1 Why did you join The Berkeley Partnership?

I’ve always been motivated by doing great client work. At The Berkeley Partnership, it sits at the center of everything and shapes the whole organisation in a way I hadn’t experienced before. I felt very aligned with that philosophy and the values that support it.

Variety has also been one of the things I’ve enjoyed most throughout my consulting career. At a large firm, I was starting to see that come under threat, because you needed to specialise in a capability or sector in order to progress. The Berkeley Partnership’s model values and cultivates breadth to develop truly rounded consultants, which I found really exciting and matched well with me.

Finally, The Berkeley Partnership’s small size means I’m close to the leadership making decisions that impact me and my career, and I can contribute to the future and direction of the firm in a meaningful way. That sense of ownership and a real stake in the company is something you just don’t get at a large organisation. It adds a layer of meaning to the work that I hadn’t had before.

2 What core value or approach do you use to help clients achieve their aspirations?

My approach is to really engage with the problem. It’s easy to get caught up in the solutions, templates and go-to-market offers you already have on the shelf. They feel safe, and they save time. But they start you at the answer, and the answer might not fit the problem the client actually has.

So I try to understand and engage with the problem properly. That means listening, understanding it in depth, testing my assumptions, and following it through until I reach the right solution, even when that isn’t the one I expected, or the one that was easiest to reach for.

It takes more discipline, and it’s not always the quickest route. But clients can tell when you’ve engaged with their situation rather than applied a standard answer. It’s what earns their trust, and it’s what gets them to where they want to go.

3 What are your values and how have they informed your career?

Curiosity has been a driving force of my career. I like understanding how things work, and consulting lets me do that across different industries, problems and types of organisation. It’s also made me a better listener. If you’re genuinely curious about a client’s situation, you ask better questions, and you hear more of the answer.

I’m also big on collaboration, believing the best work is done with other people. I like pressure-testing my thinking with colleagues, taking a steer, and building on challenge rather than defending my first idea. The same goes for clients. When they’re part of the work and not just recipients of it, the result is better and it sticks.

Finally, conscientiousness underpins how I go about my work. You need to do right by people, and that means doing business in a way that treats everyone with respect. We’re often operating in environments with high pressure and difficult decisions to be made. Setting the right example in those moments matters.