Our Working Philosophy

As far back as the 1950’s, management guru Peter Drucker claimed a firm has only two functions: marketing and innovation, the rest are costs. Not only was he exclaiming that a firm should understand and satisfy the needs of customers, he was claiming that a marketing mind set was the way to do it. Drucker was ahead of his time because it is only until recently that empirical research has demonstrated that a market orientation (MO) is the bed rock of company performance. Additionally, an innovation orientation (IO) is a significant factor in firm success. This has been proven time and time again in many research settings, including the professional services sector.

A market orientation (not marketing) is a strategic variable that delineates a firm culture and set of behaviours that underpins firm success. At SRC, we believe a market orientation is the correct lens with which to view a firm’s activities in all areas of strategy, leadership, culture, client relations, and people management. As the key driver of firm value, adopting the ideas of the marketing concept should be a high priority amongst firm seniors and accepted at the highest echelons of the firm. This is what we aim to achieve.

In his book, Practice What You Preach, David Maister identified nine factors which predicted financial performance in professional service firms. Although an interesting read, much of what he found is a sub set of research into MO. At SRC, we take the broad concepts of MO and IO and use these to work through the issues you are facing in your firm to bring about sustainable and effective change.

Our Values

We strive to deliver the highest level of value we can to our clients and in doing so provide an unconditional guarantee of our work. If, for whatever reason, you are dissatisfied with the work we are doing, we will accept a reduction of our fees and allow you to pay us based on the level of value you feel was received. We only ask for an informal discussion of where the problems lay.

We charge on a fixed fee basis, provide absolute confidentiality to our clients, and work diligently in providing our clients with the knowledge and tools they need to help solve their business problems.