Two local management consulting firms are pooling their expertise and partnering up in order to help businesses in the capital scale up and grow.
Nīewe Consulting – formerly Baiame Consulting – and STAND Advisors are working together to provide guidance and expertise to SMEs in areas such as team building, governance, strategy and leadership.
The pair specifically work with established business owners looking to scale up, a group that is often overlooked by the consulting industry, says Pascal St-Jean, co-founder of STAND Advisors.
While early-stage startups tend to have local support from their economic development agencies and large enterprise companies can afford pricey billable rates, SMEs are left to fuel growth on their own.
Together, Nīewe and STAND are looking to close that gap for their clients.
“What’s missing is support for those in between a small startup and a large enterprise,” says St-Jean. “Together, we are assisting those companies who have product market fit and are trying to scale by building a management team, by being more strategic and growing beyond their current experience level.”
To achieve that, St-Jean and his team use the STAND growth alignment model to help entrepreneurs grow into enterprises – a program which partnering firms such as Nīewe deliver to clients in their markets.
By adopting STAND’s “10 Ts scale-up framework,” which helps leaders learn how to be accountable, delegate responsibility and find and develop the right talent, Nīewe Consulting will be armed with a new framework that fits in well with the firm’s existing approach, says Emilie Wilcox, managing partner at Nīewe Consulting.
“From our perspective it is a perfect time to partner with STAND because of the alignment of our values and what we are trying to achieve,” she says. “What STAND does well and why we wanted to partner with them is that combination of self-directed learning and accountability.”
A dynamic partnership
Wilcox and St-Jean initially realized the synergy between their two firms at a Forty Under 40 awards banquet, of which they are both past recipients.
While STAND works with several partnering firms across North America, Nīewe will be the first Ottawa-based company to adopt the scale-up framework, which is great news for those local companies looking to outperform the competition, says St-Jean.
“We’re trying to empower various partners to be able to have an impact on small and medium businesses in their market,” he says. “The majority of businesses don’t fail in the startup phase, but in the scale up phase. We’re trying to change that.”
Using a mix of advisory services and online learning, users of the growth program can discover the gaps in their business structure and gain access to the tools needed to develop the mindset, strategy, and execution plan to drive growth – covering everything from trajectory to work-life balance for both owners and employees.
For Wilcox, it’s the perfect addition to Nīewe Consulting’s existing list of services.
“It is not traditional consulting, it allows for more flexibility and agility,” she says. “If a client is strong in certain areas, we move on to those other areas that need more help. We understand there’s no real one-size-fits-all approach for business.”
Meet the partners
- STAND Advisors was co-founded by Pascal St-Jean and Robert Rudy in 2019
- St-Jean and Rudy work with dozens of entrepreneurs, bringing business leaders together to share insights and experiences on how to scale-up effectively
- Nīewe Consulting was founded in 2004 and provides expertise in financial and risk management, governance, organizational transformation and strategy and operations
- As a majority women-owned and led professional services firm, Nīewe prides itself on doing things differently – thus the name Nīewe, which means “new” or “different”
