Everything you need, at a glance

In this article, we look through four trends that we’ve seen over the past few years:

- The changing needs of clients
- Increased hiring of consultants in-house
- The growth of large “one-stop-shop players”
- The rise of smaller, more flexible consulting boutiques.

Finally, we look at the immediate reactions from strategy firms, as well as what we think is going to be required for the industry to avoid Levitt’s “Marketing Myopia”. Strategy firms have clearly started to adapt, but in an increasingly digital world, they need to think of delivery models beyond just throwing smart people and industry experience at the problem. To do this, they must fully embrace technology.

Finally, we look at the immediate reactions from strategy firms, as well as what we think is going to be required for the industry to avoid Levitt’s “Marketing Myopia”. Strategy firms have clearly started to adapt, but in an increasingly digital world, they need to think of delivery models beyond just throwing smart people and industry experience at the problem. To do this, they must fully embrace technology.

“MARKETING MYOPIA”

On the first day of our consulting “mini-MBA”, we were taught about marketing myopia – a term coined by Theodore Levitt. It explains the pitfalls of focusing on marketing strictly from the standpoint of selling a specific product rather than from the standpoint of fulfilling customer needs.

At some point in its development, every industry can be considered a growth industry, based on the apparent superiority of its product. But in case after case, industries have fallen under the shadow of mismanagement. What usually gets emphasized is selling, not marketing. This is a mistake, since selling focuses on the needs of the seller, while marketing concentrates on the needs of the buyer.

As I re-read this paragraph now, I can’t help but feel it’s a message to be heeded by strategy consulting firms. Having helped their clients to overcome marketing myopia for years, there are some strong indicators that the early “disruption” we’ve seen in consulting, has only just begun.

THE CHANGING CLIENT NEEDS

As the world’s online interactions continue to grow, the needs of a large proportion of clients have changed.

• Firstly, the prevalence of data has changed clients’ needs. Previously, strategy consultancies were able to bring data from a market to a client. Insightful analysis of this would help identify trends and potential drivers of future change. Now, this data is not only far more readily available, but there are also far more internal data, which is often even more pertinent.

• Secondly, companies have built up more in-house skills and tools. They are becoming more effective in using their data. Products are now built around data, rather than seeing what data comes out as they sell their products/ services. This helps companies to constantly iterate and evolve. Fast-growing tech corporates are constantly iterating strategies, at all levels in the business, directly as a consequence of better data and insight.

• Thirdly, companies with a large online presence face very different challenges to more traditional industries. New worlds of UX, product management and Big Data are suddenly of critical focus.

• Finally, with the constant threat of recession and low levels of GDP growth, clients are more budget constrained than previously. In years gone by, the promise of 10x Return on Investment was sufficient to defend the large up-front fees. However, with more constraints, clients are starting to look for more flexible models that can be delivered at a lower price.

INCREASED HIRING OF CONSULTANTS IN-HOUSE

There’s always been a steady flow of consultants into the “strategy” teams of corporates. In fact, most graduates choose consultancy to “open doors” in industry. Traditionally, consultants would make their first step into a strategic role, and then look to move into a commercial role when they understand the business fully and had built up the necessary stakeholder network.

However, what’s starting to change is consultants are being hired into non-strategy roles. As the skills of consultants (analytics; insight; communication to senior-level stakeholders) become required in more areas of the business, consultants are increasingly being hired into commercial/ operational roles straight out of consulting. Equally, as consultancy becomes more functionally specialized (i.e., supply chain consultants; tech strategy consultants), there are more obvious entry points.

This is a self-fulfilling prophecy: as more consultants are in these teams, they look to hire “what they know” (i.e., more consultants). As numbers increase, not only is there less “need” for external consultants, there is also more competition for this talent.

THE GROWTH OF LARGE ONE-STOP-SHOP ADVISORS

The largest growing strategy firms over the past few years have been at the Big 4. Through the acquisition, and hiring senior partners, they are building strategy teams out of alumni from the familiar strategy brands (i.e., hiring from McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Oliver Wyman, LEK; acquisitions of Booz and Company (PWC) and Monitor (Deloitte)).

The Big Four are able to boast an impressive point of difference: these strong strategic minds are backed up with scale. On the functional side, they become a one-stop-shop: use them as a trusted advisor across accounting, tax, legal, strategy and operations/ implementation consulting. This scale is positioned as not only offering a more connected, end-to-end solution but also as providing large savings in cost.

On the people side, their immense size means they have more flexibility. They can offer smaller projects, and more flexible models – as capacity can be more easily managed.

THE SMALLER, MORE FLEXIBLE BOUTIQUES AND FREELANCERS

The other exciting development is the rise of freelancers and small two to three-person boutiques. This has become a popular career choice, offering more flexibility and independence. At one end you have boutiques, who staff whole teams and are positioned as direct competitors of the strategy firms. What’s less publicized is the smaller boutiques and freelancers.

At Movemeon, we are seeing a lot of interest in either a junior manager resource (stand-alone; good stakeholder management skills) or putting together small teams (manager and two analysts) to deliver strategic projects. Whilst the cost of these projects might appear very different to a traditional strategy consulting project, the set-up and delivery might not be all that different. While it’s unlikely these small boutiques/ freelancers will attack the core of strategy consulting work (i.e., critical Board decisions), the periphery of work that has slowly built up over the years is very much in danger from this more flexible, cost-effective model.

HOW ARE STRATEGY FIRMS ADAPTING

There are some notable reactions to the changes in the market. Not only are we seeing a new series of business innovation models, but consulting firms are also looking at new ways to have access to a larger, more flexible workforce.

