2026-2028 Business Plan
Contents
Introduction Our customer impact What our customers say Our people Financials Charity and social impact Business growth Marketing
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“The Project One team very much held the project together, driving it forward, keeping healthy tension, and frankly it wouldn’t have happened unless they were on the team. I used to lose sleep over the implications if it didn’t work, so getting it over the line was a big personal win.”
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Introduction
Our direction for 2026 begins with recognising that our people make our business what it is. Our team is our greatest asset and the reason our customers trust us with their most complex challenges. The commitment, professionalism, and senior capability each of you bring every day is what underpins our reputation and fuels our growth.
Thank you for continuing to uphold the standards that set us apart:
We act as a Trusted Partner - calm, confident, and always by our customers’ side. With deep senior experience, our team brings the gravitas needed to lead complex programmes with clarity and assurance. Our Expert Delivery model ensures dedicated senior teams stay engaged from start to finish. There is no pyramid and no rotation; customers work with the same experienced people every day, ensuring continuity and accountability. As an Independent partner, we provide pragmatic, unbiased challenge. We don’t sell additional services, our sole focus is securing the best value across the delivery ecosystem and supporting the right decisions. Through Uplifting Capability , we strengthen and augment our customers teams at all levels, ensuring they are more equipped, confident, and able to take change forward themselves. We are committed to delivering Lasting Transformation - programme delivery that lands and change that sticks. Complex delivery is our sweet spot, and we focus entirely on helping organisations turn critical ambitions into outcomes that endure. These USPs capture the essence of how we operate every day. The customer stories and testimonials that follow underline these strengths in action and the long-term impact we continue to create.
Our Customer Impact in 2025
Across sectors as diverse as FMCG, Financial Services, Defence, Charity, Manufacturing, Energy, Utilities, Aviation, Healthcare and Pharma our teams have delivered some of the most ambitious and complex transformations in the UK and globally. For a boutique consultancy, the scale of the organisations we partner with, and the trust they place in us, is exceptional. It is a testament to the depth of experience, integrity, and capability each of you brings. As a medium-sized business we continue to deliver at the level of firms many times bigger, consistently demonstrating that highly skilled, senior teams can outperform volume-based models. This year, we were embedded in some of the world’s most recognised organisations, leading enterprise-wide change and shaping the future of critical national infrastructure. The stories that follow highlight not just the outcomes we delivered, but the confidence our customers place in us to lead their most business-critical, high-risk programmes.
Click the video below to hear a short message from James.
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Unilever entrusted us with one of their most ambitious technology transformations: a three-year global programme to simplify and standardise their fragmented Technology and Data landscape which would also result in extensive cost reduction and savings through the rationalisation. Beginning in 2022, our team structured, launched and led Project Sparta, merging major initiatives into an enterprise-wide transformation designed to reduce complexity, strengthen core platforms, rationalise a supplier base of over 3,000 partners, and unlock substantial cost efficiencies for the future. Led by Jo Battam, our team of seven, including Dee Rajput, Alistair Burt, Ed Davies, Andy Minshull, Dugald Moore and Drew Raine provided senior leadership across governance, delivery, and PMO, establishing the global programme controls, embedding a tranche-based approach to accelerate benefit realisation, and ensuring operational ownership of outcomes. After 18 months, we successfully transitioned the PMO back to Unilever, having embedded strong capability and delivery discipline. This engagement is one of the largest and most complex portfolio transformations in our history and we delivered it with a team of seven. The quality of our work led Unilever to extend our involvement into other major programmes, including support in the Foods Business Group, in the Business Unit Engagement function. Overseeing their 8 global BU’s, Dee Rajput and Alastair Kidd (Supply Chain) are supporting a major Productivity Programme. Alistair Burt is now the Programme Lead on Project Mirai, their enterprise-wide ERP and AI-enabled business transformation which will deliver a single SAP S/4HANA platform and lay the foundations for autonomous operations globally. Project Sparta and Mirai
Cancer Research UK’s change agenda required a stronger, more consistent transformation capability to deliver its critical organisational and supporter-facing programmes. We were engaged to uplift their Portfolio Management and Governance capability, establishing processes, tools and practices tailored to CRUK’s culture and delivery environment. Martin Creedy and Richard Freeman brought structure and control to both the enterprise PMO and the flagship Engage Transformation Programme (ETP) - the charity’s largest initiative focused on attracting more supporters to its mission. Our role expanded rapidly with our team of four now providing delivery leadership across all major transformation workstreams: Ash Kenyon - Relationship Management workstream, centred on Salesforce, which underpins new services and products for the organisation Ed Davies - Joined and led the ePMO across the whole transformation workstreams Alister Cullum - Data Enabler workstream, which is concerned with ensuring the right data is available across the programme at the right time Henry Burrows - Personalisation, which will deliver tailored journeys for each of CRUK’s supporters This structure gives CRUK a stable, professionalised delivery model that supports their long-term strategic ambitions. It is a perfect example of how we have focused on building our team engagement within our customers to join the dots and bring optimum value through great delivery. It doesn’t end there, we believe the existing programmes will mean a long-term partnership with CRUK, with other opportunities being identified in 2026. Transformation Uplift and ePMO Leadership
This will be one of the largest global transformations across any sector, with a significant SAP S/4HANA implementation including AI at its core moving from multiple to single instance, spanning their operations across 190 countries and impacting their global workforce. Unilever remains a focused growth account for us in 2026, with several discussions already underway, including how we can provide more delivery and change support on Mirai, supporting their adjacent GBS Transformation Programme and breaking into their divested ice cream business, The Magnum Ice Cream Company, to support their transformation programmes including a new SAP S/4HANA platform and Supply Chain & Procurement rebuild.
