Building a proactive talent function, even if it’s one person, will do a lot of the heavy lifting to allow for your consultancy to grow, and fast. This isn't recruiting and that's the point. Recruiting fills a role that already exists. It’s reactive. A live job request, CVs in, panic, and the business repeats the cycle. A proactive talent function does something different. It reduces how often roles become emergencies in the first place. This is about talent having commercia

A project lands. The team scrambles to staff it. A contract ends. Someone scrambles to redeploy the bench. Repeat. That is not a strategy, that is hoping for the best. It's an age-old story: you win the work, it lands, and now you're weighing the cost of hiring permanently against the flexibility of trusted contractors who let the business flex when work dries up, without carrying overhead you can't sustain. Most consultancies never actually solve this. They just live in the

You don't need an HR person. You need an exceptional Operations Lead who understands HR and Talent, and knows how to flex between the two. This is what most founders get wrong… Hiring someone too wedded to process Founders often bring in a People person who leads with policy, frameworks, procedures, structure. This is important later and damaging to growth too early. At your stage, the business will outgrow any rigid system within 6-12 months. What you need is someone who ca

Across multiple startups and scale ups, I have seen the same thing. The leadership team has been promoted because they were there first, and are people who are good on the tools. They are outstanding operators; consultants, developers, and delivery leads. But are they people who can drive change, nurture capability in others and have vision? Often, no. Managers who lack confidence in themselves are a scaling business’s worst nightmare. They do not approach hiring and scalin

Change is inevitable. We deploy experts, communications specialists and leaders with significant experience, but still it lands badly. Leaders have had plenty of time to get their heads around these changes. They have had space to ask questions, challenge and shape the future state. Employees are often hearing this for the first time. Then fear takes over and you've lost buy in before you even started. Here are the common failings I have seen when change is rolled out - the