The new innovation business models were well documented in the HBR article “Consulting on the cusp of disruption” in October 2013. This trend has continued, with new implementation, operations, analytics, benchmarking “arms” to the top strategy firms. Typically these are operating under the strategy brand name (i.e., McKinsey Solutions; McKinsey Implementation), but there are a few subsidiaries (i.e., Finalta is a subsidiary of McKinsey focused on benchmarking in FS). These are going to continue to develop, and am sure are a large part of the disruption we are going to see.

However more recently, another interesting trend has occurred. Consultancies are starting to respond to the requirement for more flexible delivery models. No longer is the “manager plus 2” model as relevant to some situations. Clients need longer-term engagements, typically for less intense periods. As the work becomes more functionally based, it also becomes more entrenched with the business. As such, things will move more slowly. No longer is delivery seen as buy-in from the excess – it’s delivering change to these functional areas, which will always take longer to embed.

We’ve noticed two interesting trends in consultancies looking to offer more flexibility:

• More flexible employment. The top-tier strategy firms are looking for innovative ways to keep talent. We’ve had a number of very interesting discussions around how consulting can become more flexible – this is to counteract losing great talent as a result of the lifestyle. Whether the 3-day working weeks or 7 months on 5 months off type models have more traction, will be interesting to see.

• Freelancer pools. We’ve seen the strategy firms look to introduce “surge capacity”. At Movemeon we are currently working with 7 strategy firms to help them build “freelance pools”. These are pools of strategy consulting alumni, who are now freelance. This not only allows these firms to better manage utilization, but it also allows them to provide more flexible models of delivery to clients (i.e., longer-term; lower touch). This has traditionally been very hard to offer unless you have the scale of the Big 4.

CUSP OF DISRUPTION – WHAT DOES THE FUTURE FOR STRATEGY CONSULTANCIES HOLD?

Consultancies grew rapidly over the past two decades. As a result, the share of work that is classic strategy has been steadily decreasing and is now about 20%, down from 60% to 70% some 30 years ago, according to Tom Rodenhauser, the managing director of advisory services at Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory (Consulting on Cusp of Disruption, HBR). If strategy consultancies are going to keep their current scale, they need to innovate to keep this non “classic-strategy” periphery.

Consulting has been on the cusp of disruption for two years now. Whilst there are clearly changes afoot, we think this is just the beginning. We expect to see further hollowing of the centre, with more specialized firms/ freelancers and continued consolidation of larger firms. We are also expecting freelance to continue its growth, and will increasingly take the more peripheral work from the larger consultancies.

However, for us, the most important change that needs to happen is more flexibility in delivery. Clients needs have changed. Whilst steps are being made to offer more than just traditional consulting teams – there needs to be more innovation. Consulting needs to move away from smart people helping to solve problems and embrace more technology – the ability to provide products for their clients to provide them with solutions to their problems.

Strategy consultancies can keep the “periphery” (non-classic strategy work) they have grown over the past few decades, by providing “products” that serve their clients over the long-term. Strategic advice can then take the form of shorter projects focused on solving particularly thorny issues. Given the exciting innovation and number of startups in the space, expect some acquisitions in the not too far future. Consultancies will start to see innovative products not only as high-margin delivery lines but as critical to continuing to provide their high-end advice.

Movemeon: jobs, insight, events and career tips for (ex-)consultants and freelancers. Click here to create a free account and access all our opportunities.

How to prepare for interview success. Job interviewing never seems to get any easier, even when you have been called for more interviews than you can count. Before the interview, there are several things you can do to give you the leading edge over other applicants. Being prepared is often so simple and so obvious that sometimes we don't pay enough attention to it. This can be the difference between securing and losing your ideal job.

There are two types of research that you can do before attending an interview:

• Deep research about the company and interviewers
• Deep research about yourself

1. Research the company/Interviewer

An early job interview question, asked to assess how much you have researched the company, is: “What do you know about this company?” or “Have you heard about this company before?”. A rapid answer to this question is critical as it determines their first impressions and can determine the ‘tone’ of the rest of the interview.

For this reason, we always recommend you find the answers to some of these questions, and you do as much reading as possible about the interviewers and the company ahead of the interview.

• First of all, you need to clearly understand what type of interview it is: is it a competency-based interview? Is it a group assessment? Will you need to solve case studies? Ask as much as you can of the recruiter or the person who called you; you need to know exactly what will be requested from you during the interview.
  
• After this, I suggest that you learn as much as you can about the interviewer/s. Linkedin is very useful for this purpose, as is asking the person who called you lots of questions. Using their names and background during the interview can be impressive and will show that you are genuinely interested in the job.
  
• Now carry out as much research as you can about the company and industry.

Below are some questions that can help you do this:

1. What does the produce/what services does it offer?
2. What countries is it based in?
3. Who are its main competitors?
4. What's the company's image in the market?

Navigate the company's website in order to get clear information about it, do not overload with information that you don’t understand. Having the correct answers to the questions above can make the difference between you and other candidates.

2. Research Yourself

Now that you've got enough information about the company, you should also carry out some self-assessment about the person you are and the skills you have. Then think about the answers that you will provide to typical interview questions.

Be prepared for the type of interview you are attending, e.g. if you are going to be presented with a numerical or logic test, do some practice ones online.

Some questions that you may want to be able to answer before the interview are:

• Why are you here today?
  
