Is There a Black Book on the Table?

In this week’s episode of Climb in Consulting, Nick chats to Stephen Aldridge, Managing Director at financial modelling consultancy, Numeritas. If you’re a regular listener of the podcast, you’ll know that we often explore the different routes to success that many of our guests have followed. Stephen’s journey has been one of the most interesting we’ve encountered, taking him from factory-based engineering to running his own successful boutique consultancy – with a stint as a painter and decorator thrown in for good measure! During his time as an engineer, Stephen got to know his products inside out, but he soon began to crave a more commercial role. He moved into sales and marketing, before discovering his true passion – financial modelling. He then spent several successful years at KPMG and Deloitte – where the prospect of making Partner was dangled in front of him more than once – before making the leap into running Numeritas with his business partner, Denver McCann. That was almost 20 years ago. Now, as Numeritas approaches two successful decades in business, Nick catches up with Stephen to find out more about his journey and the lessons he’s learned along the way, including: - What makes a successful partnership and his advice for anyone building a consultancy with a co-founder or founders - Stephen’s lessons from 20 years in business, what’s helped Numeritas accelerate their success and what pitfalls you should watch out for if you’re at the start of building your own consultancy - How taking a structured approach to marketing led to a 40% increase in sales and why Stephen sees marketing as a critical part of their business. - And why Numertias choose to outsource all but core consulting functions and the lessons you can learn to help you improve your own consultancy. Whether you’re interested in starting your own consultancy, thinking of making the leap from the ‘Big Four’ to a boutique, or simply enjoy a cracking interview, you’ll love listening to this episode of Climb in Consulting. We hope you enjoy the show! Books mentioned in the show: The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals – Sean Covey and Chris McChesney: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Disciplines-Execution-Revised-Achieving-Important/dp/1398506664/ref=asc_df_1398506664/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=500798696358&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9077352115313573375&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006502&hvtargid=pla-1185258338109&psc=1&th=1&psc=1 Thinking Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0141033576/ref=sr_1_1?crid=34CEMRJV2OYUJ&keywords=Thinking+Fast+and+Slow+%E2%80%93+Daniel+Kahneman&qid=1678380546&s=books&sprefix=thinking+fast+and+slow+daniel+kahneman%2Cstripbooks%2C91&sr=1-1 Noise – Daniel Kahneman: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Noise-book-authors-Thinking-Nudge/dp/0008309035/ref=sr_1_7_sspa?crid=UD0H3VZZ7PKN&keywords=Noise+%E2%80%93+Daniel+Kahneman&qid=1678380565&s=books&sprefix=noise+daniel+kahneman%2Cstripbooks%2C86&sr=1-7-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9tdGY&psc=1 Stephen’s Recommended Reads: Thinking and forecasting: Superforecasting - Philip Tetlock & Dan Gardner The Signal and the Noise - Nate Silver Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness - Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein How To Make The World Add Up - Tim Harford The Chimp Paradox: The Mind Management Programme - Prof Steve Peters Time to think - Nancy Kline Influence and negotiating: Never Split The Difference - Chris Voss Influence - Robert Cialdini Pre-suasion - Robert Cialdini How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big - Scott Adams Loserthink - Scott Adams Win Bigly - Scott Adams Other favourites: Rebel Ideas - Matthew Syed Black Box Thinking - Matthew Syed Messy - Tim Harford The Undercover Economist - Tim Harford