Q5's Foundation and Pop Up initiatives win international awards

British management consulting firm Q5 has won two prizes at the Communitas Awards. The global competition recognises companies that make a difference across any corner of the globe.

First launched in 2009, Q5 is a global management consulting firm that specialises in organisational health. With offices in London, Leeds, Cardiff, New York, Sydney, Melbourne, Oman and Houston – as well as joint ventures in place in France, Sweden, Italy and Germany, Q5 is able to serve a range of businesses; from multinational players to small, family firms. It also supplies a host of pro bono services to non-profits around the world.

Thanks to the good work that Q5’s Foundation and Pop Up Consulting initiatives have done for clients in need around the world, the firm has been honoured by the Communitas Awards. The event aims to recognise exceptional businesses, organisations, and individuals who give themselves and their resources to help benefit communities around them.

A statement from the organisers said, “Communitas Awards seeks to honor those special companies, organisations, and individuals who go beyond rhetoric and whose commitment sets them apart from their competition. Communitas winners are dedicated to helping the less fortunate in their communities and are changing the way they do business to benefit their employees, communities, and environment.”

Pop Up Consulting

Nominees are evaluated on the extent and effectiveness of their efforts. These criteria first saw Q5 scoop the Skills Based Community Service – Pro Bono award, as part of the ceremony’s excellence in community service section. This related to the activities of Q5’s Pop Up Consulting wing.

Since March 2020, Pop Up Consulting has offered one-to-two days of pro bono consulting interventions to medium-sized businesses and charities, who would welcome some help, but do not have budget for consulting support. During the sessions with clients, Pop Up Consulting works with leaders to tackle issues specific to their organisation; acting as an emergency service for everything from strategy to design, change, people and culture. The group uses an accelerated and focused method that confronts challenges at pace, identifies potential options for recovery and creates clear action plans for them to take forward.

Pop Up Consulting – which also won a Lord Mayor’s Dragon Award in 2021 – was recognised by Communitas’ judges for its work with Parentkind. The organisation dedicated to supporting school PTAs and advancing related research and charitable activities had developed ambitious new targets to serve the needs of the parent community on the education journey. To help realise their new organisational goals, the trustees hired an entrepreneurial CEO. A team from Q5 worked with the new CEO and senior leaders to understand the culture gaps between Parentkind’s current position and the desired future state needed to meet its ambitious vision, and created practical actions and enablers which would help the team make the transformation possible.

This involved discovery and planning sessions with the CEO and facilitating two workshops for the senior leadership team. The first workshop explored organisational strengths and weaknesses and the cultural gap between the current state and future ambitions. The second translated these into high-impact changes in behaviours and actions. Together with a write-up of the workshops, Q5 also provided Parentkind with actionable insights and recommendations for both quick wins and long-term change. 

Q5 Foundation

Q5 also picked up an award in the Leadership in Community Service and Corporate Social Responsibility award, in Communitas’ community service and corporate social responsibility section. The firm’s Q5 Foundation work was lauded for its work with youth programmes, and charity partnerships in particular.

Founded in 2010, the Q5 Foundation aims to tackle economic inequality and poverty. It extends our charitable work beyond our core consulting business and allows us to make a meaningful impact in the communities around, with a dedicated team and over 60 consultants, working each year to drive initiatives to assist vulnerable people entering the workforce, start business initiatives, and provide executive coaching services free of charge in the third sector.

Along with Pop Up Consulting, this includes programmes partnering with initiatives such as the Futures Panel, University Placement Scheme, Partnership with 180 Degrees Consulting, and 10,000 Black Interns, to help promote professional skills development and career opportunities for diverse young people in business. To that end, Q5 is also partnering with CATCH, who provide career access and support for children and young adults from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds; recently helping to raise £15,000, and, through its pro-bono consulting initiative, helped redefine the initiative’s strategy – providing coaching, helping increase engagement, and developing cross-sector partnerships.

A release from Q5 exclaimed, “A huge thank you and well done to the whole Q5 team for your continuous work and dedication to the Q5 Foundation.”

Other winners of Communitas Awards include the likes of Coca-Cola for an agriculture project in Turkey, Bank of China for a corporate social responsibility project in Hong Kong, and Atlassian for a community building initiative in Australia. Q5 is one of the handful companies that won awards in multiple categories.