Our clients hire us because they are facing significant challenges and they need to clarify their strategy or they need to embed their existing strategy.

Most business leaders are wary of consultants. But we are different.

We bring proven business know-how: we have run businesses and we know the pressures and strains. Our team has a wide range of expertise and business experience, supplemented by our Advisory Board.

We build capacity: we work with our clients to build capacity in their business, to strengthen their team. Our role is to provide expert support during times of change and development. Our clients know that we work to make their business stronger and healthier.

We bring specialist expertise: developing and implementing strategy is what we do. We use specialist tools and processes that we know work.

"We needed a new strategy following the merger of Pegler and Yorkshire Fittings. HobsonFord worked alongside the new Board - this helped the integration process gave us the focus we needed."
Mike Saunders, Group MD.

Pegler Yorkshire Group is a leading supplier of fittings, taps and values with combined sales of £170m. It is a division of Aalberts Industries.

Case Study

A good strategy will enable business leaders to align their teams and resources behind a common series of goals and objectives. Strategy in practice is anything but up-in-the-clouds - it is practical and can be seen in day-to-day actions and decisions.

We typically get involved with our clients during times of change, helping them to transform their performance. Key times of change are normally:

2. Has your business changed fundamentally - a merger, a major acquisition or a major restructure? This will change the business dynamics and the old strategy is unlikely to be valid. At the very least there will be a need to communicate and clarify the strategy to any news members of the leadership and new staff.

3. Has the world around you changed? When markets and the business context changes then so must strategy. Life may not come back as it was. Closing the hatches and waiting for things to get better may be fine in the short term but it does not make a strategy for the future.

4. Have you ever had a structured approach to strategy? A structured approach to strategy will ensure your business resources are properly aligned and will enable your business to be much more resilient and effective.

"We needed to refresh our strategy. HobsonFord helped us to develop a new corporate plan using Argenti. External facilitation has been critical during this time."
Stephen Twigg, Chair of the Board

The Holocaust Centre is a education centre and receives 30,000 educational visitors each year, including primary and secondary schools and seminars for community professionals (Above: Stephen Twigg and James Smith, CEO, at The Holocaust Centre).

Here are some examples of how we work:

1. Helping companies develop a corporate plan: We helped develop a new corporate plan for a family run business which had merged two sides of their business. They had a strategy for each but not for the new combined business. They had been recommended Argenti by another business and were drawn to this system because of its simplicity and strong focus on numbers. HobsonFord facilitated the strategy for the combined business. The process started in March 2009 and was completed by June.

2. Helping companies embed their strategy: Pegler Yorkshire Group already had a strategy but they wanted to embed this across their senior management team of some 25 key managers. We set out a programme to help their managers develop detailed plans around their corporate strategy AND we developed a leadership programme to help unlock some of the cultural barriers using Belbin and other Strategic HR tools.

3. Helping companies implement their strategies: The Holocaust Centre needed to develop a new strategy and needed additional expertise to support the transition. HobsonFord is providing a small interim team that will provide support over a 6 month period.

Chris Hardy (above) has used the Argenti system in local government for over 20 years.

"It was the right thing at the right time and we never looked back – local government is a complex environment and the Argenti process is commonsense and straight-forward.". Chris Hardy, former MD of Chester Council and now Associate with HobsonFord.

Case study