Our Services

Helping you & your team be the business you want to be

Every business has its unique requirements and objectives, regardless of size. Whether corporate or a family business, following best practice and proven processes by identifying, implementing and managing change in personnel, finance, structure, and operations can deliver real benefit. We can help you make a positive change.

Executive Coaching and Mentoring

Andrew has coached and mentored individuals and teams throughout his 30+ years career. He has built up a wealth of experience and knowledge in helping others to identify their aims and objectives. In his experience, sometimes people do not have a clear vision of their destination or the path which they will take to arrive at their journey’s end, so Andrew can help navigate this journey.

Andrew calls upon years of experience and training to help guide individuals/boards to look at themselves objectively, to consider all options and not just the obvious ones. His clear and unambiguous coaching style can allow the coach/mentee more time to consider, analyse and formulate their own journey and objectives. This approach helps to avoid unnecessary diversions, provides clarity and results in a focussed, more easily identifiable path and objective.

Testimonial:

“Andrew’s coaching style is precise and to the point. He will help you find a path through distractions and challenges and get to the heart of the issue”. Rebecca Collins, Managing Director – Chapel House Training and Consultancy

Leadership and Management Services

Andrew can bring a vast range of both theoretical and practical leadership skill built on over 30+ years of leading in the military and within the corporate environments. As such, he can share and apply his many years of experience to all companies and the full range of the management structure within.

Since the beginning of Andrew’s career, leadership and management have been one of his primary roles and experiences. Having been trained in both military and corporate leadership style, he has a proven track record of demonstrating these attributes at all times. Examples of the types of leadership and management ranges from managing career, appraisals and promotion of both military and civilian individuals, to managing the systems and procedures required to launch a new corporate office, including IT systems, military standard security protocols, health and safety and fire-fighting protocols.

Andrew is a Trustee of a Multi-Academy Trust and the Chairman of the Trust’s Finance and Audit Committee.

  • Executive board membership.
  • Leadership and management advice.
  • Business and process control and analysis.
  • Rationalisation of management control and structure.
  • Terms of reference rationalisation.
  • Key Performance Indicators and assessment.
  • Risk management and analysis
  • Documentary and hardware security advice and management.

Autism and Mental Health

The awareness, treatment and management of “neuro-atypical” individuals is becoming more and more mainstream in the business community, and indeed society in general. Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neuro-atypical condition that people are born with. ASD is part of the overall “neuro-divergent” umbrella covered under the Disability Act 2010 and, as such, has parity in law with any physical disability.

The Equality Act 2010 states that employers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments to make sure everyone can access the workplace, regardless of ability. Following the 2017 Autism Employment Gap Report, the Government has now pledged to halve the disability employment gap.

Autistic individuals can sometimes possess characteristics and behaviours that may appear unusual to most other people and, as such, may appear somewhat difficult to communicate with and manage. Failure to effectively engage and manage these employees can be a lost opportunity to harness the unique talents that these individuals possess.

Backed my many years of experience, Andrew can advise businesses on how to effectively engage, communicate and manage autistic individuals, which will allow access to some of the unique talents that these individuals possess.

Furthermore, Andrew can provide a unique insight into how an autistic individual views the world, so that it will further help to understand these employees.

Andrew is a qualified Adult Mental Health First Aider (England) and will help employers to advise and look after their employees with poor mental health.  This is supported by decades of experience of working with, and managing, poor mental health in the workplace, including managing a phased return to work after a period of sickness.

Crisis Management

Throughout his career Andrew has often been involved with sudden and unexpected crisis throughout his career. Examples of this include managing sudden losses of individuals in key positions with essential specialist knowledge, critical equipment procurement and logistical delays as well has managing sudden and life-threatening situations. With both training and experience can help business to manage and survive unforeseen major difficulties.

The COVID crisis is one example where businesses are suddenly faced with a crisis that has the potential to destroy a business. Often it is not the initial effects of crisis that causes the failure of the company but the inability to react quickly enough to reduce the impact of it. As someone who has been tested and assessed as having a highly logical thought capabilities Andrew will assist a business in providing independent crisis management and advice to any business when a crisis of any nature occurs. This could be by helping the directors manage the ensuing chaos to stabilise the situation, liaising with creditors and debtors or recovery planning.

Additionally, he can help businesses to conduct “table-top” exercises in the future planning of any such crisis.

Career Management

Andrew has many years of experience and knowledge in conducting appraisals in both the military and the business environments. In conjunction with formal training and more than 30 years’ experience, Andrew can help to identify improvements in the whole of the appraisal process.

Managing employee’s careers is one of the key elements to business success. As employees are often the most valuable resource in many businesses, it is part of best business practice to ensure that their staff are aware of both their strengths and weaknesses. Whilst there are several reasons why appraisals are required, the time required to complete these so that maximum benefit can be gained for all concerned, is often not given.

With a more robust appraisal system, employees’ strengths and weaknesses can be identified, resulting in several outputs to be identified.  These can vary from training requirements, to career aspirations and management.