• Tell me about your experience briefly.  (Practice telling the interviewer about your resume - you should be concise and concrete and should highlight the transferable skills applicable to the specific position they are interviewing you for.)
  
• What is your biggest weakness/strength?
  
• When have you had to deal with a difficult customer?
  
• When have you failed and how did you manage the resulting situation?
  
• Can you give an example of when you had to work as part of a team to meet tight deadlines?
  
• Can you tell me about a time when you came up with a new idea or approach to your work?
  
• Why do you want to change jobs?
  
• Do you want this job? Are you interested?

Now that you know how and what to prepare, you should also remember that it's very important that you look spontaneous and fresh for the interview.

You should:

• Look confident and calm
• Pay attention to punctuality and your appearance
• Make every effort to dress appropriately
• Be on-site at least 5 minutes before the interview: rushing to get there may put you in a stressful situation that won't be beneficial for your performance. 

Our post on how to get the interviewer to like you might interest those of you looking for some more help.

We wish you all the best for your next interview!

At Movemeon, we connect (ex) consultants and freelancers with job opportunities, advice & events. Register now to view and apply to jobs, for insider advice & networking/industry events.

Jumia ($824m), Monzo (£325m), Transferwise ($773m), Funding Circle ($746m), Zopa (£360m), Qonto ($151m), Gocardless (£95m), Jobteaser ($75m), Innovafeed (€55m. Just some of the most well-known and celebrated start-ups. Four have reached unicorn status; the others are hoping to. And they were all founded or co-founded by ex-consultants. 

In part 2 of our article series, we look at the way some of the key skills developed as a consultants help with founding successful businesses. We’d like to start by thanking the following for their time and great insights: Alexandre Prot (Ex-Mckinsey & Qonto founder), Aude Guo (Ex-Mckinsey & Innovafeed founder), Antoine Loron (Ex-Roland Berger & Hublo founder), Martin Pellet (ex-Kearney & LBF founder), Grégoire Schiller (ex-Roland Berger & Simundia founder), and Nick Patterson (ex-McKinsey & Movemeon co-founder).

Problem solving and prioritization: key skills for founders

Movemeon was founded by two Mckinsey consultants, and therefore our work as a team has been influenced by strategy consulting. Problem solving and prioritisation are omnipresent in our day-to-day.

Those two skills are central to consulting work. Diagnosing issues (issue trees, driver trees) and using data to prioritise execution are the central aims of any consulting project.

Alexandre said that his consultant background helped him to structure his reasoning to tackle any complex problem. Aude and Martin agreed on this point: in an early-stage start-up you keep resolving problems, such as how am I gonna finance this project? What type of offices should we choose? More generally, how do you do things efficiently?

Grégoire highlighted that consulting gives you the structure to effectively prioritise using concepts like 80/20. Aude defined the ability to prioritise as hugely important. She said “It’s mostly about what you don’t do, not what you do. You need clear criteria to make decisions (not only for yourself but also understandable and acceptable to others; and something that is engaging).”

Networking and communication

If the network is a pretty obvious benefit of consulting, it's surprising how often effective communication has been described as a key skill learnt from consulting.

Consultancies have unparalleled alumni networks. There is a shared brand that means people are prepared to not only meet, but give you advice, too. This is invaluable in the early days, as you look to further develop your idea and, perhaps more importantly, make your first few sales (if your product is B2B). Grégoire remembers using Roland Berger’s network for closing first clients. Unlike business schools, consulting networks are usually more senior than you and therefore unlock way more opportunities when you’re an early-stage founder.

Working with senior people in consulting trains you in effective communication. Aude said “communication is key, as 80-90% of the time being a founder is about aligning people and getting to the point quickly. Our business has people of very different professional backgrounds and needs; you need to quickly understand and address what is important for each person in a way that is relevant for them to get them on board: how do you convey the real message (get to the point)? It’s about not spending one hour on a topic if it can require only 3 minutes.“

Related to communication, stakeholders management is a key skill developed in consulting. You need to be able to communicate in the right way with everyone: investors, clients, suppliers.

Consulting and entrepreneurship are still obviously two really different worlds. Grégoire empahsised that you have to unlearn consulting to do entrepreneurship as the way you make decisions can be very different. Nevertheless, consulting is undoubtedly a great training ground for entrepreneurship.

It trains you in many key skills needed by early-stage founders: communication, stakeholder management, prioritisation & problem solving. Having worked with 100+ start-ups, mostly founded by ex-consultant, in the last 2 years, and helping to fill roles like Director of Sales Operations for 360Learning, Country Manager for Hublo, Head of Partnerships for Luko, it's clear that consultants are a great fit for start-ups. Speaking to Alexandre, Aude, Antoine, Grégoire and Nick only reinforced that the transferable skills you get from consulting are essential for start-up success.

How does being a consultant naturally lead many to founding their own start-ups? We looked at this question in Part 1 of this series

We've also published an in-depth interview with Innovafeed founder Aude Guo here

Qonto founder Alexandre Prot spoke to us about Qonto & how he uses his consulting experience here

At Movemeon, we connect (ex) consultants and freelancers with job opportunities, advice & events. Register now to view and apply to jobs, for insider advice & networking/industry events.

Despite the UK only being in lockdown for seven working days of Q1, the country has seen the biggest economic contraction since the 2008 financial crisis, with things set to get much worse in Q2. This is a common picture across all global economies, as certain industries have been temporarily halted. 

