| | By Mick James
What does the future
hold for an outgoing MCA
president? For Hugo Were,
it’s quite literally the
ride of his life.
He’s marking his
departure from the MCA
oval office with a
fundraising off-road trip
across Africa on a
motorbike whose main use
apparently is for herding
sheep. The trip has been
organised to support a
number of charities and
projects, including Touch
Africa, Unicef Born Free
from HIV, the Princes’
Fund for Lesotho and the
Nelson Mandela Children's
Fund.
“A friend of mine came
up with the idea last
summer,” he says. “And my
wife said you can do it,
but only if you raise
£25,000 for charity.”
Were’s tenure at the
MCA has covered a year of
dramatic contrasts.
A “year of two halves”
as he describes it, or
rather three reasonable
quarters followed by one
tumultuous one. After
posting record revenues
year on year, for the
first time in ages the
consulting industry is
facing an uncertain
future.
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“Obviously, the
consulting industry
follows to some extent
what happens to our
clients,” he says. “Some
areas, such as financial
services, are finding it
really tough. But we’re
not hearing very many
dire stories of distress
from our members, no cast
redundancy programmes.”
Even recruitment
continues, although Were
says it’s “reduced and
very focused”.
With MCA members
reaching an all-time peak
in 2007, 2008 was a good
moment to take stock of
the industry and the
Association’s role within
it.
The review found that
members wanted the MCA to
be a real voice for the
profession, and to take a
more proactive position
in championing
professionalism,
integrity and ethics.
“They also wanted more
engagement with the MCA,
and more opportunities to
network on a peer-to-peer
basis with colleagues in
other firms,” says Were.
These three themes –
voice, professionalism
and networking – give the
MCA a clear structure for
its activities in the
future.
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| | looking for novel ways to
address the networking
issue.
“Consultants are by
and large poorly
networked with their
peers and competitors,
for a variety of
reasons,” says Were. “One
is the great focus on the
value of your time – we
don’t really attend
conferences for instance
– we’d rather spend time
with our clients.”
Now, says Were, there
is an increasing thirst
among consultants to
understand and share with
each other.
Initiatives under way
from the MCA include the
popular Young MCA social
events and a plan to
expand the Future Leaders
group, aimed at new
partners.
“We’ve also looked at
the ways in which you
create teams,” says Were.
“And we found that the
way you do it is to give
them a problem to solve
together.”
Increasingly, the MCA
will be taking its
internal groups and
tasking them to create a
position paper or
externally focused
campaign. Already the CSR
group has been charged | |
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| | with outlining what the
MCA and the consultancy
industry’s unique
contribution to the
debate on sustainability
and carbon efficiency
should be.
For Were, his farewell
to the MCA also marks his
(temporary) departure
from the world of
consultancy, stepping
down after 24 years with
Accenture.
“It’s a natural
pause,” he says. “And I
was looking for new
challenges.”
He plans to return
later in the year with
his own consultancy but
in the meantime all his
thoughts and energies are
focused on the
preparation for his trip.
Given that most of the
journey is off-road, and
Were never sat on a
motorbike before this
year, taking on such a
physically demanding task
is adventurous to say the
least, and we can only
wish him all the best as
he – literally, for once
– rides off into the sun.
You can read more
about the charities, the
Enduro Africa and how to
sponsor Hugo at
www.myrideforlife.co.uk.
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