Jeff Cronkshaw, Founder & CEO at Lancia Consult: How to Build a 100-Person Consultancy from Scratch
My Duvet Flip by Jack Parsons
Jack Parsons
4.2 • 5 Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Check out Lancia Consult
https://www.lanciaconsult.com/
Episode Guest
Jeff Cronkshaw is the CEO and co-founder of Lancia Consult, a global consultancy launched in Singapore in 2012. With a background in pharmaceuticals and consulting at Accenture, Jeff has led Lancia’s expansion across Asia, Europe, and South Africa. He also serves as Deputy Chair of the University of Brighton Board, is a Global Scot business advisor, and co-founded The Gateway Project to support disadvantaged youth.
Episode Timestamps
00:00 - Intro: Why Jeff's story matters
00:24 - Meet Jeff Kroshaw, CEO of Lancia Consult
01:12 - What gets Jeff out of bed every morning
01:40 - His first job: 15-mile paper rounds in rural Scotland
02:53 - From disco DJ to coding gigs early entrepreneurship
03:38 - First proper job at Eli Lilly & how it shaped him
05:15 - Why discipline still matters in today’s workplace
06:46 - Employment contracts vs. mortgages
08:13 - Joining a culture that fit & how it clicked
09:53 - The #1 thing Jeff looks for in new hires
11:00 - Why consulting is one of the most unique careers
13:16 - What a day in consultancy really looks like
14:45 - Why consultants don’t need to have all the answers
16:20 - The life skill every consultant needs: self-resilience
17:44 - The loneliness of consultancy & how to fight it
20:06 - Why Jeff treats company culture like a compass
21:33 - Building a support network like a garden
24:25 - Your network is your future
26:02 - Failing 6 interviews before landing his career break
27:14 - How to bounce back from rejection
29:04 - Co-founding a business with his wife (and surviving it!)
31:30 - Why Lancia was bootstrapped—and stayed that way
33:07 - Global growth: the vision behind their multi-office strategy
35:01 - Lessons from 14 years of entrepreneurship
37:10 - Where most entrepreneurs go wrong
39:40 - It’s not a business until an invoice is paid
41:16 - The secret to why clients choose LanciaConsult
42:51 - Why commercial flexibility wins deals
44:20 - Life lesson: when a boss tore up his work
46:06 - Jeff’s final Duvet Flip why this business has to work
Episode Partner
Lancia Consult is a global management and technology consultancy helping brands, governments, and scale-ups tackle complex challenges and achieve strategic goals. With nearly 100 people across seven offices, Lancia delivers practical, people-first consulting—from strategy to execution—driving real impact through a deeply experienced and entrepreneurial team.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A lot of the time it's like actually you've got to, you do feel different. |
| 0:03.0 | You engage with us differently. |
| 0:04.0 | You come up with different commercial ways of working. |
| 0:06.0 | We will sit down and say, well, how does this work? |
| 0:08.0 | Or how do you want to commercialise it with a young team? |
| 0:11.0 | Our youngest director, so at 26, 27, I'm one of the oldest. |
| 0:14.0 | I'm one of the oldest. |
| 0:15.0 | You might be one of the oldest in your organisation, but you're one of the youngest on this show. |
| 0:21.6 | Very good. |
| 0:22.6 | You like that, do you? |
| 0:23.6 | Yeah. |
| 0:24.6 | Good answer. |
| 0:25.6 | Hi, my name is Jeff Cromshaw. I'm the founder and CEO of Lancet Consult. |
| 0:31.6 | We're a management consultancy. We have around 100 employees in Europe and Asia and South Africa. |
| 0:36.6 | And this is my duvei Flick. |
| 0:38.3 | Where do you think entrepreneurs go wrong? |
| 0:40.3 | First thing to recognise is it does go well. |
| 0:42.3 | Peer entrepreneurs that fail, they try to come up a business case. |
| 0:45.3 | What is it trying to build and why are you doing it? |
| 0:47.3 | Who is the first customer you're going to speak to? |
| 0:49.3 | If I'm a young consultant walking in, I'm there to problem solve. What about if I'm walking into a room |
| 0:55.0 | and I have no bloody idea how to solve that. One of the reasons we founded our business is |
... |
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