Redpoint Energy and Baringa Partners have announced today that they are planning to merge to create an organisation with a depth of expertise in the European energy space on a scale that is unparalleled.

The merger, likely to happen in Spring 2012, will establish Baringa’s Energy Advisory Services (EAS) practice as a combination of the analytical, policy and energy market capability of Redpoint with the advisory capability of Baringa. The current Redpoint Directors will join Baringa Partner Jayesh Parmar to form the practice leadership team. EAS will sit alongside Baringa’s established market-leading transformation capability across the energy value chain, and will position Baringa as one of Europe’s largest teams of dedicated energy consultants.

Explaining the decision to merge, Phil Grant, Director at Redpoint said: “Redpoint Energy and Baringa Partners share a common set of internal and external values, have worked closely together since Redpoint’s foundation in 2004, and already have an element of cross-ownership.”

Grant continued: “Our intention is to build on the strong platform of growth both organisations have experienced over recent years and service our clients with an end-to-end policy, regulation, strategy and delivery capability.”

Commentating on the unique position of the combined entity, Mohamed Mansour, Managing Partner at Baringa, said: “The energy landscape in Europe is changing dramatically, with policy responses to environmental and security of supply concerns, evolving supply and demand side technologies, and dramatically changing global market dynamics. Our clear shared vision is to be the advisor of choice in helping our clients shape, define and deliver change in European Energy markets.”

Mansour continued: “The combined organisation will provide the market with an unparalleled advisory capability offering high quality analysis and advice alongside transformation and performance improvement services. And it will enable clients to make the most of the opportunities while overcoming the challenges that the new landscape presents.”

The merger will also support the growth plans of Redpoint and Baringa, including expansion into new regions as well as enabling more ambitious investment in people, services and intellectual capital.

Source:  www.top-consultant.com

Appointments strengthen senior management team as Baringa builds on success of energy and financial services practices.

London, 14 September, 2011 – Baringa Partners, the leading independent management consultancy specialising in the energy, utilities and financial services sectors, has promoted Claire Paisley and James Beverley to Partners in the business. These internal appointments recognise Claire and James’s exceptional contribution to Baringa, both in their leadership within the firm, and in their client work across the financial services and energy sectors, respectively.

“Financial services is an exciting sector in which to work and, with such major upheaval occurring in such a short space of time, it remains a challenging but rewarding industry,” commented Claire Paisley. “Baringa continues to serve a wide range of clients in the sector, delivering industry-leading projects. At the same time, Baringa’s ambition, strong support network and commitment to both clients and staff not only provides an engaging working environment but has enabled me to further my development and I am delighted to have been appointed as a Partner.”

James Beverley said: “To be involved with a company that has maintained such impressive growth while staying true to its values is testament to the calibre and capabilities of its people. The way Baringa works and delivers on projects reflects the strong working culture embodied by our employees and success in establishing long-term partnerships with clients. Leading business-critical change programmes with such a reputable company is a great privilege and I am looking forward to the years ahead in my new role as Partner.”

Managing Partner, Mohamed Mansour, said: “It gives me great pleasure to promote both Claire and James to Partner. Both have demonstrated exceptional expertise and commitment in their respective fields, excelling in the delivery of client work to the highest quality. These appointments are also a demonstration of our continued commitment to attracting, motivating and rewarding individuals with the talents of Claire and James.”

These promotions follow the appointment earlier this year of Jayesh Parmar as Partner with specific responsibility for Baringa’s new Energy Advisory Service. In addition, Baringa Partners recently appointed Maik Neubauer as Partner following its establishment of an office in Germany to address the wealth of opportunities presented by the evolving energy and financial services markets in central and Eastern Europe.

Source:  www.top-consultant.com

London/Düsseldorf — Baringa Partners LLP, the leading independent management consultancy specialising in the energy, utilities and financial services sectors, is expanding into Central Europe by integrating the business of Germany-based management consultancy firm The Executive Partners Group. The Baringa management team will be strengthened by the addition of the Managing Director of the Executive Partners Group, Maik Neubauer. Maik’s experience as former COO and Board Member of the European Energy Exchange (EEX) and in several management positions at consulting organisations including IBM Global Services and C1 Group, will enable the development of Baringa’s presence in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Eastern Europe.

