Climb In Consulting

We’re all told that ‘land and expand’ is the only way to grow a consultancy. But what if we told you that you could grow a successful firm by doing the opposite, by providing fractional support to clients that will never need a huge team to help them deliver their goals. Today’s guest has proven that it can be done, and in this episode we dive into how you can grow a substantial advisory business...

There are countless paths to achieving a successful consulting career, and on Climb In Consulting, we thought we’d heard them all. But who knew the secrets to scaling successful consulting firms could be learned while managing a fast-food franchise? Marc Jantzen’s unique journey to becoming the consulting expert he is today, is a masterclass in reinvention and resilience. Get ready to dig your tee...

There are countless organisations out there claiming to do business differently. So much so, that ‘disruptive’ has become a permanent fixture in games of buzzword bingo. But very few organisations are actually breaking the mould, and only the rarest exceptions can truly back up their claim of disrupting the way traditional business is done. Our guest on the latest episode of Climb in Consulting is...

In the latest episode of Climb in Consulting, we welcomed Assad Ahmed, Founder and CEO of Phase 3, the Manchester-based consultancy that provides professional and managed services across HR, payroll, and finance. As a born entrepreneur, Assad started Phase 3 at a young age, and with a self-confessed aversion to planning, he was able to grow the business through his aptitude for building relationsh...

In the latest episode of Climb in Consulting, we had the huge pleasure of talking to Graeme Curwen, Co-Founder and CEO of Enfuse Group, an award-winning Digital Transformation consultancy that delivers high-performance transformations and solutions, through a deep understanding of people and technology. As an experienced career consultant, Graeme always had an aspirations to forge his own path. Th...

In this episode of Climb in Consulting, we’re bringing you something a little out of the ordinary, as we feature not one, but four industry titans sharing their consulting growth strategies. Nick and Frankie recently attended The Consultancy Growth Network’s (TCGN) annual summit, for a day of hugely insightful talks from leaders from across the industry. Knowing what our audience likes to learn ab...

Welcome to the latest episode of Climb In Consulting! This time around, we were delighted to welcome Chris Southwell, Partner at The Berkeley Partnership, the consultancy that helps organisations transform under the most complex, challenging, and high-stakes circumstances to achieve their ambitions. This thought-provoking episode of Climb in Consulting focuses primarily on a topic that’s incredibl...

Our guest on the latest episode of Climb in Consulting has an incredibly inspiring – and cinematic - story to tell. Since 2022, Paul Pugh has been CEO at Mason Advisory, an award-winning digital and technology consultancy that solves complex business challenges through intelligent use of IT. Skipping back a few years, Paul had been firmly on the partner track at KPMG when he found himself boarding...

In this week’s episode, Nick chats with Matt Cheung, CEO at Clarasys, the international business consulting firm, focused on delivering the best possible experiences for their clients and their people. Regular listeners may recognise Matt’s name, and that’s because Matt was the very first guest on Climb In Consulting. Having previously talked about the origins of Clarasys and Matt’s journey to fou...

In this week’s episode, Nick chats with Anush Newman, Managing Director at JMAN Group, the global data consultancy specialising in the private equity market. Anush’s story makes for a fascinating listen. He cut his consulting teeth in the oil and gas industry, working in roles that took him all over the world, to locales as exotic as Kazakhstan, Sellafield and Northern Scotland! After tiring of al...

In this week’s episode, Nick chats with Simon Clark, a consulting industry veteran who’s done everything from founding and exiting his own successful consultancy CVL, to launching his own tech platform, to advising a whole host of boutique consultancies and marcoms businesses on their growth journeys. Simon’s story is a great example of how diverse consulting careers can be. He hit the ground runn...

In this week’s episode, Nick chats with Tony Clark, Founder of NextWave. Regular listeners to this podcast will know that we centre the discussion on the various routes our guests’ careers have taken, in order to highlight the endless possibilities offered by a career in consulting. Tony’s journey is a fascinating one. After spending nine years at Accenture, he was on course to make Associate Part...

