In flatlining Western economies, growth isn’t guaranteed by scale alone. This article explores how major organisations, from automotive to defence, are re-engineering their strategies, operating models, and leadership alignment to drive deliberate, customer-relevant growth. It outlines practical levers for leaders to stay competitive amid structural headwinds and organisational inertia.

Reading time: 7 minutes

In today’s economic climate, major organisations can’t expect just to inherit growth because of their scale and market position. It’s something they have to earn.

Western economies are flatlining. Competitive intensity is rising. And the old playbooks – scale, efficiency, capability-led differentiation – aren’t delivering the same returns. From super scale automotive giants to infrastructure consultancies and defence contractors, the challenge isn’t just how to grow. It’s how to grow deliberately as a sector-specialised firm – in spite of structural headwinds, organisational inertia, and saturated markets.

At Q5, we’ve been working with leaders across sectors, from automotive to infrastructure to defence, who are wrestling with this exact challenge. In turn, this article explores the deliberate, growth-focused executional and operating-model decisions that we’re seeing are effective today.

Customer relevance fuels all growth engines

In low-growth environments, market share becomes the battleground. And to win it, organisations must become more relevant to the customers they serve.

That’s not a throwback to “customer centricity” as a buzzword. It’s a structural shift. Take Jaguar Land Rover: they’ve reorganised around four core brands, elevating brand leadership to the centre of their commercial strategy. Why? Because brand differentiation is a proxy for relevance – and relevance is what drives pricing power, margin, and loyalty.

Similarly, Arcadis is pivoting to a sector-led model, ring-fencing expertise around verticals like airports, highways, and banks. It’s not just about selling capabilities. It’s about having expert-to-expert conversations that resonate with clients’ real-world challenges.

Growth requires organisational re-gearing

These aren’t just strategic pivots. They’re operating model transformations.

In defence, BAE Systems isn’t chasing volume growth – the pipeline of UK side work is well understood and planned for. Instead, they’re targeting margin growth by accelerating delivery and reducing excess cost. That requires a shift in pace, mindset, and capability – especially after decades of underinvestment.

Across sectors, we see the same pattern: growth demands building a new operational ‘gearbox’. That means:

• Recutting structures to align with strategic priorities.
• Killing legacy programmes that dilute focus.
• Building leadership alignment around a clear, shared vision.

The real risk is staying comfortable

There’s a lot of talk about “taking bigger risks” to drive growth. But in our experience, the real challenge isn’t boldness – it’s comfort.

Growth in a flat market always means challenging or overturning comfortable and settled areas of the business. That might mean stepping out of familiar territory from a supply chain perspective, investing in less-proven capabilities, or repositioning the brand. All of that carries strategic as well as operational risk.

But the bigger risk is sticking with ‘inherited’ decisions, processes, or strategies that were made prior to 2023. The context has demonstrably changed for all major industrials – tariffs, cost inflation, interest rates, taxes, and supply chain disruption have all changed both the ‘micro’ and ‘macro’ business cases for most businesses, and the seductive familiarity of internal habits from a different era can obscure a very different set of strategic risks.

The best leaders aren’t reckless. They’re choiceful. They make targeted bets, aligned to strategy and market dynamics. And they’re willing to change & stop things – even cherished projects – if they no longer serve the growth agenda.

Alignment is the growth multiplier

In theory, every well-trained executive team knows the importance of prioritisation. In practice, few follow through.

That’s common at the start of a growth journey: leaders nod along when told they need to prioritise in the abstract, but there are always good tactical reasons why it should be someone else’s initiative that takes the fall.

I saw one particular example recently, where the ‘ultimate leader’ communicated a very clear set of overall outcomes, but the translation down through management levels became incredibly vague, and specific implications for each team were successively softened.

By the time it reached operational budgets, what had at the top been ‘strategic priorities’ had been reduced to ‘broad pillars of activity’ under which bundles of pet projects, hobby horses, and political slush funds could be hidden.

The difference between success and stagnation often comes down to alignment – not just of adjectives but of commitment to action and resources. Where growth strategies succeed, there’s:

• Surgical clarity from the CEO.
• A unified executive team pulling in the same direction.
• A clear narrative that cascades through the organisation.

Where they fail, misalignment at the top magnifies as it cascades – until the front line has no idea what the strategy actually is.

Three growth unlocks every leader should consider

If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that growth doesn’t happen by accident. It requires deliberate choices – and a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths.

