| 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 | |
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| | positioned,” says 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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