"A theme was developing on our trip to the Kingdom of Swaziland involving the number 13. Lucky for King, Mswati III who has said number of wives, unlucky for me as this is the number of cows I was told that I was apparently worth!" said Fiona Murie. "I had expected many more and despite attempts to inject other criteria to increase the ‘cow count’, I was unsuccessful! The same could not be said for our time working with the Government of Swaziland," Fiona explained.

"Appointed by the Commonwealth Secretariat, myself and fellow Director, Sarah Goodwin spent nearly three weeks conducting a training needs assessment for senior leadership development in Swaziland. This is central to helping Swaziland achieve its Vision for 2022, ensuring Principal Secretaries have vibrant, political and technical leadership to work collaboratively towards clearly articulated national outcomes."

Click on the 'Gallery' tab at the left hand side to see photographs from our time in Swaziland.

In April 2009 One Cornwall became a reality as a unitary authority in the shape of Cornwall Council .The very best elements of the former County Council and the six former District Councils of Carrick, Kerrier, Restormel, Caradon, Penwith and North Cornwall were combined with a view to integrate and streamline to create a more efficient, effective and dynamic Cornwall Council. One year on and what has been achieved?

In short, an incredible amount has been achieved by the new Cornwall Council and it is important to consider the sheer enormity of the task. Cornwall is a diverse and large county, over 100 miles long, and almost that wide in places; there were over 21,000 staff in the new organisation based in over x 70 locations and whose work touches the lives of every single person in Cornwall.

InDepth Director, Sarah Goodwin, won the Institute of Business Consulting (IBC) Regional Member of the Year at last Thursday night’s IB Consulting Awards at the Langham Hotel in London. The achievement of this award recognised Sarah’s dynamism and proactive support and interaction with IBC in the East Midlands and the extent that she promotes good practice in business consulting.

Lynda Purser, director of the Institute of Business Consulting, congratulated Sarah and thanked her for contribution to our shared ambition to drive professionalism in business consulting and promote IBC members as preferred suppliers of consulting and advice: “the Institute is delighted to recognise diligence, particularly when individuals like Sarah live and breathe good practice”.

InDepth Consulting continues to make a real difference and have impact with our clients and this has been recognised in the run up to the National Institute of Business Consulting Awards 2009 where founding Director Fiona Murie has been shortlisted for the Management Consultant of the Year Award.

This follows on from a tremendous year and some excellent work Fiona delivered for clients, and in particular Wakefield District Housing. This added real value and reaped great feedback from their CEO Kevin Dodd, senior managers and staff alike

And this is not all...........

InDepth Director, Fiona Murie has successfully completed a twelve month interim management role with Wakefield and District Housing (WDH).

WDH is a Registered Social Landlord and is the largest single housing stock transfer organisation, responsible for over 31,000 homes. Fiona worked with the Audit Commission 3 star rated organisation to lead their ambitious people focused change programme titled ‘Shaping our Future’. She later added responsibility for heading the Organisational Development (OD) Team and has now completed her assignment.

Fiona said “the initial requirement was to organise and launch the two-year programme within four months and hand it over to a newly recruited team. In addition, following a restructure, I then assumed the role of Service Director - Organisational Development for a further eight months”.

Fiona added “The programme comprises of four projects and aims to build a workforce capable of responding to a challenging agenda and included all aspects of leadership, management and organisational development. It affects a diverse workforce of 1,400 employees and focuses on attracting and keeping the right people, grading and paying people accordingly, working more efficiently and flexibly, and simplifying HR and payroll processes,”