| | By Mick James
Two of the biggest
fault-lines in
consultancy are between
firms with a “Big Four”
heritage and those
without, and between
firms with an
involvement in business
processes outsourcing
and those without.
Among the
last-mentioned, a
popular branding
strategy is to suggest
that all other
consultants are merely
shock troops for
outsourcing sales, a
tactic which is easier
to rebuff if there’s
still a strong element
of DNA in your
consultancy firm.
So I was interested
to talk to Gordon
Wilkinson, managing
director of Capita
Advisory Services, about
the challenges and
rewards of building up a
consultancy arm within
the UK’s leading BPO
organisation.
The independence
question is quickly
dealt with.
“I can confidently
say I haven’t sold a
piece of outsourcing
business,” he says. “I
am not measured or
rewarded in any way on
generating business for
other parts of Capita.”
For Wilkinson’s
group, access to the
resources of the Capita
Group is an extra arrow
in the quiver, but not
crucial to a sustained
new business drive over
the last year and a half
that has seen the firm
add 50 “new name”
clients to the Capita | |
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| | family.
By changing the
firm’s name from the
original Capita
Consulting, Wilkinson
believes Capita has made
its positioning in the
consultancy spectrum
clearer.
“When we rebranded we
indicated that in this
space we were primarily
providing high-end
business advice,” he
says. “In terms of the
overall UK consultancy
market we are relatively
small, but with a very
different perception
from 18 months ago –
we’re now a very
significant competitor
in many markets.”
In contrast to the
sweeping client range of
its parent company,
Capita Advisory is
concentrating in a few
sectors: public,
financial services,
telecoms, retail and
media.
“Often in
consultancy, greed takes
over and you want to do
everything,” says
Wilkinson. “If we just
flit to the next thing
we’ll end up just like
our competition.”
Wilkinson says he is
more interested in
building a sustainable
business than, for
example, chasing the
latest wave of
compliance work forced
on clients by
regulation.
“An awful lot of
consultancy firms don’t
have a clear strategy
but look for
opportunistic revenues –
you can’t build a
sustainable business | |
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| | like that,” he says.
“You need to develop
core services that are
needed on a regular
basis and you’ve got to
be confident that they
are sustainable for the
next five years.”
This means that
Capita will be tackling
head on one of the
thorniest issues in
consultancy – keeping a
team together through
the peaks and troughs of
the business cycle.
Capita recruits only
more experienced
consultants, which
pushes up staff costs.
“Our model is higher
risk but we have a lot
of faith in that higher
cost operating model,”
he says. “With the
traditional
consultancies, as soon
as there’s a slight
downturn numbers drop
dramatically – we can’t
protect our investment
in people if we do
that.”
Wilkinson says that
in the first four months
of this year he
interviewed 400 people
looking for the right
recruits.
“If you just want to
find bodies to fill a
space there are a lot of
bodies out there, but
it’s different if you
are looking for good
quality people,” he
says. “There are a lot
of people who end up in
consultancy more by
accident than design.”
Wilkinson is clear
that Capita Advisory is
not attempting to grow
into a “Big Four” style
consultancy but rather
to create something with | |
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| | its own identity and
culture.
One aspect of this is
a focus on smaller, more
discrete projects.
“I make sure we’re
not signing up for
things where we can’t
see the end results,” he
says. “I’d rather have
ten six-month projects
than one five-year one.
One client said to us
that of the eight
consultancy firms they’d
worked with we were the
only one that didn’t ask
how much time they
wanted next week – by
walking away we
guaranteed we were
invited back.”
Although Capita
Advisory is on a strong
growth curve, Wilkinson
says he is not
interested in
acquisition.
“In my experience
there is little value to
be gained by acquiring
small or niche
consultancy firms,
because you have no
guarantee you will
retain the people in 12
months. You could lose
everyone if it’s not a
good fit.”
Wilkinson says he
would rather acquire
people one at a time and
hold on to them by
avoiding some of the
dynamics in traditional
firms.
“In larger firms if
there’s a space and
there’s someone sitting
on the bench then you’re
going to put them in and
use them irrespective of
their skillset,” he
says. “What we are
looking for are people
who are motivated by the | |
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| | work they do for clients
– we’re not at the top
of the pay scales but we
offer a good opportunity
to do exciting and
challenging work.”
Wilkinson says he
often asks candidates
what gets them up in the
morning.
“One man said it was
usually the wife getting
fed up with listening to
the alarm,” he said. “I
knew we weren’t on the
same wavelength.”
By the end of this
year Capita Advisory
Services will have grown
to 160 people.
“We’ve now got
clients like Egg and
HSBC that six months ago
were not on the
horizon,” says
Wilkinson. “To be able
to get there in a
relatively short space
of time is a great
credit to the business
and the people.”
For Wilkinson,
however, growth may be
attractive but
sustainability is the
key.
“Eighteen months ago
we looked at how to
measure success,” he
says. “We decided it
wasn’t about revenue or
profits but if in 20
years we were still
getting phone calls from
clients we’d started out
with – that’s much more
important.”
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