| | By Mick James
’The cobbler’s
children are the worst
shod’ used to be
something of a cliché
about the consultancy
industry, referring to
the somewhat ramshackle
internal management and
systems of the average
consultancy firm…
compared to the
wonderful arrangements
they put in place for
their clients.
But consultancies
have also been guilty of
a more subtle and
profound form of
self-neglect: not
utilising the creative
skills and energy of
their own staff to
transform their own
businesses. In the 1990s
this led to the rather
strange phenomenon that
saw the commercial world
generally transforming
itself whilst its
advisors remained rather
conservative bodies,
ill-equipped and even
resistant to change.
Financial services
consultancy EA
Consulting has been with
us for some time now,
originally being set up
to help clients with the
introduction of the
Euro. But recently it
has embarked on an
ambitious growth | |
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| | programme – now
employing 150
consultants, having
grown 400% in the last
18 months, with plans to
grow at least another
50% in the next six.
“We realised we’d
probably got to the
stage where we needed to
look at ourselves,” says
group managing director
Steve Robinson. “So we
hired an outside
consultancy and put a
one year change
programme in place.”
As part of the
programme EA has taken
its own consultants off
fee-earning work and
assigned them to work
full-time on putting the
elements in place for “a
business built to last”.
“We realised that if
we were to get to a
substantial size we
would have to move from
being a typical
consultancy and invest
in ourselves as if in a
client,” says Robson.
“We’ve taken people off
paid work for a year and
we’re going to live with
the results, however
uncomfortable.”
This investment has
not just been in time
but in money, with
Robson and the other
shareholder putting
five-figure sums into | |
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| | the infrastructure,
systems and software
that will form the
bedrock for the firm’s
future growth.
“The model we have we
are comfortable with for
two or three years
more,” he says. “We’d
rather build ahead of
where we are: we’ve
experienced it the other
way round, of getting to
a certain point before
the infrastructure.”
Robson says that
while he has seen firms
destroy their
profitability by
over-investing in
infrastructure, EA has
been able to sustain
this investment through
growth. The shareholders
have also decided to
widen the ownership base
of the company, with a
firm-wide share option
scheme.
“We want absolutely
everyone to be part of
the growth curve,” says
Robson. The firm has
also recently launched
the “sticky” programme,
to ensure that the
firm’s large network of
associates – some of
whom have worked with it
since its foundation –
also receive access to
the same sort of
coaching, mentoring and
development | |
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| | opportunities as
permanent staff.
While Robson says he
is “constantly on the
look-out for new
acquisitions”, the
firm’s main growth
engine has been
recruitment and the
continual launch of new
business areas, most
recently an investment
banking practice. This
has been facilitated by
a stream of
partner-level signings
from major consultancy
firms:
“These sorts of guys
don’t join your firm if
they don’t see the
future,” says Robson.
As well as recruiting
senior figures, EA is
keen to encourage an
entrepreneurial spirit
and tap into a constant
stream of ideas from
staff at all levels:
“We’ve got everybody
coming up with brilliant
ideas, we’ve given our
graduate recruits the
ability to put a report
forward to the board and
we will review just as
if it had come from the
most senior level. The
options scheme has
created a massive buzz:
everyone’s brimming with
ideas.”
Robson says that
sometimes recruits, | |
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| | particularly from other
consultancies, can take
a while to adapt to this
atmosphere:
“The first few months
can be quite difficult,
but once they realise
they can influence and
have a say they are like
kids in a toyshop, you
can’t get them out of
the office.”
Robson believes that
this investment period
has created a platform
from which EA Consulting
can continue to grow at
a remarkable rate
without losing its
essential character:
“We’ve got the
attributes of a
“lifestyle” business but
it’s also a sustainable
business,” he says. “The
governance of the
infrastructure is strong
and resilient but not
constraining – I can’t
see any reason at all
why we can’t be 1,000
strong.”
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