| | By Mick James
Such is the growth of
the UK consulting market
that it's becoming more
and more attractive to
firms from other
markets, particularly
firms from the US, which
are increasingly
acquiring UK businesses
to consolidate their
positions and provide
platforms for further
growth.
One such is US firm
Navigant Consulting,
which acquired UK
programme managers
Precept a year ago.
Brian Norton, formerly
of Precept and now
Navigant Consulting's
European head of
corporate development
explains:
"Europe represents a
huge market for Navigant
Consulting, which is
already equal in size to
the US market. However,
European expenditure on
consulting as a
percentage of GDP is
about half of that in
the US. This suggests
major growth potential
in Europe beyond merely
gaining a share of the
existing market." He
adds: "What we would
tend to do is go into a
location with a small
piece of business, make
some strategic
acquisitions and then
grow organically."
Navigant Consulting
is very aware of the
need to quickly build up
local cultural knowledge
and also to have a close | |
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| | cultural fit with
acquisitions. The firm
has an unusual business
model: half the work is
dispute consulting and
regulatory work, such as
providing expert
witnesses, forensic
accounting or advising
on areas such as
Sarbanes Oxley. The
other half is business,
financial and operations
consultancy.
This, however, is
neatly mirrored by
Precept's own mix: "We
had two main strands of
activity: international
disputes in construction
and large scale
programme management in
the public sector," says
Norton. "We did a lot of
PFI (Private Finance
Initiative) and PPP
(Public Private
Partnership) work, and
that married up very
well with Navigant
Consulting."
One of the exciting
things about the
acquisition for Norton
has been the flow of
ideas between the two
sides of the Atlantic.
"The US is stronger
than anyone else in
managing time on
projects, whereas in the
UK the focus is much
more on cost, so it's
good to be able to draw
on that expertise," he
says. "We've also
started up a healthcare
practice here and local
health people are very
interested in what we do
in the States. In the US | |
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| | half our professionals
are from a clinical
background, whereas
consultants in
healthcare in the UK
have tended to be
generalists or
financially oriented."
In other areas such
as public sector work
the flow is the other
way.
"The US is right at
the beginning of use of
PPP and PFI type
structures," says
Norton. "There's a lot
of potential for using
the intellectual capital
from here in the
States."
Navigant Consulting
is organised around
industry verticals, with
a strong emphasis on
industry expertise.
"We don't just have
generalist consultants,
we'll get in ex-chief
executives from those
sectors," says Norton.
"This enables us to
really get involved in
implementation. For
example, in the US we
recently put in a
temporary Board at a
hospital to help
turnaround its
performance – we get our
hands dirty."
The ability to do
this rests on a track
record of successfully
attracting those deep
industry experts.
"The types of people
we are trying to get on
board are very scarce;
we look for people with
good intellectual | |
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| | capability but also
recruit from a diverse
range of backgrounds,"
says Norton. "On
programmes we have
people who've come from
psychology, or from
construction or from an
IT background."
Because of this focus
only about 20% of
Navigant Consulting's
intake are consultants.
"The consulting
industry here is like
lots of industries in
that the same people
revolve through the
different firms, so you
don't get much different
thinking," says Norton.
Navigant Consulting's
unusual model is also a
catalyst for the
circulation of ideas:
"Staff can move
between the two halves,"
he says. "A lot of the
same skills are used on
both sides, and it's
quite important for
people advising on
disputes to be doing
non-contentious work at
the same time. What I've
found in the past is
that if you are involved
in a dispute and look at
how things went wrong it
really helps the
learning process on how
to do it right."
Norton also believes
that Navigant Consulting
can draw on its public
sector experience,
particularly in the more
forward-looking PFI and
PPP projects that have
combined capital
investment and change | |
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| | techniques to create
wide-ranging
transformations, such as
the regeneration of
entire areas or school
systems.
Currently, Norton
believes, these areas
are too widely separated
in the private sector.
"At one end of the
spectrum you have light
touch consultancy which
can be criticised for
not delivering change,"
he says. "But at the
other end you've got the
quite violent change
that comes with a
purchase by private
equity."
In fact,
organisations often need
support somewhere
between these two ends
of the spectrum. "We
can deliver strategic
advice and a broad
programme management
platform, to help design
and then implement a
change which might
include capital
investment as well as
operational change in
the way processes and
people are used. Lots of
consulting firms do one
part of it, but the
integrated platform we
are currently creating
over here puts us in
quite a unique
position."
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