Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Unlocking Value

In this episode of the Unlocking Value podcast, John Howard speaks with Rhys Hefford, a serial founder who has built, scaled and sold multiple professional services businesses over the past fifteen years.

Rhys has launched six firms and successfully exited two, typically taking each from start-up to around £2 million+ in EBITDA before handing over to new leadership teams. His experience gives him a unique view of how to build, scale, exit and start again without losing sight of the life you want to lead.

Together, John and Rhys explore what drives repeat founders, how to design a business that fits your personal goals, and how to know when it is time to step aside and let others take it further. They discuss succession planning, bringing in new leaders, the realities of early-stage growth and why self-awareness is as critical as ambition when building lasting value.

Key discussion points include:

• What keeps a serial founder coming back to build again
• How to align business design with personal purpose and family life
• Recognising when the business needs new leadership
• Building value in the early stages and focusing on what really moves the needle
• The discipline of narrowing focus and avoiding over-analysis
• How to prepare a team and structure for a successful exit

For founders and leaders in professional services, this is an honest, reflective conversation about building multiple multi-million-pound businesses, creating space for others to lead and finding a way to scale without burning out.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Rhys Hefford, Serial Founder 

In this episode of the Unlocking Value podcast, John Howard speaks with Marcus Eden-Ellis, the founder and chief executive of Bid Perfect, a specialist consultancy that helps organisations compete, persuade, and win.

Marcus spent decades in senior sales roles before launching his own firm in 2006. Nearly twenty years later, his team has supported more than 900 companies across the UK, Europe and the US, training their people to sell more effectively and build sustainable growth through better bids.

In this conversation, Marcus shares what he has learned about transforming sales from a personality-led exercise into a measurable, teachable discipline. He also explains why the best firms treat every bid as a reflection of how they think, operate and build trust.

Key discussion points include:

• How to identify winning opportunities before investing in a bid.
  
  
• The value of structure, training and feedback in creating a high-performing sales culture.
  
  
• Why the most successful proposals focus on measurable client outcomes.
  
  
• How AI is changing the mechanics of bid writing without replacing human tone or judgment.
  
  
• What happens when leaders see persuasion as a strategic capability, not a task.
  
  
• Why long-term partnerships, not quick wins, are the foundation of real business value.
  
  

For professional services leaders, this episode offers a clear, experience-led view on how to systemise success, strengthen credibility and create teams that know how to win.

This episode is available to stream below or on any of your usual podcast platforms (such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts).

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Marcus Eden-Ellis, Founding Director at Bid Perfect

In this episode, we look at how investors and advisors assess a business – and what can spook them.

We’re joined by an investor, a corporate lawyer and a corporate finance advisor to talk about what builds confidence during a transaction – and what can cause it to break down. From messy data and vague narratives to unexpected risks that emerge late in the process, they share what buyers really watch for and what separates strong deals from aborted ones.

If you want a clearer picture of how buyers think and how to avoid common pitfalls, this episode will give you a practical inside view.

Want to learn more about how investment transactions work in professional services? Download Garwood Growth’s free Unlocking Value book. It’s your step-by-step guide to what’s involved and what you should consider, whether you're thinking about selling, getting ready for external investment or just exploring your options. 

Guest List

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Alex Thomson, Partner at Growth Capital Partners
Guest: Frank Shephard, Partner and Global Head of Corporate at DWF
Guest: Paul Lines, Partner at Garwood Growth

www.garwoodgrowth.com

In this episode, we ask a deceptively simple question: what actually makes a business valuable?

Host John Howard is joined by a founder, an investor and an advisor to explore what really drives high valuations in professional services. They talk about the importance of revenue quality, market positioning and delivery maturity – and why investors care just as much about what’s ahead as what’s already been built. Along the way, the guests share real-world examples of how they’ve made their businesses more attractive by focusing on the things that genuinely create value.

If you want to understand what buyers are really looking for – and how to build a business that stands out – this episode is for you.

Want to learn more about how investment transactions work in professional services? Download Garwood Growth’s free Unlocking Value book. It’s your step-by-step guide to what’s involved and what you should consider, whether you're thinking about selling, getting ready for external investment or just exploring your options. 

Guest List

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Minos Ataliotis, Founder and CEO at CloudRock
Guest: Emma Flin, Investment Director at Sovereign Capital Partners
Guest: Rob Garner, Founding Partner at Garwood Growth

 www.garwoodgrowth.com

In this episode, we explore one of the biggest hidden success factors in any deal: alignment between shareholders.

We’re joined by four founders who’ve lived through the challenge of keeping ambitions, personalities and timelines aligned as their businesses evolved – and as the prospect of a transaction came into view. They share honest, practical advice about how to navigate the hard conversations, balance head and heart, and keep your culture intact without derailing the deal.

This episode is full of valuable insight for anyone leading a firm with multiple owners or thinking about what it takes to get ready for a transaction – together.

Want to learn more about how investment transactions work in professional services? Download Garwood Growth’s free Unlocking Value book. It’s your step-by-step guide to what’s involved and what you should consider, whether you're thinking about selling, getting ready for external investment or just exploring your options. 

Guest List 

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Gita Singham-Willis (Co-founders of Cadence Innova)
Guest: Jane Barrett (Co-founders of Cadence Innova)
Guest: Neil Sharp (Co-founders of PEN Partnership)
Guest: Richard Vale (Co-founders of PEN Partnership)

www.garwoodgrowth.com

In this opening episode of the Unlocking Value podcast, we go right back to the first big question founders face: should we even do a deal? Host John Howard is joined by four guests with direct experience of weighing up whether to sell, take on investment or stay the course. They talk candidly about what led them to consider a transaction, how they judged the right time, what kind of deal felt right – and what they’ve learned along the way. 

This episode is packed with real-world insight for anyone starting to think about what a deal might mean and whether it’s the right move at all.

Want to learn more about how investment transactions work in professional services? Download Garwood Growth’s free Unlocking Value book. It’s your step-by-step guide to what’s involved and what you should consider, whether you're thinking about selling, getting ready for external investment or just exploring your options. 

Guest List:

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Marc Schmid (Co-founder and director at Redmoor Health)
Guest: Alison Schmid (Co-founder and director at Redmoor Health)
Guest: Mat Oram (CEO and Co-founder at AdviseInc)
Guest: Rob Garner (Founder and Partner at Garwood Growth)

www.garwoodgrowth.com

In this episode of the Unlocking Value podcast, John Howard speaks with Adam Craker, Chief Executive of iqbusiness, one of South Africa’s leading consulting and digital integration firms.

Adam has led iqbusiness for more than 15 years, guiding the firm through three distinct chapters: angel investor-backed growth, private equity ownership, and its current position within a listed corporate group. Throughout that journey, he has built a culture that blends high performance with purpose and personality. Central to that is GESHIDO, the trademarked spirit of Getting Sh*t Done.

Together, Adam and John explore what it takes to lead through long-term change. They discuss the shifting expectations that come with different ownership models, the realities of keeping teams motivated through volatility, and the power of humour, partnership and purpose in building a firm designed to endure.