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Bakkavor, operating across ~20 factories, faced significant operational risk through 13 legacy ERP systems. A move to SAP S/4HANA was agreed, with an SI onboard and an MVP defined, but the delivery lacked the maturity, governance, and control required for success. John Griffiths took full ownership of programme delivery, stabilising the programme, driving SI accountability, and reinstating clarity and leadership. We then embedded senior experts across critical workstreams: Stabilising and Leading an ERP Programme
Brian Robinson – Data migration and reporting Brian Starr – Design and key dependencies
Italico Reggio – Retained IT and end-to-end BAU integration Kevin Phillips – PMO capability uplift and programme controls. Our intervention restored confidence, strengthened programme governance, and enabled a successful go-live, establishing a strong foundation for future phases. 2026 sees Greencore acquire Bakkavor, requiring a major integration between the two organisations. Our engagement continues with Italico Reggio continuing to run the RITE workstream, our goal is to be available to support the integration across key workstreams.
Supporting the UK’s Energy Transition
In 2025, we began supporting the divestment of the National Energy System Operator, a new independent body reporting into DESNZ, previously part of National Grid, on three of the UK’s most critical energy transition programmes: Strategic Energy Planning, Clean Power 2030, and Connections Reform. This work sits at the heart of the UK’s transition to a clean, secure and affordable energy system. The programmes are complex, politically sensitive, and technically demanding. Our teams including Kevin Phillips, Phil Weatherill, Graham King, John Gilbertson, Eric Jeanvoine and Samer Atallah are providing delivery leadership, structure, and clarity in environments where uncertainty and urgency are daily realities.
The reputation we are building within NESO positions us strongly for long-term partnership across this essential national mission to transition to a net-zero energy system by 2030, ensuring that the energy supply remains reliable, efficient, and secure. As we look ahead to 2026, we see growth potential for this account.
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BAE Systems continues to be our largest account and a defining example of our ability to build long-term, trust-based partnerships in highly complex environments. Our role has evolved far beyond providing programme support – we are a strategic delivery partner at the heart of their most critical and high- profile transformations. With 23 of our team embedded across major programmes, such as Finance Transformation, Cyber, SUBS, Perseus and HR Evolve, we have a proven Defence Community with deep credibility, specialist expertise and a consistent delivery track record. Crucially, we have become a key partner recognised for our ability to shape, steer and recover their most complex initiatives. Whether establishing programme governance, stabilising programmes under pressure, driving clarity and alignment across multi- party delivery models, or embedding the leadership and change frameworks needed for sustainable transformation, our teams are repeatedly called upon to tackle the most challenging problems. We bring coherence where there is ambiguity, pace where there is inertia, and confidence where there is uncertainty. This is why we continue to expand our footprint enterprise-wide. This certainly helped open the door to another key Defence customer, AWE, where we currently have a team of six including, Brian Robinson, David Grace, Drew Raine, Emma Anderson, Matt Foley and Patrick Ellis. From an initial Assurance review and exemplar business case design to introducing Change Management and Data leads to compliment the Programme Management, the team continue to showcase what excellent delivery really is and we are confident this team will continue to grow within this enterprise-wide programme that will last up to 15 years. Keeping the UK safe and secure
Our Impact
Across all these engagements, one message is clear, we are small by design, but big on impact:
The quality of our work in Defence has created a robust platform for targeted growth into other key Defence organisations in 2026. It sets the blueprint for scalable, relationship- led account management – rooted in delivery excellence, trusted advisor relationships and the ability to mobilise the right expertise at pace. We see opportunity in organisations facing similar challenges, such as multi-vendor integration, digital and ERP modernisation, enterprise data transformation, workforce change, and the growing need for disciplined programme governance across long-horizon, high-risk portfolios. Defence organisations such as Leonardo, MBDA, QinetiQ and Babcock are seeking partners who can combine delivery rigour with cultural alignment, stakeholder engagement, and the ability to work within secure, highly regulated environments. Our focus will be on establishing and deepening relationships within these priority organisations, expanding our SC/DV-cleared community, and building on our proven track record, replicating our blueprint to unlock sustained, repeatable growth across the Defence sector.
