Background 

PACE, a newly-formed business consulting firm, wanted to create an innovative culture and operational environment to enable it to deliver its aim to create a better deal for its people and customers by creating environments that thrive. The company was launched in October 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, a time filled with uncertainties. However, it viewed this as an opportunity to establish and nurture a culture at founding stage that fosters openness, ownership, thinking differently and high performance to prepare it to move from start-up to growth to scale-up stage. Maintaining and evolving this culture with its expanding team, at the time working remotely, would be a critical aspect of their strategy.

Approach 

The approach was very much people-first. A structured process was established involving the entire team, the leadership, a dedicated people team, in-house process consultants and external teams and individuals from high performance environments like sports, Armed Forces and high performing individuals from industry.

The six-step process involved setting a clear strategic direction, co-creating values through extensive employee engagement, creating a PACE-Setters Culture Handbook titled Pushing Boundaries, embedding cultural values in daily operations and implementing a robust communication and reinforcement mechanism. Ongoing measurement and adaptation was enforced via a clear measurement framework to help the company understand how effective its culture was at engaging, empowering, attracting and retaining consultants – and if its culture is helping it win and keep customers. When things needed to change, it took action quickly and collaboratively.

The rationale behind the approach was a rich mix of co-creation, effective communication strategic direction and openness.

Outcome

To date PACE’s approach has proven effective. Fast company growth, exceptional talent recruitment and wins in business indicate its success. An ongoing focus on diversity and inclusivity, the creation of ‘PACE Blend’ sessions and an incentive scheme which enables all 26 permanently employed PACE-Setters to be shareholders further enhance commitment. Both employee satisfaction and retention rates (currently 100%) and customer acquisition and retention have shown promising results. The firm has a pipeline of potential candidates that represents 32% of its employees.

PACE credits a 67% year on year revenue growth to the unique culture it has created. The outcomes clearly articulate that PACE’s culture is not just effective but that its people-centric approach is helping it to meet its aim of disrupting the business consulting industry.