Whew! The last six weeks have been crazy! It feels good to finally catch my breath!
For those that follow me on social media, you may have noticed – at least I hope you noticed – that I’ve been awfully quiet lately: no blog posts, a few tweets, and an occasional newsworthy WFM update, but beyond that, crickets. I am sorry, but I have had a good reason. If you hadn’t seen the news, Axsium Group has spun off from its parent company Knightsbridge.
I rarely talk about Axsium in my blogs. Normally, I focus on workforce management, human capital management, workforce productivity and related subjects. However, whether you’re a client, partner or just an interested party, I wanted to share what’s been going on with Axsium.
We announced the spin-off on March 11. Right away, we started a sprint to establish Axsium Group Limited (our legal name) and, more importantly, set up the infrastructure required to run our 100+ person consulting organization. Three weeks ago, we were officially spun-off opening our doors obn April 1 as a standalone enterprise. And, on April 15, we ran our first payroll. I’m proud to say that we hit every deadline set and made this transition without impacting our clients (no disruption in service) and employees (no disruption to pay, benefits, etc.). That’s not to say that everything went according to plan; however, we were nimble and prevented any problem from becoming a roadblock.
The key to our success was our people. Our CEO Paul Tucker set a clear plan for our transition. Most of the team was asked to stay focused on doing what they do best: deliver quality consulting services to our clients. Several of us were given special assignments. Mine, for example, was establishing our CRM system. Regular communication with the rest of the team gave them confidence that we were making progress and avoided distractions due to worry or uncertainty. It took everybody doing their jobs and a little more to get us to this point. Everybody deserves a pat on the back and a thank you.
From a personal perspective, this transition has been hard work but highly rewarding. I’ve always had a good relationship with my team members at Axsium, but time spent together and on the phone through late nights and weekends, we have strengthened those bonds.
From a corporate perspective, this spin-off has no negative impact on who we are or where we’re going. If anything it has re-energized everybody around common goals and objectives. As a standalone business:
- Our vision stays the same: To be the consulting partner of choice for organizations seeking ways to capitalize on the potential of their most important asset: their people.
- Our mission stays the same: Helping leading organizations around the world maximize the productivity of their people through insightful and innovative strategic, productivity and technology consulting services delivered with uncompromising quality.
- Our executive team is not changing. Paul Tucker, one of Axsium’s founding team members, continues to run the company, transitioning his title from Managing Director to Chief Executive Officer. David Honicky, Johannes Tjiang and I will continue to support Paul as Senior Vice Presidents. We have also asked several of our directors to play key roles in our delivery organization. Al Asgarian, Chris Flanders, Bliss Gordon, Tom Pierce, John Wood and Patty Yuen will be accountable for project delivery and managing our consulting teams.
- We have hired a new finance director and controller.
- We are well capitalized, backed by one of Canada’s largest banks, and have established a new board of directors that have a great deal of experience and knowledge of our business.
- And, we continue to grow our team of professional consultants (we’ve hired eight people during the six-week transition) and gotten everybody more engaged and more connected with our clients and their projects.
I started this post by saying ‘Whew.’ Seven hundred words later, I’ve caught my breath and I – like my colleagues – are looking forward, excited about the future of Axsium Group Limited. I trust you understand why.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, we have a business to run, projects to deliver and organizations to help. There is a lot going on in our space right now, and I will keep you up to date with the latest news and strategies to help you capitalize on your most important asset.