Consultancy prize boosts professional pride

Planning, 22 August 2008

Ove Arup does not usually go in for awards and other public recognition. Much of our work for the private and public sectors comes as long-term and repeat commissions from satisfied clients. We generally feel it is better to put our energy into our work than into marketing.

However, becoming the RTPI's Planning Consultancy of the Year in 2007 has been greatly beneficial to us, although we have not used it as the basis of a marketing campaign. We were impressed by the rigorous judging and the questions we had to field. Winning the prize was an unexpected compliment from a panel of planning professionals we hold in high esteem.

We organised a party to thank our colleagues for all the hard work that resulted in the jury awarding us the prize. We have also been surprised at the effect on the team. Little things show how it has boosted staff morale. Almost all our staff members have added a line about Arup being the Planning Consultancy of the Year to their email signatures and our colleagues have noticed and been positive.

Recruitment, particularly among graduates, has benefited greatly, with a huge rise in the number of high-quality planning graduate students seeking us out and applying for our graduate programme. Many cited the prize as a factor in their reasons for applying.

Sometimes it is difficult to explain to clients that we are a multidisciplinary planning consultancy with expertise spanning development management, strategy, policy, analysis and masterplanning. Being the Planning Consultancy of the Year has given us a reason to talk about the range of work we do, how it contributed to winning the award and getting that message across.

This has led clients to think about how we can help them in new ways and in expanded roles where we make a break with traditional boundaries on projects. We have even been able to demonstrate to clients that Arup is not just a planning consultancy - now they know we do engineering too.

As a profession, we need to continue to promote the value, creativity and contribution planning consultancies such as Arup make to a more sustainable and enjoyable built environment. If we successfully raise the profile of planning, there is genuine potential for the Planning Consultancy of the Year award to become more like the Stirling Prize and the precursor to cold calls from prospective clients saying: "I hear you've won a big prize - let's talk."

- Chris Tunnell is a director at Ove Arup & Partners.

- The RTPI's Planning Consultancy of the Year Awards seek to identify exemplary practice that meets the requirements of clients and the wider community and respected by the profession. The emphasis is on the quality of work, not on the breadth, scale, value or geographical spread of projects carried out or commercial performance. All types of planning activity and businesses are equally eligible. This year, entries are invited from individual planning consultants, small planning consultancies and large planning consultancies. A small planning consultancy is defined as employing no more than ten chartered planners. For further information about entering the 2008 awards, please visit www.rtpi.org.uk/item/1095.