Here are three unlocks we believe are essential:

1. Customer clarity: Know who you serve, how you differentiate, and why it matters.
2. Leadership alignment: Strategy is meaningless without a team that can execute it together.
3. Strategic prioritisation: Saying “no” is as important as saying “yes.”

These aren’t just ideas. They’re levers leaders must pull – strategy redevelopment, investment alignment, operating model redesign, and behavioural transformation – and pull hard, to make sure that they bite across and down through a complex organisational system.

Final thought

Growth isn’t dead. But it’s harder than ever. The large company leaders who succeed won’t necessarily be the ones with the wildest vision – but the ones with the clearest focus, the strongest alignment, and the courage to build and use a new set of machinery.

If this resonates, let’s talk. We’re partnering with organisations across sectors to unlock deliberate, focused growth in complex markets.

John Okten

john.okten@q5partners.com

Partner

Tom Amos

tom.amos@q5partners.com

Associate Partner | Defence, Nuclear & Industrials Lead

Helena Simister

helena.simister@q5partners.com

Principal Consultant

The post Growth isn’t dead — but it’s not coming easy appeared first on Q5 Partners.

This article explores how businesses can drive measurable growth with AI by focusing on three practical pathways: supercharging people’s productivity, enhancing decision-making, and scaling operations intelligently. It also outlines the importance of aligning AI tools with strategy, managing cultural change, and balancing opportunity with risk for lasting impact.

Reading time: 5 minutes

Every business we support that’s serious about growth is looking at ways to leverage AI. There are real opportunities even at this early stage for businesses that want to grow faster, smarter and with more impact, as well as more efficiently.

There’s also a real risk of ‘AI fever’ inspiring vague, sloppy growth plans that mistake hype for realistic and accessible business opportunity.

Cutting through that to real growth is vital, and in every sector we’re finding that true potential in three main areas:

1. Supercharging people performance & productivity
2. Superinforming decisions about your customers, products & assets
3. Superscaling volume through repeatable, intelligence-led processes

All three make powerful use of the objectivity & speed of AI to build new growth engines and adapt them quickly to stay ahead when conditions worsen. We’re recommending they’re a great starting point for companies who want AI power behind their growth.

But first, what do we mean by AI?

AI is an umbrella term. It covers different technologies that do different things. An important starting point is matching the tool to the use case to avoid wasting effort in the long term.

GenAI is often what people are referring to when they say ‘AI’, but it goes far beyond chatbots. Technologies within AI include:

• Artificial Intelligence: software simulating human intelligence processes, like fraud detection in banking.
• Machine Learning: systems that improve with experience, such as customer support platforms that learn from past queries to suggest more accurate responses over time.
• Deep Learning: neural networks that learn from massive amounts of data, for example voice assistants that recognise speech patterns.
• Generative AI: tools trained on large datasets to create new content, like ChatGPT or image generators.

Like with all good tools, adoption is key. AI should not only be the preserve of top (or technical) teams in organisations and ‘pushed down’ to everyone else. The best applications will be found and fine-tuned by those closest to the work. Whichever combination of AI technologies organisations take, managing the culture of change is critical, as well as empowering colleagues to embrace, and not fear, AI.

The following examples show some benefits and risks of using AI to drive growth. Both sides need to be weighed up to ensure the initiative is right for your organisation, something Q5 supports clients through.

1. Enable scale

Many organisations spend huge amounts of time on repetitive, low-value tasks. Smart organisations identify those tasks and make AI do the heavy lifting. At Moorfields Eye Hospital, for example, AI reviews thousands of retinal scans and flags potentially urgent cases by applying agreed criteria. The specialists can then prioritise more complex diagnoses where their expertise adds most value.

This approach is faster and cheaper, resulting in reduced patient backlogs and quicker diagnoses. The risk is accuracy. If the AI misses something or has biased training data, the result could be harmful. That is why the decision about what to replace with AI needs to be made carefully.

At Q5, we can help you assess these trade-offs and decide which processes are safe to automate and which should be protected.

2. Supercharge your people

Forget replacing people and instead supercharge their productivity, help them work faster, and deliver better results. Reporters at The New York Times and other news publishers now use AI to scan and summarise thousands of pages of material. The AI handles the heavy processing, while journalists apply the nuance, context, and storytelling.

