Birsay Consulting

Can we help you with your business strategy, marketing or tenders?

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Birsay Consulting advises a range of clients from SMEs to major organisations on business strategy, marketing and specific tender or pitch submissions.

Recent and current projects include strategy development for rail rolling stock manufacturers, transport providers and telecommunications. Others include advising healthcare and holiday brands on PR and social media activity, and communications agencies on automotive, home decorating and transport business.

We also assist with all stages of major project development such as transport bid submissions, specialising in stakeholder relations, social sustainability, marketing and change management.

Personal volunteering includes advising a Trussell Trust affiliated foodbank on funding submissions, and as interim Chair of Trustees helping with local food supply collaboration during the first pandemic lockdown and redesigning the operation to fit COVID 19 protocols.

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Our specialisms

Marketing and Revenue Generation

We can help with all types of project, from implementing an agreed plan, to full market analysis and strategy development.

Bid/tender strategy development and reviewing

Assistance with pitches for communication agencies, major procurement projects or grant applications.

Social sustainability

We can help you to develop your organisation in a more sustainable manner. This could include strategic development, or specific tactics such as local employment/ training initiatives or supply chain development.

Stakeholder engagement

Strategic planning and implementation of stakeholder communication, on a campaign or ongoing basis.

Change management

Development and implementation of all aspects of major change projects, ensuring changes are as painless as possible for all involved.

Internal communications and engagement

In conjunction with stakeholder and change management, we can help you to involve colleagues fully with your organisation’s development.

About

Principal consultant, Kirsteen Robertson, is a commercial, marketing and stakeholder engagement specialist with over 20 years of successful project delivery and change management.

She started her career in travel marketing, generating revenue and developing the brands of tour operators, airlines and railways, across a broad spectrum of international and consumer roles. A natural leader with an assured flexible approach and the versatility to take on tough challenges in varying parts of the organisation, she moved into major projects at companies such as bmi british midland, Avis, Deutsche Bahn (DB) and Abellio. Notable successes have included rail franchise bid wins at DB and Abellio, where her ingenuity and ability to develop genuinely new solutions to age-old problems were highly valued by the clients (Department for Transport and Transport Scotland respectively).

While at Avis, Kirsteen led the creation and development of the Urbigo car club brand, developing in-house the full brand manual including customer service approach and all operational processes.

More recently, Kirsteen developed a social sustainability strategy for the ScotRail franchise, through liaising with stakeholders across Scotland and devising a mutually beneficial approach.

As a trustee of the Harrow Foodbank, affiliated to the Trussell Trust, Kirsteen assists with the fundraising strategy, specific funding applications and stakeholder liaison.

At Birsay we have both the knowledge and flexibility to make sure you achieve your desired outcome. We can work directly with you, compiling a team of experts as required, or add specialist knowledge to your in-house or agency teams.

Why Birsay?

While the consultancy is based in the south of England, Birsay in Orkney is a favourite location - a perfect place to think and to blow the cobwebs away. Ideal for clear-sighted strategy.

Client Feedback

We have worked with Birsay on a variety of different projects and Kirsteen has been a godsend. She is an absolute pleasure to work with – professional, committed, quick on the uptake and great fun to be around. She has really energised our team every time we’ve worked together. Kirsteen’s expertise and understanding of the purchasing and procurement process has been invaluable to us. We are a relatively small company, however many of our pitches require an element of satisfying the needs of the purchasing department. Kirsteen worked with us to audit what we had been providing and turning what we had into a toolkit that was procurement ready. Kirsteen also worked on producing new material and assets that were missing. This was a huge weight off our shoulders and her expertise and experience in this area shone through. Kirsteen is always on call to come back in and work with the team to bring strategic understanding from a fresh viewpoint to our campaigns, particularly relating to travel and transport. In this arena Kirsteen brings her wealth of experience and knowledge into the team mix to improve our campaign content, from heavy- duty articles through to social media. On the healthcare side, which is heavily governed by guidelines and strict adherence policies, Kirsteen’s ability to work within this highly regulated area, yet bring a fresh perspective to campaign content has been extremely helpful.

Anne-marie Payne, Director, Nobull Communications Nobull Communications

We used Birsay Consulting as technical advisors on a pitch to an overseas railway company, which was a new market for us. Kirsteen was experienced, helpful and thorough, and her advice was pertinent and useful.

Matt Flynn, Group Managing Partner, Wordsearch Wordsearch

Contact

Get in touch with Kirsteen:

07572 080 845

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