• We have no specific market alignment or category affinity - we’ve worked in every sector. Our approach and framework thinking puts us into a powerful position when answering key business challenges impartially and objectively.

  • We typically get approached by CEO’s, MD’s, CXOs, COOs AND CIOs. Very occasionally we will be brought in by an enlightened general manager or a leader who has witnessed our work elsewhere.

  • We are also brought in to augment others. This might be the boutique consultancies, systems integrators or mainstream management consultancies who see us as adding value to the tip of the arrow. In this role, we are an accelerator/catalyst to build better relationships with the drivers of change.

 

IN OUR CLIENTS OWN WORDS:

“I’ve spoken to a few leaders who attended the session, and they have all, without fail, stated that this is the best strategy review session they have ever participated in. The work we did over the three days has been brilliantly developed. I took my team through the first two sections yesterday, and they were completely blown away. The graphical illustration is a massive bonus - it makes it much easier to communicate - the vision we built and what it will take to achieve our new strategy.”

Juba Mashaba - Chief Human Resources Officer - Cell C - Johannesburg, South Africa

“Group Partners transformed the way we sold large, complex deals. What was once an overly complicated and mundane process became a transformational client engagement that led us directly to win several mega-deals with many of the most notable brands in the world. Our approach became a strategic, differentiated advantage while generating incredible value for our clients.”

Chris Donato Former VP Sales HP. Texas. USA

“The feedback to the program has been very positive with real engagement, motivation and interest across the extended leadership team — we have certainly kindled a thirst for more involvement which was the overriding objective and an improved degree of acceptance and ownership.”

Tony Wood. Managing Director, Rolls-Royce Defence Aerospace. London

“I do not doubt that you and your team are quite used to hearing how amazing you are. Add all of us to the list of awestruck and inspired people you have helped define their goals, vision and the road to get there. We have been jabbering all weekend on how to make this all come true - It’s beyond exciting.”

Andy Walraven, Chief Creative Officer, XEN. California. USA

I bring all I can of my experience working with you guys at BMS in the USA (2 streams of global business) and Roche (global HIV) into almost every strand of work ever since.

In the first exploratory workshop, I learned more about engaging a multidisciplinary crowd and polarising them into a consistent and positive state of strategic consensus. It was like working with/alongside magicians.

Then masterful sessions on decision framing that built on that consensus to turn a room of culturally established silos and divisionism into a truly unified, trusting force.

I’ve worked in all big agency groups and have never seen a ‘proprietary approach’ that even gets close to the Group Partners’ way.

Brian Towell - BMS/Roche Partner

“John, Your work is very important. You manage to expose the hidden dimensions of social organization through map-making, metaphors, symbols and semantics. I personally think that time, space, economy, work, productivity, society and geography represent the culturally specific metaphors.”

Khaled Islaih

 
 

Just Some Of The Clients

 

“We really appreciated the opportunity to work with Group Partners as we developed the next stage of our strategy to end youth homelessness. The ability to take complex information and turn it into easy-to-navigate visualisations is a real art form. It was also great to undertake this co-creation journey through virtual channels.”

Robert Cade, Director of Strategy and Performance, Centrepoint. London

“I have used John and his team for 3 Government turnaround challenges. Their approach worked every time and gave us the tools to create significant change. We fundamentally transformed three agencies. The one caveat is that your fellow leaders/seniors must have the courage to push for the delivery outcome!”

Mark Grimshaw Chief Executive RPA, and the CSA and JobCentre Plus - UK Government

“Everyone I have spoken with post the assignment and especially the face-to-face sessions really enjoyed it, and you are correct; the future is so bright we need to wear shades. We really need to follow the path we agreed on, keep focused and keep at it… With you guys by our side, we will get there.”

Joe Bihner, Vice President & General Manager, ADP. Chicago. USA

 
 

“Group Partners is not your typical consulting firm. The magic happens through the experience of a brilliant approach that helps organizations to recognize the right problems to solve - and solve the right problem in ways we did not dare to think. Group Partners led our senior leaders across multiple functions on a journey to shape the vision and roadmap to unleash creativity, leverage technology and digital wisdom, and grow and reach customers.

In the process, it was possible to create fresh team dynamics that amplified the benefit of the work. The Chief Marketing Officer said it was ‘lighting in the bottle.’ Each time Group Partners enters a client situation, no matter the industry, I’m amazed how perceptive and insightful they are and how they encourage others to discover what’s most critical for their success.”

Donna Donato - Vice President Strategic Sourcing & Business Enablement American Express

“Group Partners has developed an extremely valuable approach to both help the customer really drive out in their mind what the real business drivers are and why outsourcing may be the best alternative. This program changed everything, we identified what was needed, what wasn’t needed and helped us accelerate many months, possibly years into the future.”