Higher quality and faster turnaround investigations that would have taken weeks can now be completed in days. The risk comes if organisations fail to invest in workforce skills and culture and staff do not know how to use AI effectively, or if guardrails are not in place, quality and trust can suffer.

Q5 helps you understand the work your organisation does and where your best assets, your people, are best placed focusing their time.

3. Get more value from your assets

Most organisations already sit on valuable data on their assets. AI helps you make these assets work harder. Airlines have used AI to analyse flight data and suggest smarter routes and improve operational processes. The result has been millions saved in fuel costs and reductions in emissions.

The risk is that if data is poor or does not cover the right asset base, the recommendations will not unlock the promised business growth. In all cases, people must be confident that AI is supporting rather than undermining their judgment and AI as a decision-support, not replacement tool.

Q5 helps you identify which assets matter most and get your foundations right. With clean data and the right processes, AI can deliver measurable asset value. We work with you to ensure AI enhances your assets instead of adding complexity or confusion.

The choices leaders face

AI will drive growth – but not on its own. Leaders need to choose carefully: which processes to replace, where to empower people, and which assets to enhance. Every decision should be linked to long-term strategy and be based on a clear understanding of the value and risk trade-off.

At Q5, we work with clients to make those choices deliberately. We focus on clarity, culture, and measurable results. If you’d like to explore what this could look like for your business, then get in touch.

Alice Hughes

Principal Consultant

alice.hughes@q5partners.com

Oliver Matthews

Senior Consultant

oliver.matthews@q5partners.com

The post Unlocking growth through AI: three practical pathways appeared first on Q5 Partners.

Earlier this year, Q5 published The New Newsroom, exploring how video is reshaping journalism. At the Future of Media Technology Conference, we heard how this shift is accelerating. Our new insights build on the report with fresh perspectives from industry leaders, helping newsrooms adapt and thrive in a video-first world.

Reading time: 2 minutes

When Q5 released The New Newsroom: How the Relentless Rise of Video Must Reshape Journalism earlier this year, we argued that video had become central to how audiences discover, engage with, and trust news. At the Future of Media Technology Conference, those themes were echoed and sharpened by industry leaders tackling the challenges of a post-search, platform-dominated world.

The Economist Group captured it with the “Three D’s”: Differentiate, Direct, Distribution. But other themes stood out too: traditional channels like TV and radio still matter for trust, while video demands new workflows, cross-functional collaboration, and authentic, personality-led storytelling.

From Sky’s longform focus to Hearst’s multi-channel model and the BBC’s mission-driven approach, it’s clear there’s no single strategy, but success relies on meeting audiences where they are, investing in talent, and embedding video everywhere.

Download our full insights PDF below for all the takeaways and practical examples.

The post Why video’s reign has only just begun appeared first on Q5 Partners.

From one suitcase and a single client in Sydney to a thriving regional business delivering 750+ projects across sectors, Q5 Australia has grown into a cornerstone of our global story. This is the tale of our first decade, and the exciting horizons still to come. 

Reading time: 6 minutes

In 2015, Q5 took a bold leap. With a suitcase, a vision, and plenty of ambition, Partner Tom Leary landed in Sydney to open Q5’s first APAC office. The goal was simple but a huge challenge, to establish a new frontier for Q5, building a gateway to Asia and Australasia while supporting our clients in the region. 

“Launching Q5 in Australia was a leap into the unknown, but one filled with opportunity. What has made it work is the calibre of our people and the strength of our partnerships. I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve achieved together.” — Tom Leary, Partner, Q5 

Not long after, we welcomed our very first client: a major media and publishing organisation. This early partnership marked the beginning of a global relationship stretching across Australia, the UK and the US, and with it, Q5 Australia was officially underway. 

By 2016, the foundations were being laid. Tom built relationships across Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, and a small team quickly grew to 25 Q5ers delivering for multiple clients. One year later, in 2017, those roots deepened. We began working with organisations who remain clients today and expanded into Victoria through a partnership with a luxury cosmetics brand. To mark the moment, we celebrated our second anniversary with clients and friends at an evening of reflection and gratitude. 

Momentum continued in 2018. We delivered 21 projects across sectors from media to transport and retail, strengthening client relationships and cementing our reputation. Then, in 2019, we officially opened our Melbourne office, signalling national expansion and joining up with colleagues in London and New York on projects that spanned the globe. 