Baringa Partners LLP has enjoyed continuous growth since it was founded in 2000 in the UK and has developed a strong client base comprising blue-chip energy companies and banks across Europe. The company employs 200 consultants and in 2010 it generated a turnover of more than £35m / €39M. This move formalises Baringa’s presence in Germany, and is a demonstration of its commitment to the European market, in which it has been active for some time.

“With the integration of the Executive Partners Group, and a reinforced presence on the ground in Europe, Baringa Partners creates the foundation for sustainable support of our established client relationships in Germany as well as future growth across Central and Eastern Europe,” said Mohamed Mansour, Managing Partner at Baringa. “We are pleased to bring Maik Neubauer on board, as part of our European management team: the combination of his networks and experiences with our capabilities provides a strong base from which to deliver for clients at the highest possible level on major projects. Together we will continue our company’s growth across the region.”

Maik Neubauer, current Managing Director of the Executive Partners Group, will join the German subsidiary of Baringa LLP as a new Partner and help to expand the business in the D-A-CH region and in Eastern Europe. As part of the integration, the business activities of the Executive Partners Group will be transferred to Baringa Partners LLP. The company will initially be represented in the German market with offices in Düsseldorf and Hamburg.

The focus of the Germany-based practice will continue to be the provision of consulting services for companies in the energy, utilities and finance sector, assisting clients with complex organisational, business management, technological innovation and transformation projects.

Source: www.top-consultant.com

Baringa Partners LLP, the specialist management consultancy serving the energy and financial services sectors, has reported a successful financial year completed 31st March 2011. Turnover is up 38 per cent to £38m, supported by a 42 per cent rise in head count. Baringa Partners ended the financial year with 173 employees operating across Europe from the company’s UK base in London.

“Baringa Partners has enjoyed another strong year of growth, which has seen us consolidate our position as the specialist consultancy of choice in the financial services and energy markets,” said managing partner, Mohamed Mansour. “While economic conditions remain challenging, we have been privileged to have many clients continue to turn to us for their major transformation projects as well as to help them identify and capitalise on the opportunities that exist, particularly against the background of new regulation in these markets.”

Operating across the financial services and energy and utilities sectors, Baringa’s work is characterised by large-scale, business-critical change projects for clients that deliver discernible value. Notable success this year include the implementation of a new operating model for a wholesale energy client, reduction of margin leakage for a major European retail energy client, and defining the leadership structure to enable a five-year growth strategy at a leading insurance firm. In addition, we supported our client to define and build a new corporate bank in Europe for a Universal Bank. Baringa has also made significant strides to diversify its existing capabilities through the hiring of two new partners, one to lead the Insurance practice, and another to ensure Delivery Excellence across the business. The next year will also see the company formally establish its Energy Advisory Services practice.

“Attracting, retaining and motivating the best people in the business is fundamental to our ongoing success, a driver for our growth and will always be a major focus for us,” commented Jim Hayward, senior partner. “This financial year we were delighted to be recognised as the Best Place to Work by the Great Place to Work® (GPTW) Institute for a second consecutive year and ranked 18th by The Sunday Times in its list of 100 Best Small Companies to Work For. By establishing this workplace culture, we can continue to deliver for clients at the highest possible level.”

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) also remains a key commitment for Baringa and is an important element of being a GPTW. In the last two years, Baringa has doubled its CSR committee to six people, increased the number of charity partners it supports from three to five and increased the amount donated to charity six-fold. Recent charity works have included a team bike ride to Paris and the transformation of an area of land to support a local vegetable-growing scheme.

“The coming year promises to be just as exciting,” Mansour continued. “We aim to continue to grow our business organically across our existing areas of focus, and with the introduction of new practices, including our Energy Advisory Services business. We will also be expanding our presence in banking, and formally establishing an office in Germany, and will continue to build on the opportunities we see emerging across our business. In addition, we are planning a year of highly-focused investments targeting Baringa’s internal operations to ensure consistent high-quality delivery for our clients.”

