We work alongside law firms, investment banks, strategy consultancies, brand specialists, investors and other advisers on shared assignments. The question we most often help resolve is what customers, investors, employees and the public will make of a proposed course of action, and what that means for the client’s decision. The work complements the advice already in place. “Partners” means the firms we work beside, not a network.
When fellow advisers call us
When a strategy has to become a market position. The consultancy’s answer is in and the client wants it communicated, but customers, investors and the press have seen nothing yet that verifies it. We test it against what the market can check, help develop the propositions and proof that give it substance and shape the story that carries it. The consultancy keeps the relationship and the authorship.
When a portfolio company needs an independent view of its position. An investor wants a read it can rely on. Management wants to keep the pen. We agree with both whose question the work answers and what is shared, triangulate market data with the views of customers, management and the board to establish where the company can win, and hand the position back to those who have to hold it.
When a transaction needs a position that holds before and after completion. The bank runs the process and the valuation. What has to hold with customers, employees and the market after completion sits with management. We develop the company’s narrative, the sequence in which stakeholders hear it and the material that carries it, alongside management, the financial advisers and counsel, so that announcement, approvals and the first months after closing hold one position.
When a legal matter affects the business and its relationships. Counsel must limit admissions, the client must keep customers and staff, and silence reads as guilt to people who never see the pleadings. We prepare the stakeholder analysis, scenarios and engagement alongside counsel, within the rules it sets, without assuming that our involvement is privileged. The proceedings run their course. The business keeps talking to the people it depends on.
The role we play
We contribute independent judgment and defined work within a shared assignment. Scope, responsibilities and the route to the client are agreed with the commissioning party and the lead adviser. The legal strategy, the process and the client relationship stay where they are.
Relevant experience
Our work has included shared assignments with law firms, investment banks, strategy consultancies and venture and private equity investors in Switzerland, the Nordics and the German-speaking markets, on transactions, litigation and regulatory matters with a public dimension, public-interest initiatives and portfolio-company positioning.
Working with us
A shared assignment may need a clearer view of how a proposed course of action affects the client’s business and standing. Every added adviser costs the client coordination, so we start from the work already done, establish what evidence is still needed and test how legal constraints, commercial aims and stakeholder expectations affect the options. The judgment comes from the person doing the work, inside the team. Material differences are raised early, through the agreed route, so they inform the client’s decision.
Where we fit among advisers
Advisory firms are typically organised by discipline. Business challenges rarely are. Our market comparison sets out where Special Projects fits alongside management consultancies, investment banks, corporate law firms, communications agencies, creative marketing firms and risk consultancies, and the capabilities we deliberately leave to specialist advisers.