The next year brought new challenges. Just as we settled into our new Sydney office, the world was upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of pausing, we pivoted. We launched Pop-up Australia, our first pro-bono consulting initiative, beginning with The Resilience Project. At the same time, we broadened our services, adding Leadership Development and Organisation Development & Culture to support major clients across manufacturing, distribution and retail. 

Despite the disruption, 2021 was a year of connection through adversity. From kitchen tables and spare rooms, our team continued to deliver, including virtually partnering with one of Australasia’s largest IT services providers. That same year, we were proud to be recognised nationally as a Great Place to Work in Australia. 

In 2022, our work took us across breathtaking landscapes and into regional communities. We supported a healthcare provider that saw us travel the equivalent of London to Istanbul in just a few weeks, working across dust roads, small towns and remote clinics. At the same time, we broadened our services, adding Leadership  Development and Organisation Development & Culture through Lyndal Hughes joining the business and bringing her deep expertise to support major clients across manufacturing, distribution and retail.

The following year, purpose met innovation. Our Reconciliation Action Plan was approved, a milestone on our journey of cultural respect and inclusion. We also launched the Q5 Data & Analytics Hub in Australia, under the leadership of Kyle Fitzgerald, which has since grown rapidly and is now poised to scale globally. 

2024 was a turning point. Q5 co-founder Chris Parsons and Partner, Nat Firth travelled to Australia for what began as a six-week visit but turned into a long-term stay. Their move represented a deepening of Q5’s commitment to Australia and injected fresh energy into our business, read more here. 

“Australia has always felt like an integral part of the Q5 family, and it’s been a privilege to contribute to its journey over the past year. As we enter our tenth year, I’m incredibly optimistic about the opportunities ahead—to grow, exceed our clients’ expectations, and continue building meaningful careers for our Q5ers across the region. I’m looking forward to working with such a talented team as we make Q5@10 a real milestone to remember.” – Chris Parsons, Co-founder, Q5 

Now, in 2025, we celebrate ten years of Q5 in Australia. Over the decade, we have delivered more than 750 projects across a wide variety of sectors, while remaining a trusted partner to some of the clients who joined us in those earliest years. We have also expanded into new industries, including renewable energy, laying foundations for a more sustainable future. 

From a hopeful vision to a thriving, impact-driven business shaping organisations across continents, Q5 Australia’s journey has been anything but ordinary. 

Here’s to the next ten years of bold ideas, incredible people, and adventures still to come. 

Want to stay in touch with Q5 Australia? Sign up to our quarterly newsletter here.

The post A decade Down Under: celebrating 10 years of Q5 in Australia appeared first on Q5 Partners.

Business growth is tougher than ever, demanding bold leadership, clear strategy, and inspired teams. Success means stripping sentimentality, leveraging assets, and embracing AI as the decade’s biggest growth lever. At Q5, we help leaders turn vision into action, building resilience, conviction, and entrepreneurial focus to thrive despite adverse conditions.

Reading time: 4 minutes

The recipe for business growth has never been simple, but right now it feels a lot harder than usual.  

Leadership teams that see an opportunity and know they have to grow to succeed are trying to thread one of the narrowest needles in decades. 

Slicing through these strong headwinds to generate growth takes leadership vision, strategic certainty and the mindset to build and inspire  ‘boldness-ready’ teams.  

We’ve been lucky enough to support some gutsy groups who are staying on the front foot, helping them not just use the right tools for tough times, but do so with the shared entrepreneurial focus that’s needed.  

That starts with recognising that the path to growth may not be evident in the stimulus coming from the day-to-day business. Costs, taxes, tariffs, conflicts and politics are taking their toll and weighing down momentum.  UK profit warnings are up 20% year-on-year, with both sales and FTSE100 earning in decline against 2024.  The business environment isn’t just difficult, it’s actively disincentivising risk-taking and reinvestment. 

Making growth happen means stripping away any strategic sentimentality about the cards in your hand. Whether it’s strategic assets, knowledge of customers, intellectual property or the level of productivity and performance, a fundamental view of the value in the business and how it matches up to the landscape of the future is the bedrock of every successful growth plan we’ve seen.  

Robust, objective analysis on whether the best play is to drive underexploited aspects with discipline or to strike out for new spaces is irreplaceable. It also serves a vital human function in giving leaders the space and permission to rethink old verities, challenge received wisdom and put real evidence and insight behind creative ideas.  