In any recession, recruitment is often an early indicator of what is to come. Companies put off hiring until uncertainties decrease. However, they don't necessarily wait for financials to improve - they hire based on what they project their future financials to be. So are there any interesting early signs from what we're seeing in recruitment across strategy, insights and commercial roles?

(1) It’s more a question of when, not if, hiring resumes:

As expected, many companies introduced hiring freezes and put processes on hold when the pandemic initially struck; however, very few were suggesting they were going to stop hiring altogether - it was more a question of "when" and not "if". 

This indicates companies are still expecting a relatively fast recovery to at least 90% levels. Businesses have been paralysed by the lack of certainty, not wanting to make decisions which could turn out to be mistakes, but most will still be financially healthy enough to begin hiring in earnest when timelines become clearer. We are therefore anticipating a spike in hiring as opposed to a slow return to normal volumes, as the impact of coronavirus lessens and lots of roles are taken off “hold”. Whilst it might not be quite a “V-shaped” recovery, businesses are certainly not expecting an “L-shaped” one.

(2) Very uneven impact across industries:

Although the economy has seen a drastic fall overall, with 14% contraction forecast for 2020,  some industries have fared better than others.

Travel and hospitality are some of the worst-affected sectors, along with non-food and non-pharmaceutical retail. Companies in these sectors are the few that have had to completely stop hiring, likely until the end of the year for some of those we’ve spoken to. However, there will be light at the end of the tunnel for those who make it through, as the millions of people who have been confined to their homes throughout lockdown look to go out and enjoy themselves as restrictions are eased.

Other businesses, especially ones that can operate online or provide essential services in the fight against COVID-19, have been less affected by the confinement. For example, we’ve found eCommerce and healthcare companies have been hiring in earnest, as they expect behaviours to have been permanently changed.

The virus has had a mixed impact on charities, with many left reeling and stopping hiring across the board, whilst others have experienced increased prominence and donations. Overall, they have seen a 48% decline in voluntary funding, whilst simultaneously managing an increased demand to support those most badly affected. In order to do our part in supporting these institutions, we’ve been placing pro bono freelancers, free of charge, into companies directly supporting our communities during the pandemic. We expect charities to make a healthy recovery once the worst of the pandemic is over, given a renewed appreciation for their value, but would encourage you to get in touch if you know of any projects we could help to staff.

(3) We’ve seen resilience from the biggest and smallest companies; the middle have been hit hardest:

The impact of coronavirus has also not been even across the different sizes of business. We’re increasingly seeing the largest corporates and smallest, most nimble start-ups, having most resilience to this shock.

It’s understandable that large corporates, with plenty of cash on balance sheets, have been able to protect themselves. Many are able to benefit from the crisis, by actively pushing hiring, finding great talent and setting the business on the right trajectory over the longer-term.  

Perhaps more surprisingly, small, agile businesses are also still able to grow as long as they're not in the worst hit industries, since they have been able to make decisions and adapt much more quickly. Given lower overheads, they are also able to substantially grow market share as people look to more cost-effective alternatives. 

(4) There's great talent getting more time to have their interest piqued

The companies that are in a more resilient position have found now is a great time to be recruiting. On Movemeon, we have twice beaten our records of the number of active candidates and the volume of applications within a week. So there is clearly more talent supply in the market.

What is potentially even more interesting is that we are seeing a lot more activity from people currently in jobs. This is likely a result of increased opportunity for reflection at home, allowing people time to think about their options and to look at what else is out there. 

(5) Companies turning to the flexibility of freelance

The uncertainty of this period has meant that companies of all sizes, in many industries, have had an almost impossible task in predicting what the future of their businesses will look like. Decision-makers haven’t wanted to commit to permanent hires to fill gaps and have instead turned to hiring freelancers, who can fill a need without the risk. This is evidenced by the 43% increase in the number of freelance roles posted on movemeon.com in March & April compared to the same period last year. We’ve already seen a trend towards hiring freelancers over the last few years, but we expect this trend to accelerate over the coming months.

Conclusion

It’s unsurprising the hiring picture is very uneven across industries; the controls on how people interact socially will not impact all companies equally. What is more interesting is two-fold:

1. The fact that companies expect to resume normal service sooner rather than later. This suggests that while a V-shaped recovery is extremely unlikely, the economic scarring might not be as severe as many fear.
2. Companies that can, are using this period to attract great talent and set themselves up well for the next period of growth. Companies in good financial positions, or industries that have been less impacted, are acting before financials have started to improve, so they get first mover advantage on the available talent.

At Movemeon, we connect (ex) consultants and freelancers with job opportunities, advice & events. Register for free to view and apply to jobs, for insider advice & networking/industry events.

Also, if you are hiring for your team, click here for further information or to get in touch.

Jumia ($824m), Monzo (£325m), Transferwise ($773m), Funding Circle ($746m), Zopa (£360m), Qonto ($151m), Gocardless (£95m), Jobteaser ($75m), Innovafeed (€55m). Just some of the most well-known and celebrated start-ups. Four have reached unicorn status; the others are hoping to. And they were all founded or co-founded by ex-consultants.

In this article series, we look at why there are so many consultants founding successful businesses. We’d like to start by thanking the following for their time and great insights: Alexandre Prot (Ex-Mckinsey & Qonto founder), Aude Guo (Ex-Mckinsey & Innovafeed founder), Antoine Loron (Ex-Roland Berger & Hublo founder), Martin Pellet (ex-Kearney & LBF founder), Grégoire Schiller (ex-Roland Berger & Simundia founder), and Nick Patterson (ex-McKinsey & Movemeon co-founder).

