In an attempt to convey something of the culture of Source, we decided to create a virtual team member: Judi Bright. Judi represents what Source team members consider to be the common strengths and values of our team as it stands at the moment, and which we would like to remain constant as our business grows. She has her own facebook profile, to which every member of the Source team has access and is encouraged to contribute, and may appear on other social media platforms in the future. We hope you like her.
Judi joined the Source team in 2011 following a spell as a strategy consultant with Bartlett Lyman Seaborn Consulting. In addition to her academic achievements she holds a private pilot’s licence and the hand of a three year old daughter with ringlets and a smile that can melt hearts. Widely feted for her book, Where Long Shadows Fall, Judi expects the sequel to be ready any time in the next 30-40 years based on current workload and parenting duties.
Junior members of the team were the first to interview Judi, as is the case with all new employees. They really liked her sense of humour and were surprised at her humility, given what they had seen of her experience in her CV. Privately, one or two admitted that they had no idea what she was talking about because she had talked so quickly, but said that whatever it was sounded hugely impressive. Since becoming part of the team, Judi has been involved in a wide variety of projects and has shown a great willingness to ‘muck in’ with things that were never part of her job description. Faced with the prospect of a scheduling conflict which required her to conduct simultaneous phone interviews with the operations director of a multinational manufacturing company in Stuttgart, and the managing partner of a consulting firm in Dubai, her solution not only kept both happy enough to have ordered copies of the resulting report but – if latest rumours are to be believed – a sufficiently prosperous relationship between Mr Abdullah and Mr von Wedel that German car exports to the Arabian peninsular are said to be enjoying their most marked upturn in years. Meanwhile senior members of the Source team are especially pleased at her willingness to challenge them if she thinks something’s not right. Everyone likes her sense of humour and the fact that she’s willing to poke fun at herself as much as others.
Above all else, clients talk about Judi’s intelligence and her ability to grasp complex issues quickly. But they also comment frequently on how she so obviously cares about them and about the work she’s doing for them: like members of the Source team, clients feel they can place complete trust in Judi to put their interests first. Indeed following one recent project, Judi, embarrassed to discover that her client (the marketing director of a Paris-based consulting firm) had been so keen to hear her quarterly consulting market update that he had missed dinner with his wife, not only offered to reassure a simmering Mme Bouvier of her husband’s ongoing fidelity (at this point being none the wiser about his relationship with Pascal, an impossibly lithe junior consultant with a tousled shock of chestnut hair and smoky eyes) but sent her a bunch of lilies to apologise for any inconvenience caused. What inspires such loyalty in her clients is Judi’s creativity, her approach to challenge conventional thinking and her uncanny ability to answer questions her clients hadn’t even realised they needed to ask.
“I felt welcomed from the first day I started working for Source. There’s no sense of the personal agendas or the machismo you get elsewhere; just of a group of really nice people, who work really well together and respect each other, getting on and doing what’s needed. You sense that everyone’s there because they want to be, which may have a lot to do with the company showing such great respect for their employees work-life balance. That’s not to say that there aren’t times when we all need to put in the extra hours to get things done, but there’s such a willingness to be flexible and fit around the other demands life places on us all. Having spent time working in a consulting firm, I really appreciate the non-hierarchical structure of the Source organisation. We all feel like equals and I’m always impressed at how much of a say everyone has in the way the company runs: ideas from anyone are genuinely listened to and acted on wherever they feel right. I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else. Oh, and by the way, I’m still very sorry for what became of the Bouvier’s marriage. Such a sad situation. And to think it was my analysis of growth prospects for Type M firms in the pharmaceutical sector that brought the whole mess to light. Mind you, Pascal really is incredibly good-looking.”
