Your Total Coach

Our consultancy work embraces a broad range of projects. These include:

Business Strategy

We work with clients helping them to address the issues that matter most to their organization so that they can be clear on the aims and objectives for the business. We help clients evaluate existing strategy documents and create and formulate new business plans.

Commercial business development

We specialise in helping clients develop the commercial side of their business. We are aware that change is constant in such areas as new customer needs. We help clients explore market share and growth opportunities.

Change management

As consultants, recognise that effective change management is essential is companies are to continuously respond to shifting market conditions. As change agents, we view our role as being to work as a strategic partner with the company to achieve its change goals as swiftly, effectively and efficiently as possible.

Multi-agency working

There is an ever-increasing demand for effective multi-agency partnership working. Bringing together different organisations to work collaboratively on projects sets its own challenges, as each organisation has its own vision, values, objectives and ways of working. We specialise in forging powerful partnerships that enable individual and joint goals to be achieved.

Research

Research is a key tool in our consultancy work. We specialise in providing ‘base line’ information that acts as a powerful starting point for projects. This research encompasses both quantitative and qualitative approaches and provides the client with ‘real time’ feedback.

Written materials

We specialise in producing bespoke materials for the client. These can be as hard copy and/or online. Typically these might include guides for managers on key aspects of management that are developed as desktop resources.

Here are two typical examples:

Research

Client: Business Link for Cambridgeshire.

Research project: Coaching In Cambridgeshire.

Content: Business Link for Cambridgeshire (BLfC) wished to understand how much, and how effectively, coaching is being used within Cambridgeshire’s businesses. BLfC was keen to continue to support the development of managers within Cambridgeshire and sought to explore the opportunities provided by coaching as a means of achieving this. The purpose of the research was to understand demands for this service, the supply of this service and to provide recommendations for BLfC as to the opportunity to introduce coaching as a service to SMEs around the county.

Methodology: Quantitative research to 5,000 businesses and 200 providers. Qualitative research via telephone & face-to-face interviews, focus groups and desk-based research.

Skills guide

Client: Periodical Publishers’ Association.

Project: Online Learning & Development Resources for publishers.

Content: The Periodical Publishers’ Association (PPA), which represents magazine publishers across the UK, wished to develop an online resource for its members. Many publishers employ fewer than 50 staff and do not have sufficient resources to specialist run in-house HR services. They identified a need to produce an online resource that could be accessed by their member publishers.

The product: We developed a Skills for Business: People Management guide that aimed to help small to medium-sized publishers by providing them with all the essential 'people' information that helps make business tick. The guide, located at www.ppa.co.uk is divided into three sections:

1. Recruitment and selection sets out all the building blocks involved in successful hiring. This section includes standard letters that publishers are free to use.
2. Employment covers all the key areas of employment legislation, including the rights and responsibilities of employers and employees. As well as the employment framework, this section covers such issues as pensions and health and safety. And, with publishers in mind, there are also useful sections on where organisations stand regarding copyright and freelancers.
3. People development is the final section and is full of ideas to help publishers release the potential of their people and grow their businesses.