Disruption for the common good
We are a social innovation practice specialising in responsible strategy, culture and communications.
Who we are
Like most modern businesses, we don’t fit neatly into any one box, and neither do our projects.
We’re an innovation agency, a business management consultancy, and a coaching firm. We’re incorporated as a community interest company because everything we do is in the interest of the communities in which we live, work, and play.
All of our projects center around helping clients make their strategy a reality; from designing governance and business practices to learning experiences and change programmes.
Consequential does both Big I and Little i Innovation in order to change the existing business landscape.
This means we focus on both large-scale systems change within the business and tech ecosystem; and strategy, culture and communications within individual organisations.
We use our responsible innovation lens across many sectors and for many different types of clients to help them build their businesses and programmes.
We critically challenge the norm — we’re disruptive, but for the common good.
What we do
Support start-ups or scale-ups in building sustainable businesses
Consequential helps our clients build market-leading, resilient businesses that will make a positive difference in the world. We do this with workshops and advisory services delivered through accelerators, incubators, or funders. Or we work directly with an organisation to design a bespoke programme for setting a direction, creating responsible products, building and scaling operations in line with their values, or telling compelling stories about their business.
Clients call us when they are growing and want to turn their ambitions into action - when leaders can no longer be in every room to make decisions, and need their teams to translate their ideas into tangible products in line with their vision and mission. We ensure clients operationalise their strategy holistically across their business - in their culture, their decision-making practices and KPIs, their products, and their internal and external communications.
Create systemic change through action research
We intend to evolve how things are done within the business and tech ecosystem so we can see different ideas emerge. We help partners to understand the landscapes they are operating in, what leverage points they can use to create the most change, and how to evaluate their efforts.
We do this through action research; testing hypotheses and ideas iteratively within the field, and then defining and redefining research questions based on new information. We produce insights that are immediately actionable and useful.
We have a strong track record of conducting action research projects which help funders and investors to design their funds and support programmes. We are especially interested in helping build emerging ecosystems that are tackling important societal challenges.
Responsible Innovation
As Consequential, we bring a lens of responsible innovation to all of our work to ensure that the organisations we support are adding something positive to the world. We seek to shift business mindsets towards new values for innovation. Our ideas for these new values are:
Working in Partnership
We believe in collective impact, and actively seek to work in partnership with others who want to achieve the change we want to see.
As partners, we call ourselves ‘benevolently challenging’. We strive to be open and candid with our feedback. We do this with the goal of helping our partners to achieve not only the objectives of their project, but the overall purpose of their work.
We are biased towards usefulness - we thrive in helping partners explore how they can turn their ambitions for positive impact into actions. We focus ruthlessly on pragmatic suggestions and insights that can have the greatest impact.
We believe in modelling what we want to see with curiosity and kindness. We test ideas on how to do business differently and share generously.
Our Founding Story
Consequential is led by experienced practitioners of social innovation Sam Brown and Alex Mecklenburg.
They have a combined fifty years experience helping to build and manage businesses in many sectors. They are skilled coaches, facilitators, researchers, programme designers and collaborators.
Alex and Sam share a strong passion for thinking big and helping businesses to innovate in brilliant and brave ways. This is paired with a deeply pragmatic and strategic sensibility. They are both skilled at sensing the invisible, and making it visible.
Alex and Sam instantly hit it off and teamed up to become a formidable duo working directly with teams in civil society, governments, and business to bridge the gap between principles and practice in responsible innovation.
Consequential was incubated at Doteveryone, the responsible technology think tank. Sam led the programme on responsible innovation research and product development, and Alex led on digital leadership; supporting training and coaching for responsible technology.
When the pandemic struck and Doteveryone closed (RIP), they had a zoom call. They could see that there is much more work to be done in this emerging space.
They decided to form a community interest company dedicated to supporting makers and leaders who want to be responsible with their power and can make a difference in their communities.
Consequential was born, and has been serving those looking to build market-leading businesses and products that are responsible and resilient ever since.