Who are we? - Who we support? - How we work?
Who we are?
Our lead consultant John Flexman has over 25 years of experience in helping a range of organisations to meet challenges within the domains of Human Resources, Organisational Restructuring and Transformation & Change.
John was heavily influenced in his early career as a UK Army Officer between 1996-2002, where his leadership experience in a values-based organisation had a defining influence on how he approaches his consultancy work today. Between 2008-2011 he studied part time at Ashridge Business School (now Hult International Business School) where learning about organisational practitioners such as Donald Schon and Gareth Morgan developed his understanding of individual reflective practice and broader organisational behaviour.
John has since developed his business and commercial education at Saïd Business School - University of Oxford where he attended the Leading Strategic Projects Programme. John has a Post Graduate Diploma in Organisational Consulting from Hult International Business School and a Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Management & Leadership from the Chartered Management Institute. He is a qualified coach and in his spare time has spent the last 25 years volunteering in support of young people in the UKs Cadet Forces.
Who we support?
The following sectors have been supported by AHL Consulting in recent years:
- Energy: A series of strategic HR solutions delivered to a FTSE 10 global energy company.
- Professional Services: A range of strategic HR interventions to support a European focussed LLP expanding its portfolio of business internationally into North America, the Middle East & Asia.
- Defence Sector: The provision of strategic restructuring support to a US based business moving through considerable change in its European & UK subsidiaries.
- Legal Services: Full provision of ERP focussed change management support to a Top 10 Global Legal Services Partnership with 8,000 personnel across EMEA, US, Canada, Australia and South Africa.
- Aerospace & Defence: Supporting a well established UK aerospace company to develop a new target operating model as it focussed on international expansion into North America.
- National Security: Provision of support to a major £2.4bn UK MoD programme, supporting the delivery of new technology in partnership with UK government stakeholders.
- International Organisations: Provision of ERP focussed change management solutions in support of a NATO Oracle upgrade programme.
How we work?
"An organisation has no presence, beyond that of the people who bring it to life." Gareth Morgan
This Morgan quote is an excellent reminder of the requirement to recognise the role of people in organisational success. We are a people-centric consultancy who believe the role of a professional consultant is to unlock nascent capability within an organisation, as much as it is to provide new ideas, concepts and solutions.
This approach requires a range of consulting skills and aptitude. The ability to engage ones own emotional intelligence is fundamental, meeting clients with a truly open mind, engaging in expansive conversations with active listening at the forefront, and the conduct of exceptional analysis to understand in detail the drivers behind complex and complicated problems.
Too many consultants rush quickly to solutions, either through time or commercial pressures, but high quality consultants are those with organisational experience that are invested long term. When solutions are required, we believe that outputs are not enough, an explicit understanding and articulation of commercial outcomes and the sustained realization of benefits are what modern day organisations expect from the consulting sector.