Please note this article was published before OEE Consulting and gobeyond joined forces to become Gobeyond Partners.

Annie joined us in 2016 and has since worked with a number of well-known firms on quality, operations improvement and productivity, as well as sitting on our Corporate Social Responsibility Forum.

This joins our series revealing what it’s really like to work at OEE Consulting, profiling members of our team including Helen Meskell, Vishnu Sivakumar, Beulah Selvaraj and Sylvain Poncet.

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Role: Principal Consultant
Location: Anglesey
Experience: National Account Manager at Yodel; Project Manager at DHL Express
Education: BA in Geography from the University of Nottingham
Worked with OEE Consulting since: October 2016

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Describe OEE Consulting in three words.
Transforming, diverse, challenging.

What was your route into consulting with us?
I’d spent 13 years in the Express Parcels logistics field, in roles varying from Operational Management to Account Management, so I have operations experience through both an Operator and a Client lens. Throughout my career I have always sought improvements to processes and never accepted the status quo. A close friend, who is an academic in this field, had been telling me for several years that I should work as a Consultant. It was an ideal role for me, based on the many conversations we had about my roles and my work.

What has surprised you most about the company since joining?
For a medium-sized company, my colleagues represent many different nationalities.

Tell us about your work with the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) forum.

In the last year we have formalised our CSR work, supporting our contribution to society through support for fundraising initiatives, donations of time for pro-bono consulting work and formal mechanisms to raise awareness about our environmental impact.

So far we’ve encouraged 44 of our team to walk a marathon distance in support of Mind, supported individual entries to the London Marathon and Tough Mudder, and arranged two cyclists to join Le Cure cycle ride in August 2018 – including me! The ride will tackle some Tour de France ascents, climbing over 12,000 metres in total, to raise money for cancer research.

What is a typical day like for you?
I’m a keen cyclist, so on my training days I start at 5 or 6 am to visit the gym or go for a run before work; I find it easier to do this in the morning and get it out the way! I generally arrive at our client’s office for 8 am and prepare for the day by checking my calendar to see what meetings and client sessions I have. When I am working with different teams across different locations I try to divide where I sit equally between each team so I’m available for questions and can provide on the ground support.

How do you start a project?
After researching the industry, the most important thing is to get to know all the stakeholders as soon as possible and understand how they all connect. I spend a lot of time ensuring I listen to their views about their business, roles and any concerns they may have about the project. Getting this information early is critical to ensure you know how best to work together.

What sort of projects have you been working on?
I have worked on some really varied projects, including:

• Advising a high level project team on operational systems to support a new proposition improving customer experience
• Driving productivity improvements at a facilities management company, including introducing and coaching team managers
• Improving operations in a national hotel chain, where the overall project has resulted in a projected saving of over £600k

What have you learnt?
Simple tools can be the most effective way to make change easy to implement. Sometimes organisations need to take things in small steps rather than leap in to a big change in one go. Our ODP Training is a really good starting point for Operations Managers as it gives them the basic tools, systems and frameworks for being a successful Ops Manager.

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About Annie
Annie has been integral to change management in organisations over a number of different projects, and understands the change process from operational, project manager and client facing roles.

Her belief is that for business improvement to be successful, everyone at all levels needs to be engaged in the process to provide input, rather than have change imposed upon them.

She brings an organised, collaborative and energetic approach, along with 20 years of experience as a manager in both manufacturing and service sectors.

Annie is a keen cyclist and has raced in various competitions over the last few years including representing Anglesey in the Women’s Cycling Team twice in the Island Games (a multi-sport event held every 2 years). Her challenge for 2018 will be a 4 day cycling event in the Alps for Le Cure de France, raising money for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. You can sponsor Annie online here: https://race-nation.com/sponsor/e/183686