In this edition of One ethos, One culture, Alex Taylor shares his experiences establishing and scaling Metyis' London headquarters. While involved with a diverse range of activities, his work at Metyis has enabled a deeper understanding of clients business, contributing to their transformation.
Meet Alex, our Strategy & Execution Principal in London
What is your role at Metyis?
As a Principal, my day-to-day role is to manage the delivery of our work to ensure that it meets the objectives and needs of our clients. The work that we do is divided into various parts, with my role entailing the delivery of some of these parts and leading a team to own their projects and produce great work themselves.
I’m involved with a diverse range of activities connected with scaling the London office. This could entail contributing to a new business proposal or organising an assessment day to communicate with and recruit local talent!
Why did you join Metyis?
I joined Metyis for several reasons. Firstly, I was drawn to the opportunity to be part of the ambitious project to grow the London office within a very impressive organisation (Metyis). It is a rare opportunity for someone at my level to get involved in interesting consulting projects and develop an understanding of and take an active role in the expansion of a high growth professional services organisation. Secondly, I was attracted to Metyis’ commitment to being a truly global firm. Many professional services companies (and even countries) are increasingly thinking, and operating, with a more siloed and regional mind-set. Metyis stands out for its commitment to building a globally connected firm across multiple countries of operation.
What achievements at Metyis London are you most proud of?
There are two things, one on the project side and another on the people side. On the project side, we delivered some process and data changes to improve our client’s inventory management significantly in a short time frame. From this, we were able to build an overstock reduction tool with recommendations for their optimal stock holding. Once some of these overstock reductions were realised, they were visible in their warehouses, which was a proud moment. On the people side, we set up a successful summer internship programme in the London office in 2021 and now have two of the participants re-joining us for their longer-term university placements. This is something we are looking forward to repeating in 2022, and we will start the hiring process for Summer 2022 in the Spring.
How would you describe Metyis’ culture in a few words?
The phrase I would use to describe our culture is ‘Polite Honesty’. We are all working towards the best outcomes for our clients and Metyis, and politely and constructively sharing our opinions and feedback to achieve this is central to our culture.
How does your work at Metyis challenge you?
The level of trust shown in me and the responsibility given to get involved in such a wide variety of project and non-project work at Metyis is a constant source of variety and challenge. Whether this is by managing a project in a new industry or working out how to increase the number of applicants for the vacancies we have, I have opportunities to learn and challenge myself every day.
What do you personally enjoy most about working at Metyis?
Being involved in implementing the strategy and changes we recommend to our clients enables me to get a deeper understanding of their business and genuinely contribute to driving outcomes that deliver transformational value to them. That is the great thing about working in Strategy & Execution, as opposed to strategy exclusively.