Geoff worked very effectively with members of the team in particular sharing techniques for data capture and process review. He picks up current processes quickly and is happy to challenge - and equally comfortable being challenged. He also presents his findings/recommendations in an easily understood format.

Mark Sandhu, Benefits Manager, Peterborough city Council - Peterborough September 2005

Geoff is an excellent kaizen practitioner, passionate about his work and very effective within an organisation. He works alongside internal teams, grows their capabilities to understand and take control of the processes they run, and delivers dramatic performance improvements with them. Kaizen is an immensely powerful approach to public service improvement, still insufficiently understood, and Geoff deserves great credit for the achievements he has led.

Ben Ticehurst, Director, Options Change Management Ltd - Oxford
September 2005

Excellent service, stripped the processes down and built them up again more effective and productive - thank you

Mike Brown, Head of Service , Peterborough City Council - Peterborough
August 2005

As the most senior Planner in the City Council, I am frequently asked for references or testimonials – rarely do I offer them voluntarily!

Geoff is an exceptional Consultant for many reasons:

He actually adds great value, rather than simply ‘playing back’ the information he has been given by you and other sources

With wide public and private sector experience, he can offer genuinely innovative, yet relevant interventions

1. He does not give a ‘quick fix’ that falls apart after he leaves – he works with you to improve the performance of your system – and it is still your system when he leaves (Performance has not fallen off since his departure)

2. He does not spend time writing lengthy, turgid, technical reports – he works with your people and your system to improve their actual performance

3. He does not work ‘with blinkers’ but understands the complexities and contradictions of local government that can require both understanding and action ‘outside the box’

4. He understands the ‘people’ side of systems performance, and has offered me much wise counsel on getting the best from them

5. He has produced outstanding results in the improvement of performance (We now exceed all our performance targets some by a very significant margin, without using any ‘shady practices’)

6. He is a genuinely nice person, quickly winning staff to the idea that he is there to sort out the system with their expert professional knowledge, not to undermine them or unfairly criticise their personal performance

In my view, if you seriously want to improve the performance of your systems, you cannot afford not to employ Geoff! (His fees have been met several times over by improvements to income from Planning Delivery Grant alone, without even considering the improvement on customer care!)

I am happy to elaborate on any of these points for anyone considering employing Geoff Sutton.

Graeme Law
Strategic Planning Executive, Peterborough City Council - Peterborough
May 2006