For leaders in professional services, this is a practical and reflective conversation about scaling with intent, staying agile under pressure, and building a business that does more than last. It makes a difference.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Adam Craker, Chief Executive at iqbusiness

In this episode of the Unlocking Value podcast, we welcome Jon Grant, Tech M&A Director at Clearwater, one of Europe’s leading corporate finance firms. 

Jon is one of the UK’s most experienced advisors on technology and consulting deals and works closely with founders and leadership teams to help them build, grow and realise value in their businesses. Over his career, Jon has advised on some of the sector’s most high-profile transactions, including the sale of Infinity Works to Accenture, Growth Capital Partners’ investment in Hippo Digital, and the sale of Oakland Partners to Softcat. That track record gives him a clear and practical perspective on what really drives value in professional services and what buyers and investors are looking for today.

For leaders thinking about investment or exit, there are many challenges to grapple with:  understanding what acquirers actually value, deciding how to position the business, and making sure their firm is not just ready to sell but is also ready to be bought. Together, Jon and John explore the changing M&A landscape, what kinds of businesses command premium valuations and how founders can prepare.

Key discussion points include:

• How the market has changed since 2020 and how that has affected valuations
• The fundamentals that still drive value in professional services
• Why things like sector focus and alignment with major technology ecosystems can increase resilience
• Managing customer concentration and reducing risk before a sale
• The importance of leadership alignment and complete management teams
• The differences between trade buyers and private equity
• What getting ready to be bought really means
• How and when to start conversations with investors

For founders and leaders in professional services, this is a practical, candid view of what drives value today and how to prepare your firm to thrive, whether you plan to sell or simply want to build a more resilient and valuable consultancy.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood - Growth
Guest: Jon Grant, Tech M&A Director - Clearwater

In this episode of the Unlocking Value podcast, John Howard speaks with Andy Strickland, Partner at Palatine Private Equity.

Andy has spent more than a decade backing ambitious Professional Services founders and management teams, often at the point where external investment is being considered for the first time. He shares Palatine’s philosophy of Positive Equity, an approach that focuses on partnership, sustainability and people-led growth.

Together, John and Andy talk about what private equity really means for leaders in professional services. They explore how the right investment partner can help firms grow responsibly, strengthen culture and create long-term value.

Key discussion points include:

• What Private Equity looks like in practice and what it means for founders
• How Palatine’s value-enhancement approach supports sustainable growth
• Why integration and culture are central to successful buy-and-build strategies
• The real sources of private-equity capital and its wider economic impact
• The questions founders should ask before choosing an investment partner

For founders and leaders in professional services, this is a clear and practical conversation that removes the uncertainty around private equity and shows how investment – done the right way – can unlock lasting value for people, businesses and communities.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth

Guest: Andy Strickland, Partner at Palatine Private Equity.

In this episode of the Unlocking Value podcast, John Howard speaks with leadership coach and former consultancy partner Richard Jones about one of the hardest things to get right in professional services: senior leadership transitions.

On paper, it sounds simple: bring in a talented new leader to help the business grow. In reality, it’s far more complex.

Richard and John talk about why these moments are so high-stakes and why more than half of senior hires fail within 18 months. They explore the messy web of explicit and implicit expectations, the challenges of navigating strong internal cultures in mid-sized firms, and the paradox of hiring for difference while instinctively resisting it.

Richard draws on years of research and first-hand experience to reveal what makes transitions succeed. He explains why leadership changes must be treated as a team game, how to build a safe environment for new leaders, and why maintaining high standards matters most when everything feels uncertain.

The conversation covers:

• The impact of complex, unspoken expectations on both sides of a hire
• The paradox of seeking difference while resisting change
• How mid-sized firms can prepare their culture for new leadership
• Why successful transitions are a team effort, not a solo challenge
• How leaders can create psychological safety without lowering the bar
  
  

For leaders navigating growth, or anyone responsible for bringing senior talent into their firm, this episode offers a candid look at the complexity of transitions and how, with the right mindset and preparation, they can become moments of real progress.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth

Guest: Richard Jones, Board Advisor at OLIA

In this episode of the Unlocking Value podcast, John Howard speaks with Craig Herd, founder of Consultancy Growth. 

Craig shares his journey from door-to-door sales at 19, to becoming National Sales Director with a team of 55, to working with a growth enablement consultancy, and now leading his company, Consultancy Growth, which helps UK boutique consultancies build growth systems that actually work. He explains his six pillars of consultancy growth and what consultancy-specific sales and marketing needs to look like in order to become a genuine ROI-driven growth engine, rather than a costly black hole.

The conversation covers:

• Why “marketing only matters if it goes somewhere”
• The six key stages of the client journey: lead generation, lead nurture, sales, delivery, retention and ascension
• How to avoid the founder sales trap and enable teams to sell effectively
• The risks of expecting written proposals to do too much heavy lifting in a sales process
• The often-missed opportunities in retention and expansion into bigger client problem spaces

For consultancy leaders, this episode offers a practical blueprint for building long-term value and avoiding common growth pitfalls.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Craig Herd, Founder of Consultancy Growth

In this episode, John Howard speaks with Justin Langford, co-founder and CEO of Coeo. Over nearly two decades, Justin has grown the business from a two-person start-up into a consultancy trusted by some of the UK’s largest organisations.

Justin shares the key chapters in Coeo’s journey, from proving the model and scaling cautiously at first through to shifting gears and adopting a private-equity style playbook to accelerate growth without external funding. 

He explains how the firm has built long-term value through its talent academy, international expansion, and a culture of learning and codified delivery frameworks.

The conversation also explores Justin’s approach to data-driven leadership, including avoiding “watermelon KPIs” and applying a “Moneyball” mindset to consultancy performance. He reflects on navigating a co-founder exit, evolving his role as CEO and keeping the energy to lead after 18 years.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth

Guest: Justin Langford, Co-founder and CEO at Coeo

www.garwoodgrowth.com

In the final episode of this series, we talk to a panel of experienced consultancy leaders and advisors about what really happens after a deal is done – and what no one tells you in advance.

The conversation explores the emotional, cultural and operational challenges founders and owners can face once the dust settles. We discuss everything from from shifts in identity and purpose through to leadership transitions, people dynamics and integration into new teams and roles. This is a candid, practical conversation about what founders and other leaders wish they’d known, and what it really takes to succeed in the post-deal world.

Want to learn more about how investment transactions work in professional services? Download Garwood Growth’s free Unlocking Value book. It’s your step-by-step guide to what’s involved and what you should consider, whether you're thinking about selling, getting ready for external investment or just exploring your options. 

Guest List

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Mark Campbell, Senior Vice-President at RGP
Guest: Richard Jones, Former Partner at Moorhouse Consulting
Guest: Anna Cornwallis, Managing Director at Stratton HR

www.garwoodgrowth.com

In this episode, we focus on what it really means to be ready for a deal – not just in theory, but in practice.

Host John Howard is joined by two seasoned founders and a corporate finance advisor to explore what it really means to be ready for a transaction process. Together, they dig into the systems, behaviours, and blind spots that shape outcomes – sometimes years before a transaction takes place. This conversation offers practical advice on getting ahead of the curve, managing risk, and setting your business up for the best possible valuation and process.