Even with a clear strategy, conviction is often the scarcest resource.  More often than not, it comes down to the instincts and ‘weather-reading’ of senior leaders and Boards.  

For pioneers and founders, the vision and the spark of an idea is always compelling, but how far to push it isn’t always as clear – and especially how to drive the market rather than accept what the market offers.  

Building confidence in the proposition, validating unique and powerful aspects, and how to translate that vision for the people around the business (customers, partners and team) is a vital part of building the early stage ‘shared inspiration’ that will fuel the first stage of growth.   

While it may look different from the outside, leaders of established businesses know all too well that, without a similar level of commercial boldness, large cap companies’ broad exposure to negative headwinds can just as quickly drag them down.  

Faced not only with adverse external conditions but more systemic, complex organisations and settled customer / product fits, seizing growth opportunities in major businesses means building entrepreneurial conviction & incentives at a mass scale.  

As a result, large company growth plays are often more directional and strategic, working on multi-year timelines and drawing on more substantial assets – and powering that larger ‘engine of growth’ takes leaders who can impose a high bar for focus and impact.  

Panning for gold in the sea of ideas, insights, opinions, business operations and market moves that occupy the days of major business leaders requires not just a very sharp eye, but working in the right way to build a critical mass of contributors who can together ‘turn the ship’ and hold it to the right course.  

In 2025, no growth strategy can ignore AI.  For every business, directly or indirectly, it’s already reshaping the landscape.  While it’s tempting to see AI as another uncertainty, its speed and scale make it the biggest growth lever of this decade for almost every organisation.  

Growth opportunities from AI

The totemic Generative AI use has tripled in two years, but in terms of deep integration into value levers and operating models many businesses are just at the start of their investment and adoption curve. 

That will change quickly. AI offers a unique potential for leapfrog growth:  

• the automation effects of the industrial revolution applied to the information-rich industries of the 2020s 

• the process and customer insight optimisations of the post war economic boom accelerated to digital speed 

• and a levelling of the information playing field globally that will surpass the advent of the world wide web or the Gutenberg press.  

The organisations serious about growth are already looking to pace AI’s maturity in their value chains, and harvest its benefit – which means being willing to rethink or replace even the longest standing ways of working.

Above all, making growth happen in this environment is about agency, leaders choosing resolve over resignation, boldness over drift and evidence over inertia. Most businesses know how to execute, but picking the moment to reconsider and refocus around the right sources of value for the future takes a leadership force of will. Working with those leaders and helping them see growth through from ambition to actuality is at the heart of what we do at Q5.

The post Growth opportunities in adversity appeared first on Q5 Partners.

Q5’s 2025 report explores how video is reshaping journalism. Drawing on insights from global newsroom leaders, it examines disruption, audience shifts, and the role of AI. With practical frameworks and ten key principles, it shows how news organisations can build sustainable video strategies that drive reach, trust, and revenue. Download the full report here.

Reading time: 6 minutes

What we learned

At Q5, we live and breathe the newsroom. Our consultants are embedded in leading newsrooms across the UK, US, and Australia, working side by side with editors, producers, and executives as they navigate this transformation in video journalism.

For this report, we tapped into that network. We spoke to senior editors, channel specialists, and leaders from across the spectrum: from heavyweight broadcasters with decades of legacy infrastructure, to nimble digital-native start-ups born out of the TikTok era.

Some insights were offered publicly, others candidly behind closed doors. Together, they paint a vivid picture of a sector grappling with disruption, the latest trends in journalism, and the urgent need to adapt to new audience behaviours.

The report is structured around three chapters:

Chapter 1: Setting the scene

• The gravitational pull of video in journalism.
• The “triple threat” of platform, tone, and format fragmentation.
• The disruptive role of AI: friend, foe, or force multiplier?

Chapter 2: Unpacking the challenge

• Who is riding the wave, and who is drowning?
• Why legacy players have found adaptation so hard.
• What newsroom leaders told us.

Chapter 3: Key learnings

• The building blocks of an effective video strategy.
• Examples to follow, and pitfalls to avoid.
• Ten practical principles every newsroom should take away.

The building blocks of success

Through our research, one message rang loud and clear: successful video strategies don’t happen by accident. They are built on a series of interconnected blocks, each one critical to making video journalism work at scale.

