Riverflexer in the Spotlight with Amanda Whittaker

We are proud to present Amanda Whittaker as our latest “Riverflexer in the Spotlight”. Based in the UK, Amanda is a Customer Experience professional specialising in customer service transformation. During her twenty years of experience, Amanda has worked as a management consultant with companies such as PwC and Deloitte. She has helped clients improve their customer experiences, developing customer strategies and the capabilities needed to deliver such strategies.

Freedom and flexibility inspired her to take the leap

18 months ago Amanda decided to move into independent consulting. “It was an interesting change”, she says. A change characterised by far more freedom to define your professional goals and development path to specialist expertise. “You can pitch yourself in the area you specialise in. I’ve come across very few generalist independents, almost all the independents I have connected with excel in a specialism.” Beyond the ability to determine her own career path, the flexibility of independent consulting is what inspired Amanda to take the leap. As a mother of two, it was important for her to establish a healthy work-life balance.

Testing the strength of her network and reputation

In daring to go independent, Amanda was able to test the strength of her network. Not only was she highly supported by Deloitte,  she also found great encouragement in the professional network she had built over the 20 years of her career. “When I spoke about my decision, many of my connections actually approached me to know more about my project. When starting, going independent felt like a big jump. Then I realised that, as consultants, our reputation is not pinned on the companies we’ve been working with, it’s pinned on what we’ve achieved. That was refreshing.”

Independent consulting, specialist work

Having experienced both as a Big Four consultant and as an independent, of course, we were interested in Amanda’s point of view on going independent, and where she saw value for firms adopting independents. While each approach to consulting has its pros and cons, for Amanda the world of independent consulting is the ideal solution to conduct highly specialised work. “I think the independent model works best for companies who are looking for specialisation, that kind of expertise to help them start moving. The advantage is that they can dip in and out of that expertise without bringing in a big team”.

A new network: life as a Riverflexer

As a consultant working in a Big Four, Amanda could count on a network with an even wider range of experiences that she could tap into and learn from. Moving into independent consulting, she suddenly found herself missing the opportunity to reach out to peers for support and advice. For Amanda, the chance to get in touch with like minded digital professionals within the Riverflex community was unmissable. “As an independent, there might not always be that network you can reach out to for guidance. I think I missed that, it’s really nice to have that again.”

With her commitment to creating effective customer centric organisations, Amanda is a strong addition to the Riverflex community. We look forward to working with her to help clients optimise their customer experiences.