Want to learn more about how investment transactions work in professional services? Download Garwood Growth’s free Unlocking Value book. It’s your step-by-step guide to what’s involved and what you should consider, whether you're thinking about selling, getting ready for external investment or just exploring your options. 

Guest List

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Mark Robinson, Co-founder of Edenbrook and Kimble/Kantata
Guest: Sean Hoban, Co-founder of Edenbrook and Kimble/Kantata
Guest: James Barraclough, Co-founder and Partner at Elucid Partners

www.garwoodgrowth.com

AI is firmly on the agenda for professional services firms, but many leaders are still working out what it really means in practice – for delivery, governance, people, and trust with clients. 

In this episode of Unlocking Value, John Howard speaks with Dan Figueiredo, a senior leader at Microsoft whose career has sat at the intersection of technology, consulting, and commercial delivery. Dan shares a practical perspective shaped by working closely with professional services firms on how they are using AI without outsourcing judgement or creating unnecessary risk.

The conversation covers:

• Why many technology and AI initiatives struggle when firms start with tools rather than outcomes.
• How AI often acts as a force amplifier – strengthening good ways of working while exposing weak ones.
• How AI is already being used inside consulting teams to speed up analysis, documentation, and design work.
• Why experienced judgement still matters, and what can go wrong when AI output is relied on too heavily.
• The practical governance questions firms are grappling with, from data security to responsible use.
• Why training, adoption, and behaviour change matter more than simply rolling out new tools.
• How concerns about trust and credibility with clients are influencing how firms use AI.

This is a practical conversation for professional services leaders who want to understand where AI genuinely helps, where it creates new responsibilities, and what it means for leadership and judgement in a consulting business.

If you’d like to hear more conversations like this, follow the show for early access to future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Dan Figueiredo, senior leader, Microsoft

Lizzie Meadowcroft is part of the value creation team at LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group. She works closely with management teams across the LDC portfolio, supporting growth, integration and development.

Before joining LDC, Lizzie built a career advising businesses on mergers and acquisitions. She spent almost 20 years at KPMG, where she was a partner in the advisory team and supported business leaders through acquisitions, carve outs and periods of significant change. During that time, Lizzie supported professional services firms both as an external advisor and through KPMG’s own internal transactions.

Lizzie and John talked about growth through acquisition, integration choices, incentives and earn outs, and the role people and culture play in determining whether a deal delivers long-term value. For founders, owners and leaders of professional services businesses navigating growth, change or potential investment, this episode offers a practical view of what really drives successful outcomes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Lizzie Meadowcroft, Value Creation Director at LDC

Claire Simm is Managing Director and Global Head of Regulatory Consulting at Kroll. She has built her entire career in professional services, moving between Big Four firms, entrepreneurial boutiques and global organisations – and seeing first-hand how leadership, culture and expectations change as firms grow.

In this conversation, John and Claire explore what it really takes to lead well in professional services as scale and complexity increase. Claire shares how her leadership approach has evolved over time, why sales and business development should feel natural rather than awkward, and how trusted relationships sit at the heart of long-term growth.

Drawing on her due diligence experience, Claire also offers a grounded perspective on what external scrutiny tends to reveal about professional services firms – where leaders are often surprised, what gets exposed when someone starts asking detailed questions, and why preparation, responsiveness and judgement matter long before any formal process begins.

Key discussion points include:

• How leadership roles change as professional services firms grow
• Shifting from delivery to developing others without losing quality or credibility
• Why sales and business development should feel normal, not forced
• What external scrutiny often reveals about how firms are really run
• The role of preparation, data and responsiveness in building confidence during a transaction process
• Why trust and judgement underpin long-term value in professional services

For founders, partners and senior leaders building professional services firms, this conversation offers a thoughtful, experience-led view on how credibility is built over time – and how leaders earn trust through the decisions they make when things get harder, not easier.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Claire Simm, Managing Director and Global Head of Regulatory Consulting at Kroll

To round off the year, the show takes a slightly different shape.

In this brief episode, John reflects on some of the common themes from conversations in 2025 and says thank you to the guests and listeners who’ve shaped the series. He also looks ahead to what’s coming next. 

Thanks for being part of the show. We’ll see you in 2026!

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth

In a sector where scaling often leads to external investment or an eventual sale, what does it look like to build a consultancy that grows, stays independent and develops a long-term ownership model for its people?

Olly Purnell is the co-founder of Q5, the organisational health consultancy that has grown from a small London start-up into a global firm operating across multiple regions, all without private equity or a planned exit. Instead of organising their business around an eventual transaction, Olly and his co-founders focused on purpose, long-term stewardship and the belief that advisory is a vocation.

This episode explores the decisions that shaped the firm’s early years and the operating principles that allowed Q5 to scale with focus and consistency. Olly discusses how broadening ownership strengthened commitment across the organisation and why different firms choose different paths depending on the futures they want to build.

John and Olly examine what resilience looks like inside a consultancy. They discuss how leadership choices, cultural discipline and a clear sense of identity help boutique firms compete effectively and why the craft of advisory still matters in an AI-enabled world.

Key discussion points include:

• What it takes to build a consulting firm from zero and the early decisions that matter most
• How to scale a firm organically, without a grand plan
• Why Q5 resisted investment offers and broadened ownership among employees
• How ownership shapes culture, accountability and long-term performance
• Why independence can be a competitive advantage for boutique consultancies
• How AI and technology can elevate the consulting craft without replacing it
• Why advisory remains a vocation and what it means to build a firm designed to last

For founders, partners and leaders who want to build consultancy firms on their own terms, this conversation offers a practical blueprint for independence, culture and long-term value creation.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Olly Purnell, Managing Partner at Q5

In this episode of The Unlocking Value Podcast, John Howard speaks with Pekka Metsaranta, founder and CEO of Sisua Ltd, a consultancy known for stepping in to help clients succeed with their most complex programmes. From M&A integrations to large-scale systems delivery, Sisua operates where clarity and execution matter most.

Just as Sisua thrives amid complexity, Pekka’s own path has been equally demanding. He built Sisua from the ground up without co-founders, delivered work while building the business, and learned the hard way what leadership really means when there’s no safety net. His story is one many consultancy founders will recognise: full of steep learning curves, hard decisions and the discipline to keep going when belief is all you have.

Together, John and Pekka explore what it takes to build a values-led professional services firm in real-world conditions, without shortcuts or illusions.

Key discussion points include:

• What meaningful balance looks like for founders and the practical levers that make it possible
• How to lead with accountability in a collaborative, non-hierarchical culture
• What can happen when you scale internal processes too early
• Why leadership in complexity demands belief and resilience

For founders and leaders building firms in uncertain markets, this is a candid, grounded lesson in navigating tough challenges without losing sight of what matters.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Pekka Metsaranta, CEO of Sisua

If you’re leading a professional services firm and want to grow without losing what makes it yours, this episode brings clarity to one of the biggest decisions you’ll face: whether to take on investment and how to do it without compromise.

