| | By Mick James
The acquisition of
performance improvement
specialist Rossmore by
Arup is an indication of
the ever-widening gene
pool that makes up the
modern consultancy
industry. Anyone who
thinks this is still a
two-horse race between
the accountants and the
IT industry is well
behind the times.
Arup may be best
known for its work in
major building,
transport and
infrastructure work, but
about 5% of the firm’s
headcount are business
consultants, advising on
everything from IT
strategy to economics.
The Rossmore
acquisition, however,
indicates a new intent
to expand and focus the
business consultancy, in
which Rossmore’s team of
30 psychologists and
behavioural and
operational experts will
play a key role.
Rossmore’s roots lie
deep in engineering and
manufacturing, but the
firm’s focus is entirely
on the human aspects of
work, as chief executive
Alan Marsden explains.
“I’ve lived through all
the initiatives invented
by consultants and
business scholars, such | |
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| | as JIT and management by
objectives, and the real
difference is the
people,” he says. “The
problem is you get this
initiative saturation
but they’ve not involved
the people so there’s no
ownership.”
Rossmore’s approach
is to work directly with
shop floor teams to try
and change behaviour and
attitudes. “We ask them
what things they’d
change and try to help
them to be brave,” says
Marsden.
The first consultancy
project he worked on was
on one of the first
robotic production lines
in Italy, where
workforce distrust of
management was leading
them to sabotage the
machines.
“They were worried
about keeping their
jobs,” he says. “We
asked the management if
they were going to make
redundancies and they
said no. We said, why
not tell the people in
the factory, and when
they did the problems
disappeared.”
Rossmore quickly
built up a global
practice working for
manufacturing companies,
but in recent years has
realised that its
approach will work in | |
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| | many other fields.
“We’re interested in
people but we also have
expertise in processes
and systems within an
environment – we take a
holistic approach,” says
Marsden.
This expertise in
human behavioural
dynamics has taken
Rossmore into transport,
which now accounts for
30% of the business,
looking at areas such as
passenger behaviour in
terminals. Recent
targets include the
financial services
industry.
“One client said to
us, ‘but you’re in
manufacturing’ and we
replied, ‘all you’ve got
is a paper factory’,”
says Marsden. “And the
one thing that is common
to most organisations is
people.”
The group is also
interested in the public
sector, although Marsden
says “it takes a very
brave individual” in the
public sector to bring
them in.
“Many management
people are frightened of
behaviour,” he says. “In
the UK we still have
relatively few
emotionally intelligent
people in senior
positions – it’s getting
better but there are | |
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| | nowhere near enough. All
the things taught in MBA
programmes either avoid
emotional intelligence
or treat it as a
weapon.”
While Rossmore deals
with “soft” or people
issues, the approach
doesn’t mean shying away
from tough decisions or
creating real results.
“As part of our
diagnosis you might find
people who need to move
and we’re not afraid to
do that,” he says. “Our
sole purpose is to
improve the business by
getting people harnessed
to the organisation’s
objectives. For every £1
the clients spend with
us they save £33, and a
lot our stuff is
unmeasurable – the true
test is the bottom
line.”
The firm is also not
afraid to challenge
clients if it feels they
are asking the wrong
questions. “We like to
agree from the outset
what the real ‘exam
question’ is,” Marsden
says. “We told a client
‘we don’t do that’ and
they said, ‘that’s the
first time we’ve heard a
consultancy say they
don’t do something’.
Then 18 months later we
got a call asking us to
come and work on their | |
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| | culture.”
Rossmore has always
worked with an outer
core of associates
ranging from economists
to systems specialists,
and now Arup will have
access to nearly 7,000
technical specialists.
Arup is an
employee-owned company,
which, Marsden says,
makes it refreshingly
free of politics and
infighting.
“The model is so
different from anything
I’ve experienced
before,” he says. “It’s
a nice environment to
work in; you can go into
organisations and say
you practice what you
preach.”
With a mandate to
establish business
consulting globally,
Marsden believes that
the time is ripe for a
much wider application
of Rossmore’s
people-first approach.
“The people side is
called the soft side,”
he says. “Actually it’s
the hardest.”
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