Mark Oakeshott, a well-known face in the moving industry for many years, has set up a new business, Mark Oakeshott Consulting, to provide the benefit of his experience to moving companies that are growing, changing, or facing challenges.

Mark worked for many years with Sirva. He left the company in March 2016 and worked as a consultant for a short while before joining Crater in October of that year. He stayed with the company, helping it to promote its popular video survey service, until March 2018.

“I enjoyed working with Crater but felt that my breadth of knowledge and experience in the industry required a broader role,” he said.

His new consultancy service aims to help medium and larger, independent, international moving organisations to work through the challenges facing them from a rapidly evolving industry and an exceedingly competitive market. “Unless some moving companies face reality in terms of their costs, strategy and technology they are going to have some challenges,” he said. “I think my experience has given me the ability to help them.”

The kind of projects that Mark believes his experience suits include: mergers and acquisitions, business diversification, opening new premises, and helping people who want to sell their businesses achieve the right price from the right buyer. “It’s difficult for many companies to handle major new products without taking their key staff away from their day-to-day jobs and disrupting the business,” he said. “I am someone who understands the business and can take on those roles for them in a cost-effective and timely way.” Mark explained that a project could be for a few days, a few weeks, or just require a few hours work a month over an extended period. “It’s whatever the company needs.”

Mark lives with his family in Chicago. Of course, he’s happy to travel as necessary and is willing to consider any project anywhere in the world. “It’s just got to be interesting,” he said. He can be contacted on e-mail: mark@oakeshottconsulting.com.

Photo: Mark Oakeshott.

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