With FY24 behind us, David and I wanted to reach out to our clients, colleagues, and friends with a brief update from The Bridge International. We also want to thank all our clients that have supported us through the last financial year.
As a growing independent, Australian owned management consulting company, we have been focused on achieving our purpose to become the most trusted, boutique practice, in our chosen industry segments. It has been an interesting 12 months for our industry, given the parliamentary enquiry into the consulting services provided to the Australian Government. The issues that have been flagged in the final report from the Finance and Public Administration References Committee are some of the reasons David and I launched The Bridge back in 2018.
We believed there was an opportunity in the market for an alternative management consulting model, one that always considered cultural, customer and commercials (our triple play) in that order, and one that always places our client in the centre of everything we do.
I am happy to report, that as a privately owned boutique consultancy, our business has grown significantly over this period. We are fortunate to work with some of Australia's leading brands and leadership teams. Our fairer value proposition of a consulting team of experienced corporate leaders and senior practitioners, rather than career consultants, increasingly resonates with organisations looking for pragmatic solutions, from a team that have walked in our clients shoes.
Our Six Practices
We are now eight Executive Partners, with a team of Associates and Consultants of 40 plus. We have six key practices:
With our growing client list and deep experience in General Insurance, we have a dedicated practice for this industry segment. We are working closely with our clients on the many challenges facing the industry, including insurance affordability, claims inflation and claims volatility due to climate change, operational transformation, the changing regulatory landscape, supply chain issues and the fight for talent. We are also enjoying working across the broader financial services industry, health, utilities and retail.
The Launch of CXO2
Due to client demand, we have also launched a dedicated customer experience consulting business, CXO2 led by its CEO, Sara Elmstrom. In addition to our existing customer and operations consulting team, we have appointed new Associates with specific expertise in this CX space.
We believe CX is the key competitive battleground for brand survival and growth. CXO2 builds on our insights over the last seven years of consulting in the customer and operations space.
CXO2 can help organisations with their end-to-end customer experience transformation program. The objective is to continue to help our client’s ‘breathe new life’ and oxygen into the customer experience, which led to us naming the advisory “CXO2”.
New board member and additions to our leadership team
To support our growth we have appointed a new board member and made two additions to our leadership team. We are very fortunate to have such great, experienced people join our business.
'Culture, Leadership and Capability' Practice lead
We have appointed Maria Stavrinides to head up our Culture, Leadership & Capability practice.
Maria has worked with some of Australia'a leading brands in this space, including Westpac, Qantas, IAG and NSW Police. She will work closely with Sara Elmstrom in CXO2, as from our experience, great CX comes from great employee experience (EX).
Additional Board Member for The Bridge
We are delighted that John Simpson has accepted our invitation to join our Board. John is one of the most knowledgable, experienced, and respected independent consultants in general insurance, having worked in executive roles with RACV, IAG and Wesfarmers. His corporate and consulting skill-set will be invaluable in guiding us through this period of significant growth. John joins our existing Directors, David Russell and Chloe James.
Finance Director
Finally, we have appointed Natalie Kidcaff as our Finance Director, who will work part time for The Bridge, as well as support some other organisations. A chartered accountant, Nat has had several finance leadership roles across health, financial services, technology and retail.
Sponsorship of ICA, Insuretech Australia and BCCM
We were the platinum sponsor of the recent Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) dinner where Sara Elmstrom, Partner and CEO of CXO2, delivered the opening address. We would like to acknowledge Nick Hawkins, Managing Director and CEO of IAG, as retiring Chair, who has provided great leadership and steerage to the industry through a difficult period of catastrophic events and COVID-19. We also welcome Ram Kangatharan, Asia Pacific Group Managing Director and CEO at Auto & General Insurance, CEO as incoming Chair.
We continue to work closely with the mutual sector and have recently joined as a Business Associate Member of Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM). Finally, we have joined Insurtech Australia as an ecosystem partner to stay close to innovation, digital transformation and AI.
We are delighted to be able to support these representative bodies of our clients.
We are looking forward to sponsoring the ICA Conference in Brisbane and attend ITC in the USA later the year, one of the worlds largest technology conferences.
There are significant challenges facing all businesses in FY25, including affordability and offering value to customers, managing costs in an inflationary environment, the ongoing need for digital transformation, meeting evolving regulatory changes, acquiring and retaining talent, and dealing with climate and cyber risks.
However, despite these challenges, we are seeing a healthy appetite in industry for change, investment in people, adoption of technology and innovation across the value chain.
We look forward to working with our clients on these challenges and opportunities ahead.
The Bridge International is a non-traditional management consulting team operating in Australia, New Zealand, UK and North America. The team pride themselves on being practitioners; successful executives and subject matter experts who have worked in business rather than as career consultants.
For more on The Bridge International please visit: www.thebridgeinternational.com.au
For further information please contact Mitisha Paleja, The Bridge International - mitisha.paleja@thebridgeinternational.com.au or +61 483 829 707.
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