In this episode, John speaks with Laura Morrill, Investment Director at Agathos Management LLP and a highly accomplished competitive tennis player. Laura offers practical insight into how external investors can help founders sharpen their direction and strengthen their firms, while staying true to the ambitions and aims that led them to be founders in the first place.

Laura brings a rare blend of boardroom discipline, human insight and athletic resilience – and a belief that great partnerships are built on challenge, not comfort.

She has supported founder-led firms at their most critical inflection points. Her view? You don’t have to change who you are to grow and thrive. But you do have to know where you want to be heading and have a plan for how you’ll get there. 

Key discussion points include:

• Why resilient founders actively seek challenge and why investors trust those who do
• What really changes post-deal (hint: not as much as you might think)
• How to prepare your mindset and your firm for long-term value creation, long before external capital arrives
• What a value creation plan looks like inside a consultancy, with or without investment

Whether you’re actively considering investment or simply want to build a firm that lasts, this conversation is a masterclass in resilience, clarity and leading the long game on your terms. 

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Laura Morrill, Investment Director at Agathos Management LLP

In this episode of the Unlocking Value podcast, John Howard speaks with Tom Burnet, an experienced chair, former public company chief executive and long-time leader across technology, services and people-centred organisations.

Tom’s career spans the army, entrepreneurship, public markets and multiple board and advisory roles. On paper it looks unconventional. In practice, a consistent pattern runs through everything he has built. He leads with intent. He focuses on the few priorities that genuinely create value. He is willing to stop initiatives that no longer serve the mission, even when doing so is uncomfortable.

Together, John and Tom explore what it means to build a business on purpose rather than drift with momentum. They discuss how to choose the right priorities, how to make difficult decisions under pressure and how ego, if left unchecked, can become one of the most expensive liabilities in any leadership team. Tom also shares a memorable metaphor about knowing when to “drown the puppies”, his candid way of describing the discipline of ending projects early before they drain time, money or energy.

Key discussion points include:

• What building with intent really looks like in practice
• Why ego quietly destroys more firms than market conditions do
• How to recognise when an initiative should end and act quickly
• What to do when your core market tightens and the firm needs to refocus
• How the best professional services firms become indispensable
• Why trusted advisers and independent voices can help keep leaders grounded

For founders, leaders and investors in professional services businesses, this is a candid and practical conversation about building long-term value with clarity, discipline and intent.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Tom Burnet, Non Executive Director

This episode is a little different from our usual format. Rather than a one to one conversation, we are sharing the audio from a recent webinar hosted by Deri Hughes of Honeycomb Consulting Skills Training, joined by Luk Smeyers from The Visible Authority and Rob Garner from Garwood Growth.

Together, they explore what 2026 is likely to mean for consulting firms, drawing on insights from the hundreds of firms they each work with every year.

The discussion covers:

 • The AI triple squeeze reshaping delivery models and margins

 • Why specialist boutiques are showing early signs of renewed growth

 • How firms are using AI internally, from efficiency and expertise to new propositions

 • The rising importance of human skills in winning work and building trust

 • What a consulting firm built from scratch in 2026 would actually look like

 • Why deep sector expertise is increasingly beating generalist capability

A big thank you to Deri Hughes for allowing us to republish the session here on Unlocking Value. If you would like more conversations like this, follow the show for early access to future episodes.

Host: John Howard,Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Rob Garner,Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Luk Smeyers, Partner at The Visible Authority
Guest: Deri Hughes, MD at Honeycomb Consulting

In this episode, John is joined by Jonathan Peachey, founder of Factory X and former board member at Next 15, where he spent several years leading M&A and transformation across a group of more than 20 businesses spanning consulting, marketing and professional services.

Jonathan has spent much of his career at the intersection of new technology and established business models. Having worked through multiple waves of disruption – from the early internet to big data – he brings a practical, grounded perspective on what makes AI different and why this moment matters for leaders facing deeply unfamiliar territory.

As Jonathan sees it, leaders may be fundamentally underestimating AI’s potential impact. That’s because AI is not just another tool to help consultants work faster. It’s a tool that changes what clients can do for themselves. And that raises some big questions about where firms add value and how they will compete in the future.

Jonathan and John discuss:

• Why AI is different from previous technology waves and why it poses a more direct challenge to traditional consulting services and operating models
• Which parts of professional services work are most exposed and why execution-heavy work is likely to be hardest hit
• How firms should respond in practice, including where to start and Jonathan’s framework covering commercial, operational and governance priorities
• Why intellectual property matters more than ever and how firms can start turning what they know into something more scalable
• How AI is likely to reshape pricing, business models and valuations and what that means for leaders and investors

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and are trying to work out what AI really means beyond the noise, this conversation offers a clear, practical way to think about where to focus and what to do next.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you don’t miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Jonathan Peachey, Founder of Factory X

In this episode, John is joined by Chris Allinson, Managing Partner at Yonder Consulting, a firm that helps organisations rethink how they grow and where they compete as markets evolve.

Chris has spent his career working at the intersection of strategy, innovation and insight. He describes his approach with a simple phrase: being “first of the next, not best of the last.” It captures one of the hardest challenges for any consulting firm – how to keep evolving your thinking and your offer while the demands of existing clients keep you focused on today.

Chris introduces the idea of silent drift: not the sudden disruption leaders tend to worry about, but something quieter and harder to notice. The kind of gradual shift where revenue is holding, the team is busy and nothing looks obviously wrong – yet the role your firm plays in clients’ organisations is slowly becoming less central.

They discuss:

• What silent drift is, why firms performing reasonably well are often the most exposed to it, and how leaders can spot the early signs before the shift becomes too hard to reverse
• Chris’s idea of “first of the next, not best of the last” and what it means for consulting leaders trying to stay ahead of their market
• How looking beyond your immediate sector into what Chris calls frontiers can help firms see emerging opportunities earlier
• Why the most effective strategic thinking combines rigorous, data-led insight with the kind of imagination many professional services firms have trained themselves out of
• How consulting firms can challenge their own assumptions early, rather than waiting for a client or competitor to force the change

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and feel your market shifting in ways you cannot yet fully explain, this conversation offers a useful way to think about what might be happening – and what to do next.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you don’t miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Chris Allinson, Managing Partner at Yonder Consulting

In this episode, John is joined by Adrian Hands, an experienced sales leader who has spent more than three decades in roles across technology, SaaS, media and e-commerce. Adrian now works as part of Positive Momentum, a group of seasoned consultants who run their own practices while sharing support, tools and common ways of working under the Positive Momentum umbrella.

Growth comes up frequently in John’s conversations with professional services leaders because balancing client delivery with maintaining a healthy pipeline is a challenge most firms never fully solve. In this conversation, Adrian brings a refreshingly down-to-earth approach to a challenge that can often feel harder than it needs to be.

