Climb In Consulting

Today’s guest is David Lancefield. David is a Partner in Strategy&, PwC. David is a TEDx speaker and has been featured In the Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, Financial Times and numerous other publications. He is also the host of his own podcast ‘transformation talks’ which I’d highly recommend checking it out David’s approach and outlook are hugely refreshing and something that anyone with aspirations of make Partner should take note of. If you want to get a flavour for this you can check him out on twitter @Dlancefield and see the thought provoking posts he puts out on a daily basis. David has a huge amount of experience and shares so many great insights in this conversation including: The importance of being yourself at work and what this means both for project managers and project team members. How to find your sweet spot and let others know what you’re good at. The importance of feedback both up and down a Consulting firm’s hierarchy and the mistakes people make in giving and receiving feedback that hold them back. How to make Partner in a big 4 firm and the common mistakes that those who fail to get there make. The importance of developing and managing your personal brand as a Consultant both within and outside your firm. And much, much more! Having listened to the first episode of David’s Transformation Talks I thought this would be a good interview and I have to say it exceeded all of my expectations! In-depth and actionable advice from a senior leader in one of the world’s biggest Consulting firms. I hope you enjoy it. You can find out more about  David on his Linked In Page https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidclancefield/    And on Twitter - https://twitter.com/Dlancefield?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor   Specific Things We Discuss in the show: Dan Cable - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-cable-a0b581a0 Transformation Talks by PwC - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/transformation-talks/id1400295044?mt=2   PwC’s apprenticeship scheme - https://www.pwc.co.uk/careers/school-jobs/jobs.html   David’s TED talk “How business can tap into all of our special needs“ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezXZ4z9QqiI The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - http://amzn.eu/enn0cvN How will you measure your life? by Clay Christiensen, Karen Dillon and James Allworth - http://amzn.eu/3zScfNe   Alive at Work by Dan Cable - http://amzn.eu/04NezdI

Today’s guest is Jeff Wellstead. Jeff is CEO of Big Bear Partners and Chief Strategy Officer at GtmHub. Jeff is an expert in helping rapidly growing or hyper growth start ups manage their people challenges effectively. Before moving in to Consulting Jeff was the VP of Global HR at Message Labs and Global Director of HR at SpinVox.  In both roles Jeff was responsible for helping these rapidly growing starts up overcome the people challenges as they grew and continue their hyper growth trajectories. In the case of SpinVox Jeff oversaw the 9 fold expansion of the team from just 50 people to over 450 in under 2 years! As a consultant Jeff works with organisations to create the environment to allow their people to thrive and succeed at work while supporting the founding teams in overcoming the  strategic challenges that they face as hyper growth start ups. We cover some really interesting topics in this conversation including: How Jeff and the team grew SpinVox so quickly and the challenges they faced along the way The people and cultural challenges that hyper growth start ups face as they scale and the  warning signs you need to watch out for if you’re growing a business The importance of understanding where you are in your growth journey and ensuring you build the necessary structures to maintain your unique culture as your firm grows The importance of employee experience In todays world  and what you should be thinking about if you’re looking to recruit and retain the top talent in the industry And much much more! You can find out more about Jeff on her LinkedIn page – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrwellstead/ You can email Jeff at Jeff@BigBearPartners.com Specific Things We Discuss in The Show: Dunbars number - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number   Message lab - https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/messagelabs   SpinVox - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpinVox     Employees First, Customers Second by Vineet Nayar - http://amzn.eu/edvxufq Exponential Organisations by Salim Ismail, Michael Malone and Yuri van Geest - http://amzn.eu/henljqZ

Today’s episode is episode 20 of the podcast and to celebrate reaching 20 episodes I wanted to share my 7 biggest career and life lessons from running the podcast! The 7 Lessons that I discuss in today’s episode: The power of Linked In for Business Development The importance of Personal Brand in today’s business world Why you should focus on delivering value first The importance on focusing on the right things and not worrying about making everything perfect How to delight your customers/clients/guests The importance of testing and iteration And why everyone should do a podcast! Things I mentioned in today’s show: Matt Cheung’s interview - https://www.climbinconsulting.com/podcast/matt-cheung-clarasys Kano Analysis - https://medium.com/design-ibm/kano-model-ways-to-use-it-and-not-use-it-1d205a9cf808 Tim Ferriss – Fear Setting - https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_ferriss_why_you_should_define_your_fears_instead_of_your_goals

