UK Associate 

What made you want to join Bath Consultancy Group?

A number of threads came together for me until joining seemed the natural thing to do; I had been aware of BCG's reputation for some time, I had come across BCG team members through my professional networks and had read some of their publications - the relationship grew organically.

I feel very at home with BCG's culture and values and I like their language and the approaches they use.  They are good at creating models which help clients' understanding, whilst at the same time allowing for other ways of looking at things. I wanted to avoid anywhere that based their practice on ‘off the shelf' solutions. 

What has most struck you since joining the team?

I remember thinking ‘what a bright and interesting bunch of people' when I first encountered them. I noticed how good the team were at spotting and amplifying creative sparks as they happened and fanning them into life.

They manage to balance seriousness and passion for the quality of the work and understanding of the underlying theories, with a sense of humour and warmth in relationship.

What is your major role / contribution to the business going to be?

At the moment I'm contributing to BCG's project transforming performance in Further Education colleges - a sector I have a personal passion for as I started my career working with teenagers who did not fit into the traditional school system, connecting them with City organisations. I think I contribute my understanding of organisations which values paying attention to the everyday interactions between people, as well as to the formal processes, when supporting change programmes.  Raising awareness of these day to day exchanges helps people to understand the culture and patterns of interaction they have created together, which is the starting point for changing them.  

I will also be making a contribution to developing the strategy and culture change practice within BCG and running alongside this will be my personal research interests around the quality of contact and connection in organisation life.

The professional experience I contribute includes senior roles in HR, consulting and leadership with the London Chamber of Commerce, Reuters and Cass Business School. I bring an ongoing business school link with the Centre for Leadership Learning and Change at Cass, where I am a Visiting Fellow.

What would you like our clients / colleagues to know about you?

One day I hope my answer would be that I'd like them to know about my best-selling books - the ground-breaking one on organisational consulting as well as the critically-acclaimed first novel, both of which I have written in my eco-mansion in some beautifully unspoilt place (naturally by the sea, with its own vineyard), where I run life-changing retreats, grow organic vegetables and occasionally paint....

Until that time they will have to make do with the more prosaic reality of me balancing my professional life with time for my family and friends in Wimbledon, my research, my writing and occasionally cooking huge amounts of food for lots of people.

What would you most like your career with BCG to be remembered for?

Somebody said recently that they liked the way I brought the whole of myself to my work and I liked that. I'd like to be remembered for that - and for it to have made a difference.

I'd also like to be remembered for having made a difference to increasing the global recognition of BCG as leaders in strategy and culture change and for developing the practice of enabling organisations to recognise and foster cultures that create value.