The Foundation

What The Foundation does

The Foundation Customer Consultancy LTD is a London-based boutique management consultancy founded in 1999 by Charlie Dawson. Operating from a single office at 2nd Floor, 207 King's Cross Road, London, the firm describes itself as a customer-led growth consultancy and delivers project-based consulting services to enterprise clients across retail, financial services, telecommunications, beverages, travel, payments, healthcare, charity and regulatory sectors. Its service catalogue is organised into five consulting disciplines: Customer Growth Strategy, Experience Design, Experience Management, Outside-In Assessment, and Proposition Development. Engagements typically involve immersive customer research, strategic framework development, frontline training programmes and ongoing performance measurement, delivered by a team that includes founders, partners, directors, senior consultants, consultants and support staff. Notable enterprise engagements on its public case study roster include Morrisons (a £1.2bn profit turnaround over seven years culminating in a £9.97bn private equity sale), Harvey Nichols (9% revenue growth and a rise from 21st to 3rd in the Which? High Street Survey), HSBC (a contact centre training programme that delivered a 15-point NPS rise and gold awards at the UK Customer Experience Awards), Heineken (NPS growth from 16 to 57 and consecutive #1 UK on-trade drinks supplier rankings in 2024 and 2025), Three UK (up to 30-point customer satisfaction increase and 82% first-contact resolution) and Yorkshire Building Society (savings account opening time reduced from 45 minutes to 13 minutes).

The firm's go-to-market is enterprise field sales: direct engagement with CEOs and executive teams at major organisations, supported by a thought-leadership content programme including two published books — The Customer Copernicus (Dawson and Meehan, 2021) and The Human Experience (Sills, Leadership Book of the Year 2023) — plus research reports such as The Human Experience Advantage (2026), The Myth of Feedback, and State of the Nation for UK Customers, as well as a regular newsletter (The Pioneer) and a community platform (The Pioneer Project) featuring published interviews with customer-pioneer business leaders. Revenue is generated through professional-services project engagements with no publicly disclosed pricing; pricing is described as quote-driven and dependent on engagement scope, duration and team composition. Revenue figures are not publicly disclosed and the firm has not raised external institutional capital. The leadership team comprises Charlie Dawson (Founder and Partner), John Sills (Managing Partner) and Anna Miley (Partner), supported by a director-level bench and senior consultants drawn from client-side and research-side institutions including HSBC, Kantar, Clear, Be the Business, Capgemini, Yonder Consulting, IPSOS, TNS and MediaCom. The company is independently owned by its founders and partners, with no parent company, subsidiaries, public listing, or external institutional shareholders.

Name

The Foundation

Legal name

The Foundation Customer Consultancy LTD

Website

https://the-foundation.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Foundation is a London-based boutique management consultancy, founded in 1999, that delivers customer-led growth, proposition development, experience design, and outside-in assessment engagements to enterprise clients across retail, financial services, telecommunications, beverages, travel, payments, healthcare, charity, and regulatory sectors.

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, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Strategic Consulting Services: The Foundation generates revenue through project-based consulting engagements with enterprise clients. Their services include customer growth strategy, experience design, experience management, outside-in assessment, and proposition development. Engagements typically involve immersive research, strategic frameworks, and implementation support over defined project periods.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Foundation is a boutique customer-led growth consultancy delivering project-based strategic consulting across five core disciplines: Customer Growth Strategy, Experience Design, Experience Management, Outside-In Assessment, and Proposition Development. They help enterprise leaders develop customer-led strategies, design distinctive customer experiences, build propositions that differentiate in the market, and run immersive outside-in customer research. They also publish thought leadership books and research reports supporting their consulting practice.

Product overview

The Foundation is a customer-led growth consultancy offering professional services across five core consulting disciplines: Customer Growth Strategy, Experience Design, Experience Management, Outside-In Assessment, and Proposition Development. These services are delivered through project-based consulting engagements rather than a software platform. The firm also publishes thought leadership content including books (The Customer Copernicus, The Human Experience), research reports (The Human Experience Advantage Report, The Myth of Feedback Report), and maintains The Pioneer Project community platform featuring interviews with customer-focused business leaders. All offerings are service-based consulting engagements, not software products or technology platforms.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Customer Growth Strategy

Quantifiable outcome

• Morrisons achieved £1.2bn profit turnaround over seven years following customer-led strategy engagement
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers16 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• Young EnterpriseminorOthersThe Foundation is a proud supporter of Young Enterprise, encouraging a new generation of ambitious, creative, customer pioneers. This is a charitable support relationship focused on youth development and entrepreneurship.
• The RoundhouseminorOthersThe Foundation supports The Roundhouse, encouraging a new generation of ambitious, creative, customer pioneers. This is a charitable support relationship focused on creative youth development.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• EY: Big Four professional services firm with management consulting and customer strategy practices. Overlaps with The Foundation on customer experience, proposition development, and growth strategy engagements.
• Accenture: Global professional services firm with Accenture Song and customer experience transformation practices. Competes for large enterprise customer transformation mandates, often at a scale that boutique consultancies cannot match.
• Bain & Company: Global management consulting firm with customer strategy and Net Promoter System practices. Competes for enterprise customer experience and growth strategy mandates that overlap with The Foundation's proposition and experience management offerings.
• PwC: Big Four professional services firm with strategy and customer transformation practices. Competes for enterprise consulting mandates that include customer-led growth and experience design work similar to The Foundation's portfolio.
• KPMG: Big Four professional services firm with management consulting and customer advisory practices. Overlaps with The Foundation on customer strategy, proposition development, and growth strategy engagements for enterprise clients.
• McKinsey & Company: Global management consulting firm with deep customer strategy, growth, and marketing/sales practices that compete for enterprise transformation mandates, including overlapping work in customer experience, growth strategy, and organisational change similar to The Foundation's remit.
• The Boston Consulting Group: Global strategy consultancy with customer-centric growth, marketing, and experience practices. Competes for enterprise strategy engagements that include customer-led transformation elements similar to The Foundation's work.
• Deloitte: Big Four professional services firm with Deloitte Digital and customer transformation practices. Overlaps with The Foundation on customer strategy, proposition development, and customer experience transformation for enterprise clients.

Direct peers

• What If Innovation: A boutique innovation and customer strategy consultancy that helps organisations develop innovation strategies, proposition work, and customer growth. Similar in size, methodology focus, and enterprise client base to The Foundation's proposition development and customer growth strategy services.
• Wolff Olins: A global brand consultancy that helps organisations develop brand strategy and customer propositions. Overlaps with The Foundation's proposition development and experience design services for enterprise clients across retail, financial services and consumer sectors.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/TheFoundation
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-foundation.

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

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 The Foundation