| PIPC wants more than just to survive in a recession |
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Another one of PIPC’s
strengths is the variety
of work it takes on: “In
government we have a
complete mix of work
from small scale
advisory to large
delivery projects,” says
Vinall. “I don’t want to
make the same mistake I
saw in a previous life,
where people weren’t
interested in the small
ticket stuff. That’s a
lazy way of consulting,
if your client has a
real need then you have
to get out of bed for
£10k rather than wait
around for the big
programme – every
consultant talks about
putting the client first
but you rarely see the
reality of that.”
On the other hand,
Vinall says he is happy
to turn work down “if we
think it’s not a good
use of our time or their
time, if we’re not the
right people”.
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Vinall he says that
he feels there is a
growing client
dissatisfaction with the
bigger players.
“At some stage,
relationships are bound
to sour, he says. ”But a
lot of clients with the
larger programmes don’t
know that there is an
alternative. We can give
you the best of what you
get from the Big Four,
the same quality of
team, but we’re also not
afraid to go out to
associates – the Big
Four don’t like to do
that because it smacks
of weakness: they like
to say they can do
anything.”
PIPC has always had a
strong associate base
but has recently
increased its permanent
headcount so as to have
a 50:50 ratio. The firm
now has 90 consultants
in the UK, and 250 in
the rest of the world.
“Globally, we’re well
positioned,” says | |
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| | Vinall. “The US business
has grown exponentially.
We originally expected
it to be flat, but
actually it has grown.”
So far the firm has
not felt the effects of
the downturn. “We’ve
gone through a
systematic restructuring
and consolidation and
set ourselves up to ride
out the problems,” says
Vinall. “Some of our
bigger clients are badly
affected though, and we
are helping them with
that.”
Overall, he expects
the growth trend to
continue. “We’ll temper
it a bit, being
realistic about the
market, but I’d be very
surprised not to grow
this year given the
markets we operate in,”
he says. “It may not be
so rapid but we’re still
experiencing strong
growth and we want to
continue that.” | |
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