance of delivering real value and knowing when to step away

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and are thinking about how to grow without compromising what makes your business distinctive, this discussion offers a thoughtful and practical perspective on what to prioritise and what to avoid.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you do not miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Andrew Laird, Chief Executive of Mutual Ventures

In this episode, John is joined by Tamzen Isacsson, Chief Executive of the Management Consultancies Association (MCA), the body representing the UK’s leading consulting firms.

Tamzen works closely with firm leaders, government and stakeholders across the consulting profession, giving her a broad and well-informed perspective on how the sector is evolving, from growth and talent to AI, hybrid working and the UK’s position on the global professional services stage.

A theme that comes through clearly in the conversation is that the consulting industry doesn’t always tell its story particularly well. Much of the most impactful work happens behind the scenes with clients, and firms don’t often step back to articulate the value they create.

Tamzen and John discuss:

• The current state of the UK consulting market, why growth is returning and why the reality is more nuanced than the headlines
• Why the UK remains one of the most competitive and globally respected consulting markets, and how international demand is shaping firm strategy
• How talent models are evolving, from increased demand for experienced hires to more fluid career paths and the impact of hybrid working on development
• The reality of AI in consulting, where it is starting to create real value, where expectations are still running ahead of reality and why firms need to stay focused on outcomes
• The growing importance of consulting to the UK economy, alongside the opportunities and ongoing challenges for SMEs in accessing work

Throughout the conversation, Tamzen emphasises one core idea: in a profession shaped by constant change, uncertainty and new technology, the fundamentals still matter most. The firms that succeed are those that invest in their people, build trust with clients and stay focused on delivering real value.

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and want a clearer view of where the industry is heading, beyond the headlines, this episode is for you.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you don’t miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Tamzen Isacsson, Chief Executive at the MCA

In this episode, John is joined by Jeremie Guillerme, Partner at Reputation Inc, a specialist consultancy focused on helping organisations understand, build and protect their reputation with the stakeholders that matter most.

Jeremie has spent his career advising businesses across corporate affairs, communications and strategy. His work centres on a simple but often overlooked idea: reputation is one of the most valuable assets a company has, yet very few organisations manage it in a deliberate or structured way.

For professional services firms – where value is almost entirely intangible and built on trust – that gap matters even more.

Jeremie and John explore what reputation really means in practice, why it so often falls between the cracks in leadership teams and how firms can take a more intentional approach without overcomplicating things.

They discuss:

• Why reputation is best understood as the collective perception of your stakeholders and how it directly influences commercial outcomes
• The idea that reputation is a “risk of risks,” where operational or cultural issues can quickly become reputation problems if left unchecked
• How an “outside-in” perspective, particularly through structured conversations with clients, can highlight risks and opportunities leaders often miss
• Why consulting firms are especially exposed, including the concept of “reputation by association,” and why choosing the right clients matters more than people think
• How firms can build and protect their reputation in a noisy environment by being clear on what they stand for and selective about what they engage with

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and want a clearer, more practical way to think about reputation beyond brand and communications, this discussion offers a useful perspective on where to focus and what to do differently.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you do not miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Jeremie Guillerme, Partner at Reputation Inc

In this episode, John is joined by Jonathan Peachey, founder of Factory X and former board member at Next 15, where he spent several years leading M&A and transformation across a group of more than 20 businesses spanning consulting, marketing and professional services.

Jonathan has spent much of his career at the intersection of new technology and established business models. Having worked through multiple waves of disruption – from the early internet to big data – he brings a practical, grounded perspective on what makes AI different and why this moment matters for leaders facing deeply unfamiliar territory.

As Jonathan sees it, leaders may be fundamentally underestimating AI’s potential impact. That’s because AI is not just another tool to help consultants work faster. It’s a tool that changes what clients can do for themselves. And that raises some big questions about where firms add value and how they will compete in the future.

Jonathan and John discuss:

• Why AI is different from previous technology waves and why it poses a more direct challenge to traditional consulting services and operating models
• Which parts of professional services work are most exposed and why execution-heavy work is likely to be hardest hit
• How firms should respond in practice, including where to start and Jonathan’s framework covering commercial, operational and governance priorities
• Why intellectual property matters more than ever and how firms can start turning what they know into something more scalable
• How AI is likely to reshape pricing, business models and valuations and what that means for leaders and investors

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and are trying to work out what AI really means beyond the noise, this conversation offers a clear, practical way to think about where to focus and what to do next.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you don’t miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Jonathan Peachey, Founder of Factory X

In this episode, John is joined by Chris Allinson, Managing Partner at Yonder Consulting, a firm that helps organisations rethink how they grow and where they compete as markets evolve.

Chris has spent his career working at the intersection of strategy, innovation and insight. He describes his approach with a simple phrase: being “first of the next, not best of the last.” It captures one of the hardest challenges for any consulting firm – how to keep evolving your thinking and your offer while the demands of existing clients keep you focused on today.

Chris introduces the idea of silent drift: not the sudden disruption leaders tend to worry about, but something quieter and harder to notice. The kind of gradual shift where revenue is holding, the team is busy and nothing looks obviously wrong – yet the role your firm plays in clients’ organisations is slowly becoming less central.