• Audience Strategy: Who are you really trying to reach, and how do they behave?
• Editorial Strategy: How does video reflect your mission and values?
• Commercial Strategy: Where does video sit in your revenue model?
• Stories & Journalism: Which stories belong in video form, and how are they produced?
• Format & Platform: What formats and channels matter most, and why?
• Skills & Capability: Do you have the right people and training?
• Technology & Infrastructure: Are your tools fit for purpose?
• Workflows: How well do teams collaborate across silos?
• Decision-Making & Governance: Are editorial calls guided by data and clarity?
• Measurement & Performance: Do you know what success looks like, and how to track it?

When these blocks align, video stops being a distraction and starts being a driver of reach, trust, and revenue.

Why this matters 

The rise of video is not a passing phase; it’s the new language of news. Audiences expect it. Platforms privilege it. Advertisers demand it. For anyone tracking the future of journalism, one thing is clear: video will sit at the centre of the newsroom.

But the pivot to video can’t be made blindly. It requires thought, discipline, and investment. It also requires leaders willing to make bold choices: about formats, platforms, and above all, the kind of journalism they want to deliver.

Download the full report

The newsroom is at a crossroads. Those who continue to chase trends in journalism will be left behind. Those who step back, strategise, and build on firm foundations will thrive.

Our 2025 report: The New Newsroom: How the Relentless Rise of Video Must Reshape Journalism offers the insights, frameworks, and practical steps to help you do just that.

Download the report today to discover:

• First-hand perspectives from leading editors and executives.
• A clear framework for building an effective video strategy.
• Ten practical principles every newsroom can put into action.

The future of journalism is here. Let’s shape it together.

Contact us

If you have any questions regarding Q5’s work in Media, or would like to hear more about our insights into the trends across the sector, please reach out to our team – we’re always up for a chat!

Rob Hedges

Media SME

rob.hedges@q5partners.com

Katie Burridge

Media Lead

katie.burridge@q5partners.com

The post The New Newsroom: Q5 Report appeared first on Q5 Partners.

Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) is emerging as a critical enabler of success in the energy and utilities sector. By aligning workforce strategy with future business needs and macroeconomic shifts, SWP empowers organisations to proactively address capability gaps, build resilience, and drive transformation, well beyond today’s operational demands and planning cycles.

Reading time: 5 minutes

Workforce challenges across the Energy and Utilities sector

As our sector continues its rapid transformation – driven by changing macro-economic conditions, decarbonisation, and digitalisation – the skills and capabilities needed to drive safe, reliable, and profitable operations and growth are evolving at an equally rapid pace.

The way we deliver work in 20 years will look vastly different from today, just as today’s world looks nothing like the one before digital disruption. Yet many organisations still approach workforce planning with a short-term lens, focusing only on immediate resourcing needs or near-term skills gaps for individual projects and/or safe running of operations.

That’s why Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) is becoming a critical conversation. Increasingly, organisations are recognising the importance of taking a longer-term view—looking beyond regulatory determinations, project timelines, or annual planning cycles. By aligning workforce strategies with long-range business objectives, they’re not just preparing for what’s next, but for what’s beyond.

So, what is Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) and why is it the “unsung hero”?

SWP seeks to define long-term workforce shape, size, and mix by aligning internal strategic objectives (i.e., where do you want to play, what assets will you have, etc.) with external market dynamics (i.e., macroeconomic forces, commodity prices, etc.)

What makes SWP an “unsung hero” is that business leaders can drive resilience, agility, and competitive advantage by proactively modelling, monitoring, and mobilising their workforce in line with evolving business and sector needs, therefore, navigating the change before it hits.

How can Strategic Workforce Planning help me and my organisation?

• Clarity on future workforce needs: Using robust data analytics, you can model your workforce requirements over a 3–10-year time horizon, based on a set of strategic scenarios and macro-economic factors. For example, how would your workforce composition change as a result of an accelerated adoption of renewables, entry into new markets, or a different portfolio of assets?
• Identification of critical capability gaps, as well as capability surpluses: Gain insight into where your organisation may face future skill shortages (e.g., in automation or data analytics) or surpluses (e.g., in mechanical engineering or operations). This foresight allows for targeted interventions, whether it’s upskilling, reskilling, or redeployment, before challenges arise.
• Informed workforce investment decisions: Make smarter choices around reskilling, recruitment, and technology deployment by grounding decisions in real workforce data and interactive workforce dashboards, not assumptions.
• Support for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Goals: Use workforce data to uncover imbalances across teams, functions, or leadership level, and take targeted, informed action to build a more diverse and inclusive organisation.

