| | By Mick James
You find
consultancies in some
unusual places these
days and only recently I
found myself travelling
out to sleepy
Teddington, the highest
reach of the tidal
Thames, to visit Hitachi
Consulting, one of the
fastest rising players
on the international
scene.
It's just over a year
since Hitachi made a big
move into the European
market with the
acquisition of UK firm
Impact Plus. So, I asked
David Bailey, Hitachi
Consulting's UK managing
director how the
integration of his firm
was proceeding.
"We've retained the
vast majority of the
staff: in fact our
turnover is less than
half the market
average," he says.
"Staff are seeing career
paths opening up in ways
they never did before,
including international
opportunities – we were
recently able to
transfer one senior
consultant to Spain who
would otherwise have
left."
Bailey says that one
of the key features of
the deal was that it
allowed a very swift
integration of the two
companies.
"We shifted all our
core IT and technology | |
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Consulting systems in
three months but we
changed all the signage
and branding within two
weeks. One reason we did
the deal was that we
wanted a big brand.
People said, 'You're
trashing the brand
you've built up over 17
years at a rate of
knots.' We said, 'Yes,
we are.’'"
Client reaction has
consequently been either
neutral or positive.
"Where it's neutral,
it's because they
realise they're getting
the same people for the
same money, but we're
also getting some
extremely positive
reactions," says Bailey.
"One retail bank we had
a framework agreement
with in the UK
immediately said they
wanted to move us up a
tier into their global
preferred supplier list.
In fact, in all our
framework bids our hit
rate is higher – we've
gone from about half to
95%."
Bailey believes that
clients now recognise
Hitachi as a genuine
alternative to the big
names.
"The Hitachi brand
helps us in and it also
helps our clients when
they go upstairs for
approval," says Bailey.
"It also gives us new
propositions. Hitachi is | |
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| | particularly strong in
technology, for example,
where we'd previously
done some work but
couldn't demonstrate
that depth. We're
attacking technology as
a sector, as well as a
competence, which we
never did before, so we
have extra strings to
our bow."
These extra strings
have helped Hitachi
Consulting grow revenues
by around a third on a
like-for-like basis
since the takeover.
"Impact Plus
struggled to break
through the £10m barrier
and we now have a £14m
business and a pile of
vacancies still to
fill," says Bailey.
While finding
specific skills can
still be a challenge,
Bailey says he is now
finding it much easier
to recruit than before.
"Firstly, we
recruited a recruiter,
whereas previously I
used to spend a lot of
my time on recruitment
and, secondly, the
Hitachi brand brings in
a lot of unsolicited
CVs," he says.
After an initial year
where the focus was very
much on integration and
ensuring clients and
staff were kept happy,
Bailey says that it is
now time to "turn the
levers" and begin to
expand both in sectors | |
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through a mixture of
team hiring and
acquisition.
"In addition, we need
to fuel from the
bottom," says Bailey.
"Our organisational
pyramid is vase-shaped,
so we need to fill out
that bottom tier to get
a slightly better
leverage."
This will have a
knock-on effect in that
it will free more
experienced consultants
from current projects
where they are
overqualified.
"We don't really want
new graduates, we can
only support so many of
those," says Bailey. "In
our entry level, we want
people with a bit of
experience but not
necessarily a deep
specialisation, whom we
can put on projects with
more experienced people
to hone their skills."
One of the main
motives to quickly move
onto the Hitachi
Consulting IT was to get
access to the knowledge
base or "inspiration
centre", as it is known.
"We're developing
training programmes and
sending people from
Europe and the Far East
to the States," he says.
"It works well and there
are also particular
areas where we are
strong and people come
in from the US to take | |
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There is also a
standard Hitachi
consulting methodology,
which allows project
teams to be put together
very quickly with
consultants from
different projects. This
has proved very useful
in coping with the
unprecedented size and
volume of opportunities
that Hitachi is already
generating in Europe.
"Our original goal of
500 people in Europe by
2010 is now seen as a
stepping stone rather
than a target," says
Bailey. "It's now seen
as too slow. Hitachi
needs more of a global
footprint and we're
being asked to get more
people in Europe and
fast."
What the step beyond
that will be, whether it
is expressed in terms of
headcount or revenue or
market share, is
difficult to say now.
But Bailey is clear on
one point:
"We don't want to be
another Accenture and
aim for such and such a
percent of the Fortune
500," says Bailey. "We
don't want to only focus
on the global clients;
we want to balance the
global and the local."
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