Today’s guest is Dr Natalia Wiechowski. Natalia is an award-winning Personal Branding Strategist and international Keynote Speaker who radically changed her life and career after a self-imposed sabbatical to follow her passion: Helping people to shine.  Since taking her sabbatical and moving in to the world of Personal Branding Natalia has grown her online community to over 146,000 followers, worked with global blue-chip clients including, SAP and Bosch and been invited to speak at conferences all over the world. Natalia is an expert in B2B Personal Branding and Marketing with over 46,000 LinkedIn followers! Her posts are regularly liked and commented on by 1,000s of people with one post last year receiving over 62,000 likes and 4,000 comments. If you’re looking to cut through all of the noise out there on social media and take your personal brand to the next level then you’re going to love this interview. We cover some really interesting topics in our conversation including: Natalia’s self-imposed Sabbatical, what led her to take it and her advice to others feeling unfulfilled by their current life and career. How Natalia found her passion and how she turned it from an idea in to her full-time career. What Personal Branding is and why it’s so important to your career success. How to build a deep relationship with your current and prospective clients through compelling content that solves their problems. The common mistakes that companies and individuals make when it comes to Personal Branding and social media and how to avoid them. And much much more! You can find out more about Natalia on her LinkedIn page – https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliawiechowski/en And her website - http://www.thinknatalia.com/ If you’d like to emulate Natalia’s success and want to sign up for her new online Personal Branding course you can check it out here - https://thinknatalia.coachy.net/lp/master-your-personal-brand-on-linkedin-and-offline/ Specific Things We Discuss in the show: Robin Sharma and the 5am club - https://www.robinsharma.com/article/be-wise-early-rise Lewis Howes -  https://lewishowes.com/ Gimbal hand held phone stabiliser for shooting videos - http://amzn.eu/8Mdhwyv  The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss - http://amzn.eu/cZS8Mt5  Anything You Want by Derek Sivers - http://amzn.eu/6Nn2PDT  48 Laws of Powers by Robert Greene - http://amzn.eu/0D6ssqw  The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma - http://amzn.eu/dIsE9or  Ego Is The Enemy by Ryan Holiday - http://amzn.eu/7Rsfn7c  The Untethered Soul by Michael A Singer - http://amzn.eu/60xjxcR Natalia’s viral post with over 60,000 likes! - https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6209953414982565888 Natalia’s Book Recommendations LinkedIn Article - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-mind-expanding-books-you-have-read-summer-wiechowski/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_post_details%3Bk3vi3LmQTo%2BgaD95p9x%2FkA%3D%3D

Since starting the podcast I've interviewed a whole host of phenomenal leaders from the Consulting industry who've shared some of their best advice across a range of areas critical to climbing in Consulting. One question I ask almost all of my guests is their advice for those people looking to build a career in the industry. A number of you have told me how useful you've found the answers to this specific question so I wanted to put all of the answer together so that you have a compilation of career advice from the best in the business. As a recap, or for those of you who may not have listened to any of my other interviews before, the question that these guests are answering asks for one piece of advice for three different people: The first is someone who's just starting their career in Consulting - anywhere from 0 to 2 years in. The second is for someone 'in the middle' of their Consulting career - 4 - 6 years in to Consulting. The third is for someone who's approaching Partner or considering going out on their own to create their own business. There are so many great pieces of advice in this episode and some really interesting common themes and principles that have helped my guests get to the top. As Tony Robbins says "success leaves clues". Here's you're chance to find them. Guests in this episode: To save you having to hear my voice over and over I don't introduce each individual guest during this episode. If you found a certain piece of advice really useful and want to hear who said it then have a look at the list and timestamps below! 00:02:38 - Simon Dennis - Founding Partner - Gate One 00:07:25 - Stephen Newton - Founding Partner - Elixirr 00:11:57 - Suki Thompson - Founder and CEO - The OysterCatchers 00:13:46 - Olly Purnell and Sharon Rice-Oxley - Founding Partners - Q5 00:18:27 - Dom Moorhouse - Founder of Moorhouse Consulting 00:20:17 - Mohamed Mansour - Founding Partner - Baringa Partners 00:22:07 - Joanna Hall - Independent Non-Executive Director 00:30:28 - Simon Walker and Tim Smeaton - Founders - Kubrick 00:33:24 - Minesh Jobanputra - Founding Partner - Deltra Group 00:34:51 - Adrian Bettridge - Managing Partner - Baringa Partners 00:37:50 - Bronek Masojada - CEO - Hiscox

