This report has been prepared by Janine Grant Consulting as part of its policy on transparency and accountability.
There is nothing quite like taking the leap to start up a company – driven by the idea that management consulting in the international development space can be more agile, more responsive, increasingly localized, and more reflective of the people international development aims to serve. The vision for Janine Grant Consulting emerged from the ever-increasing demand for multi-faceted teams to work on short term or niche assignments – bringing together specific technical advisory support, communications roles, strategic planning and developmental evaluation – and that a consortium of consultants could leverage their expertise, experience and networks to respond to those needs in an efficient and effective way.
Despite starting out strong – two fantastic contracts awarded within our first quarter of operations – COVID-19 has nonetheless had an impact. Although Janine Grant Consulting proved itself to be an agile organization by shifting its work to online and remote operations to complete our contracts, the global economic shock which resulted from COVID-19 meant that opportunities to grow our business dramatically diminished. It was a hard pill to swallow only five months into operations.
Our team revisited our business model and asked what we could do in the interim that would help to build our reputation as a niche firm that was aiming to operate at the nexus of international development and private sector investment in sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. The decision was taken to use a portion of our start-up capital to begin investing in knowledge products which would later form the basis for our bidding work and instill confidence that our advisory support is backed up by evidence. Thus, 2020 became the year of feasibilities studies and research grants, building Janine Grant’s profile and contribution the ever-growing body of knowledge around issues of sustainability, blended finance, and private sector engagement in economic development.
It has nonetheless been a tough year to try to build a company and keep it going, but we have succeeded. As the world emerges from COVID-19 into new ways of working and a recognition that business as usual when it comes to poverty reduction and sustainable economic development, Janine Grant Consulting finds itself well placed as a boutique firm that can respond to the specific needs of its clients both in terms of providing technical support but also in terms adding value with through micro-innovations that have been researched and tested through our knowledge products.
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