In 2017, the MCA developed and launched the ‘Consultancy Excellence Scheme;’ a framework comprising of nine principles that set the standards of ethical behaviour, client service and professionalism in the consulting industry. This framework is for the benefit of industry and clients alike as it encourages collaboration, increases transparency and commits all those who sign-up to the highest standards of service.
 

Thales Cyber and Consulting is committed to the MCA’s Consultancy Excellence Scheme 

Since the founding of our consultancy business in 1989, we have delivered the highest standard of technical and business change consultancy to clients who work in the most complex and regulated environments. By signing-up to the scheme we are signalling to our clients, and industry, that we also hold ourselves to the highest standards in ethical behaviours, client service and value and professional development.
 

As a signatory to the MCA Consulting Excellence Framework, Thales Cyber and Consulting is fully committed to the Consulting Excellence nine principles and three pillars: Ethical Behaviour; Client Service and Value; and Professional Development and now forms part of the consulting charter for which all our consultants are committed to delivering to our clients.
Pete Hoddinott, Managing Director of Cyber and Consulting

Nine principles of the MCA Consulting Excellence Scheme 

The MCA Consulting Excellence Scheme is built upon three pillars: Ethical Behaviour, Client Service and Value, and Professional Development. These pillars rest on a foundation of nine guiding principles: 
 

Ethical behaviour
  • We are responsible and good citizens
  • We conduct our business ethically
  • We foster an ethical culture
Client service and value
  • We provide excellent consulting services which deliver the outcomes clients seek and need
  • We are transparent with clients and respond to their concerns
  • We always strive to improve the value we can deliver to our clients
Professional Development
  • We undertake training and professional development planning each year
  • We promote strong core consulting capabilities and specialisms in our consultants and teams
  • We support our employees’ career progression, professional development and welfare 

Putting Consultancy Excellence into practice

Our commitment to the Consulting Excellence Scheme reflects our on-going dedication to the highest professional standards; here are some examples of how TC&C exemplifies the Consulting Excellence principles:

  • The firm’s commitment to ethical behaviour, including links to its ethical policy and any procedures for monitoring the effect of these policies
  • The firm’s commitment to client service and value, including outline policies, procedures, and materials used to raise client engagement with the scheme (from marketing and bid boilerplate and branding to bespoke innovations)
  • We are firmly aligned with the Thales Group policy, in aiming to be free of discrimination or bias on the basis of gender, race, age, religion, sexual orientation or disability.
  • We encourage diversity proactively at a consultant and leadership level on a day to day basis as well as through participation in client and Thales led events.
  • We comply with information governance requirements.
  • We support and encourage staff to gain membership of relevant professional bodies.
  • We obtain feedback from our clients on our processes and behaviours.
  • The leadership team regularly review all practices of consultants to ensure they are operating at a high standard. We measure this through alignment with our processes and KPIs complimented by the Consultancy Excellence Scheme.
  • We participate in mandatory training in diversity and ethical behaviours.
  • The firm’s commitment to career development, including evidence of Consulting Excellence staff awareness campaigns, and training, welfare and career progression and through the Consulting Development Programme launched in October 2016 to focus on the development of our consulting behaviours.
  • The firm’s commitment to the consultancy behaviour development through the delivery of the Consultancy Development Programme (CDP) which has been delivered to 30% of our consultants during 2017 and has commenced delivery to another 30% in 2018.
  • TC&C champions ‘smart working’ across the wider Thales organisation as we understand the importance of work/life balance and the benefit it brings to the firm and clients respectively.

Demonstrating support for consulting excellence principles 

Our commitment to the principles of the scheme frames our every interaction, is present in every part of our consultation process and in the way we work internally. To ensure we’re demonstrating our commitment in a consistent way, and keeping these principles at the forefront of our mind, at Thales Cyber and Consulting, we:

  • Circulate information on the Principles to our team annually and revisit our commitment statement twice yearly. 
  • Publish evidence of our commitment to the Consulting Excellence Principles on  our website
  • Incorporate material about the Principles in induction programmes and on our TC&C emails.
  • Where applicable promote the MCA Principles to our clients as a way to highlight the high standards we operate to.
  • Committed to working with and supporting the MCA through opportunity engagements.

Our Consultancy Development Programme (CDP) 

We have developed a Consultancy Development Programme specifically focused to further develop the behaviours of our highly qualified and experienced consultants. The programme specifically looks at the Leadership and Consultancy competencies through an assessment against a framework, which is aligned to the core Leadership and Thales values and the Consulting Excellence principles we expect of our consultants.

We have specifically developed a Consulting Competency Framework, where our consultants are assessed through a competency centre, enabling us to understand the competencies both in leadership and consulting, allowing us to tailor a development approach through the CDP.

Through specific training based on Franklin Covey, Task Orientated Negotiation, proposal writing and role modelling with periodic progress reviews and 360 assessments to track the individual consultant’s development.

This significant investment to support personal and professional development is critical to underpinning the wider business transformation to achieve our business objectives, which is individually led and behaviourally focused and directly aligned to the MCA Consulting Excellence Charter and ways of working.

In making this declaration, we recognise that this scheme will help clients to make better informed decisions so that both consultancies and clients can work together with confidence to achieve the desired goals.

To find out more about Thales Cyber & Consulting’s commitment to the Consulting Excellence Framework, please contact Pete Hoddinott, Managing Director of Cyber and Consulting.

Consulting excellence is a great initiative for the consulting industry as a whole and for MCA member firms in particular. By working together through Consulting Excellence, we can reinforce the expertise that underpins the best in consulting and create additional benefits for all our firms and clients
Howard Tollit, President MCA