For your amusement

By Rachel Duk.

Here at Source Towers, we were thrilled to learn that the occasionally humdrum world of consulting received an injection of celebrity stardust this week, with the announcement that Ed Sheeran is set to wed his long-time girlfriend, Cherry Seaborn. As the rumour network would have it, Cherry moves in entirely different professional circles to Ed; she’s currently to be found working as a risk consultant at Deloitte. The mind boggles as to their evening conversation topics, although the inspiration for Ed’s hit “Don’t” suddenly becomes clear: It’s the mantra risk consultants around the world wish their clients would follow.

We assume there have been times when Cherry’s commitment to her career choice has been tested. It must be a very particular dagger to the heart when your beloved rings you from his sell out arena tour, while you are sitting in a windowless New Street Square office battling with conditional formatting. But suddenly—with a wedding to plan—Cherry’s risk career is looking like the canny choice for that most critical of tasks: The wedding risk log.

By Alison Huntington, Rachel Duk, and Fiona Czerniawska.

It’s time for globe-trotting management consultants to put their suitcases down and their slippers on. The Source team has been looking along our bookshelves to find overlooked classics to read this Christmas:

‘Little Consulting Firm on the Prairie’, a heart-warming Christmas episode in which Ma persuades Pa not to put copies of his new business book under the tree, but go out and shoot a proper bear before they all starve.

By Julie Ahadi.

We think it’s time to introduce the concept of conference call hold music etiquette to consulting firms. It’s not that we aren’t amused by some of the choices we have been subjected to of late– indeed, we’ve enjoyed singing along to a veritable smorgasbord of 90s hip-hop classics and contemporary favourites, jam-packed with innuendo and funky beats. What we struggle with, however, is listening to Britney Spears one minute, and the Global Marketing Director of a strategy firm and 15 partners the next. As anyone in their right mind would know, it’s virtually impossible not to finish off the lyrics: “When I’m not with you I lose my mind–Give me a sign…”