|
| | charging rates are all
fixed, the profit share
is fixed," says
Clifford-Jones. "So it
doesn't matter in terms
of performance if I'm
doing a lot of work with
a Japanese company, say,
and take a hit on rates
because of the strong
pound."
Abeam's growth
strategy is through
targeted acquisitions.
The UK firm is formed
around a nucleus of two
smaller UK
consultancies, Leadent
and Catalyst
Development.
"One of the things
Abeam does is to buy
companies that are not
for sale," says
Clifford-Jones. "When a
company is up for sale
there's usually a
reason. We buy a company
that's doing well,
that's profitable and
where the management
team has the potential
and is attracted to the
idea of setting up a new
global business."
Because Abeam's ethos
is highly collaborative
and non-hierarchical,
it's important that the
firms it acquires are
similar in their outlook
and ways of working.
"In a lot of
consultancies there's a
real challenge with the
power of the vertical
versus the power of the
horizontal, plus
competing geographies,"
says Clifford-Jones. | |
|
| | "The Japanese culture of
collaborative working
transcends that – we're
completely
client-focused, everyone
in the company has a
client responsibility no
matter who they are."
Abeam's strategy is
to structure much
longer-term
relationships with
clients rather than work
as a series of discrete
interventions.
"We use the term
'real partner' –
everyone does, I know –
but the Japanese
philosophy is so much
more about
collaboration; we always
take a longer-term
view," says
Clifford-Jones.
One of the techniques
Abeam uses to integrate
its acquisitions is to
establish centres of
excellence. Leadent's
strong record of working
with UK utilities
companies means the UK
firm is now the Global
Utilities Centre of
Excellence. Aerospace,
for example comes out of
the States, while the
firm's work with the
Japanese railways makes
Japan the natural choice
for transport expertise.
"We just take the
best from wherever it
happens to come from,"
says Clifford-Jones. "We
had a bid in the
aerospace and defence
sector – in 12 hours we
were able to put 12 | |
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| | global case studies in
front of a UK client."
As well as drawing on
sector expertise, Abeam
is very keen on
cross-fertilisation
between industries.
"Best practice is
usually copied from one
industry to another,"
says Clifford-Jones. For
example, the firm has
been able to take
lessons learned in field
force transformation
work with utilities
engineers and apply them
to policing. "When you
only deal with
functional experts, you
don't get that holistic
view."
Although Abeam's
roots are in Japan, the
management team is
genuinely global, with
representatives from the
UK, Germany and the
States as well as Japan.
It's a highly networked
organisation with very
little centralisation,
and a strong emphasis on
teams which are blended
across sectors,
functional expertise and
geography.
"Teamwork and
consultancy are often
two words that don't go
together terribly well,"
says Clifford-Jones. "A
lot of people who've
joined us didn't like
what they used to be
part of, but in this
setup I'm the only
person with a revenue
target – our consultants
are there to deliver the | |
|
| | job, they're not
conflicted by an
internal revenue
target."
This is not just
about making Abeam an
agreeable place to work:
it has a tangible effect
on the type of work
delivered to the client,
allowing the company to
take a much more
holistic view of
projects in line with
the underlying
philosophy of kaizen
or continuous
improvement rather than
short-term step changes.
"So often the step
change comes through
technology," says
Clifford-Jones. "Often
the continuous
improvement comes after
you've implemented the
technology, from an
overall view of what's
going on."
With 3,500
consultants and 700
clients, Abeam is
rapidly filling out its
global footprint, and is
currently looking for
people who are "fired
up" by the idea of
team-based,
non-hierarchical
working.
"People either get it
or they don't," says
Clifford-Jones. "It's
almost misleading to say
Abeam is Japanese –
people just buy into the
culture."
| |
|
| | In the UK we've become
used to dealing with the
many new consulting
entities that were
formed as a result of
the fragmentation and
divestments of the
earlier years of this
century. But this
process was also
repeated elsewhere. In
Japan, for example,
Deloitte Consulting
split off to become
Abeam.
Rather than creating
lots of "Little Fours",
this process has often
created new and
distinctive consulting
cultures, as Abeam
Consulting's UK managing
director Alastair
Clifford-Jones explains.
"Abeam is a
consultancy business
with a very strong
Japanese heritage," he
says. "There's now a
vision to take that
globally, taking all the
principles of Japanese
culture and bringing
them into a global
consultancy business."
This also means that
Abeam is effectively
starting a global
consulting business from
scratch, without any of
the issues and baggage
that make globalisation
such a challenge for
other consultancies.
"We've effectively
got global P&L, internal | |
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