Worshipful Company of Management Consultants

https://lnkd.in/eaeEM35B https://www.cmce.org.uk/ https://lnkd.in/eiV2QBd As previously advised here, the Lord Mayor's Coffee Colloquies bring together varied voices from around the world to talk about how their work supports the achievement of one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or another pressing global issue. The objective of SDG 8 is to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. Last week, at the Coffee Colloquy to discuss this SDG, Jim Foster, Director of the Centre for Management Consulting Excellence (CMCE) presented his views on how management consultants can contribute to the achievement of this goal. He explained how it can be achieved by involving client staff in a consulting engagement and proposing solutions that generate increased revenue instead of cutting costs, and supported this with the findings of research undertaken by CMCE and the Good Jobs Institute. Jim was joined on the panel by Sarah Jo Loveday and both were supported on the day by an enthusiastic group on Members and the Master, Kanan Barot.

https://lnkd.in/eeFreDVp I joined the Institute of Management Consultancy 24 years ago and achieved my CMC Qualification in January 2002. (it’s now the Institute of Consulting – IoC). Since then, I have not attended a single solitary event sponsored by the Institute – somewhat disappointing. I was therefore intrigued when I recently received an invitation from the London branch of the IoC, to attend a social evening. This happened last night, and I'm pleased to say it was an enjoyable affair with 20 or so people attending, many strangers, but we all enjoyed a drink on a balcony overlooking Hyde Park. Also in attendance was Fourth Warden Jim Foster who, like me, was following his curiosity.  The organisers are trying to revitalise the social and networking benefits of Membership… Our Company been trying to build stronger relationships with the Institute over many years with some, but limited, success (all credit to IPM Chris Sutton) so this was an interesting low-key opportunity to find out what was going on.  It was a pleasure to meet several consultants from variety of backgrounds including Capita and Accenture. I even met with a founder Member of our Livery company (who shall remain nameless for the time being) but who has not been a Member for many years. He’s now thinking of rejoining !. Jim and I were able to spread the word about WCoMC – the younger people there had never even heard of Livery Companies – they know now! Our thanks go to the organisers Zarina Naqvi and Tom Spence from the IoC London branch. Jim and I would be keen to attend future events. Zarina Naqvi

https://lnkd.in/eaeEM35B The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli, has organised a series of events called “Coffee Colloquies” which bring together varied voices from in and around the City to talk about how their work supports the achievement of one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Coffee Colloquies are in person events held at the Mansion House. At the next event, this week on 18 July, the Company will have two Members on the panel to share their views on how management consultants can contribute towards attaining Sustainable Development Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth.  - Fourth Warden and CMCE Director, Jim Foster - Liveryman Sarah Jo Loveday, representing London Chamber of Commerce and Industry. We wish them well. I’m personally looking forward to another later Colloquy – to be held on 24th September - broadly about Philanthropy. We are directly involved in that one too, working with City University Centre for Charity Effectiveness. More on that later. 

On Monday 1st July the Company was well represented at the Livery Food Initiative Seminar: ‘Addressing food insecurity’ at Drapers’ Hall. PM Denise Fellows was there because she is the co-founder of the Livery Food Initiative, had organised the whole event, and acted as Master of Ceremonies for the evening. Bob Harris was there wearing his new hat as a newly co-opted member of the Livery Committee and had helped Denise with some of the organisation and planning of the event. I was there representing the Company’s Charitable Fund: we provided match funding of £3,000 to help achieve this year's appeal and enabling City Harvest to buy and run a truck for the collection of surplus quality food for redistribution. The overarching theme of the evening was how food boosts mental, physical, and community health, but I want to focus on how food or lack of it can affect young people. Because of their early life experiences of low income and high cost of living, many young people have a poor diet and struggle with budgeting. Some live off cheap food because they can’t afford good quality food, fruit and fish needed for a healthy diet. That’s why there is such a disparity between those facing food insecurity and those who are not. City Harvest and their partner charities therefore aim to educate such clients around healthy eating, sensible food shopping and the ability to manage a budget on a low income.  Other skills such as gardening and exercise are also key elements of a healthy lifestyle and are often offered by community groups. There is no doubt that such support can and does “transform young lives”. The evening was full of some pretty scary facts and statistics: Some examples:   ·       the UK produces more food than it needs but it's of the wrong type! That's why there's so much surplus and while City Harvest’s efforts to redistribute that quality surplus food for redistribution are incredibly helpful it does not change the underlying structural issue. How it is it, that with such oversupply have we seen food prices increase by 20% or more over the past two years?  ·       the average height of five-year-old children in the UK has been declining in the UK since 2013 – while other countries in Western Europe have seen a continuing upward trend - and it’s because of poor nutrition.. I think it is fair to say that the evening was a great thought-provoking success and Denise and her team deserve to be congratulated. I, and many others, went away with the inescapable conclusion that while we're doing a lot, it's not enough and the fact that food poverty is nowhere on either of the main political parties’ agendas, as we run into a general election, is both astonishing and somewhat demoralising. 

