Climb In Consulting

In episode 91 of Climb In Consulting, Nick speaks with seasoned industry veteran, Richard Fenning, former CEO of Control Risks. The global risk consultancy with over 2,000 consultants working across 42 offices around the world. We first heard Richard as a guest on the Distinctive Leaders podcast, run by our client Andrew Wallace of Leathwaite. Having hugely enjoyed their conversation, we knew we h...

In today’s episode of Climb In Consulting we’re trying something new. Something a little different that we hope you’re going to really enjoy. We’re big believers in the Tony Robbins quote that “success leaves clues” and we’ve learned so many of these clues from guests of the show, whether they were solo consultants, partners in big firms or consulting entrepreneurs. In the early days of Create Eng...

In today’s episode of Climb In Consulting Nick talks to the brilliant and inspiring Ben Rudman, co-founder and CEO of MMT Digital. Ben jumped straight into business with a friend after graduating from university. After a steady start, they decided to take it up a gear, and over that time MMT has gone from strength to strength. Evolving from an educational CD Rom business to a leading digital consu...

Welcome back to Climb In Consulting! After our summer break, we’re very excited to be back with Episode 88, and let us tell you, we have a very special guest to kick off with. Today Nick speaks with Kevin Ellis, Chairman and Senior Partner at PwC UK. Now, we suspect everyone listening to this show will know who PwC are, and many of you will know who Kevin is. But for those who don’t, Kevin leads P...

In today’s episode of Climb In Consulting, Nick speaks with former guest Simon Dennis and his fellow Gate One Partner, David Holliday. Since Simon first appeared on the show, back in 2018, Gate One has gone from strength to strength, growing to a team of over 120 consultants and expanding internationally. Last year that success culminated in the firm being acquired by Havas. A meeting of minds and...

In today’s episode Nick brings you the second part of his conversation with Q5 as he sits down with Rowenna Reid and Annabel Tonge to talk all things Pop-Up Consulting. In part one, Nick was joined by former guest and Managing Partner at Q5, Olly Purnell. This time around, Nick speaks to Rowenna and Annabel about Q5’s fantastic Pop-Up Consulting initiative. One of the few positive things to come o...

In today’s episode Nick brings you the first of a 2 part, round 2 interview, with former guest Olly Purnell of Q5 Partners. Originally recorded as one conversation, when we listened back it was clear that there was just so much great content in this one that deserved to stand on its own two feet. In today’s part 1, you’ll hear from Olly Purnell, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Q5 Partners. In p...

In today’s episode, I talk to Tim Smeaton and Simon Walker, Managing Partners of Kubrick Group, the award-winning data, AI, and cloud consultancy, which exists to solve the digital skills emergency, by building a diverse workforce designed to help organisations evolve and embrace next-generation technology. If you’re a regular listener you may remember that Tim and Simon first appeared on the show...

In today’s episode of Climb In Consulting I speak with Adrian Bettridge, Managing Partner at Baringa Partners, an award winning, multi-national consultancy working across Energy, Financial Services, Consumer Products & Retail and Telecoms & Media, and Central Government. For long time listeners, Adrian will be a familiar guest, making his first appearance in episode 4, way back when I started this...

In today’s episode of Climb In Consulting I speak with Angus Ridgway, CEO of Potentialife, 20 year McKinsey Veteran and former leader of McKinsey’s EMEA strategy practice. Potentialife was born out of Angus’s passion for understanding what separates the best from the rest. Watching this play out day in day out at McKinsey, Angus wanted to harness everything he’d learnt and following a chance encou...

In today’s episode of Climb In Consulting I speak with Tom Hewson, Senior Partner at RedCompass Labs, the specialist consultancy that helps financial institutions accelerate their payments and financial crime programmes. Tom’s journey to where he is today has been rather unorthodox and is a great lesson in following your passion and being attuned to the opportunities that can come from it. Over hi...

Today’s episode is a big milestone for the show, it’s episode 80 of Climb In Consulting! When I started the show three years ago I never expected it to achieve what it has. I originally started the show as a hobby, something to give back to the industry, something to learn from. I thought I'd get a couple of listeners – mainly being my family – and it would be mothballed after just a few episodes....

