The average life expectancy of businesses is decreasing. A venerable business in the 1950s could be expected to survive for around 50 years. Now, that’s down to 20.

Investigations into the lifespan of the average businesses have concluded, and results are in: companies are living in a highly volatile, complex and disruptive environment. New technologies, changing climates and unforeseen emergencies such as the recent coronavirus pandemic are challenging organisations of all sizes. Failing to prepare and adapt to the changing face of technology – and society – can be fatal.

So, in the commercial survival of the fittest, how can businesses stay afloat? How can they thrive in this ever-changing world?

For a long time, businesses pondering these questions have landed on the solution of working with a consultancy. Don’t know how to solve a problem? Bring someone in who does. A sensible solution but, as businesses have slipped into moribund modes of operations, so too have the consultancies they look to for help. They are, after all, businesses themselves.

Until now.

After working in business consultancy (or ‘change’) for numerous years, Sullivan & Stanley founder, Pat Lynes, had spent countless hours in countless offices when he had an epiphany: things just weren’t working. From the office environment and atmosphere to agility of operations, it was clear that businesses needed a new kind of consultancy – one driven by teams of experts with years of real-world, client-side experience – who can de-risk change, deliver results fast and ultimately increase business lifespans.

With knowledge of structural strategy, methods of innovation and upskilling of internal teams, the right ‘change partner’ can deliver massive benefits to businesses small and large – helping them avoid the dreaded early death of the modern business.

Pat named Sullivan & Stanley after his two children – more than enough motivation, he says, for him to make the business a success.

‘We were born in 2016 with a strong vision to inspire the future of work,’ Pat says, explaining the company’s foundation. ‘We wanted to leverage the power of an expert movement and grow, city by city, to offer an alternative to the management consulting services that are out there at the moment.’

‘We’re a consulting disruptor, and we want to challenge the status quo in the workplace.’

Undertaking an investigation into the declining life expectancy of the business, Sullivan & Stanley identified three core areas that contribute to company demise: talent capability gap, speed gap and outdated performance models.

Highlighting and targeting these aspects of companies it partners with, Sullivan & Stanley can identify unique and effective solutions for businesses across all sectors.

To help companies become innovative and agile, Sullivan & Stanley’s approach must be tailored to its clients. Shunning large scale transformations and tired PowerPoint presentations, they established an expert network of change practitioners, known as ‘The Change Society’.

The Change Society is part of Sullivan & Stanley’s proprietary ‘Teams as a Service’ (TaaS) model, which rapidly deploys expert teams with the skills and assets required to help businesses cut through the uncertainty of change, co-create unique solutions, and embrace change as a constant.

Aside from delivering valuable work, The Sullivan & Stanley upskills internal employees and delivers a sustainable change legacy; giving companies and individuals the tools to avoid early failure and succeed in the long term.

Sullivan & Stanley embraces this ethos within its own business. It is continuously evolving itself and, therefore, is designing a new model which will make it the blueprint of the ideal organisation.

Its success gives credit to the belief that, through effective change, businesses can thrive; but will this remain the case? What about tomorrow’s business landscape?

‘There’s a real opportunity, now and in the future, to create more diverse organisations,’ explains Claire Arnold, Lead Associate at Sullivan & Stanley.‘Not just in the types of people, but in the connectivity with the community you serve that that brings’.

‘In the end, the best consultant is a redundant consultant. They’ve done their job.’

Find out more at www.sullivanstanley.com or get in touch via hello@sullivanstanley.com

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