They discuss:

• What Adrian calls “bloody good questions” and why the quality of discovery
• conversations determines the quality of everything that follows
• The simple weekly habit Adrian uses himself: five non-live prospect conversations every week, or what he calls “coffee to cash” conversations
• How to make selling more systematic and build a genuine growth engine in a professional services firm
• Where even the best-designed growth approaches come unstuck because human beings are involved
• The Positive Momentum model and why it offers a genuinely interesting alternative to traditional consulting firm structures

If you are leading a professional services firm and wrestling with how to keep the pipeline healthy without compromising the quality of your client work, this episode is well worth your time. If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you do not miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Adrian Hands, Positive Momentum

In this episode, John welcomes back Emma Flin, an investment director at Sovereign Capital Partners, a private equity firm that focuses on backing and growing mid-market tech and professional services businesses.

Having first spoken to Emma back in episode 3, we were keen to talk to her again and learn about Sovereign’s focus on ‘buy and build’ as a growth and investment strategy.

‘Buy and build’ is a phrase that gets used a lot in investor circles, but the practicalities of what it involves and when it might be right for a firm aren’t often explained in practical terms. In this conversation, Emma breaks it down, covering what it actually involves, when it makes sense and what it demands from the leadership team at the centre.

They discuss:

• What buy and build actually means and the two distinct types of strategy Emma sees in the market
• Why Sovereign has made buy and build such a central part of its approach to value creation
• What makes a business a credible ‘platform’ versus a better fit as a ‘bolt-on’ acquisition
• What investors look for in a management team before backing a buy and build strategy
• Why culture and communication are critical to successfully integrating people and businesses
• How founders should think about the choice between an outright sale and a private equity partnership
• Why Emma believes leaders should start conversations with potential investors earlier than they might instinctively think they should

This is a practical, straightforward explanation of how buy and build really works in professional services from someone at the centre of these conversations.

If you are running a consulting or tech services firm and thinking about growth, investment or what the next chapter might look like, this episode is well worth your time.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you do not miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Emma Flin, Investment Director at Sovereign Capital Partners

Hari Sethalapathy and Venkata Subbarayudu Nori are two of the three co-founders of Winfo Solutions, a global Oracle consulting business that has grown from three people with no clients to more than 400 staff across a dozen countries in just 11 years.

Both spent years delivering major transformation programmes inside tier-one firms before deciding to create a consultancy shaped by their own values – one built on trust, outstanding service and genuine partnership with clients.

The conversation covers:

● How they won early work by doing projects the big firms could not.

● How their first major breakthrough came from a client who initially said they were too small.

● How their leadership approach and structures have evolved as the business has expanded.

● Their decision to bring in external board advice and how that has helped accelerate growth.

● How a mantra of discuss, decide and deliver has been central to their success.

● Their practical experience with agent-based automation and faster product development.

● How they are approaching AI governance, security and ethical controls as AI
becomes more central to the business.

For founders and senior leaders building professional services firms, this is an honest conversation with two ambitious co-founders who have built something many aspire to.

If you would like to hear more conversations like this, follow the show for early access to future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Venkata Nori, Co-founder at Winfo Solutions
Guest: Hari Sethalapathy, Co-founder at Winfo Solutions

In this episode, John is joined by Andrew Brown, founder of Acuity Business Solutions, a consultancy he built and led for almost 20 years before overseeing its sale to the Scandinavian group Lumera in December 2025.

Garwood had the privilege of advising Andrew through the transaction. With the deal only recently completed, this conversation offers a rare, real-time perspective on what it is actually like to sell a professional services firm.

Andrew did not set out to manufacture the perfect exit. He focused on building a disciplined, well-run business with deep client relationships, a strong team and minimal dependency on himself long before a sale was even under consideration. Over time, those choices translated into a business with strong buyer appeal.

They discuss:

• How the idea for Acuity was born on a car journey to a conference
• How the firm found its niche in public sector pensions
• Why Andrew chose to narrow the focus of the business
• How and why he stepped back from day-to-day operations
• What the due diligence process really feels like for a founder
• The critical role a firm's wider team plays in a successful deal 
• The emotional reality of life after a deal closes

This is an honest and grounded discussion about building value in a consultancy and what it takes to convert that value into a successful transaction.

If you are thinking about making your firm sale-ready, whether in the near term or years from now, this episode is packed with practical lessons from someone who's just been through it.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you do not miss future episodes with leaders who have built and realised real value in our industry.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Andrew Brown, Founder of Acuity Business Solutions

In this episode, John is joined by Nick Synnott, founder of Create Engage and host of the long-running “Climb in Consulting” podcast.

Many listeners will know Nick for his work on marketing in the consulting sector, but this conversation takes a different angle. John and Nick talk about Nick’s journey as a business founder and the decisions, successes and challenges that have shaped Create Engage over the last six years.

They discuss:

• Why Nick committed to a niche early on – and what he learned the hard way about trying to appeal to everyone.
• How he held that niche through the ups and downs of building a young firm.
• The difference between what a firm markets and what it sells.
• His early personal struggles with sales and the process that helped him build confidence in himself.
• How he supports his own team to build their skills and confidence in selling.
• How he approaches hiring inside a boutique firm and the framework that shifted his approach.
• Nick is an avid reader and always has strong recommendations. In the conversation, they touched on:
  - The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, by Al Ries & Jack Trout
  - Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business, by Gino Wickman
  - Topgrading, by Bradford D. Smart

It’s a conversation full of lessons from someone who’s built a successful firm and has spoken over the years to many of the leading figures in our industry. If you enjoy episodes like this, follow the show so you don’t miss future conversations.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Nick Synnott, founder of Create Engage

In this episode – the sixth and final in a mini-series on the technology-driven change reshaping professional services – John is joined by Jonathan Corrie, co-founder and chief executive of Precursive. Precursive makes software that helps services teams sell, resource and deliver their work more profitably, mostly inside software and AI companies. 

Jonathan built and sold his own services business before Precursive, and runs a global community of services leaders called the Services Delivery Alliance – so he’s seen this world as an operator, a founder and an adviser.

Jonathan looks at services through a hard commercial lens. His central point applies as much to a traditional consultancy as to a software firm: how you deliver work shouldn’t be treated only as a cost. Done deliberately, good delivery is what drives growth – clients who get real value come back, buy more, and hand you bigger problems. He’s blunt about why so few firms run it that way, and what it costs them.

The way to get there, he argues, is to productise your expertise – and he doesn’t mean building software. It means spotting the problems clients bring you again and again, packaging what you know into a clear set of offers, building a proper sales process around them, and delivering them the same reliable way each time. As he puts it, you stop offering an open bar and start offering a choice of four drinks.

On AI, Jonathan is clear-eyed: the real constraint isn’t the technology, it’s whether a firm has the knowledge to use it safely and well. He’s wary of the hype – and of the mixed message leaders send when they tell staff to embrace AI while the news is full of it costing people their jobs.

