| | 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 half our | |
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| | 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 capability
but also recruit from a
diverse range of | |
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| | 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
techniques to create | |
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| | 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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