Gurpreet Garcha
A typical day at Lighthouse? At its heart, it boils down to solving problems [and identifying opportunities]. Crucial ones that affect how the largest advisory businesses go to market, down to smaller operational issues that ensure the engine room behind the scenes at Lighthouse is helping every project to run smoothly.
Take today for example. We spent the morning with the management of a leading financial services firm in the City. Their competitors are making moves, revenues are slipping and trust and profits are being eroded. They’ve realised that they need to act. We begin by asking the tough questions. ‘Why are you operating in x, y and z markets?’. It might seem basic, but it’s questions like this that can be missed when management focus on day-to-day operations. The conversation allows us to begin diagnosing where we think the barriers to growth lie. Together we shape a journey to make change.
On every project we constantly challenge our thinking to get the right answer for a client. Are we making the correct assumptions? Is there a better faster way to do this for a client? Today I’m spending 2 hours at our London offices doing exactly this. With two other members of the team, I’ll be working to hone the recommendations we present to the board of a fast-growing mid tier law firm first thing tomorrow. We’ve been working with them for the last 3 months to refine how they should shape and communicate their service propositions to the market.
The day will end with preparing for a pitch to a wealth management firm next week. The blend of pressure and opportunity to work on a new project gives me a real buzz.
This is the kind of work that keeps you on your toes. Every project and every client brings their own challenges and surprises. Navigating the machinations, decision-making and business models of blue chip firms and working closely with their teams to make change - that's what makes me tick. I recently spent 6 months seconded to the business development team of a leading, global accountancy firm, and experiencing first-hand the challenges they face. We’re in the lucky position of being able to help implement and support firm-wide change from the inside out, and facilitate the cross-fertilisation of client-centric strategies across the advisory space.
At Lighthouse the learning never stops. I get the same level of intellectual challenge I had when studying at Oxford University, combined with a ring-side seat on the corporate stage. I’m lucky enough to work with a team that, like me, enjoy doing things not because they’re easy. But because they’re interesting and have a impact for the client. We work hard, but we have fun along the way. To me, that’s a winning combination.