Beyond the case for services-led growth, Jonathan and John discuss:

• Why the best firms want more than half their revenue coming from recurring services – and why that mix earns the highest value when a firm comes to sell.
• “Less scatter gun, more sniper”: knowing a client’s business so well you can be genuinely prescriptive – a discipline he took from his years at CEB, the company behind The Challenger Sale.
• The three types of client problem – one-time, re-occurring and recurring – and why mapping the relationship over three years, rather than a single project, keeps a clear answer to “what’s next.”
• “Forward-deployed engineering,” and the move from “show and tell” to “proven move” – why clients increasingly want to see the work deliver before they commit.
• The pricing paradox at the centre of it all: when AI does in minutes what used to take an associate two weeks, what do you charge?
• Why recording the value you’ve delivered – something Jonathan reckons most firms, his own included, do too little of – is what earns the renewal and the next piece of work.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you don’t miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth

Guest: Jonathan Corrie, Co-founder and CEO, Precursive 

Enjoyed this episode?

And if you’d like to explore how Garwood Growth helps firms build value in practice, get in touch with the Garwood team for a conversation.

In this episode – the fifth conversation in our mini-series on technology-driven disruption – John is joined by Deb Ashton, who co-founded Certinia in 2009 and now runs its customer experience. Certinia is a professional services automation platform, and through the advisory boards and customer programmes Deb runs across three continents, she hears from a wider range of services firms than almost anyone – from teams embedded inside the big technology companies to large independent consultancies.

Deb's starting point is one that stuck with John: services and technology firms have spent years helping everyone else through change, and are now on the receiving end of it themselves. The hardest part, she says, is commercial. Firms are being pushed from billing for time towards pricing for value – but value is far harder to measure than hours, and AI breaks the old link entirely when a task that took a person five days takes an agent minutes.

She points to one firm that spent fifteen years turning a familiar argument over price into a conversation about value – eventually building a repeatable method around it, with payments tied to the results it delivered. Tellingly, the clients who saw real value were the ones who came back for more.

But none of that works, Deb argues, without the basics underneath. A firm can't put AI to good use until it has clean, connected data and consistent ways of working – the unglamorous foundation that everything else depends on.

Beyond the pricing question, Deb and John discuss:

• Why the line between running projects and delivering them is blurring, and what changes when agents move onto the front line of client work.
• A project agent that reads a Slack channel and meeting notes, spots the risks and issues, and updates the log itself – and what that frees a project manager to do instead.
• The split she draws between the "intelligence" work agents are good at and the judgment work that stays with people.
• The efficiency trap: if AI saves everyone a couple of hours a day, how a firm turns that into revenue or margin rather than letting it evaporate.
• The build-versus-buy question – the "topic du jour" – and the hidden long-term cost of building your own AI over the weekend.
• One firm's move from 70% of the work done by people to 70% done by agents – and why it puts agents through the same training, even on empathy, as new joiners.

If you lead a professional services firm and you can feel the commercial model changing under you, Deb offers a clear-eyed view from across the market of what's working – and why the unglamorous groundwork of clean data and disciplined delivery is what makes the rest possible.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you don't miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Deb Ashton, Founder of Certinia

Enjoyed this episode?

And if you'd like to explore how Garwood Growth helps firms build value in practice, get in touch with the Garwood team for a conversation.

In this episode, John is joined by Andrew Laird, Chief Executive of Mutual Ventures, a specialist consultancy focused on public service reform and local transformation.

Andrew co-founded Mutual Ventures over 15 years ago with a clear but unconventional ambition: not to build a large consulting firm, but to create a vehicle for doing meaningful, impactful work in public services. Since then, the firm has grown steadily, building a strong reputation for combining central government policy insight with practical, on-the-ground delivery.

Now, as the business enters a more deliberate phase of growth, Andrew reflects on what has changed, what has stayed constant and what it really takes to scale a consultancy without losing the culture and values that made it successful in the first place.

A central theme throughout the conversation is the idea that growth should be a consequence of value, not the objective itself. Andrew shares a candid perspective on the consulting industry, highlighting where it adds real value and the areas where he thinks it falls short, particularly in public services.

Andrew and John discuss:

• Why Mutual Ventures was never built for growth in the traditional sense and what has prompted a more intentional shift towards scaling the business
• How culture, team structure and internal investment underpin sustainable growth, even in smaller consultancies
• What it takes to embed business development across a team and why consulting “sales” is fundamentally about relationships, not selling
• The role of thought leadership in building credibility, creating demand and differentiating in a crowded market
• Andrew’s perspective on the legitimate role of the consulting industry, including the importance of delivering real value and knowing when to step away

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and are thinking about how to grow without compromising what makes your business distinctive, this discussion offers a thoughtful and practical perspective on what to prioritise and what to avoid.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you do not miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Andrew Laird, Chief Executive of Mutual Ventures

In this episode, John is joined by Tamzen Isacsson, Chief Executive of the Management Consultancies Association (MCA), the body representing the UK’s leading consulting firms.

Tamzen works closely with firm leaders, government and stakeholders across the consulting profession, giving her a broad and well-informed perspective on how the sector is evolving, from growth and talent to AI, hybrid working and the UK’s position on the global professional services stage.

A theme that comes through clearly in the conversation is that the consulting industry doesn’t always tell its story particularly well. Much of the most impactful work happens behind the scenes with clients, and firms don’t often step back to articulate the value they create.

Tamzen and John discuss:

• The current state of the UK consulting market, why growth is returning and why the reality is more nuanced than the headlines
• Why the UK remains one of the most competitive and globally respected consulting markets, and how international demand is shaping firm strategy
• How talent models are evolving, from increased demand for experienced hires to more fluid career paths and the impact of hybrid working on development
• The reality of AI in consulting, where it is starting to create real value, where expectations are still running ahead of reality and why firms need to stay focused on outcomes
• The growing importance of consulting to the UK economy, alongside the opportunities and ongoing challenges for SMEs in accessing work

Throughout the conversation, Tamzen emphasises one core idea: in a profession shaped by constant change, uncertainty and new technology, the fundamentals still matter most. The firms that succeed are those that invest in their people, build trust with clients and stay focused on delivering real value.

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and want a clearer view of where the industry is heading, beyond the headlines, this episode is for you.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you don’t miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Tamzen Isacsson, Chief Executive at the MCA

In this episode, John is joined by Jeremie Guillerme, Partner at Reputation Inc, a specialist consultancy focused on helping organisations understand, build and protect their reputation with the stakeholders that matter most.

Jeremie has spent his career advising businesses across corporate affairs, communications and strategy. His work centres on a simple but often overlooked idea: reputation is one of the most valuable assets a company has, yet very few organisations manage it in a deliberate or structured way.

For professional services firms – where value is almost entirely intangible and built on trust – that gap matters even more.

Jeremie and John explore what reputation really means in practice, why it so often falls between the cracks in leadership teams and how firms can take a more intentional approach without overcomplicating things.

They discuss:

• Why reputation is best understood as the collective perception of your stakeholders and how it directly influences commercial outcomes
• The idea that reputation is a “risk of risks,” where operational or cultural issues can quickly become reputation problems if left unchecked
• How an “outside-in” perspective, particularly through structured conversations with clients, can highlight risks and opportunities leaders often miss
• Why consulting firms are especially exposed, including the concept of “reputation by association,” and why choosing the right clients matters more than people think
• How firms can build and protect their reputation in a noisy environment by being clear on what they stand for and selective about what they engage with

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and want a clearer, more practical way to think about reputation beyond brand and communications, this discussion offers a useful perspective on where to focus and what to do differently.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you do not miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Jeremie Guillerme, Partner at Reputation Inc

In this episode, John is joined by Sarah Edwards, who leads product and go-to-market at Kantata, a professional services automation platform. 

