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Atos plans to double its African operations in 5 years

18 December 2015 Consultancy.uk

Atos wants to double its efforts in Africa over the coming five years, thereby expanding its personnel from the current 2,000 to around 5,000 employees. The firm revealed its plans for expansion during the COP21 climate conference, which took place last week in Paris.

Worldwide Atos has around 93,000 employees across more than 70 countries, which together generate revenues of €11 billion. Around 2% of the firm’s personnel are currently active in Africa, something the firm is seeking to significantly expand in the coming years. Last week, during the international climate conference in Paris, where some 50,000 representatives from across the world came together to solve the climate change challenges, Thierry Breton, the CEO of the firm, announced ambitious growth plans for the continent, that according to many will be the next area of massive global growth following the BRIC and emerging market hype that is now waning. 

Atos wants to double its activities in Africa within five years time

"Atos, already present in Africa with more than 2,000 employees, wishes to increase its involvement on the continent, with the objective of reaching 5,000 employees in the 2020 timeframe. Our development is based on strong partnerships with local players such as governments, companies, schools and universities,” says Francis Meston, Executive Vice-President, Middle East and Africa, and Atos Group’s Chief Digital Transformation Officer.

With the investment, Atos believes it will also contribute to the sustainable development of the continent, as part of the firm’s wider CSR strategy. “This gives us the possibility of strengthening our strategy and to fulfil the expectations of our stakeholders to boost the digitalisation efforts in Africa in the long term.”

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Fast growing consultancy Step5 rebrands for next growth phase

18 January 2019 Consultancy.uk

Innovative transformation consultancy Step5 has completed a rebranding of its corporate identity as it looks to push forward with rapid growth into a fifth successive year. CEO Howard Dickel told Consultancy.uk why the change in image is so important, and how the consultancy as a whole has grown in recent years.

Step5 was established in 2010 by co-founders Clive Fenton (current Chairman) and Jim Berrisford (incumbent COO). In 2014, the firm’s present CEO Howard Dickel joined, a year before Step5 hit £1 million in turnover. Building on that, for the past four years Step5 has enjoyed growth of more than 30%, and now boasts more than £1 billion in programme budgets managed and an expanding team of over 60 consultants.

Dickel took up the top job at the company last year, and is now keen to kick on from the firm’s recent success, particularly after Step5’s recent rebranding. The new brand identity was developed with creative agency gt&i, and aims to capture the essence of the business today. Step5’s CEO believes this essence is “quietly confident, with an inner strength”, thanks to a diversity of unique skills among the firm’s talent, enabling Step5 teams to constantly innovate and surprise clients. According to Dickel, the rebrand marks the next stage in the company’s development, supporting Step5’s aim to compete on a world stage.

Fast growing consultancy Step5 rebrands for next growth phaseExplaining the firm’s new identity further, Dickel told Consultancy.uk, “High value, high cost strategic consultancy provides insight but leaves the challenge of implementation.  Step5’s strength lies in bridging the gap.  We work closely with our clients to develop and deliver complex business transformation projects and get failing projects back on track.  In the words of our new strapline: Together we can.”

Step5 is one of the UK’s fastest growing business transformation consultancies, and as with many new competitors in the professional services sector, aims to offer clients an alternative to the Big Four. As is the case with other firms looking to do this, Step5 differentiates itself from the quartet’s ‘impersonal’ approach by working to develop a trusted partner relationship with clients and drive change from within companies.

Long-term ambitions

In order to tackle this challenge, Step5 remains on the look-out for forward-thinking individuals, whether already working in the sector or looking for something new. In the long term, its ambition is to grow within the private sector, and in particular the FTSE 250 companies, and to reach its target of £20 million in turnover by 2020.

Among clients already tapping into Step5’s services are the Ministry of Defence, BAE Systems, Barclays, Experian, Serco and Sopra Steria, among others. As well as building a reputation in the private sector, Step5 consultants have worked on some of the UK’s most challenging public and private sector initiatives – including the £1 billion recovery of the spine programme for the NHS and management and delivery of all telecommunications for the London 2012 Olympics.

Step5

According to Dickel, recent engagements are particularly encouraging for the firm moving forward. Lately, the firm supported a leading bank’s move into the £32 billion UK motor finance market, and worked to deliver a complex organisational transformation programme for the world’s leading information services company to better support its strategic goals and deliver savings across all services.

Dickel added, “We also transformed an internal IT function for a European leader in digital transformation, including people, process, operating model and market positioning. This has provided them with a robust, industry best practice function that delivered savings across the company and increased the internal IT capability from an Application, Infrastructure and Management perspective.”

Reflecting once more on the rebrand, he concluded, “Step5 offers clients an alternative to the Big Four consultancies – and it is recognised by its clients as the people who make complex business transformation projects happen... Step5 has grown and developed over the years. The company has come a long way and now it’s time to transform itself to reflect that.”