Today Walking the Talk becomes a fully owned division of ZRG Partners, a fast-growing global talent solutions and executive search firm headquartered in the US. Their acquisition of our firm is a great step forward for us in our development and is the result of a careful search to find the right partner to help us expand what we offer to our clients.
We have grown a lot in the last few years, helping an increasing spectrum of organisations achieve performance benefits by improving their cultures. Since Walking the Talk started 11 years ago, culture has landed firmly on the agenda of most executive teams and boards of directors. As pioneers in this field, knowing the impact culture has on growth, performance and reputation, we are delighted to witness this outcome.
As clients’ internal teams develop their own competence in managing culture, what they need from us as an expert external partner is changing. The most urgent priorities are greater digitalisation and more self-service solutions which will allow culture change to reach every part of clients’ organisation faster, and in a cost-effective way; more sophisticated measurement of culture; and even better capability to service global projects. We intend to use what we know about culture, behaviour and mindset to enhance ZRG’s ability to select the best recruitment candidates for clients, evaluating their contribution to the client’s culture goals. We will be in a better position to meet these emerging client needs sitting within ZRG than we have been as a standalone business.
ZRG and Walking the Talk have a lot in common: similarly bold ambitions for the future, a global outlook, common depth of experience in some industries and strong shared values of client-centricity and being data-driven. They are especially strong in the US and will help us to build our capability there.
Walking the Talk will continue to strive to make our vision a reality - for every organisation in the world to have a thriving culture. We will continue to consult on culture, only culture, and nothing but culture, and the team you know will continue servicing our clients as we always have, gradually introducing to you new offerings which we hope will excite you as much as they excite us as we see them developing on the drawing board.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who have helped us get to this point. As a founder and entrepreneur, to sell our business to a partner who believes in our future is hugely satisfying. It would not have happened without you all: clients past and present who allowed us to work with you and build your success; team members past and present who built our IP, served our clients and created the many case studies of our work; advisors who held our hand through the process of finding ZRG and reaching this moment of announcement. You know who you are. Thank you, you are a part of this story and I am so grateful.
Do please get in touch with us directly if you have any questions about this announcement or have any suggestions as to how we can further capitalise on this great opportunity.
Carolyn Taylor