Service Management Partnership

Whatever the specific project we may be commissioned to undertake - from the development of a green-field operation in total, say, to an organizational review or market or distribution study - our work takes this as its starting point: most of the decisions management will take will be strategic decisions. It is hardly possible to tinker with the 'machinery' of an organization any more without having impacts on performance throughout. That is because 'the machinery' in a service organization is frequently much more complex than the traditional text books would have us believe; services are different and management practices cultivated in a manufacturing environment will seldom hit the mark.

This demands that general management view change and its demands from an 'holistic' viewpoint which encompasses 'hard' aspects of service - the 'hard' aspects of service delivery and the service offering - and the performance of people, too. For that reason, the readings we take must be sound; the advice we give must be comprehensive and capable of action.

That is why, at SMP, we bring to our project work the combined disciplines of planning/marketing /analysis as well as many years' experience of organizational performance and behaviour, its design and development.

Critical to this is chemistry and trust - on both sides of the client/ consultant partnership. In SMP we do not nominate our best people to relationship management roles and our less qualified to project work! What you see is what you get: our partners, with 20+ years' consultancy experience apiece, working day-to-day on project work - because today, anything less would be unacceptable.

That goes for all our work, whether it is: helping to set strategic direction understanding an organization's potential - assessing the quality of resources and the ability to deliver - and what it would take to realize a Chief Executive's visiontaking readings on the outside worldor acting as confidants and sounding boards.

In the pages which follow you will find background information about SMP's partners, David Low and Frank Hore. We also provide outlines of some of our project work – to convince you that we do help to improve the odds! And, of course, there’s more in our archives - from developing a Global Relationship Management function for an international wholesale bank, to helping an overseas systems house prepare for an MBO.

Though we take pains to maintain client confidentiality, it is normally possible to put prospective clients into contact with referees in client companies to take soundings and references.