Bronek Masojada is Chief Executive of Hiscox. Hiscox is a leading global insurance firm with over 2,700 people across 32 offices in 14 different countries. Following 4 years working for McKinsey & Co Bronek was offered the opportunity to become Managing Director of Hiscox at just 31 (something we go in to detail on in today’s show) and under his leadership the firm has grown from one office of 200 people to the global firm it is today. Whether your goal is to climb to the top of your consulting firm or take the step out in to industry there's so much you can take away from Bronek’s insights and advice. Bronek was kind enough to give me a huge amount of time out of his busy schedule to share his knowledge, learnings and advice with you and I know you’re going to get so much from what he has to say. We cover a whole range of topics in this conversation including: The surprising story of how Bronek found himself being offered the role of Managing Director at such a young age. The challenges he faced moving from Consulting in to this role and how he overcame them How he has taken Hiscox to where it is today and his advice on scaling a business How Bronek achieves a good work life balance as the CEO of a global, publicly traded, company – He leaves work earlier than most consultants would ever dream of! Bronek’s advice for Consultants looking to win work from CEOs like him And much much more! You can find out more about Bronek on is linked in page - https://www.linkedin.com/mynetwork/heathrow-redirect/?isSendInvite=true And on the Hiscox website - https://www.hiscoxgroup.com/about-hiscox/management Specific Things We Discuss in the show: Mckinsey & Company – https://www.mckinsey.com/ Robert Hiscox - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hiscox Lloyd’s of London - https://www.lloyds.com/ Good To Great by Jim Collins - http://amzn.eu/5BOqd4v How The Might Fall by Jim Collins - http://amzn.eu/bk3R7PF Tom Peters - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Peters#Works Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson - http://amzn.eu/fOJV9PV Steve Jobs the movie - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2080374/

Today’s guests are Tim Smeaton and Simon Walker, Co-Founders of Kubrick Group. Having built and the IPOd the global recruitment firm Hydrogen Group Simon and Tim decided they wanted to build another business and saw a huge gap in the Data Science space which led them to start Kubrick. In just 18 months they’ve grown Kubrick from an idea to over 100 consultants with more consulting ‘cohorts’ (something we discuss in today’s episode) already scheduled to start their intense 16 week training before going out to work with industry leading blue chip clients. It’s worth saying that neither Tim or Simon come from a data background and their story is a great case study for how making the right decisions early on can enable your firm to become a leader in your chosen industry. Not only is their growth story hugely impressive but they’ve achieved it while pioneering a very different consulting model to the pyramid model prevalent in most Management Consulting businesses. Something we cover in detail in today’s episode. In this interview we discuss a whole range of topics including: What led Tim and Simon to create a data science consultancy and how they tested the market before investing a huge amount of their own money in launching Kubrick. How they’ve managed to grow the business so rapidly in the highly competitive consulting market. How they were able to create a consulting firm in an industry that they knew very little about and the steps they took to build industry leading expertise at Kubrick. Their approach to business planning and their monthly planning process that ensures the firm continues to grow rapidly. Their unique consulting business model and the benefits and challenges they’ve found as a result of it. Their advice to those looking to set up their own business in consulting or outside of it. And much much more! If you want to find out more about Kubrick Group or reach out to Simon or Tim you can do so on the links, emails and phone numbers below: Kubrick Group: http://kubrickgroup.com/ Tim Smeaton: Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-smeaton-424929/ Email: timsmeaton@kubrickgroup.com Phone: +44 203 8664621 Simon Walker: Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-walker-8763b9/ Email: simonwalker@kubrickgroup.com Phone: +44 203 8664622