The “consulting profile” and why some are driven to start companies

“Consultants that started with me at McKinsey had two things in common: firstly, they were some of the highest achievers I’ve met; secondly, they didn’t know what they wanted to do.” (Nick)

Consulting attracts high achievers as it is one of the most prestigious careers post-university. This is partly because the brands are so well-known across industries, but also because it is recognised as a career that opens doors.  

The combination of high achievement motive, and uncertainty around what you’re looking to do - not a single founder interviewed had entrepreneurship in mind when they joined consulting - means there are a lot of consultants who look to leave after a few years.

Turnover is extremely high in consulting, and whilst some of that is driven by “up or out” policies, the majority of the people leaving do so because they didn’t want to follow the track to Partner. And this is commonly accepted within the business. People can therefore talk openly about leaving, and in return receive great advice that gives you the confidence to launch businesses. Interestingly, both Nick and Alexandre mentioned that consulting gave them the confidence to launch businesses.

Finally, and that’s more an explanation of numbers rather than success, consultants know they have a strong employer brand to fall back on in case it goes wrong. This also means you have some very marketable short-terms skills - the option of  freelancing to supplement your income from a new business gives you more liberty to try and start something.

Consultants are great do-ers, despite what you may have heard!

The myth that consultants aren’t do-ers is regularly parroted. However, from what we’ve seen of peers and the consulting alumni community, quite the opposite is true.

In the early days of setting-up Movemeon, the most common challenge we’d hear from potential employers was that they didn’t want to hire consultants. They were concerned that, whilst they were very good at advising, they weren’t good at executing.

We couldn’t agree more on the importance of execution, but the common misconception about consultants not being good at delivery is just that - a misconception. Martin said that the high day rates charged by consultancies (especially strategy houses), and the high standards demanded by boards of large businesses, mean consultants have an obligation to deliver results and have to learn to deliver at pace.

On top of being good do-ers and dealing well with time pressure, consultants are also particularly good at multitasking. Alexandre, in the early days of Qonto, was able to work on strategy, finance, management, marketing and even office management. Antoine also highlighted that in a similar way to consulting, when you’re an early-stage founder you learn by doing.

Being good at multitasking, being good “do-ers”, and working with tight deadlines, it looks like early-stage start-ups have more in common with consulting than what we would have expected.

In the second part of this article - to be released in two weeks - we'll look at the key skills developed in consulting that help you launch and grow a start-up.

We’ve also published an in-depth interview with Innovafeed founder Aude Guo here.

At Movemeon, we connect (ex) consultants and freelancers with job opportunities, advice & events. Register now to view and apply to jobs, for insider advice & networking/industry events.

InnovaFeed is a biotech company that produces a new source of protein from insect rearing for animal feed and aquaculture in particular. The business is focused on a more sustainable future: using unique technological expertise to place the insect at the heart of our agri-food system and restore it to its natural place in our ecosystem - that of recycling nutrients to then feed fish, birds or small mammals. The business has raised EUR55m a. Here we talk to Aude Guo, ex-McKinsey, and one of the co-founders.

Innovafeed are currently hiring for Directeur de l’Excellence Opérationnelle through Movemeon. 

What is the focus for Innovafeed over the next year?

Our main focus is to succeed in the “scale-up phase”. We are going to have the largest insect factory in the world launching this summer. This will help us to validate the model at an industrial scale.

In parallel, we also need to succeed in the scale-up of our organisation. The business has grown very fast in the past few months (we’ve tripled in size in 10-12 months), which is great but brings scaling challenges. We need to grow in size but to keep the agility and momentum to maintain the excellence in execution we are recognized for. We’ve found it’s been really important to have:

(1) More structure and processes;

(2) Build and consolidate the culture we’ve developed over the last 4 years.

A big change I’ve felt personally, is that I now don’t know everyone joining the business personally and with one office in Paris and two factories in the North of France, this will only become harder. Inherent in this is the challenge to ensure the values and culture remain the same - it becomes a question of how do you foster the same culture across teams of people who may never meet and who work in very different environments.

And over the next 5 years?

In the longer-term, we believe we can have a huge impact on the environment and help the trend of people sourcing food more locally. Climate change is one way the earth is showing its not happy. There’s a huge protein issue to be solved (70% is currently imported). The team are energised by the meaning and sense of the project.

For the leadership team our 5-year targets are:

1. Validate the model at industrial scale
2. Replicate the model (scalable in Europe and US)
3. Reach the capacity to have a real impact on the whole market. Adressable market for insect protein counts in tens of millions of tons, while production capacity today only in thousands of tons 

We are in a rather unique position, where there is no question the market exists - it’s more a question of how do we get to capacity quickly. We need to build momentum, and to do this, speed and agility will be key. 

You mention the importance of fostering a culture - how have you continued to do this with the changing working patterns in response to COVID-19?

It’s something that is really important to us, so we’ve invested a lot of energy in trying to solve this challenge. The main challenge we have had is figuring out how to maintain the sense of belonging and how to be together as a team while working remotely. Some strategies we gathered during the past months:

-> Remote often means more meetings, not fewer: investing more in personal touch-points was necessary to understand how everyone was doing and to keep everyone on board. Working remotely actually meant our manager spending more time with the team and an additional workload.

-> Meeting formats needed to be adapted to enable quality interactions: While video-conferencing tools were able to efficiently replace many physical interactions, some meetings involving larger teams were difficult to carry out remotely. For instance, we had to find a way to celebrate the company’s anniversary and video-conferencing just couldn’t convey the same energy. We came up with more personalized content sent out to every team member’s home combined with short talks and fun activities (including a virtual commented tour of our new factory as it was completed).

