Warwick Clews talks to us about his career in consultancy and his expanding role as Simplify Consulting’s Non Executive Director.
Can you give us a brief overview of your career so far
I’ve always been a consultant – straight after university I went into Accenture where I spent 10 years in their Financial Services practice, which was a fantastic experience. 5 of us then left to set up Troika, a specialist FS consultancy which was different at the time as it only employed experienced people while also enabling us all to have a balanced life while being a consultant! Troika was acquired by Navigant and then again by Grant Thornton, where I was a partner before retiring and becoming a freelance consultant.
During your career, what is the biggest change you’ve seen in the Wealth Management sector?
Many of the largest changes were driven by regulation, e.g. A-day, RDR, pensions freedom, transparency of charging, TCF, all of which required a dramatic change in the way the industry had to move from internal product focus to concentrating on the customers. But probably the largest has been the digital revolution which has forced businesses to change their models, enabled numerous companies to enter the market with radical propositions and given more power to customers who are now driving changes in the market.
What has been your involvement in Simplify Consulting?
I’ve known Kate and Carl (the founding Directors) for a few years and it started with a informal few chats based on my experience setting up a small consultancy, and gradually grew into a more substantial role. We formalised my role as a NED recently as the company moved into it’s next stage of growth.
In your role as Non Exec Director, what do you do for Simplify Consulting?
My main focus is company strategy, helping with introductions and coaching Kate and Carl.
In your view, what do Consultancies have to do to add value
3 key things:
– bringing experience of many different FS companies to the clients (without giving the secrets away)
– ability to deal with complex issues, and turn these into practical solutions
– an external challenge and different way of thinking
Why did you get involved with Simplify Consulting?
I wanted to help build a company by using some of my experience, and apart from Kate and Carl being great people, I believe that Simplify offers something unique in terms of the people they offer, but also the style and culture of the company.
How are Simplify Consulting different?
It brings deep hands-on FS experience to our clients as all of our people have extensive experience in wealth management, life and pensions and platforms – as most have worked on the client side in addition to their consulting experience.
I mentioned the culture, which is very different, as demonstrated by their charity and community work which is an integral part of what the company stands for and is something everyone gets involved in.
www.simplifyconsulting.co.uk / warwick.clews@simplifyconsulting.co.uk