MONITOR
FELLOWSHIP
Employment Panel Independent
Consultants Network
The Benefit of Mutual Support
E
arly in 2014 the Employment
Panel launched an ‘Independent
Consultants’ Network’ (ICN),
open to all members of the Company.
Initiated by Kimball Bailey, the ICN is
aimed at members who are independent
consultants or who work in a small
associate-based business, whose
businesses use independent consultants,
or who find a specific discussion topic
of interest. The ICN was set up to be a
medium for the discussion of ideas and
methods to improve the management
and success of our businesses, the
exchange of knowledge, best practice
and skillsets, and the widening of our
potential individual markets.
During the year the network has held
three evenings of entertaining and
informative discussions. These
commenced in Spring with Simon Orme
sharing his experiences to help with
‘Selling Intangibles to a Sophisticated
Buyer’. Simon has built a very
successful practice implementing
structured sales processes to support
business growth, with a theme of
forensic management. Key learning
from the evening was around building
the skills and competencies necessary to
make a process fruitful.
approaches the market and creates an
image for its business.
Most recently, in September, we were
pleased to welcome our first external
speaker, Mike Ames of Flair Business
Growth Consultancy (www.flair.co.uk).
Despite having travelled from
Birmingham and already delivered a
full programme of seminars, Mike gave
a spirited and insightful talk on
‘Building your Business in 20 Minutes’.
Before the session there were probably
few present who would have thought
that a CRM for a £40m business could
be run free using Outlook!
At the core of Mike’s talk was a
reinforcement that sales are based on
human interactions and ultimately that
people buy from people.
His views on the use of social media
and how to gain the maximum from our
interactions can best be summarised in
the words of one attendee “That was the
most useful and productive presentation
I have attended in many years”. It is
fair to say that not one person left the
room without a significantly increased
‘to do list’.
Thanks to the generous contributions of
those present, the evening also resulted
in a donation of £100 to the WCIT
Charity funds.
The next meeting will be on 29 January
2015 in the Livery Room and we will be
running a light-hearted ‘into to the
Dragon's Lair’ (because despite what
the BBC says that's where they live).
Volunteers will present their core
consulting service and how they have
adapted their approach with lessons
Summer saw Peter Bayley take the floor learnt from the 2014 meetings.
to lead a workshop on effective
branding and marketing. Covering
If you are interested in joining this
topics such as brand attributes and
meeting please contact Kimball at
personality, positioning, differentiation [email protected]
and brand image, the evening stimulated or Nick Claydon at
much thought about how even the
[email protected].
smallest consultancy practice
Page 8
Contributed by WCIT
Liveryman Kimball Bailey
PAUL DAVID JAGGER
@cityandlivery
Each issue of MONITOR will include
a selection of miniature missives
drawn from the twitter account of
WCIT Liveryman Paul Jagger who
tweets under the sobriquet
@CityandLivery which now hosts
over 5,000 #CityFact and #LiveryFact
tweets.
There is also a supporting website
www.cityandlivery.co.uk and of
course members can pick up a copy of
The City of London Freeman’s Guide
from the WCIT Hall for £10.
There are neither points nor prizes for
remembering these online orations
although they may yet prove useful
for the obscure publications feature in
Have I Got News for You or a future
episode of QI. This next batch of
miniature missives:
#CityFact: The Cooks’ Company find
that having two Masters at the same
time is curiously not too many cooks!
#CityFact: The Bowyers’ Company are
the only Livery Company to elect a
Master to serve for 2 years.
#CityFact: The Air Pilots’ Company
have a membership grade of Upper
Freemen for those with 5 years+ flying
experience.
#CityFact: The Leathersellers’
Company use the term Honorary
Freeman for selected long-standing
Freemen of Distinction.
#CityFact: The Engineers’ Company
have a singular ‘First Honorary
Liveryman’ who happens to be
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.