Sarah has spent thirty years in and around consulting, and through the Leaders in Consulting community she talks to firm leaders most weeks – so her view comes from the leaders themselves.

Sarah’s argument starts with a hard truth: consulting has run on people and billable hours for thirty years, and that model is under real strain. What lasts, she says, is a firm’s expertise – yet most firms leave it locked in people’s heads, where it walks out the door when they leave. 

The firms pulling ahead turn that expertise into something the whole firm can use, and Sarah’s phrase for the goal is ‘making every consultant your best consultant’. 

AI runs through much if the conversation, but she’s clear it doesn’t rescue a shaky business. As she puts it, AI doesn’t fix a broken operating model – it scales it, and makes it worse. So the work is to get the foundations right first: the visibility, the knowledge, the way the firm runs. Then AI has something solid to build on.

 Beyond the question of expertise, Sarah and John discuss:

• The mood among consulting leaders – urgency and optimism in roughly equal measure, with a lot of unknowns – and why talent and client expectations top their list of worries.
• Why the old model of billing hours and “heroics” is under pressure, and how firms are edging from time-and-materials towards fixed fees and, slowly, pricing on value.
• The knowledge-management problem firms have wrestled with for decades, and why it might finally be solvable.
• Why “everyone’s going a bit agent crazy,” and the difference between agents that just automate the status quo and ones that help you work differently.
• The workforce of the future as people and agents together, and why firms are starting to cost an agent the way they cost a consultant’s time.
• Why firms are so ready to sell change to their clients, yet so slow to make it inside their own walls – and what the delay ends up costing them.

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and you’re working out what’s worth holding onto as the model changes, Sarah makes a strong case that it’s your expertise – and offers a practical sense of how to stop it walking out the door.

 If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you don’t miss future episodes. 

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth

Guest: Sarah Edwards, Chief Product Officer at Kantata 

Enjoyed this episode?

And if you’d like to explore how Garwood Growth helps firms build value in practice, get in touch with the Garwood team for a conversation.

In this episode, John is joined by Sri Ganesan, founder of Rocketlane, a professional services automation platform built for customer onboarding and implementation teams. Sri is a serial founder – his first company was acquired by Freshworks, the first Indian software firm to list on the Nasdaq – and through Rocketlane he sees how hundreds of services teams actually work. He’s the third conversation in the mini-series, and the one that goes deepest on AI, though as he’d say, it’s really about leadership.

Sri’s starting point is blunt: the firms paid to bring AI to their clients are often barely using it themselves. He sees three levels of AI-enabled change – running the business, the admin around projects, and the work itself – and reckons almost everyone is stuck on the first two. The real prize, how the work actually gets done, barely moves.

What unlocks it, he argues, is hands-on leadership: a leader who builds something themselves soon learns what to ask of their team. And the payoff isn’t job cuts but growth – he points to a firm whose biggest projects went from two years to a few months, and whose services team doubled. His philosophy is “be the storm”: happen to your market, rather than letting it happen to you.

Beyond the three-levels idea, Sri and John discuss:

• Why “focus time” is the piece most teams are missing when it comes to changing how they work, and how a hackathon and a couple of readily available tools get them further than another directive to “use AI.”
• Why the future is selling outcomes rather than hours – and why clients are already asking “haven’t you heard of Claude?” when they’re quoted a timeline that seems too long.
• How to price when hours are no longer the cost: anchoring on the value delivered, and who keeps the benefit when the work gets cheaper.
• The “copy of my brain” idea – capturing what’s in a leader’s head so the team doesn’t have to come to them for everything.
• Where Sri still insists on the human touch, and the words – “quietly,” for one – that now give the game away when AI has written something.

If you lead a professional services firm and you suspect your own use of AI is shallower than it should be, this is a practical, slightly uncomfortable nudge – and a clear sense of where to start.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you don’t miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth

Guest: Sri Ganesan, Founder of Rocketlane

John’s guest this episode is Jon Stead, chief executive of CMap, the software that runs the commercial side of consulting, architecture and engineering firms – quoting work, resourcing it, billing it. He’s the first of the technology-firm leaders in the mini-series, and he can see across roughly 700 firms and nearly 50,000 users at once.

That view gives Jon a take on the market that runs against the headlines. The gloom, he argues, is really about the Big Four and the big strategy firms, whose model always leaned on a pyramid of junior staff – and that pyramid is under real pressure. 

But in the mid-market, where CMap sits, his data shows growth has held steady for two years. And he’s wary of how often AI gets the blame for cuts that are really about money getting tighter – AI as the “covering story.”

What is changing, he says, is what clients buy. Analysis is becoming cheap – he reckons the first three years of his career are now a skill in Claude – so the value has moved to the harder part: turning the answer into something delivered. That pushes firms to productise how they work, building repeatable methods that AI can run on. 

Because, as he puts it, AI amplifies everything, good and bad. If the way you work is ad hoc, ad hoc is what gets amplified.

Beyond the headlines-versus-data picture, Jon and John discuss:

• Why buying slowed almost to paralysis last year, especially in the UK, and how “people and AI, not people or AI” is starting to settle the nerves.
• The move from time-and-materials towards fixed fees, and why pure outcome-based pricing is still rare – often because the client isn’t set up to buy that way.
• Why engagements are becoming longer and more iterative – a partner with “one foot in your camp” rather than a project that ends with a glossy PDF.
• Why firms now have to invest in their own knowledge systems, and how that shows up as new costs on the P&L that weren’t there before.
• How PSA is shifting from a system of record to a system of action – agents helping decide who to put on a job, not just recording who was on it.
• Why juniors are increasingly hired for soft skills over raw analysis, while everyone mid-level and up is expected to get more technical.

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and the headlines have you worried, this is a steadying, practical view of where the mid-market actually sits – and what’s worth getting right before you ask AI to do more.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you don’t miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth

Guest: Jon Stead, Chief Executive of CMap

In this episode – the first in a six-part mini-series on the technology-driven change reshaping professional services – John is joined by Jason Soar, who spent thirty years inside Sainsbury’s before leaving to advise grocery businesses in the UK and the US. 

Jason opens the series from outside the sector on purpose: his industry has already lived through the kind of disruption ours is now facing, and the lessons carry across more directly than you might expect.

Grocery was hit by two waves at once – the discounters the big chains were slow to take seriously, and then the arrival of online shopping. Each forced the industry to change fast, and that pressure quickly showed which businesses were built on solid ground and which weren’t. 

What interests him most is what the disruption laid bare. Selling online demands fast, accurate data, and when that meets a business still run on manual processes, every weak spot shows. He tells the story of an AI tool brought in to manage stock that made availability worse, not better, because the data underneath wasn’t good enough. 

His lesson is simple: understand the real problem first, and fix the basics before laying new technology on top.