Leading enterprise-wide global transformations for some of the world’s most complex organisations Supporting the UK’s transition to a low-carbon energy system Shaping critical defence and national security programmes keeping the UK safe and secure Restoring control and confidence in business-critical ERP transformations Strengthening the delivery capability of major national charities. These stories demonstrate the depth of trust our customers place in us and the unique value our senior, hands-on approach delivers every day.
“The level of experience, you can’t replicate that. They can see three or four moves ahead in a programme, that future visibility is really important.”
Watch our change experts videos below by clicking on each one.
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What our customers say
“Matt Foley brought calm. He’d been through this before. That experience was new to me. I was being pushed by exec for figures with very little time and very little background. His support and leadership helped me navigate that.”
“In delivery mode, the Project One team was critical. We don’t have those skills internally, you stepped into the gap, the stuff just wouldn’t happen otherwise. Phil Pemberton and Emma Anderson were effectively doing the roles of 6–10 people sometimes.”
“Project One could help us strike the right balance - enough control, but not gold-plated bureaucracy.”
“I feel like Ben Pycz is definitely going to be a lifelong friend of the business. He's so invested and someone that we can truly trust because he's got so much experience - it was great to have a sounding board. He's allowed us to be confident in what we know and he's given us the tools we need.”
“I love when the team comes to me saying: We’ve found a problem, we’ve worked on how to mitigate it, here’s what we think, what do you think? That’s when a team really works.”
“The team I work with are very different individuals, but they all share common traits: they’re hugely experienced and a very safe pair of hands.”
“They’ve clearly “done it” before - blood, sweat, tears. Both Andy Hockley and Rupinder Gahir are seasoned professionals. Straight-talking, comfortable with senior-level interactions, which is where these major programmes sit.”
“The calibre of the Project One team, Patricia Baillie- Lane, Marcel Grant and Steve Wood, has been excellent, and their work has had a strong positive impact. If I were to describe them in three words, I would say experienced, professional and dependable.”
“They weren’t the biggest, but they were the ones we knew would get it done.”
SELECTION OF OUR TEAM
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Our People
Learning and development: how we grow capability and confidence across the business As we strengthen how we connect and collaborate, we also want to make it easier for people to grow in ways that feel relevant, accessible, and supported. In 2026, we’ll take a more practical approach to learning and development. We’ll introduce a self-serve learning platform and create more visibility around upskilling opportunities. These won’t be one-size-fits-all, they’ll be shaped by what people need and where they want to go. We’ll also improve the experience behind the scenes, with a more streamlined fit-for-purpose employee dashboard to help people track progress and access support more easily. Succession planning will continue to be a focus. Building on Future Leaders, we’re launching the CD Pathway - a clear route into the Sales Team for those ready to step into a commercial role. And if you’re looking to develop further, we’re always open to a conversation. Growth doesn’t need to be formal to be meaningful - and we’re here to help. Talent Acquisition: how we attract the right people In 2026, our recruitment strategy is directly aligned to our growth ambition, building the team we need to deliver our sales and revenue plan. Our focus will be on growing our permanent Consulting Team. We’ll stay true to our core proposition strengths in PPM, CM and PMO, while building capability in focus areas like ERP, Defence and Energy. Recruitment is about building a team that reflects who we are, where we’re going, and how we want to show up in the market. To unlock more of those opportunities, we’re also investing in our sales capability. We’ve engaged an external agency to help us find the right talent and plan to grow the Sales Team to 10, ensuring we have the coverage and focus needed to keep our delivery teams deployed and our pipeline strong. We’ve proudly held our Great Place to Work recognition for six years. The survey, conducted every three years, gives us valuable insight into how our people feel and where we can improve. The latest results, published in 2026, will help shape the next evolution of our values, refreshed in line with our USPs and informed by team feedback, customer testimonials and our purpose. Pay and Benefits: how we reward fairly and competitively In 2026, we’ll continue to evolve our pay and benefits to reflect what matters most to our people, supporting wellbeing, recognising contribution, and staying competitive in the market. Following the enhancements made in 2025, including improved maternity and paternity policies and the launch of our menopause policy and pledge, we’ll keep developing our people proposition to ensure it is inclusive, relevant, and supportive. We’ll also review the relevance of our wider benefits and partners to make sure they continue to meet the needs of our team.
