Keeping the managerial horse before the business cart TEXT: MARTIN PILKINGTON | PHOTOS: BESPOKE MANAGEMENT CPV
Luxembourg-based business consultancy Bespoke Management is that rare thing, a company whose name says something significant about how it operates. Bespoke Management CPV has made a name for itself across Europe by living up to its name. “What we definitely don’t do is arrive with ready-made answers or stereotypical management tools, or the latest managerial fashion, believing these somehow offer magical panaceas to a client’s individual needs,” says Henri Prevost, CEO of the change and interim management consultancy. “Every solution we bring to an organisation’s leader is truly made-to-measure, and to be so it must touch on the maximum number of people in the company.”
Human capital It follows from that philosophy that the starting point for their work is a thorough diagnosis of the client company, in particular its human resources. “For us the 64 | Issue 43 | July 2017
greatest capital in any organisation is the human beings who make it work - or otherwise,” says Henri. The diagnostic metaphor matches the initial phase of their work with an organisation: “We build a picture of the whole company, to determine its DNA, and out of that we uncover the problems, the brakes on progress, and the fears impacting on it,” he adds.
Finding a company’s DNA Bespoke now operates daily across Europe in many industrial fields, including automotive manufacture and distribution, pharma and medical, IT, construction and real-estate, finance, events and exhibitions, and has built the experience and developed the techniques that help reveal that all-important company DNA. These include in-depth interviews across the organisation, and profile tests to reveal people’s talents and motivations. Henri continues the medical metaphor with his analysis of three major reasons
for Bespoke being called in by a company: “We think in terms of physical diagnoses where there are three main types. The first is you’re feeling ill, so go to a specialist to determine what’s wrong – and find a remedy. The second is like an athlete considering a new challenge, wanting to assess existing capabilities and the improvements needed to be competitive – for a company that may be new products, starting to export, or - a frequent scenario for us - companies looking to set up in Luxembourg. The third is a person - say for a life assurance application - testing their current health – applicable to companies before a management buyout or sale to the market.” The partnership finds the standard view of analysing a business illogical: “We start with the values of the enterprise, the people who make up the organisation, and their projects, and only then do we focus on the numbers – whereas our competitors generally start with the numbers before considering the people,