Welcome to Consult DSR

How lasagna, leadership roles and a desire to help founder-led businesses created a new business

By David Smithson-Rudd

Everyone is familiar with the metaphor of spinning plates. Leaders have many of them – their people, customers, managers, internal and external stakeholders, regulators, the list goes on. For me, the metaphor isn’t quite strong enough to convey how much most leaders must contend with. Sure, if a plate falls, it will make an almighty din and shatter in every direction. Something has gone wrong, and the leader has a mess to clean up. The risk of plate shards hitting our feet may be another solid reason why people don’t wear flip-flops to the office.

My own version of the metaphor has one additional, yet significant detail; I imagine a generous portion of delicious lasagna has been elegantly served on each plate, fresh out of the oven. Suddenly, you have an additional consideration; it’s not just about keeping the plates spinning, you must also ensure that they spin at sufficient speed to keep them up there, but not so fast that bits of ragù and molten cheese start flying off at every angle. Keeping the lasagna intact on the plate is just as important as keeping the plate from smashing on the floor.

I know it probably sounds like I need have a lie down in a darkened room for a while, but there’s a point to this eccentricity – leaders don’t just have to keep their plates in the air, how they spin their plates is crucial. The way a business operates is critical to its future success; it isn’t just about keeping the lights on.

How you treat those involved in your business will either make or break it.

My career

I have spent my career working in four different industries; a global bank, a public sector national property management company, and two mid-size/commercial enterprises, one B2B and one B2C. With fifteen years of leadership experience under my belt, from an informal deputy role in a contact centre to being a Client Services Director at a national law firm, I’ve been through a career-long leadership academy that has taught me much along the way.

Working in customer leadership roles gave me access to every business department, as I had to learn the fundamentals of all parts of the business to bring them together to deliver great service. Through leading and contributing to cross-functional projects and working across multiple industries, I developed my people, facilities, IT, marketing and communications skills and am grateful to have been able to put these into practice. I have had the privilege of learning from many talented and diligent people; I have also learned that you tend to develop your skills considerably through working with your peers and those in more junior roles, who often have a different specialism from you. I supported hundreds of people with their own development, and there really isn’t any other feeling quite like seeing people grow and progress.

Founders & Fundamentals

About a year ago, I started to theorise that I could use my skills and experience to support a category of businesses that need straightforward and, most importantly, cost-effective access to these specialisms, and that is founder-led businesses. I’m particularly referring to those who might be in the earlier stages of their history, with employee numbers between ten and fifty. These businesses find themselves in a critical phase of their development; they need to lay solid foundations to set up future achievements, but often lack the funds to create in-house roles for support functions or pay for individual consultancy services dedicated to each specialism.

After completing a project (that doubled as a proof-of-concept test) for a founder-led PR firm in South London that was very well received, I knew that I had the foundations to create Consult DSR. My agile proposition is designed to strengthen founder-led businesses with calm, scalable structure, and provide hands-on support that industry-specific outside providers are less likely to offer.

David, Founder & Consultant

What you see is what you'll get when it comes to my consultancy style - straightforward, human, compassionate. As for how I can help your business from a practical point of view, I’m here to provide you with comprehensive knowledge and the ability to implement robust, long-lasting solutions in the following business-critical areas:

-              People/Human Resources

-              Facilities

-              Customer engagement/satisfaction

-              Communications

-              Strategic planning

-              Business improvement

What I offer is something different to individual external services in each of these disciplines: a wrap-around, holistic service offering with the experience and judgement to identify what’s needed, and make it happen; quickly and without fuss. Founders need that kind of hands-on support without committing thousands of pounds individually in each of these specialisms. Better still, I work on the principle that most of my engagements are for the short- to medium-term; I help founders plan for sustainable operations that endure long after I have stepped away.

My vision for Consult DSR

I strongly considered having no brand at all and just being a freelance consultant, but it’s part of my vision to (one day) hire people myself, training them to be great Account Executives, then leaders and consultants themselves. While my own learning hasn’t stopped here, I don’t see much use in me setting up a business without building a plan to develop other people. I was lucky enough to have a series of leaders who went out of their way to support my development, and for that, I will be forever grateful to them. Thank you.

Now I’m bringing my breadth of experience and holistic understanding of what makes businesses work to market through Consult DSR. If you’re a founder or a business leader and this has resonated with you, please do not hesitate to get in touch by emailing me at david@consultdsr.co.uk. You can also book a 30-minute introduction call directly into my diary on the Contact page of this website.

Final words, then I’m done – a huge thank you to Matthew Baxter, Kylie Lane, Theo Bamber, Frances Cottrell-Duffield, Angi Silverston, Caroline Tarbett and my husband Hugh for their incredible support in getting Consult DSR ready to go live.

Right, it’s my birthday, and I’m in Berlin for a short holiday - it's time to find some Currywurst.