Beyond the grocery parallels, Jason and John discuss:

• Why “we have loyal customers” is one of the most dangerous things a firm can tell itself – and why the warning signs tend to be in the data long before anyone acts on them.
• Why surviving this period of disruption is really a leadership test: making time to think years ahead, not just quarter to quarter.
• The idea that even if all these new technologies disappeared tomorrow, you’d be a better business for having got your house in order anyway – and what that suggests about how to approach AI in professional services.
• Why businesses get slower as they grow, how the work fragments into silos, and where the real inertia sets in.
• Using AI to spot the gaps and connections a team can’t see, without asking it for the answer.
• Why he’s “slightly allergic to the word consultant,” and would rather coach a team through the work than leave them a slide deck.

If you lead a professional services firm and you’re weighing where to point technology and AI next, this episode is a useful place to start – the same questions seen from a different industry a few years further down the road.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you don’t miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth

Guest: Jason Soar, Retail Consultant & Advisor, Partner at The Partnering Group

John's guest this episode is Richard Longstreet, the founder of Tarka Talent – a specialist recruitment firm working with consulting businesses across the UK and the US. Tarka places experienced hires across the consulting market and produces an annual salary survey that tracks what consulting firms are actually doing when it comes to hiring.

What has this year’s survey found? To start with, entry-level hiring has nearly doubled in this year's survey, despite widespread assumptions that AI is reshaping the junior end of consulting. And the most in-demand role right now is what Richard calls the “experienced practitioner” – someone in the five-to-nine-year range who’s a safe pair of hands for running projects and owing client relationships. 

Beyond those statistics, Richard and John discuss:

• Why consulting clients have become more demanding buyers of the services they commission – and what that pressure means for the highly leveraged delivery models that larger firms are built around.
• Senior hires: why director and practice lead appointments only succeed about 50% of the time, what firms consistently get wrong in the first year with those hires, and what a realistic timeline for success looks like.
• What AI is and isn't yet changing in how consulting firms hire – including how to run an honest interview process – and which parts of the market are furthest ahead.
• The research Richard is running across the sector right now and what he keeps finding in early interviews: confident views about AI reshaping consulting, but surprisingly few practical examples of it already doing so.
• Richard's own experience of growing Tarka too fast, and what being more deliberate about building a business actually means.

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and hiring decisions are on your mind, Richard's data and experience make for a useful conversation.

Please follow Unlocking Value to get early access to future conversations.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Richard Longstreet, Founder of Tarka Talent

In this episode, John is joined by Stephen Johnson, founder and CEO of Roq, a consultancy focused on helping organisations deliver large-scale technology change.

Stephen founded Roq in 2009 and has since grown the business into a 120-person firm working with major enterprise clients. In the conversation, he reflects openly on the realities of scaling a people business over nearly two decades, including the pressures that come with growth, leadership evolution and navigating difficult market conditions.

Stephen shares a practical perspective on what drives long-term success in consulting businesses. He talks candidly about the operational disciplines, leadership behaviours and cultural decisions that have shaped Roq’s growth.

John and Stephen discuss:

• How Roq grew from a start-up launched during the financial crisis into a 120-person consultancy – and the key inflection points that shaped that journey.
• Why culture doesn't happen by accident, and how leaders need to actively shape it as their businesses grow and evolve.
• What Stephen learned from a sudden post-Covid downturn in client demand, including why strong growth can sometimes hide risks that are already building beneath the surface.
• Why trust, honesty and a willingness to challenge clients are central to building long-term relationships and winning repeat business.
• The challenges of scaling leadership teams, including why some people thrive as a business grows while others struggle to make the transition.
• How Roq uses EOS and Traction to create accountability, maintain focus and turn good intentions into consistent action.
• How AI is changing consulting and technology delivery, and why Stephen believes developing junior talent remains critical despite advances in automation.

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm, this episode offers a practical look at what it takes to build, grow and sustain a consultancy over the long term – through growth, pressure, leadership change and shifting market conditions. 

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you do not miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth

Guest: Stephen Johnson, Founder and CEO of Roq

In this episode, John is joined by Duncan Ramsay, a Partner in the commercial team at ECI Partners, where he works closely with management teams to help scale and grow businesses across the portfolio. Before moving into private equity, Duncan spent time at PwC advising investors and businesses on commercial due diligence and growth strategy, giving him experience from both the consulting and investment side of professional services.

Having spent years evaluating, investing in and supporting consulting and professional services firms, Duncan brings a clear investor perspective on what really drives long-term value creation in the sector. The conversation explores what separates scalable firms from those that struggle to grow, why operational maturity matters far more than many founders realise and how AI is beginning to reshape both consulting delivery and the economics of professional services itself.

John and Duncan discuss:

• What investors actually look for in a professional services business, including the importance of revenue quality, repeatability and operational scalability
• Why forecasting, utilisation management and clean operational data become critical as firms grow and why leaving those foundations too late creates major challenges later on
• The difference between relationship-led businesses and transactional consulting models and why customer advocacy is such a powerful driver of resilience and value
• How AI is already changing professional services, from internal delivery workflows through to pricing models, productisation and the future structure of consulting firms
• Why firms that properly codify their methodologies, workflows and intellectual property are likely to have a major advantage as AI adoption accelerates
• What private equity involvement actually looks like in practice, including how investors support management teams through value creation planning, leadership evolution and scaling challenges
• Why specialist boutique firms are increasingly gaining ground in the diligence market and how AI is shifting the value of judgement versus analysis

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and are thinking about growth, scalability, operational maturity or the future impact of AI on your business model, this conversation offers practical advice and perspectives from someone who sees these challenges across dozens of firms.

If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you do not miss future episodes.

Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Duncan Ramsay, Partner at ECI Partners

In this episode, John is joined by Jenny Burns, CEO of Magnetic, an innovation consultancy that helps organisations solve complex problems and create new products, services and experiences at pace. Jenny’s career spans more than 25 years across large corporates and smaller businesses, before an unplanned move into leading and growing her own firm.

Jenny describes herself as “the accidental CEO”, having never set out to run a business but instead following opportunities, taking risks and learning along the way. Her journey includes scaling Magnetic, navigating the sale of the business to a larger consultancy and, more recently, buying it back to restore its independence.

This conversation stands out for its honesty about what leadership actually feels like, particularly in moments of uncertainty and transition. Jenny shares a grounded perspective on building a business – not just as a commercial exercise but as something deeply human.

Jenny and John discuss:

• What it really feels like to step into the CEO role, including the emotional weight and shift in responsibility
• Why smaller businesses are not inherently simpler than large corporates and how leadership “shadow” shapes culture at any scale
• The reality of selling a business, including the intensity, isolation and unpredictability of the due diligence process
• Why Jenny chose to buy the business back and how independence enables a more agile, differentiated position in today’s market
• The ongoing tension between structure and agility and how to avoid over-engineering a growing consultancy
• How personal brand, leadership style and culture come together to shape both client relationships and long-term business value

If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and are navigating growth, change or leadership for the first time, this conversation offers a refreshingly candid view of what that journey actually involves.

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Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Jenny Burns, CEO of Magnetic