-> Importance of physical contact: As France opened up again, we took the decision to keep our offices open (especially for people who don’t have the right conditions to work) by establishing drastic hygiene norms, rearranging office layout and controlling the number of people present. , Physical contact is still so important. It often changes the nature of the meeting and is critical for the team to maintain the bond.

In the early days of Innovafeed, how did your consulting skillset help you?

My experience at McKinsey was hugely beneficial, and I called upon the consulting toolkit regularly. In particular:

1. Problem solving: how do you do things efficiently? This is what you do all the time as an early founder. What is the most efficient, energising way to find solution to the problem?
2. Ability to prioritise: hugely important. It’s mostly about what you don’t do, not what you do. You need clear criteria to make the decision (not only for yourself but also understandable and acceptable to others; and something that is engaging).
3. The way you communicate. 80-90% of the time, being a founder is about aligning people and getting quickly to the point. Our business has people of very different professional backgrounds and needs; you need to understand and address what is important for each person quickly, in a way that is relevant for them to get them on board. It’s about not spending one hour on a topic if it can be covered in 3 minutes.
4. Stakeholder management: We would not be able to achieve this alone, and as such stakeholder management is critical. We provide protein but need to understand not only our direct client’s needs but also every player of the value chain so as to work together as an industry and offer something completely coherent to the final consumer. This way we work with the feed formulator, but also fish farmers and retailers to bring high quality and sustainable insect-fed fish (and now poultry too!) to the consumer.

Did you know you wanted to be an entrepreneur when you were at McKinsey?

I hadn’t decided to do anything entrepreneurial when I was at McKinsey. Whilst my father had been an entrepreneur, I didn’t think it was the route I was going to take.

I actually found it really hard to leave McKinsey. I wouldn’t say I think of myself as an entrepreneurial type, instead I'm driven more by “how can I have the most impact?” I wanted to do something meaningful and push myself. The reasons I left McKinsey was the sense of the project and the team of people I had the opportunity to create the project with. I would say that the latter is even more important to me. I believe that if you are with the right people, you will make the right choices for your project and give it meaning. I was convinced to join by my associates.

This has continued - people join Innovafeed because of the meaning of what we want to achieve and because of the people who joined us. It’s been something quite powerful and we are really proud of this team . You can’t be energised by what you’re doing alone; it’s the people you work with. They give you energy, and you’re driven by not wanting to let them down.

What’s your day job like now, and does the McKinsey experience still help?

Yes - definitely. It’s more about the ability to build relationships quickly with different types of people. You get that from consulting. You are able to engage with your network quickly.

It also helps that some of our investors were former colleagues. They’ve been really supportive, and given some great advice.

The Alumni Network was very important to us, but we were also able to engage with a lot of people outside of that network, by using the consulting skillset around communication and building relationships.

Do you like to hire ex-consultants into your business?

Yes - we’ve hired a lot of ex-consultants, and have found them to be extremely effective. The main reasons being:

1. They are great problem solvers: consultants have the structure to deconstruct a complicated issue into simpler ones. They can then prioritise a list of simpler questions, and answer one by one.
2. Analytics: We really like people with an analytics background, as they are able to use clear criteria to support decisions. You also need to be prepared to make assumptions (something consultants are good at!) - try to get the best number, even if it’s often wrong.
3. Ability to engage with very different people. If you want people to work together they need to be able to solve each others’ problems.

What would your advice be to a consultant founding a business?

Start finding the right people early. It’s so important to get the right people. You need to know what you want (i.e., vision), but the key thing is finding great people to achieve that vision.

If I were to start again, I’d recruit the organisation we have today faster. I was reluctant to hire overqualified people for fear of not having ambitious enough projects for them, but that actually never happens . The more ambitious and capable the people are, the more they will open up new horizons in your thinking.

No challenge is too small so don’t be afraid to get the best people.

Why do you think there are a lot of ex-consultant founders?

I imagine that thinking all day long about market trends and other people’s businesses gives you ideas about the kind of business you would want to create.

My personal motivations for starting a business were wanting to prove to myself that I could do the things I was advising others to do and do it with the people I really wanted to work with. I also wanted to be judged by what I create and do rather than by the fact that I was working for a well-known company.

At Movemeon, we connect (ex) consultants and freelancers with job opportunities, advice & events. Register now to view and apply to jobs, for insider advice & networking/industry events.

JP talks about his jump into venture building

WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT ROLE AT ALLPLANTS AND WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE?

I am the founder and CEO of allplants - and having started cooking up remixes of my favourite dishes in my home kitchen ~4 years ago, now we’re a team of 90+ serving over 20,000 meals a week. I absolutely love bringing together brilliant people on a mission to fix a socially intractable problem, and designing a product and experience for millions of customers to love - previously launching Africa's first mobile bank (M-Shwari - now used across sub-Saharan Africa), and more recently East Africa’s fastest-growing retail healthcare chain (Penda Health).

Before jumping into the world of venture building I started life as a business analyst at McKinsey in London, a great opportunity to cram 5 years of learning into 2, and mainly to realise that I am built to do (I struggle just stopping at advice!).

WHAT DOES ALLPLANTS DO AND HOW HAS THE COMPANY GROWN?

We make plant-based living exciting and easy, delivering delightful, healthier food from our kitchen to your doorstep.

We use bold flavours and hyper convenience to bring more plants onto plates across the UK, inspiring us all to eat healthy and nourish the planet.