A few hardy souls from the Company braved the sun and turned up at the Guildhall for Common Hall and the election of the new Sheriffs on ,Monday 24th June. I was there supporting the newly elected sheriff David Chalk - we are both members of the Platinum Master’s year group. The Master was there in her official capacity, of course, and is pictured with the Master Insurer, Clair Burrell. The elections were noteworthy in as much as there was a real contested election for the two largely ceremonial Bridge Master posts. The insurgents got in! But also noteworthy from our Company's point of view was that our own Bob Harris has been co-opted onto the Livery Committee. Bob continues to do sterling things when it comes to pan- livery engagement including his now famous “Survey of Philanthropic Giving”. Congratulations to Bob - keep up the good work. Afterwards a small group of Members and Consorts (see picture) got together for a large and rather good lunch at the Stationers’ Hall, which looks splendid having recently been refurbished. Everybody present was very grateful for the newly installed air conditioning.  

Last Wednesday night we held our annual Education Supper (one of our annual flagship events) where we explored AI's role in higher education with a highly thought-provoking from guest speaker Chris Dalton. The impact of #generativeAI on the whole of education is immense and requires educators to raise their game in terms of the quality of thinking and reasoning. We have the potential to harness the technology to create learning tailored to each student and to elevate our approach to focus on #criticalthinking and #creativity rather than the current transactional approach in much of the educational world. How we think and make decisions - sense-making, meaning and purpose - is the human part of education that AI doesn't do and is where our focus should be. Congratulations to Malcolm McCaig and the Education Committee for putting on such an excellent event.

The Master, Court and Members of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants are very pleased to offer their heartiest congratulations to two of our number, Alderman Alison Gowman and Jon Moulton, who have both been awarded a CBE in the King's Birthday Honours list for their exceptional service in the voluntary sector. Alison Gowman looks after the Dowgate Ward in the City which includes our old offices at Skinners' Hall, so we’ve often though of her as “our” Alderman. Alison has been an Honorary Liveryman since 2022 and was the driver behind the Livery Climate Action Strategy which we adopted a couple of years ago.  Alison is well known across the Livery and often attends our events. Jon Moulton is a well-known British venture capitalist. Jon was admitted as an Honorary Freeman of the Company in 2011, in recognition of his long-standing support of the Company and of outstanding service to private equity and the management consultancy industry. He was made an Honorary Liveryman in 2018. Jon has provided support to our annual Charities Supper over several years. Once again, congratulations to both of them.

Great to see Past Master NOORZAMAN RASHID leading the hydrogen innovation conference at CEME in East London today. Chris Sutton

Drinks in the City on 21 May. It was a real pleasure to join our “drinks in the city” membership event last night in the basement of the Golden Fleece in Queen Street, right in the heart of the City. The evening was planned and arranged by Members of our Membership Committee, led by Malcolm Green, who gave a few words of welcome and introduction.  Members of the Committee and no less than five Past Masters were on hand to meet, greet and explain to a group of about 25 guests. These guests ranged from a couple of very new joiners to several prospective members who are simply waiting for their installation (expected at the Education supper and lecture on 19th June – watch this space.) There was also a very good helping of prospective members early on in the process of getting to know us, and a very diverse bunch they were too - just what we need! We all fielded questions about the cost of joining, how to get engaged in pro bono consulting projects, what our events programme was like and, perhaps more challengingly, the difference between our Company and the older Great Twelve Livery Companies. It was a very enjoyable evening, if somewhat warm and damp! Well done to everyone who turned out on miserable evening. Hello, to the group of three consultants from KPMG and all those that were on my guest list. I am hoping that all those present will follow us here on LinkedIn, and we look forward to seeing many of them again at one of our events soon.