Industry expert advisor, consultant and NED with over 25 years’ experience in helping businesses improve their market position. With a particular specialism across Solution Consultancy, Project Solutions, SOW and Professional Service business creation and transformation. I’m regularly asked to speak on topics around consultancy workforce development, the future of work, Solution Selling and maximising contractor success.

An independent advisor since early 2019, I’ve steered dozens of businesses to generate much greater revenue and margins with much improved client tenure. Collectively this has resulted in well over £250m in new, previously unobtainable high-margin revenue streams – all around the consulting, solutions and SOW service space.

My experience comes from leading largescale Consulting functions for HP, Getronics, Pomeroy and CACI across UK & Europe. I also previously created and led these functions for human capital businesses including Experis (Manpower) and Adecco. I’ve been directly responsible for establishing and leading service organisations operating with in excess of 250 deployed consultants.

To date, I’ve advised and steered well over 100 organisations across the UK, Europe and US on all matters around SOW, consulting and solutions delivery. With a proven track record in taking clients all the way from inception to success. My expertise and experience has helped numerous businesses of all sizes transform the way they operate, interact and secure revenue with end clients in Private and Public Sector, across a multitude of markets, industries and technology areas.

HOW I HELP BUSINESSES WIN:

Conducting ad-hoc advisory sessions, providing retained steering services through to full turn-key programs that provides everything for success. I’m able to help in many ways but always with a passion and motivation to make sure my clients succeed. Most commonly my activities include:

• Strategic Direction – uncovering and shaping the right path for the business based on market, clients and key motivators.
• Vision Directive – establishing the key narrative of ‘why’ to solidify the core drivers in taking new services to the market for both internal and external stakeholders.
• Readiness Assessment – reviewing current business & market activities to ascertain the best routes for rapid success and in turn where to focus for maximum impact.
• Business Roadmap & GTM – developing robust plans that lay out a 2–3-year (and beyond) step-by-step trajectory that covers all facets needed for total success.
• Organisational Mobility – defining hiring plans through to hands-on mentoring & coaching of teams & leaders so plans can be met and teams are best equipped.
• Operational Excellence – establishing the correct mechanisms to manage all risks, client requirements and contractual & commercial due-diligence.

Specialisms

I provide business leaders a safe conduit to share and shape new strategic initiatives with confidence the guidance they receive is well tested and will result in great returns.
I help clients maximise success by designing roadmaps for future growth in exciting new areas and in-turn developing robust plans which hugely simplify the journey to success
Ensuring the future success for the business is well supported, I help transform existing organisations through coaching & team development whilst mapping hiring needs far ahead of time
I work to develop the right GTM strategy and plans, ensuring new services are well defined and key propositions are well understood and resonate with the actual buying market

Reference 1

“We engaged with Stuart after attending a workshop where he presented to a roomful of Recruitment founders, CEO's and MD’s on how they could evolve into offering consultancy solutions and in-turn provide their customers more valued services. The workshop was very intriguing and was already on the horizon as a strategic objective for my business so we hired Stuart initially for a couple of days of ad-hoc consulting to test some initiatives. The relationship developed rapidly and culminated in us utilising Stuart to fully develop our business plan and GTM offering for our new business concept, his experience and knowledge in this space clearly is second to none. Stuart guided and educated us at every step, producing a comprehensive 2+ year plan along with all supporting collateral to help us accelerate. Due to Stuart's proven expertise, we extended our engagement for additional steering and guidance following the launch of our new business. Several years later I am pleased to say the new venture has been a resounding success and has transformed our position in the market and the way we operate with our clients, and of course the financial improvement has been very nice. I continue to advocate Stuart's services and would have no reservation in recommending him to any business or using him again in the future should the need arise. If you are wanting to transform or evolve away from commoditized, transactional recruitment into much more value driven services that can help your clients overcome their challenges with talent, Stuart is the first person you should reach out to.”

Reference 2

“Stuart has been supporting our business since 2020 following an introduction through our NED network. Initially we engaged Stuart to provide some guidance on how we could grow our Solutions business, improving our service proposition and helping us to win more lucrative project & consulting-based opportunities. This developed into Stuart ultimately outlining a plan of how we could do this and what was required, resulting in us establishing a new business division, Understanding Solutions.

Since then, Stuart has continued to provide support and guidance on the development of that business division and more recently has been engaged further in helping to shape how we can transform our whole business and the underlying services offered to position us away from traditional transactional recruitment into a much more strategic partner for our clients.

I would highly recommend Stuart and his services; his knowledge and experience are well proven and I look forward to continuing to work with him more over the coming months and years”

Reference 3

“We engaged with Stuart when looking to expand our services into consultancy and project-based solutions. Stuart came highly recommended to our business and after initial conversations and client referencing, it was clear his expertise and experience would be critical in helping us shape our offering. Stuart proposed and undertook a clear program of work where he steered, advised and ultimately created our GTM plan and then helped roll this out through education into the business and key stakeholders for maximum buy-in. In addition, Stuart provided some extra guidance around specific challenges we were facing due to industry changes that needed careful consideration and further education.

Stuart's involvement helped us develop a new business division, enabling us to engage with our clients in more lucrative and strategic ways around how we could best service them. I would have no hesitation in recommending Stuart to others who are looking for guidance or leadership on how to evolve or transform current operations & offerings into higher-value consultancy style talent services.”

Reference 4

“I first met Stuart during the final stages of the hiring process for the business I eventually joined, Stuart was introduced to me by the founders as ‘our external industry expert’. I was immediately impressed by Stuart’s persona and his huge amount of knowledge of the consulting market, coming from Fujitsu a lot of what we discussed really resonated. The opportunity to work with Stuart in an advisory capacity was a big reason why I took the role.

I’ve now been fortunate to work and learn from Stuart first hand over the past 2 years, seeing him help lead and shape the direction of the business and provide guidance to our board has been eye opening. Equally, Stuart has been more than happy to get ‘hands on’ and has personally coached and mentored me, supporting me on the larger, more complex opportunities, without which I would have really struggled to secure. I really enjoy the time I get with Stuart and constantly request more of his time from my leaders. The value he adds is very real and I have no hesitation in recommending him to any business who are looking to accelerate or improve their market position.”

Reference 5

“I’ve worked with Stuart on & off for several years and we first met when I was the CFO for a Contractor Accountancy firm. We were introduced by a mutual connection at Brookson Legal as I was looking to explore the market and understand much more around SOW and consulting within the Recruitment & Staffing industry.

Stuart’s knowledge around SOW, IR35 and transforming traditional contract delivery into high-value, outcome-based services (aka Consultancy) really impressed me. I’ve had the benefit of seeing Stuart in action first-hand many times over the years. I’ve been present when he’s delivered thought provoking sessions to a room of highly motivated CEO’s & MDs on transforming contractor delivery through to being part of the journey he takes clients on when actually developing their whole Consulting business strategy. His expertise truly is exceptional and his ability to simplify transformations into bite-size chunks means his clients have a far easier road ahead than if they had gone it alone.

I have absolutely no reservations in recommending Stuart to any business who is looking for guidance and advice on any aspects, especially if they want to truly win in any area of the Consulting, SOW or Project Services spaces – he really is the only person you need!”