Mission

Our mission is to help companies reach their potential. We believe this has only become more important over the decade since COL was founded.

Ultimately, we help more companies do well and, by helping more companies succeed, we hope to contribute to economic diversity, inhibit wealth concentration and promote consumer choice globally. We believe that the more strong challengers there are to sector incumbents, the better it is for our economy, our society and our communities. In this way we strive to build our legacy as a respected, trustworthy source for businesses that need honest, sound, straight-talking advice and support.

We focus on a very specific challenge which all sectors encounter; overcoming growth crises at key stages of commercial maturity. We have positioned ourselves to do this by remaining small enough to be necessarily hands-on and pragmatic, whilst being large enough to have the requisite skills, experience and resources to support our clients in such engagements.

From inception, we have helped great companies to realise their full commercial potential. We find our work with interesting businesses and motivated people hugely rewarding; this is especially so when we observe the removal of senior management frustration, and we help employees to believe in their work again. The greatest satisfaction, though, of course, is from observing the tangible benefits in increasing revenues, improving efficiency and setting our clients on track for the next phase in their commercial growth.

Ethos

We strive to always be honest, straight-talking, dependable, respectful and worthy in everything we do for our clients.

Our focus may have narrowed over the years, but our distinctive competencies remain as they ever were. Underpinning all the results we deliver is our belief in combining systems-thinking with creativity. Furthermore, we pride ourselves on our desire to uncover the root of issues being encountered and reject superficial solutions.

We will always seek to identify innovative solutions which others do not consider, and to devise innovative ways to apply solutions for less cost, quicker than might usually be expected. We will always offer practical solutions, supported with significant resources.

Style

We are hands-on, with a down-to-earth management style.

We value pragmatism and seek to apply best practice wherever possible but, equally, appreciate the make-do commercial realities which often demand fast results with few resources. We know when and how to bypass unhelpful red tape where necessary, and we will not hesitate to tackle political quicksand if it becomes a barrier to success. Our guiding principle is to avoid such traps rather than challenge them directly, as they inhibit commercial success and represent an inefficient use of resources.

We are highly flexible, responsive, adaptable and enjoy the pressure we are paid to take on for our clients. We place utmost importance on direct-communication and a professional, but personal relationship with our clients.