What does the Strategic Workforce Planning process look like?

At Q5, we support Energy and Utilities organisations through a structured, collaborative approach to SWP. Whilst the process will always be tailored to your organisation’s needs, the core method utilises five key steps:

Many organisations have completed parts of the Strategic Workforce Planning process; you may be one of them. However, it’s rare to see the entire process implemented end-to-end. The key is understanding where you currently are in the journey and identifying the steps needed to move forward with a complete approach.

What do I need to get started?

Before your organisation can unlock the full value of SWP, you need to ensure the key enablers are in place. That means:

• A clearly defined and validated long-term strategy (i.e., 5+ years): This should include core assumptions on your markets, assets, customers, regulatory landscape and delivery model.
• Access to clean organisational data: SWP is a data-driven process, so sufficient data to enable robust analytics is key. Existing datasets can typically be cleansed and consolidated without significant difficulty.
• A robust view of the technology landscape: Technology will be the key driver of more efficient operations. Knowing your current capabilities is essential to building a nimble, cost-effective workforce.
• Shared ownership for creation and delivery: HR, Finance, and Operational / Asset leads must co-own SWP. It cannot simply be a HR initiative.

Case study

Strategic Workforce Planning in action: Transforming a Power Generator’s Approach to Workforce Planning  

We recently helped a leading power generation company overhaul its workforce planning approach to meet the demands of rapid growth. This included a fragmented job architecture, siloed talent processes, and limited visibility into current and future skill needs, resulting in short-term, reactive decision-making.

We introduced a role and skill based workforce planning model (looking 3-5 years forward), including a standardised role architecture across thousands of jobs, a repeatable Strategic Workforce Planning process, and scalable tools for forecasting and scenario testing.

The impact? Clearer career pathways, stronger internal mobility, and a foundation for long-term capability building. Most importantly, leaders can now anticipate and plan for future workforce shifts, aligning their talent strategies with long-term business goals.

Want to learn more?

To understand more about our five-step approach to SWP and learn how we can help you build your workforce for the future, get in touch here.

Listen to our podcast, “De-mystifying Strategic Workforce Planning”, here.

The post Strategic Workforce Planning: An unsung hero of Energy Transition? appeared first on Q5 Partners.

Q5 and USC Global hosted an engaging event in London with Dean Christopher Boone of the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. A global panel explored how “place” influences sustainability and social equity. Key insights covered affordability, empathy, inclusive policymaking, and designing communities people value, and can continue to call home.

Reading time: 3 minutes

USC Global and Q5 recently welcomed Christopher Boone, Dean of the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, to London; he led a rich discussion with international panellists sharing insights on how place shapes sustainability and social outcomes.

The conversation is now available as a video podcast, featuring Tyler Goodwin, Nikki Davies, and Lord Duncan of Springbank.

Click here to watch the full discussion

Key Takeaways

• Place-making is a fundamental but often forgotten element of sustainability – we must develop a sense of place in ways that make people care and want to conserve.
• The importance of efforts to overcome the tensions between place-making, sustainability and future-proofing our communities – if we involve and put people at the centre of the story, with public policy engaging local stakeholders, then we will create places that are fit for the future.
• Affordability is a pressing issue – as places become desirable they almost inevitably become more expensive, so it’s imperative to ensure that people from all walks of life and income levels can call these places ‘home’.
• All corners of the world are facing similar challenges – we have to maintain a high degree of empathy as progress is hard for everyone… and only by continuing to share best practice will we find solutions together, to shape policy and advocate for climate justice.

A copy of the booklet from the event can be found here, with further details on USC’s sustainability initiatives and some thinking from Q5.

Check out the event highlights below:

If you’d like to find out more, please reach out to:

Jen Ladwig, Associate Partner, Q5 – jen.ladwig@q5partners.com

Erika Bernal, Associate Dean for Advancement, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy – erikaber@usc.edu

The post The Importance of Place appeared first on Q5 Partners.

In today’s volatile economic climate, CFOs must act swiftly. This structured 100-day plan guides financial leaders through resetting baselines, stabilising spending, reprioritising investments, and enabling faster decisions. With time-based phases, it equips organisations to respond confidently to inflation, demand shifts, and refinancing risks while preserving flexibility and enhancing decision-making.