Our people are at the heart of everything we do; you are the reason we win work, deliver brilliant outcomes, and build lasting relationships with our customers. In 2026, we’ll continue to invest in our team with purpose and care, creating an environment where people feel connected, supported, and inspired to grow. Each area outlined plays a vital role in helping us build a business that’s not just successful, but a great place to work.
Engagement and Collaboration: how we stay connected and work better together In 2026, we’ll continue to strengthen how we connect, collaborate, and share across Project One, making it easy for everyone to contribute and ensure a real sense of belonging. We’ll evolve our internal communications to be more open and interactive, creating space for regular feedback and two-way dialogue. Lunch and Learn sessions and virtual One Town Halls are important channels to help us build more engagement and will be shaped to capture the topics you want to hear more about, as well as remain an effective way to keep the whole team updated on important business news. We’ll continue to shine a spotlight on the expertise in our business, both professional and personal, to bring the whole person to life. This links directly with our external campaigns and reinforces our identity as a people-first business. Our service communities and committees will be purpose-led and volunteer-driven. The magic happens when people opt-in with energy and there’s a clear goal, enabling meaningful collaboration in a variety of ways. Ultimately, this is about making contribution feel valued, collaboration feel natural, and connection feel easy wherever and however we work.
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Financials
Our goal is simple: to support causes that matter to our team while bringing our people together in meaningful and inclusive ways. We’re proud to support a wide range of charities, with a strong focus on those nominated by our own team. From health and mental wellbeing to children’s causes, animal welfare, and disaster relief, we aim to reflect the diversity of passions and priorities across the business. We also look outward, supporting causes that matter to our customers, such as Blind Sport (championed by our customer at Rolls-Royce) and Cancer Research, where we took part in a customer-led event. We’re also passionate about giving back to the community whether that’s hosting work experience and T-level students at our head office, donating surplus equipment, or volunteering our time and skills. We’re always looking for new ways to get people involved. Offering a mix of activities from fitness challenges to fun online events and using the OnHand App. We’ve welcomed some brilliant new committee members this year, and we’d love to see even more people join, to help keep our ideas fresh and inclusive. We’re proud of the impact we make together. Thank you to the whole team for your ongoing support and contribution. Charity and Social Impact
Behind the scenes, we’ve strengthened our financial position. In October 2025, we refinanced with NatWest on a new five- year term, securing better commercial rates and giving us the headroom to invest in our people and our future. We continue to manage our finances with discipline and care: Invoicing is prompt and accurate Cashflow is closely monitored Costs are reviewed regularly to maximise value for money. We continue to meet our tax obligations in full and on time, contributing responsibly to UK society. Despite an increase in business taxes in 2025, our financial position remains robust and well-placed to absorb these changes. Looking ahead, we’ll continue to increase fee rates in 2026 through careful renegotiation of existing frameworks and pricing carefully for new work. We remain mindful of the competitive landscape and will ensure our pricing continues to reflect good value for our customers and helps us be successful at winning work in a competitive market. We’re heading into 2026 with a clear focus: steady, sustainable, organic growth - the kind that builds momentum year after year. While 2025 didn’t deliver the revenue uplift we had hoped for, we’re holding firm on our £25 million target. Why? Because we believe in our proposition, our people, and our potential. This sets the tone for momentum to continue into 2027 and 2028.
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PHOTOS FROM THE YEAR
Lucy
2025 Forecast
2026 Plan
2027 Plan
2028 Plan
Average Consultant Day Rates
£1,554
£1,500 £1,510
£1,520
£23m £27m £29m £31m
Total Sales
Total Revenue (excluding expenses)
£22.5m £25m £26m £27.6m
EBITDA
£5m £5.1m £5.7m £6.1m
Operating Margin
22%
20.1% 22%
22%
Average Total Team Deployed
64
71
75
78
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Business Growth
Our Change Management track record
Our 2026 sales plan sets a clear target: 11% revenue growth. It’s ambitious in the broader Geo-political economic context, however for us, it’s grounded in real opportunities across our existing accounts and active conversations with new-name organisations. This year presents the opportunity to start a new 3-year average in terms of growth; draw a line under the previous 3 years which have been globally challenging; and present a growth story for the team, our customers, and the market. We’re seeing opportunities to further develop in BAE Systems, National Grid, Unilever, AWE, Cancer Research, and NESO to name a few. To achieve our target, we will focus on building multiple senior relationships with existing and target customers. Strong, consistent account management is also key for growth, ensuring we stay close to our customers, understand their evolving needs, and position ourselves as trusted partners in their transformation journey. Placing our team into senior leadership roles within major programmes allows us to shape delivery from the inside out as we are seeing with our consultants taking a senior role in multiple accounts.
