What Holst does

Holst is a privately held UK workplace culture and professional development company established in 1984 and operating as SVEND HOLST ASSOCIATES LIMITED, headquartered in Henley-on-Thames. The company delivers psychometric assessments and training workshops to organizations ranging from SMEs to global enterprises, operating across the UK, Republic of Ireland, USA, and China. Holst is the exclusive UK and Republic of Ireland licensee of the flowprofiler® family of assessments — a set of normative psychometric tools measuring emotional and social intelligence (eqflow®), resilience (resilienceflow®), and motivation (motivationflow®) across 18 dimensions. These assessments are delivered through the flowprofiler.com® API-accessible platform, which generates four report types (Development, Management, Interview, Candidate) and integrates with applicant tracking systems and other online assessments.

The company’s commercial portfolio is organized around three primary offerings: The Holst Series (LEADER, CONNECT, TEAMS, CREATIVE, and FLOWPROFILER training categories covering leadership, communication, facilitation, creative thinking, and finance for non-finance managers); The Holst Academy (a train-the-trainer certification program that authorizes external trainers to deliver certified Holst courses globally); and Holst Solutions (bespoke workplace culture transformation programs covering recruitment, development, and retention). The company also distributes the McQuaig Psychometric System and offers one-to-one business and finance coaching. Content is sourced through long-standing strategic partnerships, including with Chalmers International (Dynamic Speaking®, The Polished Presenter, Facilitation Basics, Creative Teams), Waterfield Consulting (RapidConsensus™), and Accounting Comes Alive (Colour Accounting™).

Holst generates revenue through four streams: bespoke enterprise training delivered in-house worldwide (professional services, typically multi-year contracts); per-seat flowprofiler® assessment licensing (pay-as-you-go subscription); one-to-one coaching (professional services); and trainer certification programs (licensing/royalties through The Holst Academy). Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed, with distribution via enterprise field sales, phone and email inside sales, public courses at purpose-built venues (Henley Management College, Ettington Chase Hotel, Cranage Hall), and online dimension labs. The company maintains a 100% money-back guarantee that has never been claimed in over 32 years and reports consistent 90–100% satisfaction ratings. Management includes Executive Director Rebecca Chalmers (also owner of Chalmers International and a Master Trainer across multiple partner methodologies) and Master Trainer Sara Jobson. The company is privately held with no disclosed external investment, parent company, or acquisition history.

Name

Holst

Legal name

SVEND HOLST ASSOCIATES LIMITED

Website

https://weareholst.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1984

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Holst is a UK-based workplace culture company that delivers psychometric assessments (flowprofiler® family) and professional development training workshops to organizations ranging from SMEs to global enterprises across multiple industries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Professional Development Training: The Holst Series professional development workshops including leadership, communication, creative thinking, facilitation, and finance courses. Delivered as standalone or bundled programmes.
2. Psychometric Assessments: flowprofiler® family assessments (eqflow®, resilienceflow®, motivationflow®, and combined flowprofiler®). Licenses for organizations to assess individuals and teams.
3. Coaching Services: One-to-one business coaching, finance coaching, and coaching with flowprofiler® assessments.
4. Trainer Certifications: Holst Academy trainer certification programmes enabling external trainers to deliver certified courses.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Holst delivers professional development training, psychometric assessments, and workplace culture transformation services to organizations globally. Its core IP is the proprietary flowprofiler® assessment platform, which underpins a portfolio of leadership, communication, presentation, facilitation, and coaching courses, supplemented by the Holst Academy trainer certification programme and bespoke cultural-change consulting engagements.

