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Varun Chandra wants to make it clear that the most exciting thing outsiders think they know about the counseling he leads is not true: Hakluyt has “no relation to the scary world, so that’s it”.

“For certain types of businesses, there must be some type of trade. . . mysterious connection with the powers that be [or] The security services could be helpful, ”says Chandra, who was elected managing partner of Hakluyt at the age of 34 in 2019 and is determined to“ simplify and demystify ”the company. “That is not helpful [us] because we don’t have [those links]. And we don’t want to project that we have them. “

However, the company was founded in 1995 by a group of former MI6 UK intelligence officers. It was named after the Elizabethan writer, priest, geographer, and diplomat (some would say a spy) Richard Hakluyt. Formerly known as the most secret law firm in a secret sector, it still operates discreetly from a Mayfair townhouse that a private asset manager or high-end law firm might be hiding.

Where Hakluyt’s online presence used to be a one-page presence, there is now a fuller website with partner profiles, press releases and a sparse explanation of the emphasis on “discretion and independence of thought”.

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What sets Hakluyt apart from other advisors who strive to sit at the right of business leaders when you’ve removed the mystique of a home for ex-spies with a license to pry? In a digital world, is there a future for “completely analog business”? . . built on human relationships ”?

Chandra declines to give names, but he does imply that Hakluyt is neither a mini McKinsey nor a cut off Kroll, the corporate investigation group. Steven Fox, founder of Veracity, a similar company, compares Hakluyt to a tailor: “It’s about making a bespoke suit and the difference is that now they want to make the bespoke suit so that you see the tailoring is made. “

Around half of the 120 employees are customer-oriented. Many had “some form of government job,” says Chandra. Dan Rosenfield, a former UK Treasurer, was an advisor to Hakluyt before becoming Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Boris Johnson last year. Other advisors include former lawyers, bankers and journalists (including former employees of the Financial Times). Only seven have a background in intelligence.

A typical task might be to “evaluate the thinking of the people on the other side of the table,” says the managing partner. “What are you interested in? What is your intention? What are your motives? “Duties could include reviewing the checkered history of a company’s prospective partner and advising on how they might work together, as well as the likely competitive and regulatory landscape for the business.

The line that marks unacceptable business from acceptable has “moved considerably than [the] Company has professionalized

The company first decides whether the customer inquiry is a “Hakluyt-shaped problem” and rejects 20 percent of the possible orders. When the work is taken over, the partners access a network of “several thousand well-connected people”. Some of these people are often paid very well; Other high-level contacts are happy to share information in exchange for occasional tickets to the opera or for cases of good wine.

Lord Paul Deighton, the former Goldman Sachs banker who chaired the London Olympics Organizing Committee in 2012 and now heads Hakluyt, admits that the group’s services can be hard to sell. “What I always tell the manager is [that] To make a good decision, you want to have a level of confidence that is a little north of 70 percent. Anything about it is unnecessary certainty. When you’re under it, you think, ‘Christ, I’m making this decision. And I really don’t know. ‘And what Hakluyt is good at is helping you go from 30 or 40 percent to 70 percent. “

Hakluyt Chairman Paul Deighton admits that the group’s services can be difficult to sell

Reports come in a form the company’s Elizabethan literary namesake would recognize: a succinct, well-written, rigorously edited analysis of about 20 pages that differs from the data-intensive slide decks of other consulting firms.

Hakluyt’s international advisory board gives an indication of the type of companies that fuel its revenues. It is expected to exceed $ 100 million by June 30th. It is led by Niall FitzGerald, former Unilever Managing Director and includes ex-directors of Coca-Cola, Rolls-Royce and Tata, and a former director of GCHQ, the UK’s signal intelligence hub.

But Chandra has to overcome a few obstacles to secure another reputation for the company. One is the lingering shady legacy. Neil Heywood, the British businessman who was poisoned in 2012 by the wife of the Chinese politician Bo Xilai, had advised the company. The Sunday Times reported in 2001 that Hakluyt had used a German agent to spy on Greenpeace and other environmental activists for oil companies.

The line that marks unacceptable business from acceptable has “moved considerably than [the] The company has become more professional, ”says Chandra. In the seven years he’s worked there, he can’t think of a customer to embarrass the company with. He says sniffing an NGO is now way beyond the pale.

Another challenge is to continue to convince clients of the value of their bespoke work and to keep the quality of their information rigorous.

According to others in the industry, Hakluyt’s customers pay a premium for their reports, often in the six-figure range and sometimes double that of their competitors.

“I always joke that they put an extra zero on the bill,” says the head of a company. A high-ranking figure at another competitor says Hakluyt’s “sweet spot” is government work, but there is a risk of “gross overload” for “normal information gathering”. A third suggests that in the past, Hakluyt sometimes struggled to attract repeat business due to cost.

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Another internal threat arises from a possible lack of diverse thinking. A quarter of a century of consultants hiring people who look and sound like this means the company is still 85 percent male at the partner level (although the proportion of all employees drops to 60:40 male / female).

“I’m from Newcastle [in north-east England]. I grew up in South Shields, I’m tanned, I didn’t go to any of those schools, I don’t wear a signet ring. . . Even if I’m in that role, that’s an indication that this place doesn’t care [about candidates’ background]”Says Chandra. The group doesn’t have specific ethnic diversity targets, but it now aims to poll as many women as men for open roles.”

The final challenge is to fill in gaps in your network. Last year, Hakluyt opened an office in Silicon Valley to develop potential tech companies. After repeatedly denying cybersecurity tasks – no problem in the form of Hakluyt – a handful of advisers from the US National Security Agency, the GCHQ and other agencies have now been hired. Veracity’s Fox points out that extreme secrecy would be incompatible with another Hakluyt goal: to advise more companies on environmental, social and governance issues.

Chandra claims Hakluyt didn’t deviate much from the founders’ assumption that they “could use the art of conversation through well-connected people [to] generate interesting insights that could be used commercially ”. However, according to a competitor, this is “a little old-fashioned, a little bit 2000s”. After ridding the company of the dangerous whiff of espionage, his articulate and ambitious young leader still has to work hard to differentiate Hakluyt from a mass of cheaper advisors and fact-checkers.