Source:  www.top-consultant.com

Baringa Partners, the leading independent management consultancy specialising in the energy, utilities and financial services sectors, has appointed Jayesh Parmar as partner with responsibility its new Energy Advisory Service (EAS) practice. Parmar brings a wealth of experience and his appointment will enable Baringa to develop and grow its advisory services further.

The EAS practice will expand the strategic consultancy Baringa currently offers its energy and utilities clients, many of whom are looking for opportunities to restructure or shape their organisation, tighten the management of assets or improve overall business performance in an exciting climate of change. The development of a dedicated EAS practice will also further strengthen Baringa’s relationship with its strategic partner Redpoint Energy.

Parmar has more than twenty years of experience in the energy sector, particularly in the oil, gas and utilities verticals, and joins Baringa from the Energy Practice at Oliver Wyman. His initial focus in his new role will be to build on Baringa’s current offerings and reinforce the Company’s position as a preferred strategic partner.

Commenting on his new role, Parmar said: “I’m thrilled to be joining Baringa Partners and to have the chance to shape and expand the EAS practice. It’s a great opportunity to develop and extend the energy advisory services currently offered by Baringa, and I am particularly looking forward to strengthening the strategic relationship with Redpoint Energy and growing our complementary capabilities and services.”

Mohamed Mansour, managing partner at Baringa commented: “The appointment of Jayesh comes at a significant time. Increasing volatility in the energy markets and massive investment in infrastructure, mean that organisations are increasingly looking to tighten operations to ensure full optimisation of vital resources. His experience in delivering performance-enhancing strategy solutions to assist clients in meeting these aims makes him an invaluable member of the team and we are delighted to welcome him as a partner.”

Duncan Sinclair, director of Redpoint Energy commented: “Jayesh has been a key player in the energy industry for many years and we are delighted that he is joining Baringa to head up its Energy Advisory Services. This is a great opportunity to marry his strategic thinking and client relationships with Redpoint’s leading market expertise and analytical capabilities. We are very much looking forward to working alongside him.”

Prior to Oliver Wyman, Parmar headed up Ernst & Young’s energy advisory team and holds B.Sc and Ph.D degrees in Chemical Engineering from Loughborough University.

Source: www.top-consultant.com

Baringa Partners, the leading independent management consultancy specialising in energy, utilities and financial services, saw a team of its consultants leave London to commence their challenge of cycling to Paris, by tea-time the following day.

The Baringa team – Dan Gaunt, Nick Bailey, Emma Towers, Paul Vivash, David Wilson and Will Armitage, left Buckingham Palace at 4.00pm to commence the first 70 miles to catch the 10.30pm ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe. Arriving at in France at 03.30am, and already slightly sore from the previous day, they set off in the pitch black in the direction of Paris.

Eventually, with 200 miles on the speedometer and approximately one hours sleep, the team completed its journey to Paris in a total time of 23 hours and 12 minutes.

The cyclists undertook the challenge last month, to raise money for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research – chosen not only because of the outstanding work it does, but also because of the inspiration of Gareth Crockett, a cyclist who very recently tragically died on his bike whilst trying to raise £10,000 by riding more than 450 miles and running four marathons in eight days for the same charity. In total, the team raised £2804.64 for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.

Commenting on the team’s achievement, Nick Bailey, consultant at Baringa said: “We were delighted to complete the journey from London to Paris in less than 24 hours. The distance of 200 miles was a challenge enough, but with sleep deprivation and the sheer hours spent in the saddle – it was hard! We certainly tested our physical limits but knowing we were raising money for a good cause certainly kept us going. Some highlights from the journey included reaching the ferry on time; the eeriness of cycling through the night; some amazing French countryside; and finally setting our sights on the Eiffel Tower. And of course…a well-chilled beer and a steak on arrival! One of the lowest moments was reaching the Arc de Triomphe and finding out that we had to make it round to the 5th exit! But it was all well worth it in the end.”

