Early involvement in transition planning pays off
David Walker, co-founder of Crookes Walker Consulting, tells how early involvement from J Gadd Associates helped to shape the engineering consultancy’s approach to employee-ownership
Make or break
“I’d first come across Jeremy Gadd in 2019, as we had started the process of moving to employee-ownership (EO). He’d been highly recommended by our solicitors, Postlethwaite, to get people on board and through the transition process. My co-founder, Paul Crookes, and I had an initial phone meeting with Jeremy and Associate Lisa and we liked their approach. We then met them at our Birmingham office. We talked through our company’s history and how we managed the business so they could get a feel for us, our values and ethos. In early 2020, we set up workshops with Associates Lisa and Philippa to help the senior management team to understand what EO was and why we were doing it. We needed them to understand the impact. Our senior management team could make or break the transition and it was essential that we had the Associates on board to support us. They helped us to get everyone ready for the change.”
The big issues
“The workshops were extremely useful because the senior management team had someone to engage with, rather than just me and Paul. It helped them to get everything out that was concerning them and it was useful to have Lisa and Philippa field the difficult questions asked by the Associates – their independence was key. Lisa and Philippa worked well together during our workshops.
The fact that they have a track record of supporting other businesses through transition gave them credibility. This was not their first rodeo.
They were open and honest about bumps in the road – and how that was perfectly normal – and that gave us confidence. We talked about potential negative issues and got into the big issues straight away. Lisa and Philippa were very good at teasing things out of people by working in small groups and then sharing the outputs. It helped people’s understanding of EO. From those workshops we developed frequently asked questions (FAQs) that could be shared with the wider team.”
Plans put on ice
“We were about four or six weeks away from transitioning to EO – and then lockdown happened. It was such an uncertain time for the construction industry that it was not right to make a big change, so we decided to put our transition on ice and concentrate on keeping the business going. But a lot of the good stuff we had talked about with Lisa and Philippa was implemented during lockdown: senior managers were having more open communication with their staff and the strategies were put in place.
Because they had set us up so well, we were able to carry on by ourselves after lockdown. We had had time for it all to sink in and the Associates had given us the tools to work with, such as the FAQs and EO background documents. We finally transitioned just before Christmas 2022.”
“Lisa and Philippa worked well together during our workshops. The fact that they have a track record of supporting other businesses through transition gave them credibility. This was not their first rodeo. They were open and honest about bumps in the road – and how that was perfectly normal – and that gave us confidence.”
Dave Walker - Co-founder, Crookes Walker Consulting
Dave and Paul with the senior team who led their transition to employee ownership
Good value
“Those early workshops really helped to shape our approach and set the right foundations for transition. Lisa and Philippa were honest and spoke in a language that was easy to understand, and that helped us. They are approachable and people felt they could ask them questions and not be made to feel stupid. There were a lot of things that J Gadd Associates could have done to help us and, if we had unlimited budget, we would have done it all – but we chose the things that would be the best value for us and I feel we got good value. Our case is not normal and, in the usual flow, we would have had more but they have given us excellent support, keeping in touch and offering helpful advice.”
Summary
J Gadd Associates (JGA) began a short and focussed piece of work with Crookes Walker Consulting early in 2020 as the business was preparing to transition to employee-ownership. Mentoring workshops were held with senior managers to develop understanding of employee-ownership, prepare them for transition and support with onward communication.
About Crookes Walker Consulting
Crookes Walker Consulting is an engineering consultancy, offering sustainable MEP design and professional services to the property and construction industries. It was founded in 2004 and now operates from offices in Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham with around 65 employees. It became employee-owned at the end of December 2022