Reading time: 5 minutes

Persistent volatility, from inflation and wage pressure to refinancing risk and softening demand, requires CFOs to reset expectations, preserve flexibility, and make faster, better-informed decisions. This plan offers a structured, time-based response.​

Days ​1-30​: Reset the financial baseline

The first priority is to reset financial expectations.

This means rebuilding forecasts based on current input costs, updated demand signals, and the real cost of capital. ​Scenarios should be stress-tested across plausible downside cases, particularly where refinancing risks, FX exposure, or liquidity pressure may be material. This period is also about setting clear risk boundaries: aligning leadership on where flexibility exists, and where it does not.​

Days 31-60: Stabilise cost base & spending discipline

With a clear financial baseline in place, the focus shifts to identifying where meaningful cost flexibility exists without compromising core delivery.

This requires a structured review of the cost base, distinguishing between areas of deliberate investment and spend that no longer aligns with current priorities. Finance and procurement should work closely, ensuring spend is both intentional and sustainable. Scenario modelling should support realistic cost containment targets based on credible revenue and margin outcomes.

Days 61–90: Reprioritise capital & investment

Investment plans must reflect revised economic conditions.

In-flight initiatives should be reviewed against updated hurdle rates and commercial relevance. Where returns are uncertain or unlikely to materialise within a reasonable timeframe, deferral or re-scoping may be appropriate. All investments should compete for capital in a more selective environment. Funding plans should be revisited to ensure sufficient headroom and resilience under conservative scenarios.

Days 91–100+: Enable faster, informed decisions

With immediate stabilisation underway, focus shifts to building readiness.

Financial planning should move to rolling forecasts and scenario-based decision frameworks. Leading indicators should be formalised as triggers for action. Governance must ensure short-term measures remain aligned to longer-term priorities, with clear ownership and integrated cadence across board reporting, capital planning, and performance management.

Get in touch

If you have any questions or if this is a challenge your business is facing, we’d love to chat!

Henry Bell

Principal Consultant

henry.bell@q5partners.com

The post Dealing with uncertainty: a 100 day plan appeared first on Q5 Partners.

At the HRSE – HR Expo in Riyadh, Q5 joined HR leaders to explore the evolving world of work in Saudi Arabia. From AI’s rising influence to a renewed focus on pragmatic, people-first solutions, the Kingdom is embracing bold change with energy, purpose, and a hunger for impact-driven innovation.

Reading time: 3 minutes

Our team had the privilege of joining HR leaders from across KSA at the HRSE – HR Expo in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

It was a fantastic couple of days filled with inspiration, new connections, and emerging conversations about the future of work.

It was inspiring to hear what’s top of mind for people across the Kingdom. Here are some of our key takeaways:

AI and Tech are lighting up Riyadh

Saudi Arabia is always ready to embrace the new, and there’s real excitement about what AI and tech can bring to the world of HR.

Given the pace of change the Kingdom is experiencing under Vision 2030, the speed at which AI is changing the game seems to feel less daunting here than it does elsewhere.

Putting the human in Human Resources

Despite the enthusiasm for adopting the latest technology, many leaders are also feeling the pressure to up their game on the basics: Attracting, Engaging, Developing, and Retaining the talent their organisations need.

Tired of textbooks and PowerPoint

As Saudi grows its local talent, it’s becoming clear that textbook answers and beautiful PowerPoint decks alone simply don’t cut it.

There’s a hunger to move beyond theory and embrace the networked, messy, and complex world of change with real-world, pragmatic approaches.

Q5’s art-and-science approach is music to Saudi HR leaders’ ears

• Our brilliantly simple Organisation Design Tech stood out for its ability to instantly visualise structures, headcount, cost, and implications, people loved the as-is/to-be comparison functionality.
• We heard again and again that traditional training isn’t driving behavioural change. There’s a clear appetite for more systemic, impact-led approaches – the kind Q5 has been delivering for years all over the globe.

We left the event energised, optimistic, and ready to keep the conversation going with the brilliant HR leaders shaping the region’s future.

If you’d like to find out more about our work in the region, feel free to reach out to the Q5 Arabia team – we’d love to connect.

Phoebe Dunn

Partner, Q5 Middle East

phoebe.dunn@q5partners.com

Scott Kennedy

Managing Director, Q5 Arabia

scott.kennedy@q5partners.com

The post HR in Transformation: insights from Riyadh appeared first on Q5 Partners.