Practice Turnaround at a Global Advisory Firm: £2M Annual Loss to £8M Profit in Eighteen Months
The Situation
$9bn global advisory firm (46,000 professionals across 130+ countries) had a strategic advisory practice losing £2M annually, lacking go-to-market coherence, and structurally outflanked by the Big Four in competitive pitches
Gains created:
- Improve clarity of responsibilities and capabilities to deliver against them
- Identify, agree and prioritise new ideas and opportunities to generate business value
- Enhanced cross-business collaboration, communication and buy in
- Improved internal satisfaction, loyalty and customer value
- Agree and define actions and a feasible roadmap
- Validation and endorsement of decisions and approach
Pains relieved:
- Reduce ambiguity around vision, goals, strategy and roadmaps
- Reduce uncertainty around performance and time to delivering effectively
- Reduce blockers to progress due to personal and structural agendas
- Reduce inconsistencies in approach, communications and associated reputational damage
- Reduce ambiguity around ownership and responsibilities
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The Task
Appointed Managing Partner and Executive Director with P&L accountability for 100 direct reports across three international markets. Mandate: stabilise the practice, repivot the go-to-market, and scale revenue — without compromising the firm’s regulatory standing.
Note: this was a 3 year earn-out after this group acquired my own venture (Nile Blue Group)
The Action / Approach
Repositioned the practice around the Crowe Agile facilitated expert network model — a deliberate counter-positioning against the Big Four’s pyramid-of-juniors approach. Restructured the leadership team, exited unprofitable client mandates, and consolidated effort behind a small number of named-account targets in financial services and industrials. Executed two strategic acquisitions to fill capability gaps in the M&A buy-and-build programme. Personally led the first enterprise pitch under the new operating model — JP Morgan, a $3M contract win — which became the proof point for the wider sales force. Established stakeholder engagement cadence with FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 client sponsors.
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Gains created:
- Improve clarity of responsibilities and capabilities to deliver against them
- Identify, agree and prioritise new ideas and opportunities to generate business value
- Enhanced cross-business collaboration, communication and buy in
- Improved internal satisfaction, loyalty and customer value
- Agree and define actions and a feasible roadmap
- Validation and endorsement of decisions and approach
-
Pains relieved:
- Reduce ambiguity around vision, goals, strategy and roadmaps
- Reduce uncertainty around performance and time to delivering effectively
- Reduce blockers to progress due to personal and structural agendas
- Reduce inconsistencies in approach, communications and associated reputational damage
- Reduce ambiguity around ownership and responsibilities
The Result
Results:
Turnaround delivered: £2M annual loss to £8M profit in eighteen months
Organic revenue growth of 312% (£8M to £32M); fastest-growing division in Crowe Horwath’s 100-year history
M&A integration: two strategic acquisitions completed and absorbed within the turnaround window
Repositioning into three international markets generated £4.5M additional revenue
Extended £50M government contract through Brexit trade repositioning
International Advisory Firm of the Year (IAB, 2015); Game Changer of the Year (Finance Monthly, 2017)
Skills: Turnaround Leadership · M&A Buy-and-Build · Post-Merger Integration · Practice Repositioning · Sales-Led Transformation · Executive Stakeholder Management · Competitive Positioning vs Big Four
Focus In On: Responsible for Innovation
New Areas of Value:
Effective delivery against financial targets
Fostering a human centric, transparent, trustworthy and agile culture
More satisfied and engaged employees with increased retention and productivity
Improved business agility and ability to rapidly respond to change and opportunity
Enabling competitive differentiation and increasing market share
Increase customer acquisition, advocacy and lifetime value
Increased credibility, confidence and influence across the business
Viable, scalable and actionable roadmap to deliver innovation and change
Enabling positive behavioural change
Direct positive impact on internal and external customer satisfaction
More consistent and sustainable profitability and business growth
Successful, timely delivery of evidence based transformative change
Improvements around:
Inefficient or misaligned operating model and lack of business agility
Lack of exec sponsorship and track record
Lack of appropriate capabilities, skills, tools and methods
Unclear business strategy and requirements
Unclear or inefficient internal communications
Disconnect between culture and future vision
Misaligned goals across business and silos
Lack of clarity around the internal business ecosystem
Lack of clarity around market landscape
Poor data strategy resulting in siloed, incomplete and poor quality data