Following the success of his last interview Dom Moorhouse is back on the podcast for Round 2! For those of you who may have missed the first episode Dom Moorhouse is a business advisor, angel investor and serial entrepreneur. In 2004 Dom founded Moorhouse Consulting which he grew from nothing to a business that he sold for c.20,000,000 less than 5 years later. You can listen to Dom’s first interview here - If you’ve listened to his first interview you’ll know he credits much of his success with being exposed to and then developing high performing teams. In our first interview we covered a huge amount of ground but we didn’t get a chance to cover this specific topic so I invited Dom back on to talk about why High Performing Teams are so important and how you can develop one in your business, practice area or project team In today’s episode we go in to detail on why high performing teams are critical to your success. We discuss the academic research that Dom conducted that proves this out as well as how you can develop your own high performing team utilising Dom’s Team to Tribe Model. Following this we pick up on some of the questions that you sent in for Dom to answer including Dom’s advice to his 30 year old self, which may not be quite what you expected and what Dom’s morning routine looks like among other great questions You can find out more about Dom on his Linked In page – www.linkedin.com/in/dom-moorhouse-2abb6a/ and his personal website www.DomMoorhouse.com Specific things we discuss in the show: Method Grid – www.methodgrid.com Dom’s research in to High Performing Teams (if you want the original, academic focused paper please reach out to Dom directly) – https://methodgrid.com/blog/what-motivates-employees/ 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni - http://amzn.eu/cdyZSVL Authentic Leadership by Robert Terry - http://amzn.eu/gbfs4hQ Courage and Other Broadcasts by William Slim - http://amzn.eu/4Xfo091 McKinsey T Shaped Consultant - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-shaped_skills Dom’s Morning Routines blog - https://methodgrid.com/blog/09-seven-wakeful-practices-of-dangerous-entrepreneurs/ Day One App - http://dayoneapp.com/

Today's episode is a solo episode on a skill that many of my guests have highlighted as critical to their success - networking. networking, whether you like it or not is a critical skill in a relationship focused business like Consulting. While I think the old adage of 'it's not what you know, it's who you know' is only partly true. I firmly believe that knowledge and capability alone will never get you to the top in any career, hobby or activity you want to pursue. With that in mind I thought I'd share my tips to help those of you who hate networking and those of you who know they need to do it but just aren't sure how! In today's episode I share: Why networking is so critical to career success and why you will never reach the top (or wherever you want to get to) without it. How to get over your fear of networking and 'not knowing what to say'. The networking tips that helped me build a senior network while I was in Consulting and continue to help me grow my network today. The counter-intuitive approach to maximising the value from your network - trust me, it won't be what you're expecting I really hope you enjoy this episode. If you have any questions or comments just drop me an email - Nick@climbinconsulting.com

Joanna Hall is a hugely experienced senior leader who has transitioned her career from a successful Executive, rapidly scaling Consulting practices, to a Non-Exec Director, advising boards on how they can do the same. Prior to moving to a portfolio career, Joanna built and grew a number of successful software businesses and Consulting practices at places like CSC, EValue and North Highland. During her last executive role at North Highland, she oversaw the growth of their Financial Services Practice. Growing revenue five fold and increasing profit margin by over 40% within 2 years! In addition to her Non-Exec roles Joanna is very active within the wider Financial Services industry, in forums and on the judging panels for awards across a range of areas including Digital, Getting a Business to Market, Fintech Innovation, Thought Leadership and Women in Investment. Joanna was introduced to me by James Mitra from JBM Consulting as someone who I must get on the podcast and she certainly didn’t disappoint! In this interview we discuss a whole range of topics including: The key fundamentals and obstacles to consider when developing your own Consulting business/practice area The importance of getting close to your customer when developing your Consulting proposition and getting it to market Networking and what you need to consider when you join a new Consulting firm Joanna’s decision to move in to a portfolio career and how she made this transition And much much more! You can find out more about Joanna on her linked in - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannahall1/ Or drop her an email - joannarhall@hotmail.com Specific things we discuss in the show: NEDonBoard - https://www.nedonboard.com/ North Highlands - http://www.northhighland.com