Product overview

Holst is a workplace culture and professional development company offering a unified portfolio of psychometric assessments and training programs. The core product is the flowprofiler® family, consisting of four assessments: the comprehensive flowprofiler® (18 dimensions), eqflow® (emotional intelligence), resilienceflow® (resilience), and motivationflow® (motivation). These are complemented by The Holst Series, a professional development training suite spanning LEADER, CONNECT, TEAMS, CREATIVE, and FLOWPROFILER course categories. The Holst Academy provides train-the-trainer certifications. The company also distributes the McQuaig Psychometric System and offers consulting services including business coaching, finance coaching, and organisational transformation programs. All offerings are backed by a 100% money-back guarantee.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• The Holst Series: Professional development training programs including TEAMS, CONNECT, LEADER, CREATIVE, and flowprofiler workshops.
• The Holst Academy
• flowprofiler®
• eqflow®
• resilienceflow®
• motivationflow®

Products and services

• flowprofiler® Proprietary psychometric assessment platform available online and in paper format, providing full-colour and black-and-white reports with mobile-responsive design and API integration for organisational use in recruitment, development, and coaching.
• eqflow® Specialist psychometric assessment measuring emotional intelligence, designed to help individuals and teams improve self-awareness, relationships, and workplace effectiveness.
• resilienceflow® Psychometric assessment focused on measuring and building personal and team resilience to support well-being and performance under pressure.
• motivationflow® Psychometric assessment that identifies individual and team motivators to improve engagement, retention, and alignment with organizational goals.
• McQuaig Psychometric System Distribution and delivery of the McQuaig suite of psychometric assessments, used for recruitment selection, development, and succession planning.
• The Holst Series Suite of professional development training courses covering interpersonal skills, presentation, communication, facilitation, and leadership development, delivered through in-house workshops, public venues, and online formats.
• ThinkSpeak™ Interpersonal skills training programme focused on developing high-quality thinking and speaking skills in workplace settings.
• Engage Your Reader Writing skills training programme designed to help business professionals produce reader-focused, engaging written communications.
• The Polished Presenter Presentation skills training programme that prepares participants to deliver clear, confident, and engaging presentations.
• Dynamic Speaking® Public speaking and communication training programme for business professionals who need to speak dynamically in formal and informal settings.
• RapidConsensus™ Group facilitation and decision-making training programme that enables teams to reach consensus quickly through structured facilitation techniques.
• Colour Accounting™ Training programme that uses a colour-based system to make financial and accounting concepts accessible to non-financial managers.
• Facilitation Basics Foundation-level facilitation training programme that equips participants with core skills for leading productive group discussions and workshops.
• Creative Teams Team development training programme that uses creative thinking frameworks to improve collaboration, innovation, and problem-solving within teams.
• The EQ advantage with flowprofiler® Course combining the eqflow® emotional intelligence assessment with skill-development content to embed EQ practices in everyday work.
• The resilience advantage with flowprofiler® Course combining the resilienceflow® assessment with skill-development content to build personal and team resilience.
• The motivation advantage with flowprofiler® Course combining the motivationflow® assessment with skill-development content to align individuals and teams with organizational motivators.
• Coaching with flowprofiler® Course equipping coaches and managers to use flowprofiler® assessments as the foundation for structured individual and team coaching engagements.
• flowprofiler® dimension labs Short online courses exploring individual dimensions of flowprofiler® assessments, designed to build fluency in interpreting and applying flowprofiler® outputs.
• The Holst Academy Train-the-trainer certification platform with four membership tiers (Standard, Silver, Gold, Platinum), annual licence-to-practice requirements, and ongoing trainer support for delivering flowprofiler® and The Holst Series.
• flowprofiler® Interpreter Training - Level 1 Foundational certification course qualifying trainers to interpret and deliver flowprofiler® assessments and related Holst Series courses under licence.
• flowprofiler® Interpreter Training - Level 2 Module A Intermediate certification module expanding on Level 1 by deepening interpreter skills for advanced flowprofiler® application and delivery scenarios.
• flowprofiler® Interpreter Training - Level 2 Module B Intermediate certification module completing Level 2 by covering additional interpretive scenarios and application contexts for flowprofiler®.
• Holst Solutions Bespoke workplace solutions service focusing on Strong Leadership, Resilient Culture, Future Looking, and Focus on People, delivered to meet organisational initiatives for recruitment, development, and retention.
• Transform Your Workplace Culture Bespoke workplace culture transformation service covering recruitment, development, and retention strategies, with services for attracting talent, developing leaders and teams, and retaining employees.
• Business Coaching One-to-one executive and business coaching service for leaders and managers, often combined with flowprofiler® assessments to support development goals.
• Finance Coaching Specialist coaching service for finance professionals and teams seeking to develop leadership, communication, and technical finance skills.

