Consulting is broken. We're here to make it a little better.
So we created the Challenger Consultancy.
What's the story?
Big consulting is a broken industry. We all know it is, but for some reason we put up with it. From inflated fees for junior analysts learning on the job, annoying buzzwords to hide from insecurity, withholding information to get the next sale, trying to be a one-stop-shop rather than collaborating with others and often being afraid to tell it like it really is.
“I have never seen a management consultant’s report in my long life that didn’t end with the following paragraph: “What this situation really needs is more management consulting.” - Charlie Munger (a very wise man).
We were tired of this. Together, we have worked in amazing little agencies, big professional services firms, and been on the other side of the fence dealing with their bullshit as a client too. We founded Now or Never as we want to create audacious ideas and turn them into new products, services, and businesses that companies can launch with confidence.
We decided to start by creating an audacious idea for the consulting industry - providing advisory without overhead and fluff, a way to deliver large projects by assembling the best boutique agencies, and creating or co-founding ventures that enable clients to share the risk with us, aligning our incentives in the process.
It was our 'now or never moment' to see if we could create the Challenger Consultancy. And Now or Never was born.
Innovation Strategy Customer Insight
Market Foresight New Product Development
Branding Digital Strategy Growth Hacking
Creative Initiatives New Ventures
We help bold companies
with their new product and venture initiatives.
Advisory
For when you need a little outside help. We work with clients to navigate what they should do and where they should invest by exploring new opportunities, trends and technologies.
Previously this has included facilitating customer insight sessions, hosting field trips to connect clients with their peers or inspiring innovators in other markets, designing new concept portfolios, supporting the set up of innovation functions and running design sprints.
You pay us a reasonable rate for the time and materials you require.
Modular Projects
For when you need to deliver a bigger piece of work, a complicated project or a enterprise wide program, we assemble specialized agencies together under one contract as an antidote to the traditional big, slow and expensive professional services firm. You know who we're talking about.
Our network of tried and trusted partners spans Canada, the UK, USA and the EU. Together we work collaboratively to bring the best in their field to our clients, across insight, strategy, brand, creative, digital marketing and product design. Pretty much everything you need to launch a new product or service.
We act as a bit like a general contractor, making sure you buy the best people for the job instead of a collection of expensive generalists.
Ventures
For when you want to do something different. We work with corporations and other agencies to "co-found" ventures that we believe should exist in the market outside of the traditional structures of a project.
This could be the challenger proposition you need to cannibalize your existing business and want to put outside your walls, or it could be a great idea that could never have seen the light of day under traditional reporting frameworks.
To make these happen, we align the incentives and share in the risk taking equity rather than full fat fees. Some of these we have ready made that we'd be delighted to have you buy off the shelf from us.
Clients &
Collaborations
We work with a range of clients, from start-ups to agencies to large firms.
Lots of our work is pretty fresh, and we can't give the game away too easily. After all, some of them are currently testing some big ideas with us. Here are a few clues, and if you ask nicely, we might be able to introduce you to some of them. They're all lovely people.
-
A company that specializes in how people pay for parking
-
A big Canadian pension fund
-
A large farming co-operative
-
A fintech helping gig economy workers make ends meet
-
A very big commercial and residential property business
-
A boutique Canadian travel agency