Following an external audit by the Institute of Consulting on 15 December, we are delighted to learn they have recommended that we retain our prestigious Premier Certified Practice for another three years until the next full audit.

It is the culmination of a busy period for the IC, recently merged with the Chartered Management Institute, and for ourselves, having just approved six new Certified Management Consultants (CMCs) within our team, and recertified another nine CMCs.  For the first time, all our consulting staff held CMC status at the time of the audit.  It was therefore good to be able to take stock with the IC, and agree how we work together in future as one of only a select handful of Premier Certified practices, which can confer its own CMC status on staff.

Much preparatory work went into the audit, involving the updating of processes to reflect how our business has evolved and improved over the last three years.  It has been an interesting exercise to assess just how much we have developed, both as an organisation and as individuals in our professional development.  We have new premises, new systems (server and time-logging), new branding and website, new staff, promotions and a huge amount of learning by all, so it was good to reflect on how far we have come in a short time.

Our auditor was most impressed with the evidence presented, and our internal systems to capture on-going learning, client accolades and produce case studies. He said we were ‘up there with the best’ of consultancy practices, which was encouraging feedback to have, and confirms that the high standards we set ourselves are being formally recognised externally.  Our rating was improved to ‘Exemplary’ (the highest possible), in reflection of this.

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