Jane Kidd, Director of Global Marketing, Bristol-Myers Squibb. Princeton. USA

 
 

“I’ve worked with Group Partners in two different roles now, inside the Cabinet Office and at United Utilities. John and his team bring unique insights into the issues that you’re inevitably facing — whatever your industry, you’re probably up against internal silos that stifle progress, a lack of clarity on your vision and how you will execute against it, incomplete views of your customer and partners needs and inconsistent ways of managing and rewarding your teams. And 1001 other issues like this.” —

“Group Partners will bring a twist on the traditional views you and your company hold and will develop a roadmap for how to resolve them. At key moments along the journey, also inspiring those involved - presenting in an unbelievable off-the-cuff freehand drawing that will allow you to present and discuss the issues to and with the rest of your business.”

Alan Mather, Chief Technology Officer. UK Cabinet Office. United Utilities.

 
 

“John and Hazel — what a pleasure and an honour to have worked with you. Renee and I will be reaching out to you soon. We look forward to completing this engagement successfully, as well as planning our future endeavors with you. Without you, we will build a system; with you, we will build our future. Many thanks and blessings.”

Barbera Bridgewater, CEO of Fourthought Group on The Medicaid Transformation program for the State Of Nebraska. USA

“Just wanted to send you a quick note to thank you all again for your work. For the time, the input, the kindness and the help that each one of you gave to us on this program! We can’t describe how much this meant to us and how important it was for this project! Once again, thanks for your support!”

Bianca, Bruno, Paula and Viviane Senna. The Senna Family. Institito Ayrton Senna. London

“Great, great, great effort and what a wonderful week. Way beyond all our expectations.”


 
 

“Thanks to u all for a very successful program. We like surprises, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by it all and especially the overall outcome and how the whole team contributed. There were some ‘aha’ moments for us all. And through it all, we did what we wanted - we transformed the entire operation.”

Brian Gouldie, MD MTN Consumer Business, South Africa.

“So many thanks, Group Partners. This effort has been hugely productive in moving us forward. The entire methodology was robust and credible whilst maintaining a high degree of flexibility. The graphical representation of the ‘As-Is’ and ‘To-Be’ was paramount. There has been a very positive response from the consortium who engaged in the process, providing inputs, sharing information etc. Looking forward to the next phase.”

Olivier Djolian. Cap Gemini. London

“I’m sure I speak for the team when I say that your effort, drive over the whole program and, of course, the results were superb! We compressed time, hit all our objectives, increased the impact and scale of our solutions, we grew in confidence and knew how to enter the markets we needed. Look forward to working with you further.”

Mark Mamone, BT Global Professional Services. London

 
 

“This is a brief note to say many thanks for giving us a most successful Water Summit here in Johannesburg. I don’t think I did either of you the justice you deserved in ensuring this was such a successful programme culminating in the overall event.

There have been so many complementary inputs from those that attended the week and all agreed that the facilitation and the final frameworks were the keys to the event's success. Several people said they were ‘blown away’ by the ‘tapestry’, which is quite an appropriate description of its effect.”

Dave Salmon, Anglo-American Technical Division. South Africa

“Group Partners artfully guided us through powerful conversations that visually articulated our entire project goals, illustrated the distinct efforts essential to realize them, and revived consensus — a big thank you.”

Jim Struby, Programs Administrator, OKDHS/Family Support Services Division. Oklahoma. USA

“This work has completely exceeded our expectations, it is so critical to our business and without this event we would be in the dark ages forever.”

Jim Devlin. President. Invensys Home Controls Division. Virginia. USA

 
 

“The Customer Journeys and overall connected strategy framework was so powerful, thank you. This work is critical to the next stage of this change in the business.”

Head of Strategy. Marks & Spencer. London

“The client’s immediate reaction was one of immense relief that she could discuss the intricacy of her issues with people that could help her put them straight into context and meaningful perspective. The plan now rolling out has had a considerable impact - market readiness, customer awareness and general buy-in across the distribution network and internally.”

Alan Thompson, Team Principal, Daimler Chrysler. London

“The work we did together at WH Smith was really inspiring. The whole approach and the resulting frameworks/blueprints enabled us to get real breakthrough thinking around the brand in the context of the whole business.

In any strategy work, it’s critical that the Board have a shared understanding and alignment about where the business is going, the key issues it faces, and that they can see the whole business context, not just the immediate problem. However, in my experience, it’s rare to achieve this. Your process delivers both.”

Jo Howard. Business Strategy Director. WH Smith. London

 
 

“Sincere thanks to you and Hazel for your excellent preparation and work to facilitate and bring ‘co-creation’ (it’s now in my dictionary!) to life on the day — despite my initial concerns it worked — extremely well! We could not have scripted the feedback and style of Tim Flesher to be more apt also in my view — a better choice than even we realised at the time.”

Tony Wood. Managing Director, Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace. London

“It brought into sharp focus the things we were doing just as quickly as those essential ingredients that had been overlooked. 

The Frameworks became a conscious barometer for the whole business. It helped demystify many elements of the communication mix and, most essentially gave credence to what was going on behind the scenes in a way that all people could understand and buy into.

The Frameworks liberated thinking and brought much-needed light, understanding and finally, empathy to many an erstwhile blinkered ‘Doubting Thomas’.”

Alexei Orlov. Strategy and Marketing Director, Mazda Cars. Japan