The team at Brightstone are intuitive and inspirational. We want the best for you so we’ll tell you when you’re doing it right but we are utterly honest when we need to be – especially when it’s about making the changes which will improve your performance. When we worked with this particular financial organisation, we were impressed with many aspects of the business. The staff were great – not only were they loyal but they were hardworking too. The MD was popular and had developed through the ranks. However, they desperately wanted a bluechip infrastructure whilst retaining the family-oriented culture.

Brightstone recognised the gaps instantly. The people management process had evolved in a fragmented manner, leadership skills were lacking and management inconsistencies were presenting roadblocks to organisational success. People processed orders according to the customers telling them what they thought they wanted. Sales teams didn’t recognise that they were the experts. The teams needed to learn to consult, listen, understand, advise and promote solutions to customers not take orders from the customer.

• Carried out a familiarisation exercise to identify strengths, development areas and potential ‘quick wins’.

• Formed a project team and mentored internal project resources to develop people management processes, including KPIs, targets, competency framework, quality programme, performance management procedures, coaching structures and sales methodologies.

• Developed an employee engagement programme which included a cultural template, communication procedures and mechanisms, and robust training modules to support the new culture, ethos and skills required at all levels.

• Reviewed and refined recruitment processes.

• Assisted in recruitment of new directors and frontline teams.

• Market share increased five times.

• Profits grew from nil to £10m in four years.

• Business value increased in the same period from £2.5m to £69m.

• 99 per cent of telephone calls are answered within five rings by a person.

• Reduced sales turnaround times reduced from 3 days to one day.

• Success meant expansion by an additional 50 FTE.