Blackswan soars with cargo of training ideas

Jul 1 2009 by Karen Dent, The Journal

A GLOBAL management consulting business in Newcastle is linking up with a bestselling author and eyeing up other joint ventures or acquisitions before the end of the year.

Blackswan, which was formed by the merger of Tyneside leadership and coaching company GFI Consulting and Promotech, which worked with financial companies, is on course for a £10m turnover this year.

Its latest deal is a joint venture with coaching expert Bill McAneny, the bestselling author of management guide Frankenstein’s Manager, to help deliver Blackswan’s expertise to top companies, including Barclays, Nissan and Rio Tinto. Chief executive Maurice Duffy, who set up GFI Consulting in London and brought it to Newcastle, says that despite the recession Blackswan is on an upward arc.

“The market is tough, a lot of organisations are feeling a lot of pain. We have to balance the harsh commercial reality, but we are growing and hopefully will continue to,” he said.

“We’ve seen our business grow by about five times. We do see significant growth.”

He is negotiating a deal to use the concepts behind horse whispering, which is based on empathy and an understanding of body language, in executive leadership training and hopes to announce details of that planned joint venture later in the summer.

Blackswan currently coaches 10 of the top FTSE-250 chief executives and holds about 400 coaching sessions each month. The company, which is headquartered in Newcastle and also has offices in London, Dublin and Shanghai, employs 70 people and works with contractors based around the world.

The majority of its work takes place outside the region and Blackswan also has staff in Montreal, Boston and Paris. Overall, it operates in 23 countries.

But Irish-born Mr Duffy has no plans to shift the business’s base away from the North East.

He said: “For a Newcastle company, 98% of our business is outside of the North East, about 70% of it is worldwide.

“My business partner is a Geordie. On the basis the two senior partners are here, there is a fairly significant chance we will stay here. I find it pretty easy to travel from Newcastle, pretty much the same as from London.”