The market opportunity

How has the market environment evolved over the last 18 months?

David: There's no doubt, we are part of a market undergoing profound transformation. The acceleration of technology, particularly artificial intelligence, is reshaping how businesses operate and what they expect from their partners.

Our clients are facing more scrutiny than ever from an increasingly sceptical and fragmented set of stakeholders. Winning trust and building connection with these stakeholders has never been more important or more difficult.

Paul: To that end, we are increasingly seeing clients seeking integrated solutions that look holistically at their stakeholder engagement. They don't just want a creative communications campaign. They are looking for advisory services and cross-channel engagement strategies, married with technology enabled insights to help them build advocacy with their most important audiences.

David: But we are not only relying on anecdotal evidence and our own experience to assess our clients' changing needs. We have looked broadly to gather input and learn from our clients through surveys and roundtable events where we invite them to share their views. We also engaged PwC to explore and map the market opportunities ahead for the Positive Change Group. Their input has helped us to develop a proposition that aligns closely with our clients' needs and will position us for long-term sustainable success.

The last few years have been difficult for businesses large and small, and economic uncertainty has only increased during the first half of 2025. Has this impacted the Group?

Paul: We are seeing projects take longer to land across the Group and clients are considering carefully how best to allocate their budgets. Initial conversations with a prospect can start a year before they are ready to commence. But we know this is a phenomenon all our peers are experiencing, and we have always been focused on nurturing relationships for the long term, not just the quick win. That approach has paid off with key long-term client retentions this year at Black Sun UK, the return of dormant clients at Stratton Craig and deepening existing client relationships for People Made.

David: Pleasingly, the difficult market environment has also served to highlight the strengths of the Positive Change Group. The different operating companies are at different stages in their own business cycles, and over the last two years, when one company has faced headwinds, its financial performance has been offset by strength in the other companies.

The Group structure also opens up significant potential for each operating company to cross-sell to each other's clients and deepen our client relationships by broadening our service offering. And we have only just begun to realise the benefits of new opportunities for collaboration, new ways of working together and new talent and skills across the organisation.

18 months of delivery and development

What were the Group's key achievements over the year and a half to June 2025?

David: As a co-founder, I am proud to say it has been a period of decisive transformation and delivery in bringing to life the new Positive Change Group (the Group). During that time, the Group has gone from being an idea discussed in boardrooms to something real and tangible that all our people can see and feel the benefits of.

The platform for the Group has largely been built now. We have rolled out enterprise technologies across the Group, so we are all now operating on the same technology stack. This allows us to operate seamlessly from one marketplace within the Group, sharing knowledge, insights and resources to service clients better and help each business grow.

Paul: Over 2024 to 2025, we rolled out a new CRM platform across the Group, creating a single view of our customers and an understanding of how we are interacting with them across the Group. We have also started the implementation of a new enterprise resource management and planning platform, which will be another important way to centralise many of our key functions and also increase visibility across the Group.

Have these developments translated into tangible benefits for the Group?

David: Absolutely. We have seen a marked increase in collaboration between the companies within the Group. One of our goals in bringing together the companies into one Group was to make '1+1=3' and we have seen many examples of the whole Group offering being greater than the sum of the parts.

Together, we have won pitches, delivered events and co-created thought leadership content. We share our expertise and experiences on HALO, our internal digital platform. Since its launch in 2023, HALO has become the dynamic digital headquarters for the Group, connecting our global teams and providing the wealth of resources we need to learn, collaborate and grow.

Paul: We have also completed build-out of our central support functions, including Finance, People & Culture, and Technology. Both People Made and Stratton Craig have been fully integrated into the Group, giving us invaluable learnings that we have used to create a playbook for future integrations. This has strengthened our confidence in our ability to grow through acquisitions and quickly add value to any new member companies joining the Group.

Are there any standout initiatives or achievements you'd like to highlight?

David: For me, our efforts across the Group to capture the value and potential of AI is a noteworthy success story. Our AI Committee developed an effective AI adoption plan, and this was implemented successfully through broad-based participation of our people. With 'AI Champions' from across the business and collaborative taskforces, we enthused and infused the entire business to become AI-enabled. This work has put us well ahead of many other companies, and will be a competitive advantage over the years to come.

Paul: I agree with David about our achievements when it comes to AI, and I want to add that I have also been particularly proud of the quality of our people who make up the Group. This quality and expertise was clearly demonstrated in the depth of talent we were able to draw on to appoint three new CEOs internally during the period. Neale Few moved from our London office to take over as CEO for Black Sun APAC, while Nina Whittaker and Brook Calverly stepped up after being long-standing leaders at Stratton Craig and People Made respectively.

What are you focusing on next for the Group?

David: With strong operational foundations in place, we are now looking to further align our ways of working across the companies, including standardised contracts with clients, and turning our attention to how we amplify the benefits of the Group. I am incredibly excited about the opportunities ahead for our expert businesses, empowered by new technology and new ways of working, to deliver a new holistic approach to stakeholder engagement.

Paul: We are extremely pleased with the Group's resilience to challenging markets and also the momentum with which we are moving forward. We now serve over 160 large, global blue-chip clients across markets worldwide and our opportunity set will only grow as the Group grows in strength and capabilities.

Financial performance

How was the Group's financial performance in the 18 months to June 2025?

David: Despite tough market conditions, the Group has delivered strong performance. We entered this period with good momentum, and our integration efforts and disciplined investment strategy have enabled us to maintain growth and profitability.

Paul: As David mentioned already, we have continued to see a diversification benefit from the companies within the Group.