SERVICES:

  • Appraisal management review.
  • Appraisal process review.
  • Identifying appraisal requirements.
  • Identifying training requirements.
  • Resource development.
  • Succession Planning.

Document, IT and Physical Security

Information security is vitally important for all businesses. Whilst information can be stored in several formats, the principles of ensuring its safe storing, access, management and use of such information are valid across all formats and security platforms.

Throughout his military career Andrew was security cleared to access and use the UK’s most sensitive and secretive military information. Furthermore, he completed specialist training qualifying him to become the manager and custodian of such material and information.

In his role as a business and project manager within the nuclear defence industry, he oversaw the implementation of the security requirements to certify the building, IT systems and storage of highly classified material pertinent to submarine nuclear power plants. Using experience and knowledge gained during his military career, Andrew developed, wrote and implemented all the protocols regarding the custody of the classified material. Further to that, he trained members of staff in both the standards and methods of ensuring that classified material was handled in accordance to the standards as required by the sensitivity of such material.

Due to the fact that the transfer of information was required to be moved between supplier and clients’ sites without the use of an email / intranet system, additional processes regarding the physical transfer between the two locations needed to be written and implemented. Andrew trained members of staff to carry out the processes to ensure the safety, custody and transport of the classified material.

Throughout his career, Andrew has continually demonstrated absolute discretion.  As well as having knowledge of sensitive military information, he is experienced in conducting, with ease, discrete government diplomacy with high ranking UK and foreign politicians, dignitaries and other such VIPs.

SERVICES

  • Information security.
  • Security management.
  • Protocols and procedure development
  • Security audits.
  • Investigations into security lapses and breaches.

Training

In an increasing changing world, knowledge, best practices and often the law are frequently evolving and being refined. Often businesses are directly affected by such changes and, as such, there is a continual requirement to train staff and update procedures, equipment and often company documentation, to reflect current best practice and legal requirement.

Without investing in training, businesses will soon find themselves lacking the knowledge and skills to maintain/increase the services it provides. The consequences of not investing in training may well leave businesses exposed to legal action, staff lacking knowledge to use new systems, or management practices and behaviours that are no longer deemed as best practice.

Within a business the training requirements may well vary considerably, and no-one within a company is immune to requiring training on a regular basis. Without efficient management of the training programme, the training can be ineffective or, at worse, failing to fulfil a legal requirement.

Andrew has spent more than 30 years studying, identifying, developing, and implementing training requirements.  He has spent his career training others in their personal needs and requirements; this ranged from drafting and setting oral and written professional career examinations, to formally awarding professional qualifications.

Training practices and methods vary to match the needs and requirements. Andrew has been involved in a wide spectrum of such methods and practices for the whole of his career and can bring his knowledge and experience to a business.  As no two businesses are the same, nor are the requirements, the advice he gives is totally bespoke and is delivered using knowledge and experience through his career.

Financial Control and Auditing

Finance is the blood running through all business; without it a business is not credible or viable. The movement, control and generation of money is therefore vital to the existence of any business.

Andrew works with clients, acting as an independent “critical friend”, to review a company’s finances.

Andrew has been the senior auditor for a public account whilst in the military. As a Trustee of a Multi-Academy Trust, Andrew is continually involved with the overall scrutiny of the Trust’s finances. He is the Chairman of the Trust’s Finance and Audit Committee whereby he conducts a much more detailed scrutiny of the finances, and provides an independent summary and budget recommendation to the Trust’s board.

  • Cash flow analysis
  • Identifying and analysing cost reduction
  • Rationalisation of company consumables/services (broadband, power, water, IT systems).
  • Payroll optimisation
  • Process time and management.

Company Restructuring

Many factors can influence the nature and type of environment that a business operates in, and there is sometimes a requirement to evolve in order to maintain competitive. Often it is beneficial to seek another prospective to assist with developing, analysing and reviewing a proposed re-structuring. It provides a completely independent, impartial view on the whole (or parts of) the re-structuring process.

  • Schemes of delegation.
  • Administration requirements.
  • Information management.
  • Job descriptions.
  • Skills mapping.

Protocols

As businesses evolve and develop, the requirements to review and amend protocols will follow alongside. The importance of working within protocols can sometimes be overlooked with consequences that can be detrimental to the corporate image and reputation of a business.

Andrew has worked with adherence to protocols throughout his career. The range of his experiences have varied from the military and technical protocols, through to high level UK/foreign nations’ diplomatic protocols.

Using his experience, he has been involved in establishing protocols to ensure that the conduct of business between companies is transparent, effective and fair.  Where required, he has been called upon to monitor, review and amend them as relationships change.

  • Establishing protocols
  • Reviewing protocols
  • Amending protocols

Our business can support you with a wide range of business services that stand on their own merits, yet they can act in an interdependent manner as part of a more holistic package.

As with many small businesses we are quick to adapt changes which may be due to your change of strategy, priorities or direction. For example the significant change imposed on businesses on their operations, processes, logistics and management due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

For further information about our work and how we may be able to help you please complete our contact form and we will respond to your enquiry as soon as we possibly can.