HFS Challenger: Chazey Partners

At a glance

The latest firm to receive the coveted HFS Challenger accolade is Chazey Partners. The company earned its spot thanks to its practitioner-led approach, which means solutions are built around practicality and real-world effectiveness—all while being considered a flexible and cost-effective partner for enterprises.

Chazey Partners was founded in 2006 in the same fashion as some of today’s biggest businesses—in this case, in a small study above the founder’s garage. The last two decades have seen Chazey Partners drive its practitioner-led approach to delivering management consulting and advisory services for key global clients with a particular focus on the Americas. More recently, we have seen Chazey Partners establish itself across three key business lines: business transformation, digital transformation, and business management, and expand its presence in 18 countries to serve approximately 40 clients.

QX Global Group acquired Chazey Partners in February 2022. We expect this to be a key growth catalyst because of the synergies between the two firms and notable cross-sell opportunities.

Evolved from business transformation and shared services to offering end-to-end solutions, including digital transformation and business process outsourcing

Early in its journey, Chazey Partners focused on delivering business transformation and shared services consulting. The firm has evolved over the years, with the QX Global Group acquisition serving as a key growth driver. Today, Chazey Partners offers the full end-to-end spectrum of services, including evaluations, strategic advisory services, project management, implementation support, and process improvement across its main three business lines:

• Business Transformation: Consider this Chazey Partners’ bread and butter, given it has been at the core of the business since its inception. Chazey Partners delivers Global Business Services, Shared Services, Operating Model and Change Management Consulting to help enterprises drive new efficiencies and improve operational effectiveness.
• Digital Transformation: A recent addition to Chazey Partner’s portfolio, the provider delivers digital transformation across strategy, implementation, and managed services. The service portfolio includes system integration services for technology platforms such as Oracle Fusion, ServiceNow, and Workday, master data management, and implementation of tools such as RPA and AI.
• Business Process Management: Chazey Partners handles ongoing management and optimization of business processes, including BPO, across functions such as finance & accounting and human resources. This area reported a significant boost following the QX Global Group acquisition. Chazey Partners also provides what it calls “Hybrid Nearshore BPO” services out of its Mexico and Colombia locations. This fast-growing service combines the proximity and cultural alignment advantages of a delivery center close to the client´s country while also taking advantage of Chazey Partners’ capabilities in business transformation and intelligent automation.

Approximately two-thirds of Chazey Partners’ revenue is generated from the consumer market, with a notable foothold in energy and utilities, public sector and education, and recruitment. From a geographic perspective, most of Chazey Partners’ business is in the Americas. This means Chazey Partners has some notable growth levers it can pull moving forward, particularly in the banking, financial services, and insurance industries, as well as in Europe—but can it scale while maintaining its hands-on practitioner-led approach?

A flexible practitioner-led approach is why Chazey Partners wins in a competitive market

Unlike many of its peers, Chazey Partners’ team consists of former practitioners with decades of hands-on experience managing complex business transformation projects. This experience serves as one of the firm’s key differentiators.

Chazey Partners’ clients confirmed this when they told us it was comforting to partner with experienced practitioners. It enables Chazey Partners to move beyond a simple ‘playbook’ and deliver efficient and thoughtful solutions tailored to clients’ specific needs, helping them navigate their unique challenges. In contrast, many of its peers go to market with teams of career consultants, many of whom have limited real-world experience, using what one of Chazey Partners’ clients described as a ‘playbook approach’ with minimal flexibility.

This is coupled with Chazey Partners’ variable resourcing model, where the firm augments its core employees with short- and long-term contractors to allow flexibility not afforded to many of its larger peers. This approach means Chazey Partners can scale operations up and down to meet shifting client demands. It also enables access to talent with the experience needed to help clients with their unique challenges. When connecting with Chazey Partners’ clients, complements on the firm’s flexibility were a common theme. One enterprise recounted when they needed to expand their engagement with Chazey Partners, expecting a lengthy contract-centric conversation, they were surprised at how quickly the team adapted.

Simply put, combining a practitioner-led approach and variable resourcing model enables Chazey Partners to meet clients exactly where they need them to be, as partners rather than providers.

A clear growth roadmap following the QX Global Group acquisition

Thanks to its acquisition by QX Global Group, Chazey Partners has developed a clear roadmap to fuel future growth. The most obvious growth opportunity is to cross-sell between both entities’ existing client bases—particularly given they offer complementary services. Chazey Partners’ leaders revealed this is already happening as they consider positioning themselves as a unified entity—Chazey-QX. Additionally, Chazey Partners intends to double down on its digital transformation momentum. While it remains one of the smaller segments of the firm’s portfolio, the digital transformation practice posted almost 30% year-over-year growth—a trend set to continue in the coming years. We can already see this coming to life with the establishment of an automation center of excellence, boasting approximately 250 people leveraging teams across Chazey and QX Global, located in India, Mexico, and Colombia.

All of this will be complemented by Chazey Partners’ recent investments in its outbound marketing infrastructure. The firm traditionally relied on word of mouth and recommendations to grow brand awareness. Moving forward, Chazey Partners plans to leverage a combination of thought leadership, whitepapers, and industry events to strengthen its brand and expand its client base.

HFS’ take

Chazey Partners’ ability to blend high-impact delivery with a cost-friendly model sets the firm apart from many of its peers and makes it an interesting prospect for enterprises looking beyond traditional tier-one players. Thanks to its practitioner-led approach, Chazey Partners’ ability to deliver tailored and practical solutions goes beyond the “playbook” style of many of its peers—while remaining a cost-effective option. One of the firm’s clients said, “It feels like we get almost Big 4-level consulting with enhanced flexibility and a more cost-conscious model.”

Moreover, the acquisition by QX Global has significantly expanded Chazey Partners’ capabilities and positioned it for future growth. That means now might be the right time for enterprises to consider working with Chazey Partners, as they would benefit from the speed and agility of Chazey Partners today, the scale of the future, and have a hand in the feedback loop throughout the journey.

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