In a time when companies are facing intensive demands for business and organizational improvement, Charlesmore Partners is getting a lot of attention for providing tangible, incisive and implementable management consulting solutions.
We sat down with Charlesmore Partners’ Edward Ferris to find out more about how the firm is helping companies around the globe convert strategic intent into sustainable business results.
In one sentence, tell me about Charlesmore Partners?
Charlesmore Partners is a management consulting firm that helps clients build an organization capable of delivering strategy.
Why should a company consider Charlesmore Partners?
While most companies convert their business strategies into detailed and actionable plans, the same degree of acuity and rigor is rarely given to the organizational implications of these strategies.
Today’s organization is rarely fully equipped to deliver tomorrow’s desired business results and varying degrees of transformation will be required to assure that strategic intent is fully realized. Simply put, Charlesmore Partners helps companies build an organization capable of delivering strategy.
Depending upon client needs and circumstance, we examine and improve key performance levers such as organizational design and structure, operating standards and culture, competencies and skill mix, performance capabilities and requirements and talent management systems and practices. Importantly our work is customized to client needs; we provide no cookie-cutter solutions. The consulting work is pragmatically designed around the realities of a client’s particular circumstance with the core purpose of making a material performance difference to their business.
There may be hundreds of consulting firms out there. How is Charlesmore Partners different?
There are two primary differences – who does the work, and how the work gets done.
Many consulting firms use principals to sell engagements and (considerably) less experienced associates to deliver the work. That’s not the way Charlesmore Partners does business. The same seasoned consultants sell our engagements as deliver them; clients pay for our depth of expertise and the distinctive insights that our broad-based experience can bring.
Secondly, many consulting firms deliver stylized reports with fancy charts and see this as the consulting deliverable; regretfully while attention-getting, these reports typically end up on corporate bookshelves gathering dust.
Charlesmore Partners delivers results, not reports. We work with clients to implement improvements that drive organizational performance; we are not looking down from the balcony, our work is on the field of play making a tangible business difference.
How did this consulting style emerge? How much were you influenced by your experiences at ABB and General Signal Corporation?
The influences are many; we call it the scars of experience. There’s no doubt though that my own career – and the careers of my colleagues – helped frame our desire to build a different kind of consulting firm. One that delivers material results for clients.
Our experience of working in over forty-four countries on six continents certainly provided an extraordinary experience base. The challenges we faced often came thick and fast and the learning was real-time and visceral. We know the realities and tough choices that line executives face. We know that if they decide to invest in our consulting expertise, we need to add significantly more value in deliverables than the cost of the fees we charge.
What core value does Charlesmore Partners add?
We understand organizational performance and what is required to deliver it. There is no secret sauce, just many essential ingredients. Our indepth knowledge of organizational design, culture, leadership requirements and talent management practices has been honed over multiple years of direct line experience in tough, multinational business. By applying our core competencies to the client’s business situation we can help them identify the key performance levers that will make the difference between achieving desired results and underperformance. This is our value-add.
Also its important to remember that today over 70% of the value of most companies is now considered to be intangible - knowledge, methods, capabilities, relationships, brand. We work in a high impact/high leverage domain; materially improving organizational capability and performance can increase company value significantly.
How do you work with client human resource executives? This sounds squarely their domain.
The short answer is extremely collaboratively. We are externals – however close our work may get to a client’s business. We respect and recognize this. We are there to add value - expertise, insight, resources, program management. We are not there to supplant or sideline. That would be counterproductive and wrong; client HR executives often become our greatest advocates.
You talk about achieving material results. How do you measure success and what type of results do you achieve?
At the start of each engagement we lay out key deliverables in collaboration with the client. The deliverables are typically phased over time and mutual expectations are defined in qualitative and quantitative terms. We meet regularly through the term of the engagement to review progress and results. It’s a partnership framed by clear commitments and explicit parameters.
We don’t succeed or achieve results independently of our clients. They achieve the results; our work helps them do so. We have a track record of helping firms materially accelerate growth, restructure operations for profitability, build global-standard practices and build performance cultures.
Download How Charlesmore Partners Helps Clients Build High Performance Organizations
Charlesmore Partners International is a global management consulting firm specializing in organizational strategy, organization development and change management. The firm works with CEOs and their top management teams to develop the organizational strategy and initiatives that convert strategic intent into organizational capability, commitment and performance.
Founded in 2005 and headquartered in the greater Philadelphia region, Charlesmore Partners serves clients in most sectors and transnationally.
Edward Ferris serves as Charlesmore Partners’ Managing Partner; he specializes in organizational strategy, organization development and change management. Previously Edward held executive positions at Del Global Technologies Corp., ABB, General Signal Corporation and British Telecom with responsibilities spanning some 44 countries on six continents. He is a co-author of a recent Conference Board report on CEO Succession Planning, teaches global leadership at The New School for Public Engagement in New York City and is a member of The Conference Board’s Expert Committee on Shareholder Activism.
Edward can be contacted at +1.215.353.6472 or by email [email protected].
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