Business transformation consulting firm Evolvereia launches
Retail and management expert Paul Glass has launched a new consulting firm specialising in transformation programmes. With no fixed office, Evolvereia’s small team of consultants is spread across Europe, designed to be affordable and effective for clients of all sizes.
Based in the Highlands of Scotland, where he has returned after several years working overseas, Paul Glass has decided that now is the right time to strike out alone by launching a pair of new businesses. Just six months after founding Carbon Positive Motorsport – billed as the world’s first dedicated carbon offsetting service provider for motorsport – Glass has also established a new management consultancy. Evolvereia will provide its clients with services in business transformation, project and change management, and coaching – among others.
Glass said of the firm’s creation, “I first had the ambition to have my own company when I was completing my postgraduate diploma in industrial administration. I was fascinated by retail, which then was going through a period of massive change and expansion… I became a graduate trainee for B&Q with the aim of gaining experience to start my own retail company. That developed into a successful career working with large retail companies like IKEA, but also in industry across their value chains… In the last three years I began to think more about the value of this experience, and how this could be transferred into other businesses. The idea behind Evolvereia started to develop from there.”
Formally registered in London, Evolvereia operates on an agile, low-cost model, which does not use fixed offices. By assembling a team from assorted locations across the UK and Europe, the firm hopes to pass savings onto its clients, offering a consultancy proposition which releases from the firm assert is “designed to be affordable and effective for all business sizes,” in particular, small and mid-sized enterprises.
Incumbents in the SME market are often unable to access and benefit from consultancy services due to the cost of established firms – but increasingly, boutiques like Evolvereia are looking to challenge that.
Glass commented, “The business consultancy sector has grown significantly, and micro consultancies are a fast growing segment that’s contributing to that. You only need a spark to light a fire, and there can be advantages in using a small consultancy, for example we can offer a comparably low cost service which makes our services accessible to SMEs as well as larger companies and organisations… We offer a unique ‘end to end’ business transformation concept based on successful experience in established market leading innovative companies, and there is a significant value to that.”
According to Evolvereia’s founder, the firm has identified “the most effective and easy to adopt methodologies and tools,” which he believes will enable clients to succeed in their business transformations. While most consultancies come to a client to solve a specific problem, and provide capabilities that do not exist in a company, Glass explained that the exit of a consultant after such a project can leave a vacuum, where there is a “lack of ownership” of new capabilities that mean sustained growth becomes difficult.
“What makes us different,” he went on, “is that our concept is about creating those internal capabilities in an organisation to drive ownership and to continually develop, this is where the long term value comes, and it’s central to our offer… [When we are engaged on a project, we also] bring our coaching capability to enable companies to apply the concept, and create their own internal capabilities to achieve value growth.”
Change, develop and grow
Evolvereia takes its name from the Latin word ‘evolvere’ – meaning to change, develop or grow. In 2020, when businesses are having to quickly adjust to a series of rapidly evolving crises – from the Covid-19 pandemic, to the global recession it resulted in, to the culmination of Brexit at the end of the year – the importance of survival via adaptation has arguably never been more clear.
“The pandemic has brought huge disruption and challenges to many businesses and sectors… This situation also comes on top of the pre-existing challenges for businesses to adapt to an increasingly fast changing world, for example in technology and sustainability. I’m sure we still only see the tip of the iceberg related to the consequences from the ’new normal’ and this will require even the most successful businesses to revaluate their strategies, value propositions and activities.”
“There has never been a greater time for businesses to need and invest in the services Evolvereia provides. In that respect it’s the perfect storm.”
