Consultants are used to advising clients like no other, but what about their own organization? Summiteers from Utrecht is happy to use the brainpower and creativity of its own consultants to further expand the organization. Consultants Luc Beurskens, Ties Nelissen and partner Lidia Swinkels tell how the entire team contributes to the continuous development of Summiteers.

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“Practice what you preach” is such a beautiful English saying that is difficult to translate, but everyone knows what it means: it is often easier to lecture others than to put that lesson into practice yourself. This also applies to many consulting firms: they preach in other organizations that they should continue to develop, but their own organization often stands still for the most part.

Of course that's a shame, especially because consulting firms in particular have the capacity to develop. This is also the mindset at Summiteers and that's why it works differently there. The consultants at Summiteers help clients define and realize their vision, strategy and organizational issues in order to achieve movement and growth — and they do the same in-house.

“Over here, everyone is responsible for helping to build Summiteers,” says Ties Nelissen. “We reserve 20% of our time for that. Everyone is encouraged to contribute by coming up with ideas to make things even better or more fun here and taking responsibility for their realization. This has already led to many great initiatives in recent years with a lot still in the pipeline!”

“This includes business development and proposals, marketing, recruitment, resourcing/staffing, personal development and training,” adds Luc Beurskens. “Together, we prioritize the initiatives we want to work on each month."

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Kickstart

This is how Beurskens developed a new proposition. “In our work, we often see that relations get a new position. Starting in a new role, a lot comes your way. But after the first period of gaining impressions, it's time to get started. We see that people could use help with that: that's why we developed a proposition to help relations kickstart their new role.”

After Beurskens put the idea on the internal backlog, he and a colleague were given time to further shape the proposition in a sprint. “This concept is now on the shelf and various Summiteers have been able to help various clients with this.”

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From scratch

When Nelissen joined Summiteers in the spring of 2020 he was qallowed to contribute ideas about the firm's strategy — even when he was still an intern. “Back then, there was even less on the shelf. In recent years, I have therefore been able to help develop our strategy in various areas, including marketing, recruitment and employer branding.”

“These are different areas than where we are usually active on an assignment,” he says. “So it's a great opportunity to dive into relatively new topics! We are now implementing the plans and it's energizing to see that we are reaping the benefits.”

Nelissen was also involved in setting up the cooperation between Summiteers and Maisters. “Maisters is a development program where young professionals learn the intricacies of management consulting. Summiteers provides guidance to the Maisters and part of the training program. I was able to help shape this from the start. It was special to be able to contribute to a completely new concept and build it 'from scratch'.”

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Growth and atmosphere

In addition to the fact that Summiteers continues to develop continuously thanks to the many internal initiatives, according to Beurskens, joint entrepreneurship also contributes to personal growth and to the “open and accessible atmosphere” within the firm. “A good idea is always heard and the fact that you can actually get started with it brings growth and a lot of creativity and energy.”

“Everyone can contribute and make a real impact,” Nelissen adds. “This means that everyone therefore feels partially responsible for our successes. And, last but not least, that we have fun together — for example while brewing our own beer.”

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Ideas galore

A consulting firm that brews its own beer? Co-founder and partner Lidia Swinkels can confirm it. “It's a familiar story to us by now: during our first heydays — the Summit Days — we proposed buying a MiniBrew, which is still regularly used to brew beer.”

A lot has happened since the first Brewed Summiteers beer, Swinkels looks back. “As a result, the ideas and initiatives have also matured.”

And there is no shortage of those ideas. “For example, we developed the scale-up organization scan, brought our internal training program to the next level, the 'accountability partnership' further professionalized to apply this both internally and to customers, just like the 'target caricature', we are GPTW certified at the suggestion of the group, and so on.”

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Lots of space

There is room for entrepreneurship across the entire organization, explains Swinkels: “The Summiteers proposition is now in good shape and the frameworks within which we operate as an organization are clear, but there is plenty of room within it to do business together and do great things.”

“For example, further loading our expertise strategy execution,” she says, “including by writing articles and doing research. But also: expanding into new sectors and developing new concepts. Entrepreneurship is therefore an important quality that we look for in the people we attract. So that we can continue to develop and build Summiteers in the coming years.”

Want to help build too? Summiteers is looking for new colleagues with some (advice) experience under their belt. Interested in having a conversation? Fill in the application form here.