They discuss:

• What silent drift is, why firms performing reasonably well are often the most exposed to it, and how leaders can spot the early signs before the shift becomes too hard to reverse
• Chris’s idea of “first of the next, not best of the last” and what it means for consulting leaders trying to stay ahead of their market
• How looking beyond your immediate sector into what Chris calls frontiers can help firms see emerging opportunities earlier
• Why the most effective strategic thinking combines rigorous, data-led insight with the kind of imagination many professional services firms have trained themselves out of
• How consulting firms can challenge their own assumptions early, rather than waiting for a client or competitor to force the change

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and feel your market shifting in ways you cannot yet fully explain, this conversation offers a useful way to think about what might be happening – and what to do next.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you don’t miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Chris Allinson, Managing Partner at Yonder Consulting

In this episode, John is joined by Adrian Hands, an experienced sales leader who has spent more than three decades in roles across technology, SaaS, media and e-commerce. Adrian now works as part of Positive Momentum, a group of seasoned consultants who run their own practices while sharing support, tools and common ways of working under the Positive Momentum umbrella.

Growth comes up frequently in John’s conversations with professional services leaders because balancing client delivery with maintaining a healthy pipeline is a challenge most firms never fully solve. In this conversation, Adrian brings a refreshingly down-to-earth approach to a challenge that can often feel harder than it needs to be.

They discuss:

• What Adrian calls “bloody good questions” and why the quality of discovery
• conversations determines the quality of everything that follows
• The simple weekly habit Adrian uses himself: five non-live prospect conversations every week, or what he calls “coffee to cash” conversations
• How to make selling more systematic and build a genuine growth engine in a professional services firm
• Where even the best-designed growth approaches come unstuck because human beings are involved
• The Positive Momentum model and why it offers a genuinely interesting alternative to traditional consulting firm structures

If you are leading a professional services firm and wrestling with how to keep the pipeline healthy without compromising the quality of your client work, this episode is well worth your time. If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you do not miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Adrian Hands, Positive Momentum

In this episode, John welcomes back Emma Flin, an investment director at Sovereign Capital Partners, a private equity firm that focuses on backing and growing mid-market tech and professional services businesses.

Having first spoken to Emma back in episode 3, we were keen to talk to her again and learn about Sovereign’s focus on ‘buy and build’ as a growth and investment strategy.

‘Buy and build’ is a phrase that gets used a lot in investor circles, but the practicalities of what it involves and when it might be right for a firm aren’t often explained in practical terms. In this conversation, Emma breaks it down, covering what it actually involves, when it makes sense and what it demands from the leadership team at the centre.

They discuss:

• What buy and build actually means and the two distinct types of strategy Emma sees in the market
• Why Sovereign has made buy and build such a central part of its approach to value creation
• What makes a business a credible ‘platform’ versus a better fit as a ‘bolt-on’ acquisition
• What investors look for in a management team before backing a buy and build strategy
• Why culture and communication are critical to successfully integrating people and businesses
• How founders should think about the choice between an outright sale and a private equity partnership
• Why Emma believes leaders should start conversations with potential investors earlier than they might instinctively think they should

This is a practical, straightforward explanation of how buy and build really works in professional services from someone at the centre of these conversations.

If you are running a consulting or tech services firm and thinking about growth, investment or what the next chapter might look like, this episode is well worth your time.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you do not miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Emma Flin, Investment Director at Sovereign Capital Partners

Hari Sethalapathy and Venkata Subbarayudu Nori are two of the three co-founders of Winfo Solutions, a global Oracle consulting business that has grown from three people with no clients to more than 400 staff across a dozen countries in just 11 years.

Both spent years delivering major transformation programmes inside tier-one firms before deciding to create a consultancy shaped by their own values – one built on trust, outstanding service and genuine partnership with clients.

The conversation covers:

● How they won early work by doing projects the big firms could not.

● How their first major breakthrough came from a client who initially said they were too small.

● How their leadership approach and structures have evolved as the business has expanded.

● Their decision to bring in external board advice and how that has helped accelerate growth.

● How a mantra of discuss, decide and deliver has been central to their success.

● Their practical experience with agent-based automation and faster product development.

● How they are approaching AI governance, security and ethical controls as AI
becomes more central to the business.

For founders and senior leaders building professional services firms, this is an honest conversation with two ambitious co-founders who have built something many aspire to.

If you would like to hear more conversations like this, follow the show for early access to future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Venkata Nori, Co-founder at Winfo Solutions
Guest: Hari Sethalapathy, Co-founder at Winfo Solutions

In this episode, John is joined by Andrew Brown, founder of Acuity Business Solutions, a consultancy he built and led for almost 20 years before overseeing its sale to the Scandinavian group Lumera in December 2025.

Garwood had the privilege of advising Andrew through the transaction. With the deal only recently completed, this conversation offers a rare, real-time perspective on what it is actually like to sell a professional services firm.

Andrew did not set out to manufacture the perfect exit. He focused on building a disciplined, well-run business with deep client relationships, a strong team and minimal dependency on himself long before a sale was even under consideration. Over time, those choices translated into a business with strong buyer appeal.

They discuss:

• How the idea for Acuity was born on a car journey to a conference
• How the firm found its niche in public sector pensions
• Why Andrew chose to narrow the focus of the business
• How and why he stepped back from day-to-day operations
• What the due diligence process really feels like for a founder
• The critical role a firm's wider team plays in a successful deal 
• The emotional reality of life after a deal closes

This is an honest and grounded discussion about building value in a consultancy and what it takes to convert that value into a successful transaction.

If you are thinking about making your firm sale-ready, whether in the near term or years from now, this episode is packed with practical lessons from someone who's just been through it.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you do not miss future episodes with leaders who have built and realised real value in our industry.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Andrew Brown, Founder of Acuity Business Solutions