Local entrepreneurs launch Clutch to disrupt consulting industry (VIDEO)

Based on 10 years of direct experience and conversations with C-level executives who shared frustrations of a bloated, ineffective consulting industry, the founders of executive recruiting firm The Laurel Group have partnered with an experienced entrepreneur to launch Clutch (weareclutch.com). Based in the hub of technology and innovation in the downtown Seattle core, Clutch uses an entrepreneurial set of “Provocateurs” to deliver industrial-grade, strategic transformation and innovation to clients up and down the West Coast.

How is Clutch different? from Clutch on Vimeo.

“Any executive who uses consulting firms will tell you the market needs a fresh, simple approach to solving today’s business challenges – so we’re about less talking and more doing,” said Steven Anderson, Clutch’s Activator and top executive who has raised more than $60 MM in venture capital in roles as Founder, CTO, and CEO of numerous companies. “Just as we would recommend to our clients in their industry, we’re evolving to disrupt the consulting market and provide a more inspirational, less institutional set of services.”

Clutch’s work spans a number of areas involving transformational shifts in business including Strategic Change, Technology Transformation, Operational Transformation, Cultural Transformation, and Rapid Innovation. This client work is underpinned by three simple principles that apply across industries, to companies of all size, and from startup to Fortune 500:

• The Reduction of Technical Liabilities – analyzing a client’s use of internal and external technology to remove or replace ineffective or outdates systems.

• The Reduction of Organizational Liabilities – analyzing internal structures and culture to remove barriers and silos that block innovation and change within a company.

• Simplicity – recognizing that more is not always better and assisting a company in stripping out unneeded processes and ensure solutions are simple, elegant, and sustainable.

A serial entrepreneur since leaving Microsoft, Anderson – who co-founded the industry’s first storage virtualization company and directed a market leading Cloud Project Portfolio Management (PPM) organization – outlines Clutch’s market approach in a short video at: vimeo.com/108864565.

“We believe that every single challenge faced by a client can be solved by focusing on some combination of our three principles,” said Tom Taft, Clutch Co-Founder and Co-Founder and CEO of The Laurel Group. “By focusing on this straightforward approach, we strip away the excess that unfortunately has become ‘normal’ in consulting, creating a high amount of value for our clients and empowering them to solve future problems.”

As Clutch launches, its recruitment strategy is focused on providing entrepreneurial-based opportunities for consultants bored by cookie cutter client engagements. Called Provocateurs at Clutch, business and technology professionals have the opportunity to choose their own mentor from the leadership team, create their own title, and need not worry about personal time off (PTO) which isn’t tracked at Clutch.

“We’re seeking entrepreneurial minded people to think creatively on behalf our clients,” said Anderson. “We’ll mentor and assist our Provocateurs to the point that even if they leave to start their own company after being with us, we see that as a positive for us and the industry as a whole.”