As climate awareness grows exponentially – and the health & wellness industry continues to rise – #vegan has become the largest social movement on Instagram of all time. The science is irrefutable. Eating more plants is the #1 way to help yourself and our planet thrive. 

That’s why, at allplants we’ve started with food: delicious, simple, made from plants. Over 65% of the UK are now flexitarian, and plant curious people already spend +£100bn on prepared food globally, growing +20% pa. This new, plant-forward category is ready for leadership.

We’ve grown (sometimes excruciatingly!)  fast in our first 3 years. Now, we have served +1 million meal-times from our kitchen and digital platform to households nationwide - winning awards for culinary excellence (incl. four Great Taste Golds!) and earning consistent 5* customer ratings. All our food is created in small batches, by our in-house chefs enabling rapid innovation, margin control and full-stack sustainability (carbon-neutral deliveries, eco-forward packaging and passion in every meal).

In 2020 we are poised for accelerated growth, rapidly shifting gears to deepen market dominance in the UK, primarily via eCommerce and subscription - while preparing for international. To enable this,  we have launched Europe's largest dedicated plant-based kitchen in North London, and also recently launched two whole new product categories – breakfast, desserts – with more to come. 

We’re already supported by leading venture capital funds (Octopus Ventures and Felix Capital) and angels who've built an array of +£1B food, media and lifestyle brands. Our plans for the next 10 years and beyond are bold, delicious and daring, with all energy focussed towards taking plant-based living mainstream.

WHY WAS ALLPLANTS BORN?

Around four and a half years ago, my brother Alex and I found ourselves tumbling down the rabbit-hole of discovery about the devastating impact of animal agriculture on the health of our planet - and having always thought of myself as an environmentalist I quite quickly realised I’d have to give this “eating plants” thing a go. 

Despite initially imagining a plate of limp lifeless steamed veg, discovering how to eat plant-based became a wonderful adventure, Experimenting in the kitchen or hunting down the lastest vegan pop-up or food truck to taste a pulled jackfruit burrito - but as soon I got busy I couldn’t believe how uselessly lacking the options were, I’d find myself eating carrots and hummus every evening. And that’s not fun for anybody.  

Coming from a big Cypriot family, mealtimes have always been an occasion filled with pleasure and so this idea of compromise didn’t sit well. And it seemed like a huge opportunity to be able to help people like us and beyond, by eliminating sacrifice and in fact, turning plant-based living into a celebration of flavour. 

What Alex and I quickly realised was that every one of the choices we all make every day, shapes, creates and can change the world we live in. But - despite our best intentions - it’s not always easy to make the right decisions if you’re not provided with great options. I was convinced that tidal wave of awareness and “plant curiosity” was coming, but if we didn’t serve it with excitingly delicious and easy ways to enjoy eating more plants then it wouldn’t amount to the shift away from animal agriculture our planet needs.

So we committed to our mission: inspire people to eat more plants. And we do this with the food we make, using state-of-the-art tech innovation, creative storytelling, and a close-knit community of tasters in home kitchens across the UK.

WHAT DOES THE TEAM LOOK LIKE?

To achieve our growth ambition of inspiring the next billion plant-powered people we are expanding our teams at pace, whilst also putting in place the foundations of a mission-driven high-performance culture.

I feel incredibly lucky to work every day alongside the most talented and driven people I’ve ever been able to call colleagues. Whether it’s across our kitchen and operations, customer delight, insights and strategy, finance and BI, product and engineering, growth and marketing, brand and creative or food innovation - our teams are led and driven by truly outstanding players pushing the boundaries of what’s possible to help us grow our movement fast.

WHAT VALUES DOES YOUR TEAM LIVE BY?

Understandably, we get asked a lot if you need to be vegan to work here. And the answer is no! Everyone is welcome at our table and in our team, whether you’re a lifelong vegan, or are a plant-curious omnivore. But what does matter is that we are all personally driven by our planet positive mission to inspire people to add more plants to their plates. Because this lives through everything we do. 

And we have three other key values we all live by at allplants:

• All the senses: we know that eating well shouldn’t get in the way of living well. Food should be a fiesta not a fast, and this resonates through all we cook up in the kitchen, every shoot in the studio, every UX decision in our webshop, and everything in between.
  
• All welcome: this is about more than simply opening up plant-based for normal British households who just fancy eating a little healthier a few nights a week. It’s about making every moment sublimely easy, from what we design being easy to use, and anything we cook being easy to love. 
• All in: we believe if we all work together, we can change the world. And to do that we need to push boundaries, think differently and be willing to change the game. 

WHAT KIND OF PERSON WOULD ALLPLANTS SUIT?

There’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach at allplants when it comes to finding the right fit. We’re proud to have people in our kitchen and office from all corners of the globe, from many professional backgrounds who bring an optimistic attitude, a thirst for personal growth and an ambitiously competitive streak to the table. 

As we’re such a tight-knit team (even as we’re growing) we’re always on the lookout for collaborative team-players who are happy to roll up their sleeves and get involved with everything. As well as being part and parcel of plucky start-up life, we really value everyone’s ideas, so we champion brave openness as the rock-bed of working well together. 

It’s also really important to us that we recruit compassionate, conscious and caring people. So you can expect high EQ teams who know how to get the best out of each other when striving to smash our goals.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR ALLPLANTS?

This January it’s our 3 year birthday and although we’re about to cook our millionth meal, we really do feel like we’re just getting started. Changing the way the world eats is a massive mission and we have mountains of innovation, growth and platefuls of delicious plant-based food to make happen.