Kate White, Fundraising Director for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, said: “It’s great that the Baringa team managed to complete their challenge in under 24 hours, raising money for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. Every penny raised will be invested in our leading research which is making a real difference to the lives of patients with blood cancers including leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma.” These cancers are diagnosed in around 28,500 children, teenagers and adults in the UK every year.

Source:  www.top-consultant.com

Baringa Partners, the independent management consultancy specialising in energy, utilities and financial services, teamed up with gardening and landscaping social enterprise, Time to Green to create a planting space for fruit and vegetables in support of a growing scheme based at Ealing Hospital. Baringa organised for a team to complete the project as part its fourth company charity day this year.

The site at Brent Lodge Park in Ealing had formally been used as a goat enclosure before being gifted to the hospital-based social enterprise by The Animal Centre. The Baringa team’s task was to transform the area into a series of beds suitable for growing. Under Time to Green’s direction, this involved clearing the overgrown site of nettles and cutting back the grass, marking out the best areas for the beds to be sited, constructing the supporting timber frames and replacing the top soil with nutrient-rich compost. Baringa also improved the entrance to the site with an arbour.

Now ready for planting, the plot will be used by the hospital-based enterprise for a project providing rehabilitation services to patients affected by mental health illnesses. The enterprise will grow fruit and vegetables in the beds constructed by Baringa and produce will be sold locally via a veg box scheme, making the venture self-funding and less susceptible to threat of cut backs.

Alex Gurr, senior manager and CSR team member at Baringa commented: “We are proud to be involved with this scheme and the team really relished the opportunity to have such a pivotal role in something so beneficial to the local community. Baringa Partners plan to be involved in future too. The area has space for a further six beds and we hope to contribute some further manpower later in the year to develop the additional growing space. We’re all really looking forward to seeing the first crops bedded in and providing produce.”

The veg box scheme will offer the chance to develop vital workplace skills as well as therapeutic rehabilitation for patients at Ealing Hospital. The many visitors to Brent Lodge Park will also benefit from the improved aesthetics of the growing areas, while younger visitors will have the opportunity to learn about the origins of produce.

Source:  www.top-consultant.com

Workplace culture earns specialist management consultancy top spot again, together with ‘Laureate’ status for ranking in the top 20 for five consecutive years.

Baringa Partners retains title as UK’s best place to work

Baringa Partners has been named as the best place to work in the UK by The Great Place to Work Institute for a second year. This marks Baringa’s fifth consecutive year in the Best Workplaces rankings, earning the management consultancy Laureate status. Today’s news follows a top 20 spot for Baringa Partners in the 2011 list of the ‘Best Small Companies to Work For’ published by The Sunday Times, reflecting Baringa’s ongoing commitment to investing in its staff and nurturing an excellent workplace culture.

“We are delighted to top the rankings as the best place to work for a second year, and to have been listed for five years running reflects our consistent drive and passion to ensure employees are working in a positive environment,” states Jim Hayward, Senior Partner at Baringa Partners. “We are extremely proud of our people. For any consultancy with personnel often based on site with clients, maintaining a sense of corporate identity and a team environment can be difficult. However, our high-calibre employees have always been at the heart of our culture, and we encourage everyone who works here to have their say in the direction the company takes, and the core values we embrace. We are committed to identifying ways in which we can continuously improve as an organisation, both in terms of our culture and how we work and endeavour to do so based on ongoing feedback from our employees and clients.”

As a leading consultancy in the energy, utilities and financial services sectors, Baringa Partners clinched top spot for the first time in last year’s Best Workplaces rankings, having placed second in 2008 and 2009 behind Google and Danone respectively. Baringa has continued to build on this, and was this year shortlisted in two special award categories – ‘Learning & Development’ and ‘Most Trusted Leadership’ – by The Great Place to Work® Institute, as well as being listed 7th in the ‘small and medium companies’ category for Europe.

“Baringa Partners attracts committed people with deep market-focused expertise and a track record of delivering outstanding service to clients,” Hayward continues. “Such employees deserve to be fully supported through their careers, even if they are not working in one central office. Rather than simply being an HR formality, we have processes ingrained throughout the company, with all new starters provided with a ‘buddy’ for the first year, whilst all staff are assigned a dedicated career advisor who acts as a mentor throughout the individual’s time at Baringa.”

