About Astute Business Thinking

Why choose ASTUTE?

Having determined that you would benefit from a project or programme manager (PM), there are traditionally a couple of options available to you:

• You could recruit someone directly; however, projects are by their very nature temporary. It can be tricky recruiting an employee for 3 or 6 months and even then the project might not need a full-time PM. Therefore, this approach can result in an ineffective use of your organisation’s resources.
• You could recruit a contractor, although this can be expensive. It can be particularly difficult to fill if you envisage a short project or the project doesn’t warrant a full-time PM.

With these options the onus is on you to determine “is the person able to deliver” and “will this person fit in with the other people in the organisation”? It is your responsibility to assess ability, experience and skill, and to choose a suitable person with the potentially significant consequences of getting it wrong. It could be even more risky if you decide to try and deliver the project yourself without the involvement of a project manager.

This is where ASTUTE comes in as experts in project and programme management. Our team don’t just have the qualifications and certifications. We have a proven track record of successfully delivering projects and programmes, across a wide range of organisations and industries over two decades.

Every member of our team is hand-picked based upon their values, feedback from colleagues and customers, their experiences and qualifications.

By putting our customer at the centre of everything, we work collaboratively in partnership with our customers. Our aim is to build long-term mutually beneficial relationships with our customers to achieve a win / win!

Why are we different?

If you look around then you will find a few companies who include project management or a project manager as part of what they do. So, how is ASTUTE different?

Put simply, it is a combination of our people, values and approach to everything we do. We always seek to add value. It is also the wide range of services that we offer and our willingness to have “skin in the game” by sharing or taking on delivery risk.

• Our shared values – trust, respect, honesty, hard work, kindness, innovation, pragmatism, flexibility, adaptable, transparency and collaboration. People are always our highest priority. These aren’t just a list of nice words; this is our way of life and everything that we hold dear.
• Over the years we have proven ourselves time and time again, through successful project and programme delivery. But most importantly of all, through our delighted customers. Projects have included everything from software development and upgrades to mergers and acquisitions, business transformations, site moves, organisation wide rebrand and building renovation. It doesn’t matter what you are trying to achieve, we can help you achieve it quicker and at a lower cost whilst reducing risk.
• Our customers are central to everything that we do. Our focus is on collaboration and partnership, working to build long-term relationships on the basis that our customer’s success is also our success. If we don’t have a fully satisfied customer, then we won’t have a business in the future – so this one is common sense!
• Unlike some organisations, our focus is not on the hard sell and revenue generation. We don’t have revenue targets to hit. We are passionate about delivering projects for our customers, and people tell us we’re very good at it!
• Confident in our ability to deliver for our customers, we can offer some of our services on a “fixed price” as well as a “time and materials” basis. ASTUTE can take on some of the risk of delivering a project. At the same time, you will have the reassurance of knowing the project management costs won’t grow beyond your budget. We even offer a money back guarantee on all of the work that we do!