New digital transformation consultancy REBORRN launches in UK

A new consulting firm has set up shop in London, with its duo of Greek founders describing it as a “challenger” to the leading digital consultancies. Giorgos Vareloglou and Costas Mantziaris have both relocated from Greece to the UK to chase their entrepreneurial dream of growing REBORRN amid heightened demand for digital change, and concerns of Brexit uncertainty.

Digital consultancy REBORRN has launched its first UK offices in Great Portland Street, London. The firm, created by former Mindworks co-founders Giorgos Vareloglou and Costas Mantziaris, already boasts presences across Central and Eastern Europe, where it supports entrepreneurs and enterprises in their bids to thrive in the digital economy, offering data and analytics, digital strategy and digital transformation services.

The Greek-origin consulting firm decided to finally chance its arm in the UK due to the heightened demand for advice around digitalisation, with the firm’s key offering geared toward digital consulting and digital transformation for enterprise clients. With the Big Four and MBB currently competing in an arms race to snaffle up mid-tier design agencies to tap into that demand, it is clear that this will be a tricky proposition for a firm from outside consulting’s top table. Despite this, REBORRN’s founders are quietly confident that they can compete with the biggest names in the industry.

Costas Mantziaris explained, “We compete with management consultancies as we are responding to the same challenges that the Big Four are consulting on… What makes us different to traditional management consultancies is that we are re-engineering the way that we solve business challenges by creating diverse teams of ‘makers’ and consultants, pricing work on speed of delivery, and cutting the red tape on approval processes by involving senior decision makers and c-suite earlier – solving business challenges quicker and accelerating the launch of new products and services to the market.”

This potential to help clients trim the fat and prepare for difficult market conditions seems to have especially driven REBORRN’s move now. Giorgos Vareloglou elaborated, “Finally, we saw the need to invent new ways of working in the client consultant relationship, and focus on quality, meaningful work to reduce the number of approvals and red tape. We chose the UK due to the opportunity which came out of Brexit. Having built a business in Greece in the context of a volatile economy, we observed that in times of crisis an opportunity arises for smaller, leaner and more flexible players that challenge the established supply chain.”

While the firm is hoping that a turbulent Brexit process and continued economic uncertainty will buoy demand for their services in the near future, REBORRN is also aware that it needs to focus on long-term trends to deliver sustainable growth. This means focusing on a diverse economy which is expanding rapidly as businesses turn to technology to improve productivity and efficiency.

Areas of focus

REBORRN will focus on three key areas to this end. These are advanced analytics and specifically customer analytics (data warehousing, data analysis using machine learning and predictive algorithms, data visualisation); collaborative ways to develop digital products (joint ventures, team incubation, performance-based models) with an experience-first approach; and finally acquisition and management of digital talent. Leveraging this approach, REBORRN will now look to sign deals with the world's top brands to build its credentials. To date, its founders say that they have signed Google, Coca Cola, L'Oreal and G4S among others.

Costas Mantziaris, concluded that REBORRN’s effects have already been demonstrated at one of these new clients. He said, “Our work with G4S, a global security firm, demonstrates the benefits of placing the customer experience at the heart of innovation. In 58 hours we changed a product’s brand identity, rethought a part of the product experience (mobile app), rebuilt the website, created a 4 month detailed user acquisition plan, and changed commercial policy and the respective business plan.”

Commenting on the future, Giorgos Vareloglou concluded, “In the digital economy, entrepreneurs and enterprises expect fast turnaround times when launching and innovating new digital products and services… We are challenging how traditional consulting works by creating a modern, digital consultancy that can deliver tangible value to start-ups, SMEs and enterprise clients.”