In a series of interviews, we will introduce you to members from the Simplify Consulting team. In today’s spotlight we meet our two founders and directors Kate Monserrate and Carl Woodward to find out more about them, their background, and their vision as they lead a busy consultancy.
Kate has a background in Transformational Change, Risk and Regulation across Wealth Management and Carl has a background in Business Architecture, IT Platforms and Transformational Change across Wealth Management.
How did you meet and what inspired you to create Simplify Consulting?
Kate: Carl and I met at Old Mutual Wealth, where we both worked in the Change function. We were assigned to a project to deliver together – the insourcing of a business. We found that our skillsets dovetailed perfectly – Carl is brilliant at coming up with ideas, looking at the big picture and being able to articulate how to get from the current to the target state. I am all about delivery and getting things done. Together we delivered that project on time in very challenging circumstances – that’s where we both found that tenacity was at the heart of everything we do.
What are the biggest challenges faced by your clients and how do you help them?
Carl: We work with a number of operations teams across Wealth. We find there are two key challenges. One relates to capacity. As a practitioner led consultancy, we are able to support operational teams both from a change and an SME perspective. Often the operational teams are focussed on just keeping the lights on and don’t have the capacity to support change initiatives.
Secondly, as we come out of a pandemic, many of our clients have had to adapt their processes to support a new virtual world. This has obviously had an impact on their control environment and process design. We have supported a number of our clients in re-assessing their control environment, reviewing their processes and providing a suite of supporting documentation and insight into best practice.
What are the values that drive you?
Kate: Carl and I were actually talking about this the other day. Our personal values are embedded in Simplify as a business – these are tenacious delivery, integrity, commitment, professionalism and teamwork. We have incredibly high expectations of ourselves and of our team – we want the culture of Simplify to be challenging and rewarding. We are always striving to grow and to do better both for our clients and our business.
What have you been most proud of since establishing Simplify?
Carl: Being able to take people from big corporates. Giving them the opportunities to thrive and succeed in a consultancy environment and to realise their potential.
And finally, what are you passionate about outside of work?
Kate: We are both incredibly passionate about supporting the local community; fundraising through our golf day and other initiatives. As a breast cancer survivor, I have also launched a website (smashing-it.co.uk) which provides practical hints and tips for those going through all sorts of treatment. I also love horse riding!
Carl: We are both Tottenham fans, both play golf (Carl better than Kate) and enjoy keeping fit!
Stay tuned for more insight to the Simplify team.
Let us know how we can help you by getting in touch today using info@simplifyconsulting.co.uk
Practitioners, Proportionate, Professional. Simplify Consulting. It’s what we do.
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