If you’re a foodie and moving our planet towards plants is already a personal mission you believe in - keep your eyes peeled for the right opportunity on Movemeon.com.

We had the pleasure to co-organise a roundtable breakfast discussion with Learnitect. The topic for the day - “Winning the War for Talent - Recruiting and Empowering Top Performers” - was addressed from the L&D point of view by Learnitect and from the recruiting point of view by our co-founder Nick Patterson.

So, how can you attract top talent into your organisation?

1. Understanding needs

Get as much data as you can. Also, use the resources in front of you: what does the hiring manager think. The “needs” are often not “more money”, but instead more soft factors like “room for personal impact” etc.

2. Articulate the selling story

Job descriptions are typically describing a role in a company, not selling it. Remove unnecessary detail; ensure the company, team and role are being sold; draw out some clear selling points based on the needs of the talent

3. Reach the right audience

It’s critical your channel is reaching the right people. Trial different channels and test the effectiveness of each: record hiring metrics like role description views, number of screening calls. This also gives hiring managers the confidence that they are seeing the best people

4. Focus on the profile, not the experience

Effective assessment requires a clear understanding of the intrinsics you want to attract, and a way to assess these. The first step is understanding the intrinsic skills you’re looking for: this is very different to experience.

5. Take a long-term view

Assess what you want this person to become, not what they need to be at the start. Interviews are notoriously bad at selection (some studies site below 50% effectiveness). It’s critical the right people are interviewing (i.e., founders might not be the best) and people are trained in interviewing

6. Get people “bought-in” during the interview process

Case studies allow people to understand the potential impact and excitement of the role. Coaching people during the interview process can make it clear that you value professional development. Have a buddy system - assign each offeree, someone, the moment they receive the offer, who will partner them and welcome them to the company

At Movemeon, we connect (ex) consultants and freelancers with job opportunities, advice & events. Register now to view and apply to jobs, for insider advice & networking/industry events.

I started Movemeon with Nick because we (and all of our colleagues) were fed up with spam & cold calls from recruitment agencies. There are some good ones out there. But it seemed they were very few and far between.

There are amusing similarities between estate and recruitment agencies. I’ve moved house a few times. Each time I’ve had a good idea of what I’m after. X number of bedrooms. Within Y minutes of these tube stations. Etc. More often than not the agent tries to sell you something that’s not remotely right. Sometimes you even go to do a viewing just to shut them up while knowing full well – from the photos, map or floor plan – that it’s not right.

Same stuff with recruiters. I had an initial meeting (read investing my time despite working 80 hour weeks). I was specific about what I wanted: the size of company, industry, location, nature of the job. Soon after, the same recruiter rings up to pitch the ‘perfect fit’ at a ‘leading company’. Of course, they won’t give you the company name on the phone (you might sidestep them and they won’t get paid). So you go to meet them again. And the company, industry, role and location are nothing like what you’re after. Sound familiar?

Unfortunately, if you're actively looking to move job, recruitment agencies are 1 of the channels that you should use. They do get hold of opportunities. And it’s not inconceivable that 1 of those will be a great match. So how should you work with them? Here are some simple golden rules.

1. Never send them your ‘standard’ CV

There are plenty of agencies out there who simply mass email CVs to as many businesses they can think of. They might find a job on the company’s website, track down the likely hiring manager on LinkedIn, work out an email address and spam your CV across without you knowing. These agencies hope the hiring manager bites (and if your CV is good, they might). They then try to back sell you role despite already having told the hiring manager that you’re super interested.

How do we know this? A number of Movemeon members have applied for a job directly through Movemeon (where all jobs are fully branded). They’ve even had interviews arranged. A few days later an agency contacts them to say that ‘they’re already in the process’ for the role. Despite never having once discussed the opportunity with the candidate. Never mind sought permission to share their CV. Shocking. But true.

2. Only send PDF, tailored CVs referencing a specific opportunity

It’s not good for your personal brand to look uncoordinated (as with the above). Equally, you should always take the opportunity to tailor your CV to specific roles (as a consultant, you’ll have a range of experiences, some of which will be more relevant than others).

To avoid these situations, only send a recruitment agent a CV after they have shared a specific opportunity with you. Write on that CV something similar to: “For circulation with [Company name] in reference to [job title], [date]”. Then PDF the CV and lock it for editing / send read-only.

3. Don’t rely on agencies

An average agency regularly works with 5-10 clients. And generally, it’s only larger corporates that use agencies. You stand a much better chance of discovering & landing your perfect opportunity by being proactive. Define industries (even companies) of interest. Use web platforms (like Movemeon and others) to discover their opportunities. And then apply for them directly. Not only will you find more exciting opportunities, but you will also come across far more authentically interested in the role as you’ve bothered to track it down rather than being put forward. So you’re chances of success go up too.

When you meet an agency for the first time, ask them who their clients are and how many they’ve had. Ask them for a list of jobs they’ve recently placed and the background of the candidates. Ask them to email you following the meeting with a summary of your requirements (so you can check they’ve understood you correctly).

I hope that’s helpful. Don’t avoid using agencies. Just track down the better ones and use them wisely. And then, not as the mainstay of your job search. And if you’re a consultant or alum and would like to use the Movemeon platform to discover opportunities on your own terms, you can register here.

At Movemeon, we connect (ex) consultants and freelancers with job opportunities, advice & events. Register now to view and apply to jobs, for insider advice & networking/industry events.