Consulting
My consulting work allows me to work flexibly with organisations to deliver value based on their needs. This could mean working within an organisation for a set period of time to deliver on a project or initiative, or it might mean delivering more ad-hoc support in the form of workshop facilitation to galvanise a team around an idea. I can also work from a brief to research and gather insights independently to deliver a stand-alone strategy, for example, social media or content.
My consulting work often sits in the marketing space but also frequently spans into the leadership space. With the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ being so closely linked, I’ve seen the most effective long-term impact where I’ve focused on creating ownership and buy-in to the strategy from the ground up. This means that my work stretches into helping marketing teams effectively operate a strategy on a day-to-day basis, so that the impact can be felt beyond my consulting period.
“Charlotte moves at a pace that is lightning quick, but still manages to maintain an incredible attention to detail and always manages to succinctly identify the opportunity for improvement… A strategic heavyweight, she is a welcome opinion around any area or business function. I have never met anyone who is able to give such relevant and succinct context to problem statements or initiatives.”
Courtney Ayre, Senior Marketing Manager (Les Mills International)
What do I actually do?
Case Study: Global Expansion for ClearScore, a fast-growing Fintech
Most recently, I have been working with ClearScore, a fast-growing Financial Technology company which is making a transition from a very successful UK focused start-up to a global business operating in South Africa and India, with an ambitious global expansion plan ahead. The CMO was a friend of mine who was taking some time out to have a baby, and she and the CEO asked me to come and have a chat about how I might be able to help.
To be successful globally, the business needed a global marketing team, so most of my focus was on creating just this. Team mindset, attitude and having a governance or process to accommodate global markets are key pillars. How should a global team think, behave and operate? How can they develop curiosity and respect for each other, suspending assumptions at all costs? How should they best communicate to feel like one team? How do they give and receive feedback cross-culturally with good intent? These are all questions the team are answering for themselves, with my support.
However as interim Global CMO, I was involved in much more than this! I was a temporary member of the C-suite, so I was leading marketing strategy, budgeting and planning for the year ahead. I hired and onboarded 3 senior leads in the team. I led the creation of a TV ad from brief to screen in 6 weeks, and jumped on a plane to India and South Africa to find partners who could help them execute their creative work in these markets in the coming years. The levers of the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ being pulled in equal measure to facilitate short-term change and long-term growth.
“Charlotte worked alongside me as interim CMO at ClearScore. What impressed me most was the speed with which she was able to understand the business, issues and find quick wins across people, processes and strategy.
Charlotte is a great listener and deeply committed to helping people achieve their goals. She brings a fabulous coaching mindset to helping her colleagues and her team. I am particularly grateful for how she drew on her extensive international marketing experience to help improve our marketing approach and way-of-working in our start-up countries in India and South Africa.”
Stephen Smyth, Head of International (ClearScore)
Case Study: Creating a world-class Marketing Strategy at a leading office park
The CEO of a leading global office park asked me to help the marketing team create a ‘world-class marketing strategy’ and to drive efficiency of the team. Over a series of 3-day long workshops, I supported the team to break this challenge down and by doing so, create a strategy and plan for the year ahead which was widely understood in the organisation, driving tangible efficiencies along the way. Ways of working and ‘how’ the plan would be executed were also addressed, focusing on stakeholder management and communication to drive alignment.
The team were able to make much progress by stepping away from the detail and, prompted by my objective facilitation, they came to some significant conclusions. As part of the process, I co-created a workshop with a wider stakeholder group on brand expression, which was a key pillar of the strategy and allowed a wide array of people in the organisation to understand and input to an important project. Models and frameworks were shared with the team throughout the process, so that they could look differently at the business, find solutions to their challenges and improve performance.
Examples of other types of consulting support I can offer:
The role of marketing within your organisation – how to firmly set marketing up to be widely understood and accepted as a driver of commercial success, beyond being a ‘colouring in’ department.
Go to market strategy – how to take a product or service to market, either direct to consumer or via a B2B strategy. Using experience gained working with major retailers, go to market for FMCG brands looking to enter the market via a retailer are my speciality.
Marketing audit – I’ll take a look at your marketing activity, spend, agency partners, plan and team and give you measurable suggestions on how to improve ROI.
Content and / or social media strategy – how to use content as your ‘always on’ brand message.
Employer / corporate brand – how to align your employment brand with your master brand. Stand out as an employer with strong and meaningful values.
Corporate wellness – how to introduce initiatives which contribute to employee wellbeing, driving talent acquisition, engagement and retention.
Galvanise a (marketing) team to be strong and purposeful – how to establish team purpose, key relationships, stakeholder management, internal value proposition, ‘team brand’.
I’m always happy to have a conversation on how I can help based on my diverse experience, so feel free to contact me to discuss.
“Charlotte creates an environment of trust and collaboration that allows teams to thrive. This ambition and drive for her brands makes her standout; it is her rigor in delivering results and ensuring creative product is grounded in reality that makes her a valued partner and business leader.”
Ben Stobart, VP Marketing & Portfolio, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (BT)