In what can often be a male-dominated arena, Baringa makes a considerable effort to support its female employees, running a Women’s Forum to encourage staff to realise their full potential. There is also a twice yearly weekend away for employees and their partners, where team-building activities and a dinner feature on the agenda, whilst an annual Christmas party is held for the children of employees. Baringa has increased the number of female employees by 50 per cent in the last 12 months.

“The last year has seen our biggest growth to date, and we plan to continue this expansion and development in the firm across several dimensions.” adds Mohamed Mansour, Managing Partner, Baringa Partners. “I am proud that we have been able to maintain the strong workplace values we implemented when the company was established throughout our growth, and am confident that this will continue to benefit new and existing employees, and crucially, to translate to the work we do for our clients.”

More than 1.5 million employees across 40 countries are involved in The Best Workplaces Programme, making it the largest of its kind worldwide. The rankings include input from both management and employees ensuring the process captures all aspects of a workplace’s culture, values and successes.

Source: www.top-consultant.com

Anyone trying to grow a consultancy in these straitened times will tell you the importance of having a strong employer brand. It’s no longer possible or desirable to simply wave a chequebook at the market, and candidates are in any case more discerning than that these days, asking penetrating questions about culture, career progression and company ethics.

So for a consultancy to be named “Best place to work in the UK” (by the Great Place to Work Institute no less) is quite an achievement. Even more so when you learn that the winner is not a global Big 4 consultancy with legions of HR people but a smallish, niche consultancy with its roots in the wholesale energy and utilities sectors.

Baringa Partners has been successfully growing at 25-30% per annum for the last seven years, a big task but one that has been made considerably easier by the company’s remarkably low churn rate of 3%.

David Edwards, a partner in Baringa’s Energy practice, puts this down to a strong focus on culture coupled with a highly selective recruitment process:

“We’re a pure meritocracy, we’re not a company who will hold people back just because the economy suffers a downturn,” he says. “People come to us and say ‘I know I’m in the top percentile at my firm but there’s a freeze on promotion.’”

However, that person will also need to fit the company profile:

“People may have been exceptional in the company they worked for and can tick every other box but it is important that we feel that they will thrive in the culture we have created at Baringa and that they have a strong desire to contribute to all aspects of the company’s future growth,” he says.

Baringa traces its roots to a US consultancy called the Structure Group, which grew up in the late 1990s on the back of energy deregulation and naturally saw opportunities in Europe. However, the two arms of the company began to diverge over time, with the US firm based strongly around a software product, while the European firm became more of a pure business and IT change consultancy. The two partnerships completed their formal separation in 2009 with the rebranding of the European firm as Baringa Partners.

Now the firm specialises in energy and utilities and over the past couple of years has also grown a successful financial services division focused on retail banking, insurance and capital markets.

“As a company that focuses on domain expertise, it was a big step to add another vertical,” explains Edwards. “But we felt financial services was a fairly organic step-out. For example, there’s a clear overlap from trading energy into other commodities and capital markets. It’s been very successful and we haven’t diluted our brand with existing clients. On the contrary—they appreciate the cross-industry perspective.”

Baringa may look in the future for other industry areas—resources, chemicals or telecoms are possibilities—which follow the same logic and fit with the brand. The model for expansion will be the same as into financial services—recruiting a lead partner to grow the practise combined with strong support and integration with the existing business. Similarly, the firm is looking for a lead partner to grow an office in Germany to serve their clients in the region.

“We’ve also made a move into delivery excellence and have brought in a partner to build a strong horizontal around programme and project management,” says Edwards.

Other areas of development include broadening the scope of the consultancy, adding both strategy and business advisory capability and post implementation support services.

When not bringing in specific outside expertise, the firm will be actively looking to promote partners from within and it has created two partners in the last 18 months.

