Consulting Excellence
Consulting Excellence is the new badge of quality in consulting, available only to members of the Management Consultancies Association (MCA).
It promotes collaboration between clients and consultants to achieve great outcomes through a commitment to the nine Consulting Excellence principles.
This framework celebrates consulting’s value and commits member firms to the highest standards of ethical behaviour, client service, and professionalism.
“By working together through Consulting Excellence, we can reinforce the expertise that underpins the best in consulting and create additional benefits for all our firms and clients.”
Howard Tollit, MCA President
The Consulting Excellence scheme will give consultancy buyers enhanced confidence in what they can expect from MCA firms, enabling them to identify firms committed to openness and great results.
“There is a natural alignment between our business and the values which underpin the new Consulting Excellence programme.”
Mark Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, UK at Gobeyond Partners
The nine principles of Consulting Excellence:
Ethical behaviour
1. We are responsible and good citizens
2. We conduct our business ethically
3. We foster an ethical culture
Client service and value
4. We provide excellent consulting services which deliver the outcomes clients seek
5. We are transparent with clients and respond to their concerns
6. We always strive to improve the value we can deliver to our clients
Professional development
7. We undertake training and professional development planning each year
8. We promote strong core consulting capabilities and specialisms in our consultants and teams
9. We support our employees’ career progression, professional development and welfare
Ethical Behaviour
Gobeyond Partners supports organisations through charitable donations and pro-bono or reduced rate work. In recent years this has benefitted Mencap and Curwen Primary School. We are currently developing a more formal CSR framework in response to employee feedback.
We always conduct business ethically. Our sales process and policies prohibit anyone in the business from selling work which we do not have the capacity or capability to undertake, or may represent a conflict of interest. We will also decline work with clients if we feel there is misalignment in expectation/values.
We pride ourselves on our transparent but professional culture. Our employees undergo extensive pre-employment screening, and we address business ethics in both our recruitment and our induction process.
We have been named in the Sunday Times top 100 small companies to work for, with ‘extraordinary’ levels of engagement cited by Best Companies and particular strength in leadership values.
Client service and value
Our level of service and commitment to improving client value is reflected in an increasing NPS; our 2016 score rating us very highly.
One of our values is ‘bringing people with us’. Our belief in helping clients become sustainable is one of the core tenets of our success, leading to the creation of our learning and development function.
We have the following approach to ensure quality:
- We are ISO 9001 audited, proving our ability to consistently provide products and services that meet the needs of our customers
- Our strict sales process means we only undertake work which is within our capability and capacity at the current time
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- We always agree objectives with clients at proposal stage
- Challenges are raised immediately and a resolution plan put in place
- Our projects are supported by regular audits
We appoint account managers, responsible for the whole client relationship (commercial, project and people). This ensures accountability, and a dedicated single point of contact for clients.
Our ‘certainty of outcome promise’ means if we don’t deliver the agreed objectives for the client, we will work (at our own cost) until the objectives are delivered.
Professional development
Upon entry, all employees are assessed for technical and consulting capability, and a development plan put in place. Every consultant is given a career mentor, to help guide them through this process.
Employees have access to all of our training programmes, including courses accredited by the ILM (Institute of Leadership and Management), LCS (Lean Competency System) as well as our unique Design of Service Operations programme, developed in conjunction with Loughborough University.
We also encourage and support specific professional development; in our consulting services team, there are two higher education qualifications currently being undertaken.
Our proprietary Consultant Development Programme (ConDev) caters for all levels of consultant and features both hard technical skills training to softer consulting skills. It decreases in intensity from entry level to Managing Consultant grade.
Pastoral care is fundamental to our business, and our commitment in this area is reflected by our recent success in the Sunday Times top 100 small companies to work for.
Find out more about Consulting Excellence.