In 2023, when People Made and Black Sun Global faced headwinds, Stratton Craig performed strongly. For 2024/2025 that story was reversed, and Stratton Craig's financial performance was more constrained and balanced out by stronger years elsewhere in the Group.

What has driven performance across the Group companies?

David: While there have been different factors driving performance in each of the companies, there is a theme of innovation that they all share. At Black Sun Global, we have been really thoughtful about where we add value for clients and how we can bring that to life for clients. This has translated into significant success in winning new world-class clients and retaining valuable existing relationships. People Made also leant into this theme, with a new structure, proposition and products helping them win global clients.

Paul: Meanwhile, Stratton Craig has been working to refresh their approach to sales and marketing to broaden their means of generating leads and winning new business. In doing this, they have been able to draw on the expertise, support and reach of the broader Group through knowledge sharing across business development functions, joint events and collaborating on thought leadership.

David: We have also continued to invest in our platform, as we mentioned above. And this has, of course, put a dent in financial performance. But with so much of that essential work nearly complete, we are closer than ever to unlocking the full potential of the Group.

Strategy in action

Can you summarise the Group's strategy?

David: Our 'North Star' is our vision to create a new kind of Group: complementary businesses aligned around a shared ambition to revolutionise how businesses create lasting impact. More than any of our peers, we believe our unique combination of expertise enables us to help clients build trust and connection through intelligent stakeholder engagement.

Our strategy is to deliver on this vision and bring the Group proposition to life by creating a single marketplace of services for clients, underpinned by strong Group functions and technology. By integrating our operations and harmonising processes, we have created a scalable platform for future expansion that offers a compelling 'plug and play' model for new businesses to join us.

Paul: We are also aligning our people around shared values and behaviours. As our people across the Group collaborate, share knowledge and co-create, our clients will reap the rewards of our combined expertise and specialist skills. So much of our work over the last 18 months has been about transforming the Group from a legal entity into a living entity. And we can see these efforts coming to fruition in every corner of the Group.

David: We set a five-year plan when we launched the Positive Change Group, and that plan has largely been achieved. With all the foundations for scale and success now in place, we are at the beginning of the next phase in the Group's growth.

Through our connected services, scalable expertise and AI-first thinking, we believe we can help our clients build trust and connection with their stakeholders. And this, in turn, translates into tangible business outcomes; like stronger customer loyalty, more credibility with investors, and a better ability to attract and retain talent.

Paul: Trust and connection are also essential in helping businesses navigate change and disruption, and that is another reason why our combined proposition is so compelling in this market environment.

What are your strategic priorities looking ahead?

David: We are continuing to look for smart opportunities to expand our proposition through strategic acquisitions. With a strong platform in place, we have a compelling offer to make to companies looking to join a larger group. We are also looking for ways to expand into new geographies, whether that's by winning clients in new markets or by leveraging our physical presence in our current locations.

Paul: As we have done throughout the history of our businesses, we will continue to adapt to our clients' needs as they evolve and adopt new technologies where they can help us do this. We are currently developing a go-to-market strategy for the Positive Change Group as a brand, rather than leading with the underlying company brands.

Our people, our changemakers

What role have your people played in the development and growth of the Positive Change Group?

David: We know every business says its people are its greatest asset. But it's especially true for us because the expertise of our people is what we sell. And our people are at the heart of our transformation, from three independent businesses into a unified Group developing a shared culture and identity.

The Group has been designed around the growing need for a more strategic approach to stakeholder engagement. To that end, we select our people because they are storytellers and problem solvers, not administrators. And we give them the tools and enterprise technologies they need to focus on the high-value work of building trust, delivering insight and creating impact for clients.

Paul: The calibre of our people, alongside their willingness to share insight and learnings, has been particularly evident in the work we have done to lay the foundations for the Group. We have seen brilliant input from across all the businesses to help shape the Group's strategy and proposition. This collaborative spirit also infused the AI Champions network we established to share and embed AI tools and productivity throughout the organisation. In fact, the progress we have made to embrace the benefits of AI and upskill our people accordingly will be a key competitive advantage in the future.

David: It must also be said that we are endlessly grateful for the hard work and commitment of our exceptional colleagues. Witnessing what we have been able to achieve together gives me immense confidence in what the Group will go on to achieve in the years ahead.

What steps have you taken to foster a strong and inspiring culture within the Group?

David: We are already united by shared values and a strong cultural foundation within each business, but this year we have intentionally worked to nurture a purpose-driven, change-maker mindset across the Group. To help spearhead this effort and transform our People & Culture function, we appointed Mari Kearan as Chief People Officer in early 2024.

Paul: Under Mari's leadership, we have grown the People & Culture team, strengthened our employee listening approach, introduced a new employee wellbeing offer, and launched a number of initiatives to celebrate the creativity and brilliance of our people.

David: Chief among these is our new talent development programme, the ChangeMaker Way. The programme has set out a guiding philosophy to shape the way we work, collaborate and grow, by putting purpose and stakeholders at the centre. We are renewing our focus on the impact we can have as a business and embedding the Changemaker Way into everything that we do.

Paul: This year, we also held our second PCG Forum, a day of presentation and celebration at our head office in London. Bringing together colleagues from across the Group, it was an opportunity to reflect on all we have achieved together so far while engaging our people in the journey ahead.

Our vision is clear, our path is laid

David: Looking ahead, we are focused on unlocking the full value of our Group. This means beginning to genuinely operate as a single marketplace, removing barriers to collaboration, and strengthening the proposition we bring to clients.

Paul: Above all, we are delivering on our promise: a platform for long-term sustainable growth, a unified proposition for clients, and a cultural foundation that ensures we can grow with purpose and ambition.