Quantifiable outcome

• 90-100% satisfaction ratings consistently reported
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core, secondary and minor.

• Chalmers InternationalcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDeveloper of Dynamic Speaking®, The Polished Presenter, Facilitation Basics, and Creative Teams. Owned by Rebecca Chalmers, who is also Executive Director of Holst. Brings courses in creativity, facilitation, and business communications.
• Waterfield ConsultingcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAustralian company specializing in strategy and facilitation. Owners of RapidConsensus™ course developed by Kevin Nuttall with 20 years of experience. Long-term partnership since 2005.
• Accounting Comes AlivecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOwners of Colour Accounting™ - finance for non-finance people course using visual, interactive methodology. Color Accounting International and associates provide the course content.
• flowprofiler® Global LimitedcoreTechnology or IntegrationDeveloper of flowprofiler® family of assessments. Long-term partner bringing over 20 years of research and experience. Developer of Dynamic Speaking, Facilitation Basics, and assessment platform.
• McQuaig InstitutesecondaryTechnology or IntegrationProvider of McQuaig Psychometric System for recruitment and development. Rebecca Chalmers is a Master Trainer for McQuaig Institute, McLuhan & Davies, and Waterfield Consulting.
• Henley Management CollegeminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorTraining venue partner for public courses. One of several purpose-built venues used including Ettington Chase Hotel and Cranage Hall.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Thomas International: Thomas International delivers psychometric assessments and people analytics tools globally, overlapping directly with Holst's assessment-led workplace development offering and serving the same HR/L&D buyer.
• DDI (Development Dimensions International): DDI is a leadership development specialist offering assessments, training, and coaching to global enterprises, comparable to Holst's LEADER and CONNECT tracks and to its assessment-led culture programs.
• CPP (Myers-Briggs Company): CPP distributes the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and other psychometric instruments used widely for leadership development and team effectiveness, directly comparable to Holst's flowprofiler® product family and training portfolio.
• Insights Discovery: Insights Discovery is a personality assessment and learning solutions provider focused on workplace effectiveness and team development, serving the same HR/L&D buyer and using a comparable assessment-plus-training model.
• Hogan Assessments: Hogan Assessments provides personality-based assessments for leadership development, hiring, and talent management, making it a direct peer to Holst's flowprofiler® family of workplace assessments.
• FranklinCovey: FranklinCovey delivers professional development training, leadership programs, and coaching to enterprises worldwide, with content, delivery format, and target buyer closely aligned to The Holst Series.
• SHL: SHL is a global leader in psychometric assessments and people analytics for talent acquisition and development, directly competing with Holst in workplace psychometric measurement and reporting.

Broad incumbents

• Aon Assessment Solutions: Aon's Assessment Solutions division provides psychometric assessments and talent analytics as part of its broader HR consulting platform, comparable to flowprofiler® but embedded in a much larger enterprise benefits and consulting practice.
• Korn Ferry: Korn Ferry is a global organizational consulting firm offering leadership development, talent assessment, and coaching as part of a much broader portfolio, overlapping with Holst's offering but at significantly greater scale and reach.
• Center for Creative Leadership: CCL is a globally recognized leadership development research and training institution offering assessments, programs, and coaching to enterprises, comparable to Holst's leadership and creativity tracks but with much larger global brand recognition.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/weareholst
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCyjRnHo2qhUDUA29jlLUWzw
• Facebookfacebook.com/weareholst
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/207996
• Instagraminstagram.com/holstworkplaceculture

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Holst