For this episode of Climb in Consulting, we’re shaking the format up a little. Yes, we’re turning the tables, as our very own Nick Synnott joins Neil Sharp CCXP, PEN’s Marketing & Proposition Director, and Ben Edwards, Head of Partnerships at CMap, to explore the remarkable 4-year marketing journey that PEN has been on with Create Engage. Having started with a limited brand presence and minimal co...

In this week’s episode, Nick chats with Augusto Negrillo, Managing Director at Vivero. Having started out as a software developer, Augusto quickly realised that the behind-the-scenes coding life wasn’t for him, instead preferring to be out in the field working with customers, helping them to ‘decode’ and transform their businesses. His consulting career took him to the other side of the world and...

In this week’s episode, Nick chats with Clare Hill, CEO at Sysdoc. If you’re a regular listener to this podcast, you’ll know by now that we love taking a deep dive into the different routes our guests’ careers have taken. Clare’s story is a fascinating one and shows that you don’t need to start your career in the industry to reach the top. Having spent the first 15 years of her career working in a...

In this week’s episode, Nick chats with Phil Rolfe, UK Managing Partner of Valcon. Regular listeners to this podcast will know that we centre the discussion on the various routes our guests’ careers have taken, in order to highlight the endless possibilities and permutations offered by a career in consulting. Phil’s journey is a really interesting one. It starts, as so many consultants’ journeys d...

In this week’s episode of Climb in Consulting, Nick catches up with Peter Reid, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at MSQ. Peter’s early career path took him from entrepreneurial beginnings at US-based start-up Simpsons, to a successful four years with McKinsey and Company. Peter then changed direction, taking on a senior development role at Media Square, which saw him cutting his teeth in what w...

In this week’s episode, Nick chats with Stefan Aichbauer, Managing Partner at H&Z. If you’re a regular listener to this podcast, you’ll know that we like to chat with our guests about the various routes their careers have taken, and how their individual journeys have helped to shape their outlook. Having started his career at Siemens, it wasn’t long before Stefan realised that life in a multinatio...

For this week’s episode of Climb in Consulting, We’re bringing you something a little different to the norm. For one week only, we’re turning the tables, as Nick joins Professor Joe O’Mahoney for a chat on his fantastic podcast, Growth for Consultancies. Joe is a leading authority on consulting and a trusted advisor to many boutique consulting firms. His research on the profession has won several...

In this week’s episode of Climb in Consulting, Nick chats to Stephen Aldridge, Managing Director at financial modelling consultancy, Numeritas. If you’re a regular listener of the podcast, you’ll know that we often explore the different routes to success that many of our guests have followed. Stephen’s journey has been one of the most interesting we’ve encountered, taking him from factory-based en...

If you’re a regular listener to the Climb in Consulting podcast, you’ll know that every few months we like to switch things up, deviating from our usual interview format to bring you something a little different - and this episode is exactly that! New to Climb In Consulting? Then let us explain. Every episode, our guests offer fantastic insights and advice, particularly when they’re answering one...

In today’s episode of Climb in Consulting Nick is joined by Nick Kent, Founder of Alpha FMC, the global financial services consultancy with over 900 consultants supporting clients across 16 offices spanning the UK, Europe, North America and APAC. While Nick’s story with Alpha ended very successfully, that’s not how it started. And it was actually a shock redundancy from Accenture that led him to la...

In this week’s episode, Nick chats with Chris Gant, Managing Partner at Wunderman Thompson Consulting. As successful consultancy careers go, Chris’s is up there with the very best of them! Having spent eighteen fast-paced years at KPMG, Chris decided he wanted to take some time out and in 2004, he left to go back to school, joining the Sloan programme at London Business School. It was his time at...

At Create Engage, we like to share as much information as we can to help you get the most out of your marketing. So with that in mind, this week’s episode of Climb In Consulting is a little different! Instead of the usual conversation with an industry-leading guest, Nick’s on hand to give you everything you need to set your 2023 marketing strategy up for success. Today’s episode is taken from a we...

In the latest episode of Climb into Consulting, Nick is joined by James O’Sullivan, CEO of Project One. James' career demonstrates that you don't have to follow a traditional career path to succeed in our industry. After sending letters to all of the FTSE 100 and being rejected by 99 of them, James began his project management career at Tate and Lyle. After this, he developed his passion for chang...