The Inside Track.
The Inside Track is a learning and discussion forum for corporate comms/affairs leaders and their leadership teams in which members are brought together with their peers to discuss the issues of the day as well as bigger picture topics relating to the leadership and professional development of the function and its role as a strategic business discipline.
It provides a safe environment in which leaders can hear how others are managing and approaching issues of common interest and to share experiences, insights, perspectives and learnings.
There are now over thirty-five fee paying member organisations, mainly FTSE100s and Fortune 500 companies, and is comprised of four different groups:
Directors of Corporate Affairs and Communications
Directors/Heads of Internal Communications
Directors/Heads of External Relations (includes external communications and government relations)
Directors/Heads of Sustainability
For each group we design a customised programme of topics, meetings (F2F and virtual) and subject matter experts and speakers.
Although not its primary purpose, The Inside Track also helps build and forge connections amongst the next generation of corporate affairs, communications and sustainability leaders.
Executive Search.
We conduct searches for large UK organisations and global multi-nationals as well as smaller and rapidly growing start-ups.
We recognise that there is no universal blueprint for the role and that different organisations need different things.
At the heart of our proposition therefore, is a commitment to a structured process of enquiry, underpinned by intensive client engagement, identifying what blend of capabilities the function and its leader requires.
Once we have helped a client understand and define the leadership and capability they require, we will develop and execute the search strategy to find and acquire it.
We also apply the same process to the leadership of all the specialist disciplines that sit within the function. These include external communications, internal communications and employee engagement, public affairs and government relations, sustainability, corporate brand and insight, strategy and measurement.
Nick Helsby leads on all client assignments and is supported by a team of associates, whose expertise covers research and talent mapping.
Consulting.
We are a knowledge and relationship-based business, with a huge amount of intelligence about how corporate affairs and communications is practised, what strong leadership of these functions looks like and how this should contribute to the reputation and commercial success of an organisation. This has organically led to the development of a broader consulting and advisory offer.
This advice and intelligence is often sought when organisations are not sure or clear about what they want from these functions. The reality is that different organisations need different things, and we help clients identify and understand what’s right for them.
Our advisory services include role design and scoping, structure and organisational design, organisational effectiveness and purpose, capability gap analysis and benchmarking.
This advice and insight is based on years of research and analysis, observation of best practice, and monitoring industry trends.
Research & Insight.
Much of our time is spent probing, researching and listening to the corporate affairs and communications world in which we operate. The result is a series of research reports which shed light on important issues and practices within the disciplines into which we recruit.
They explore everything from the characteristics and deliverables of a successful corporate affairs function through to the qualities and capabilities that leaders and their teams need to exhibit to be successful through to emerging trends and capability gaps.