Episode 130: From Startup to the UK’s fastest growing consultancy, with Tony Clark

In this week’s episode, Nick chats with Tony Clark, Founder of NextWave. Regular listeners to this podcast will know that we centre the discussion on the various routes our guests’ careers have taken, in order to highlight the endless possibilities offered by a career in consulting. Tony’s journey is a fascinating one. After spending nine years at Accenture, he was on course to make Associate Partner, but instead changed track and helped to scale two successful boutique consultancies, MA Partners and Crossbridge Consulting – both of which grew and eventually went on to be acquired by larger groups. During his time leading those firms, Tony honed his consulting and business growth skills, delivering complex technology solutions for clients in financial services, and this led to an idea for his own venture. NextWave launched in 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, but despite the difficult start, the firm has already grown into a £6m+, 60-strong digital acceleration consultancy. Recently recognised as the UK’s fastest growing consultancy and 13th fastest growing business in the UK as a whole, with an annual compound growth rate of almost 200%. Nick and Tony dive into some fascinating topics in this episode, including… - Tony’s decision to start the firm and the signs that he saw in the industry that helped him set the course for NextWave - How Covid-19 almost derailed NextWave before it even got started – and how the firm not only bounced back but went on to achieve phenomenal growth in just three short years - Why not being ‘billable’ ended up being one of Tony’s best business decisions in founding Nextwave - How living the company values has resulted in a culture that people want to be a part of …and much more. In fact, there’s so much in this episode, it’s almost impossible to summarise! Suffice to say, if you’re thinking of making the leap from Big 4 to boutique, planning to start up your own firm, or simply enjoy listening to epic success stories, you’ll love this episode of Climb in Consulting. We hope you enjoy the show! Reach out to Tony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-clark-07160b/ Learn more about NextWave: https://www.nxwave.com/ Books, magazines, and websites mentioned in the show: To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Persuading, Convincing, and Influencing Others by Daniel H. Pink 24 Assets: Create a digital, scalable, valuable and fun business that will thrive in a fast changing world by Daniel Priestley NextWave Perspectives: The Sunday Times Best Places to Work Award 2023