In this episode of the Consultancy Growth Podcast, I’m joined by Campbell Fraser, telecoms consultant turned founder, turn chairman for an honest conversation about growing, systemising, and successfully exiting his consultancy.

We unpack Campbell’s journey from working solo out of a client’s back office to leading a 40-person team and engineering a £ Multi-Million exit. He shares the unfiltered realities of delegation, firing a misaligned exec team, and why most founders wait too long to remove themselves from the business.

This is a masterclass in scaling up without burning out and in building a consultancy that works without you. If you’re a founder thinking about stepping back, selling, or just building with more freedom in mind, this is your playbook.

0:00 – Introduction to the Consultancy Growth Podcast
01:25 – From solo consultant to launching a full-service consultancy
04:51 – Why the early years were “say yes, figure it out later”
08:43 – How values and vision turned a scrappy team into a real company
12:12 – The first major mistake: hiring the wrong MD
17:48 – Firing your leadership team (and surviving it)
21:06 – Building an EOS-based business with operational maturity
26:14 – Becoming exit-ready: stepping back and making yourself redundant
31:40 – What PE buyers really want to see in a consultancy
36:22 – Dealing with the emotional side of letting go
42:17 – Advice for founders stuck in delivery
47:05 – Post-exit life and what’s next for Campbell Fraser

Host: Craig Herd
Guest: Campbell Fraser

Mark Palmer shares how he transformed OEE Consulting from a £3 million business into a £24 million consultancy, earning recognition as one of the Sunday Times Top 100 Employers and winning the MCA Award for Client Service.

Mark highlights key inflection points in the business's growth, the importance of recruitment and team dynamics, and the need for a strong value proposition. He emphasises the significance of understanding client needs and delivering value.

00:00 Transforming Company Culture on Day One

10:23 Key Inflection Points in Business Growth

17:32 Navigating Challenges and Protecting Core Values

22:01 The Importance of Recruitment and Team Dynamics

29:11 Rethinking Business Development Strategies

34:44 Delivering Value and Understanding Client Needs

Connect with Mark Palmer

Connect with Craig Herd

Mark Ashton and Ingmar Elm are cofounders of MAD Business, a consultancy focused on delivering powerful experiential learning days to improve team cohesion and performance. MAD Business was founded in 2024 to provide MAD events in the UK and other countries outside Estonia, where MAD was founded in 2002, has delivered more than 2,000 team learning days for over 500 client organisations of all sizes, and that Ingmar has been a lead coach for MAD in Estonia since 2004. MAD itself was originally founded in Estonia in 2002 and has delivered more than 2,000 team learning days for over 500 client organisations of all sizes. Ingmar has been a lead coach for MAD since 2004.

We unpack the neuroscience of high performance from how emotions overpower logic, to why psychological safety isn't a “soft” concept but the hard foundation of innovation and resilience. We talk about the real cost of hidden fear in consultancy cultures, how founders can accidentally sabotage performance despite good intentions, and what leaders must do to build trust that scales. Mark and Ingmar also share practical tools and frameworks like “experience days” and behavioural pattern diagnosis to help you unlock the true performance potential of your team.

Whether you're looking to exit, scale, or simply lead more effectively, this episode is a must-listen for founders who want their consultancy to thrive well beyond themselves.

• Why teams, not individuals, are the true units of performance
• How the brain’s emotional wiring affects collaboration
• The neuroscience of trust, decision-making and conflict
• What psychological safety really is and how to create it
• How founders unintentionally destroy safety and performance
• “Experience days” and filming teams to reveal behavioural patterns
• The power of collective awareness and creating new team norms
• Building a culture that flows (not one that grinds)
• How to transition from founder-led control to shared leadership
• What high-performing teams do differently consistently
  
  

Linkedin: Mark Ashton

Linkedin: Ingmar Elm

Website: https://mad-business.com/