Change Management will continue to play a bigger role in how we sell and deliver. We have seen more CM specific programmes in 2025 proving it’s a core part of our proposition - it’s part of how we lead transformation. Why? Because customers are no longer just asking “can we deliver the programme?” – they’re asking, “will our people actually adopt it?” We’ll aim to embed Change Management into every team sale, alongside Programme Management and PMO, growing the Change Management community, building a strong community of people with the confidence, frameworks and experience to lead change at scale. Our message to our customers is - if you want your transformation to stick, Change Management needs to be built in from day one. We expect the majority of this growth to come from our larger existing customer accounts, where complex, multi-year transformations continue at pace. Our credibility in these accounts as a trusted partner for Change Management is increasing, creating opportunities to embed alongside Programme Management and PMO in more integrated team sales. The remaining growth will come from new-name customers, particularly those embarking on major tech-enabled change, such as SAP S/4HANA and wider modernisation, where we can leverage our proven track record, recent roundtable momentum, and partnership models to demonstrate the ROI of building people-centered transformation from day one.
In parallel, we will continue to recognise members of our team who continue to contribute to business development with our Growth Awards. Anyone who creates, develops, progresses, and closes a new opportunity for themselves or for a colleague will receive £2,500. We remain sector agnostic; however, the defence and energy sectors present greater opportunities for new business. With our proven track record alongside the commitment to spend 3% of GDP on defence, signalling a major, long-term expansion of national defence capability. This level of investment usually creates multi-year funding certainty, enabling the MOD to launch or accelerate large programmes. Similarly, the shift to clean power and broader net-zero commitments is driving sustained, multi-billion-pound investment across renewables, storage, grid modernisation and new energy technologies, creating a long-term pipeline of complex challenges that organisations cannot tackle alone. With programmes running across multiple years and accelerating delivery pressures, we can build deep, lasting customer relationships and scale steadily by addressing critical needs in regulation, delivery, digitalisation and system transformation. We’ll also continue to drive cross-sector growth through our core themes such as SAP S/4HANA transformation where our experience and insight set us apart.
19 We’re confident in our understanding of where the complex programmes will be across customers, sectors and topics, so we can target our support in areas where it’s most needed. For our Consulting Team, it means more opportunities to lead meaningful programmes, collaborate closely, and create a genuine impact. We remain open to new ideas. If there are commercial partnerships or collaborations that could unlock fresh opportunities for growth, we’re ready to explore them.
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Lead Generation in 2025
Marketing
In a competitive market dominated by global firms, Marketing is a lever for growth. For a business like ours, it plays a critical role in helping us stand out, build trust, and open doors. In 2026, our marketing efforts will focus on three core outcomes: lead generation, deepening relationships, and amplifying our brand.
Lead Generation: We’ll drive inbound leads from both new and existing accounts through: Targeted campaigns aligned to priority sectors and transformation themes Tools and messaging that help us connect to our target audience and add value up-front A strong digital presence with SEO and PPC activity capturing active interest and improving visibility. Relationship Building: We’ll generate more customer engagements through: Small, curated events for senior leaders, designed to create conversations and opportunities Customer feedback interviews, building wider visibility of the Project One team Visibility of personal brands and team credibility in our target markets. Brand Visibility: We’ll continue to build a brand that punches above our weight through: Thought leadership that showcases our experience and expert point of view Content that converts, turning interest into conversations and conversations We are proud to maintain our 7-year consecutive streak listed on the Financial Times Leading Management Consultants list and will leverage this message to further strengthen our brand in the market. Our ranking for PPM from Consultancy.uk continues to be a huge opportunity to stand out from our competitors – recognised as the #1 boutique in the UK for PPM and the #2 overall consultancy placed against all large global firms. into opportunities Credible accolades
Susie roundtable
The Women in Change Awards sponsored by Project One
Marketing that drives growth We’ll measure success by the opportunities we create, and the types of organisations we attract. Marketing will work hand-in-hand with Sales to ensure every campaign is aligned, outreach is targeted, message is sharp, and every effort moves us closer to our goals.
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