Edwards recognises that at 150 fee earners, Baringa has reached one of those inflection points where maintaining growth and preserving the company culture becomes a challenge. Nonetheless, he believes the company is building a strong infrastructure and platform for growth, which will sustain it for at least the next three to five years:

“As we get bigger, it will become more of a challenge and we will have to be more innovative about how we organise,” says Edwards. “We may have to break down the business to more manageable chunks so we can maintain the same sense of ownership and individuality.”

At the moment Baringa is the proud owner of the Best place to Work Award, and as the company pushes ahead with growth, Edwards confirms that the award really is helping with recruitment—a reminder to all consultancies of the importance of delivering to consultants as well as to clients.

Source:  Top-Consultant

Baringa Partners has been named as the best place to work in the UK by The Great Place to Work Institute.

2010 sees the culmination of a four-year period in which Baringa Partners has been consistently recognised among the top twenty Best Workplaces in the UK, achieving a second-place ranking for the past two years, behind Danone and Google respectively.

Baringa Partners, which was also named as the 11th best workplace in Europe in the small and medium companies’ category, is a leading consultancy operating in the energy, utilities and financial services sectors. In addition to its number one ranking, Baringa Partners won the Most Trusted Leadership Excellence Award and were finalists in six special award categories, including the Health and Wellbeing Excellence Award, the Learning & Leadership Sustainability Excellence Award and the Corporate Responsibility Excellence Award.

The Best Workplaces Programme is the largest of its kind, with more than 1.5 million employees involved across 40 countries. Companies are ranked according to the results of an employee survey, which ensures that employees make a substantial contribution to the final position, and a management questionnaire that provides an analysis of the values, policies and practices that underpin an organisation’s culture.

Jim Hayward, Senior Partner at Baringa, says: “We are truly honoured by this accolade which comes at a particularly pleasing time for us as we celebrate our tenth anniversary this year. From the start, we have put our employees at the heart of the business and our first-place ranking underscores our unswerving commitment to create a positive and stimulating working environment for everyone at Baringa. Our core values are defined by everyone in the company and are hardwired into our corporate DNA. They guide and inspire our people to continuously grow themselves, our business and our clients’. They form the bedrock of our great place to work culture, are emphasised in all publications we produce and feature in our appraisal process. We even have a quarterly awards scheme in place that, among other categories, has a prize for the individual who has made an exceptional contribution to one or more of our core values.”

Hayward continues: “Our people are characterised by their deep market-focused expertise and absolute commitment to delivering outstanding value and service to clients. In return, we are committed to supporting them throughout their career. All new starters are provided with a ‘buddy’ for the first year who can provide advice and unofficial help. In addition, all staff members are assigned a career advisor as part of the induction process who acts as a mentor throughout the individual’s time at Baringa. And thanks to our flat non-hierarchical structure they also have constant access to the management team, who work closely alongside them with no distinction by rank or seniority. We strongly believe that our supportive culture motivates our people to perform to the best of their ability. That’s reflected in the feedback we hear from clients, and the extremely low attrition rates for Baringa compared to the rest of our industry.”

The firm also runs a Women’s Forum, which encourages female staff members to take charge of their career progression and realise their full potential in the consulting world. Twice a year the company hosts a weekend away for employees and their partners. These weekends typically include a company update and teambuilding activity as well as an informal dinner and dance. Baringa Partners also holds an annual Christmas party for employees’ children. Furthermore, its core values extend beyond the workplace and into the community with an active corporate social responsibility programme.

Mohamed Mansour, Managing Partner at Baringa, adds: “As an organisation, we have successfully navigated the downturn and defied market conditions to grow our client base, headcount and revenue significantly in the last two years. Over the past year, we have delivered strategically important, high-impact change programmes across a comprehensive range of businesses. Baringa’s success is a testament to the strong foundations upon which we have built the company and is a credit to the calibre of our people”

Mansour concludes: “We maintain a consistent and uncompromising focus on getting the right people into Baringa. Once the right people are on board we empower them to make a difference both at client sites and internally. Indeed, it’s hugely satisfying to note that many of our Great Place to Work initiatives, policies and practices have been initiated bottom up rather than top down. We plan to continue our robust growth trajectory during 2010 and beyond, while ensuring we maintain the culture that all our people have helped create.”

Source: Top-Consultant