Holdsway

Holdsway is a multi-disciplinary, multi-sector and multi-country senior-level interim management provider. Set up by a very experienced consultant who had been placing interims into senior management positions way before it became an add-on service for recruitment companies. Having decided to set up a new Interim Management consultancy, the founders decided they wanted to set themselves apart from the others and needed a distinctive brand name, identity and messaging ahead of the development of their most crucial tool, a website.

We felt that naming the company after its founders, as is the norm in recruitment and interim management would be a missed opportunity to bring a brand idea to market from the outset. While the principal’s name and reputation is clearly an asset they need to open new doors, and make the brand ‘bigger than the individual’.

After interrogating the idea behind the business and some research we thought carefully what target audiences would be looking or in an interim. We found that organisations take on senior interims to effect a change or bring new insights and strategic guidance to the business. To do that they of course need experience and skills, but they also require a gravitas and the ability to engage people in a vision and motivate them to move forward. The positioning and brief to branding reflected this in arriving at an idea that an effective and powerful interim ‘holds sway’ with the people he is directing and helping.