Clear thinking, delivered

Cogenic was founded by Kevin Parry, an experienced Programme Director and change specialist with extensive operations experience in telecommunications and IT services. Kevin led an MBO from a UK plc to establish a different kind of advisory business; one which was independent of a particular methodology, pragmatic and personal, but also rigourous in working methods and reearch-based. He felt that Systems Thinking was the best way to solve problems around delivering better organisational performance and that Benefits Management was the way to maximise value from projects and portfolios.

Cogenic is now a change management and programme specialist which also provides expert people as Interim Managers. We understand that real competence in leading change is based on a partnership between Cogenic and our clients. No-one has all the answers and the days of consultants coming to clients with ready-made solutions as "experts with answers" are now long past. The way that we work is to help people to develop new ways of working, tools and techniques. We do this by removing "roadblocks to progress" and by giving managers and directors the confidence to try new things in an environment made safe by our experience, research and independence.

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We work by evaluating our client's needs, engaging with key stakeholders via a workshop and one to one interviews and then producing an opportunity anaysis with a roadmap for making the organisation more effective. From this a Business Case is produced and this sets out the projects or activities recommended with the target Return on Investment. Work only proceeds when this is approved, so at all times our clients are kept in charge of their change programme or advice. For more information on how this works see advisory services on this website.

Effective project or programme delivery depends on:

• Technical competence – using tools, techniques and processes.
• This is sometimes refered to as a "methodology"
• Contextural competence – understanding the environment in which projects take place.
• This is essential to manage change and deliver benefits. We can think of this as business
• knowledge and political understanding
• Behavioural competence – Leadership and management skills, including negotiation,
• confict resolution and communications skills
• Confidence in taking risks - the inner resources to be bold, to set and maintain direction
• as well as the self-belief to succeed

Whether you need help to plan, deliver or rationalise your projects to improve value or reduce waste. Talk to us by clicking This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

To learn more about the APM Competence Framework click here

Cogenic are leading the Corporate Advisory Group for the APM in Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, are members of the Programme Management Specific Interest Group and are regular contributors to APM events. Kevin Parry, the founder of Cogenic, is a member of the APM Regional Committee and has written articles for the APM on managing change and working accross cultures.

See Kevin's blog at http://cogenicblog.blogspot.com "Real Change Management" for his latest thougts.

The Cogenic Consulting Leadership Team

Kevin Parry, Managing Director

Cogenic founder Kevin Parry is an acknowledged industry expert in programme management, transformation design and change. He trained as a Project Manager, Programme Director and Change Leader in BT plc, where he led a range of major investment projects and programmes. His work has included joint venture creation in Germany, India, France and Ireland, sale of businesses in France and the UK as well as major strategic change as part of the 21st Century Network Programme in BT.

Kevin has post-graduate education in Strategy, Finance and Change Leadership from Oxford University, Ashridge Business School and Henley Management College. He holds a Diploma in Management from Leicester University and a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors. He is a Fellow of the IoD and a member of the regional committee of the Association for Project Management in addition to being an MSP Practitioner. Kevin is a frequent writer and conference speaker on managing change.

Ian Sturgess, Project Consultant and leadership coach

Ian has both public and private sector experience in project and programme management; business analysis; change management; team building; training and coaching. He holds an honours degree in electrical engineering, is an MSP Practitioner and delivers leadership development programmes for the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL).

Ian's experience includes West Midlands Police, The Home Office, Energis (now Cable & Wireless) and the Ministry of Defence. He is an experienced; project and programme manager, trainer, and coach with strong team selection and communications skills.

Ian also teaches at the National School of Government (NSG) and for local government organisations and is a Microsoft Accredited Project Server 2007 consultant.

Brian Wernham, Programme Consultant

Brian is a senior Programme Manager with a track record of successful delivery of large change programmes. He has 25 years experience in both the private and public sectors and specializes in the leadership of IT enabled operational change. He has extensive stakeholder communications experience as well as supplier management experience - both technical and contractual.

Brian is action oriented, working typically with long assignments in positions of responsibility for delivery from strategy planning to implementation. He has managed programme recovery and is qualified as an Office of Government Commerce (OGC) Gateway reviewer. Brian is an MSP Advanced Practitioner, MSP Examiner and a Microsoft Project Server 2007 accredited consultant.

Michael Southall, Programme Manager and trainer

Michael is a highly experienced MSP Advanced Practitioner and Programme Consultant, with a proven track record of directing and delivering innovative solutions in complex situations.

Michael has strong; programme analysis skills, people management, team and stakeholder communications; programme planning and financial control. He is also an accredited trainer in PRINCE 2 and acts as advisor to innovation companies in applied technology.

Michael has experience in leading dispersed teams and to creating and managing networks across multi-cultural global organisations.

Philip Smelt, Associate Consultant

Philip is an MSP, MoR & PRINCE2 Practitioner with over 20 year’s broad business, public sector, software development and MoD/DTI exposure; with extensive experience of working from concept/bid through to application integration and full implementation rollout, including infrastructure migration. An active member of the Association for Project Management (APM), Philip has been Chairman of APM’s Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire branch since 2008. Philip has a research masters degree and post-graduate qualifications in systems thinking and the management of change. Philip’s work on technology projects has taken him from Lithuania to Siberia and from Grenoble to Tokyo.

As a ‘hands-on’ project manager, Philip has also undertaken work for a Westland Helicopters Computer Based Training sub-contractor, leading teams in the production of multi-screen Computer Aided Instruction and Emulation Systems for several overseas navies. He has also delivered multi-million pound Control room projects for a ‘bluelight’ company specializing in Integrated Communications Control Systems. Philip therefore understands, from first hand experience, the complexities and dependencies that are often overlooked in projects.

Philip is a "PMForum" & "PM World Today" correspondent and regularly writes on project management and frequently speaks at conferences on managing technological change.

Steven McParland

Steve is an experienced Project Manager, Portfolio Project Manager and Project Assurance Manager in a Programme Management Office at enterprise level. He is a Prince 2 Practitioner and is an innovative and highly effective manager.

His experience incudes:

TUPE Transfer, operational and customer support, business change, strategic and operational development Delivery and control of programme from initiation through to project handover into operations/service delivery.

Steve has worked in the Insurance, Finance, Telecommunications and Pharmaceutical sectors including stakeholder management, senior management, change management, Managing mult-mimillion pound budgets and the completed project lifecycle.

Steve is regarded as a solutions-orientated individual who possesses significant expertise in the delivery and implementation of IT solutions, business analysis, contingency planning, change management and the management of risk.

Charles Cross

Charles is skilled at working with management teams to set up complex programmes of change and to provide effective frameworks for managing projects and assuring success.

Charles has over 20 years experience of programme and project management  in which he has performed all of the main roles from senior user to chair of project boards. He was, until late 2009, the Head of Programme and Project Management at the Department of Health where he built a Centre of Expertise from scratch and worked on a significant number of important programmes.

Prior to working in government, Charles worked as an independent consultant, and interim manager. He has also held various senior management appointments in the oil and gas industries. Charles is a Member of the Association for Project Management, a Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) practitioner, a Management of Risk (M_o_R) practitioner and is skilled in the application of the Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) toolset.