In today’s episode of Climb In Consulting I speak with James Constable, CEO and Founder of Albany Beck, the specialist financial services consultancy that’s disrupting the industry with their unique approach that balances leading subject matter expertise with cost effective delivery. Now full disclosure, Albany Beck are a client of ours, but it didn’t start like that. I originally approached James...

For regular listeners to the show, you’ll know what this episode is about, but for those of you who are new or have only started listening recently, let us give you a little explanation. Every few months we like to take a break the usual format of the podcast and give you something slightly different. That’s where the idea for this episode came from. Our guests give so much great advice and nowher...

In today’s episode of Climb In Consulting I speak with David Stoddard, the Chief Operating Officer at Barnett Waddingham, a leading independent professional services consultancy across risk, pensions, investment and insurance, with a team of over 1,330 people across the UK. David has had an incredibly varied career, having worked across many of the big names in consulting including Accenture, EY a...

In today’s episode of Climb In Consulting I speak with Dean Taylor, CEO at IMD Group, the specialist digital transformation and training consultancy focused on delivering complex change in the secure and public sector environments. Dean’s story is rather unique and one that I’m sure will resonate with a lot of you. Unlike many of my previous guests who’ve started their own consulting businesses in...

This week we bring you a slightly different episode of Climb In Consulting. If you’ve listened to any of our previous podcast episodes on how to effectively market your consulting firm, then you’ll know that at Create Engage we’re big believers in putting your team front and centre, showcasing their experience and expertise. A successful consulting firm is built on the capability of its people. Al...

Welcome to the first episode of Climb In Consulting for 2021. In today’s episode I speak to Simon Williams, Co-Founder of DMW Group and Non-Executive Director at LanciaConsult. Simon spent the vast majority of his career building DMW Group, which he and the team grew from just two of them, after a rather interesting start to the business, into a company of over 200 consultants today. Having spent...

In today’s episode, I speak with Tara Lajumoke, Managing Director of FT Strategies. I first heard Tara speak on another podcast, the 40 Minute Mentor, run by my good friend and Create Engage client James Mitra at JBM. Having taken so much from that interview I knew we had to get her on the show and I was so pleased when she said yes. Tara’s career is made up of an enviable list of prestigious glob...

In today’s episode, I speak with Joe O’Mahoney, Professor of Management Consulting at Cardiff University, and CEO of Consulting Mastered. Joe has had a hugely wide-ranging career that’s seen him go from Academia, in to consulting and back again, with a number of additional entrepreneurial ventures along the way. With such a varied career, and a unique mix of both practical and academic experience,...

In today’s episode I speak to Jeff Dill and Gemma Pfister, CEO and Executive at Vynamic, the multinational healthcare industry management consultants with offices in Philadelphia, Boston, Durham, North Carolina and London here in the UK. I’ve spoken to a number of guests who’ve expanded their businesses across the pond, but these have all been firms that have gone UK to US. As such, it was great t...

This is a special episode for two reasons: firstly, this marks the 70th episode of Climb In Consulting a huge milestone and one that we have to say a big thank you to you, our listeners for. Without you this show wouldn’t have even got off the ground! And secondly, this week we bring you a slightly different type of episode. Instead of my usual interviews, this episode is a panel discussion all ab...

In today’s episode I speak with Jeff Cronkshaw, Founder and Group Managing Director of LanciaConsult. The rapidly growing multinational consulting firm with offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany and here in the UK. I got to know Jeff through one of my previous guests; A former boss, mentor and role model of his who he’d heard on this podcast. Jeff and I had a few conversations, he shared his st...

In today’s episode I speak with Tricia Nelson, Partner at EY and head of their 300 person strong People Consulting Business. This is an interview that’s been almost two years in the making and I’m pleased to say, it was certainly worth the wait. When you hear about a senior leader like Trish, in one of the world’s biggest consulting businesses, it’s easy to think they’ve followed the traditional c...

After our short summer break I’m pleased to say the podcast is back and what a guest we have to kick us off for the autumn. Today’s guest is James Callander, Managing Director of Freshminds, the leading resourcing and research firm for the consulting industry. As you’ll hear in today’s interview, freshminds have a long history in our industry and were actually one of the very first search firm tha...