Executive leadership at large companies often turn to management consultants like Accenture, McKinsey and Deloitte to help them solve their business challenges. And it’s a big and growing business.
Global spending on management consulting services reached $824.2 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach over $1 trillion in 2028, according to Facts & Factors. As successful as these firms are, many complain that the process is too complicated, takes too long and that the major consulting firms are fueled by legions of very smart, but inexperienced recent business school graduates.
Franklyn West Founder and CEO Ashley Miles.
Ashley Miles founded Franklyn West in 2020 with a new, collaborative approach to consulting that she says differentiates her company from the traditional consulting firms. According to Miles, her model shortens the time from strategy to execution by creating a network of business experts whom she refers to as “brand ambassadors.” This founder’s journey is based on my interview with Miles.
Franklyn West pairs internal teams with external talent, personalised for a specific business challenge. “I thought what leaders need right now, especially Fortune 500 leaders, is on-demand growth, embracing a new way of working, which is this hybrid approach to business growth,” says Miles.
Using her extensive connections with business leaders, Miles assembled ambassadors that include such diverse luminaries as Daymond John, CEO of FUBU and The Shark Group; Fran Hauser, Startup Investor, Advisor and Best Selling Author, Sandra Campos, former CEO of Diane Von Furstenberg, c, previous Founder of E*trade Europe and Verisign Europe and CEO of BORN; Lydia Fenet, Best Selling Author and Christie’s Auctioneer and Dee Poku, Founder and CEO, The WIE Suite, among others.
Miles builds what she refers to as a “SWAT” team of skilled talent who parachute into a partner in a collaborative way with the client’s full time team to rapidly build an action plan to accelerate growth. She then rotates in ambassadors based on the business needs as it grows. “With his idea of rapid discovery planning, and then execution, we're able to turn something around in months versus years,” says Miles. This way internal teams are not under the microscope and don’t have to worry about losing their jobs, allowing them to feel a stronger sense of collaboration.
While Franklyn West is Miles’ first start-up, she comes from a family of entrepreneurs. She grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and led the life as a competitive equestrian horseback rider and references that she often channels her inner cowgirl spirit in life and business stemming from her Souther roots. “My whole family are entrepreneurs. In fact, my company, Franklyn West is named after my grandparents, and the reason I did that was because they've been wildly successful entrepreneurs, they are still around today,” says Miles.
She never dreamed of being an entrepreneur, graduated from ‘Ole Miss (University of Mississippi) eager to join the corporate world. After graduating, she worked for Time Inc in media sales and worked her way up the corporate ladder at a succession of media and marketing companies and was recruited by Arianna Huffington to join her as Global Chief Business Officer in 2019. She then decided to go out on her own with the founding of Franklyn West. “To do it as an entrepreneur, you have more opportunity to have the influence and impact you want without the red tape of a corporation,” says Miles.
As for the future? “I hope that we continue to be thought leaders and change-makers on the future of work, work through this approach of scalable expertise, bringing together the brightest minds from outside the organisation with those inside to fast track growth and help their companies stay on the cutting edge of innovation,” concludes Miles.
