Odgers Connect 2017 Events

The Odgers Connect event series provides a convivial forum for clients and consultants to avail of thought leadership and stimulating debate relevant to their professional careers or to support the lifestyle of career independent consultants.

Our Q1 2017 event series covered current stimulating informative topics from Mindfulness practice through to the impact of the independent consultant in driving value creation of private equity backed businesses, all in a collegiate environment. 

Google, the US military and Transport for London are a handful of the organisations embracing Mindfulness practices in their workforce.

Mindfulness Coach Vanessa Dietzel shared how they are reaping the benefits of reduced stress, increased productivity and increased mental resilience. The group had the opportunity to try a selection of the meditation techniques that can be practically integrated into daily routines, and followed up with expressions of interest to continue to support each other in their practice of Mindfulness.

Vanessa herself began her career with the Boston Consulting Group and is an independent consultant. She works extensively with executive teams who don’t want to compromise between high performance and well-being.

On February 14th, Odgers Connect hosted a Negotiation Seminar for our Consultant Network led by John Viner- Smith, Principal at Mercer. John’s early career in Procurement, alongside his advisory work with Procurement teams formerly as a Partner at the GAP Partnership provided practical insight into how to overcome some of the apprehension felt entering into a conflict resolution scenario.

John covered both the detrimental impact our natural competitive tendencies can have on a negotiation, and the misperceptions associated with “Win Win” strategies. He also spoke to the importance of ethics and truth in negotiation.

On March 8th Adam Gates from Odgers Connect and Simon Havers from Odgers Berndtson hosted a Private Equity Breakfast event on the role of value enhancement and how best to achieve it. Joined by senior executives from the investment and portfolio sides of private equity, as well as a selection of independent consultants from the Odgers Connect network, there was much debate on how to get the right dynamic.

Given the shortage of new investment opportunities, much focus has turned to ensuring maximum returns on existing assets, and depending on the size of the fund there are many ways of achieving this through operational improvements. Questions discussed included who is the overall decision maker: the deal team, the portfolio team, or the asset’s CEO; can you be both a counsellor and at the same time be able to crack the whip; how do you best remain objective on behalf of the portfolio CEO; what’s the role of the Operating Partner and is EQ more important that IQ; and what is the right construct of a value strategy team – skeletal and hire independents, or build an in-house team capable of servicing the entire portfolio. Whilst there does not seem to be a ‘one size fits all’ solution, the consensus seemed to be the need for agility and an offering that is relative to the fund and portfolio company, and the need to use experts who can truly work with management teams and investors.

We look forward to a continued pipeline of events as 2017 progresses. On the evening of April 26th, we will be joined by Professor Chris Roebuck of Cass Business School to share his experience of Transformational Leadership.

For more information please contact Maria Nally