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Our story

Virtual Group was established in 1992 and has well over 20 years experience working mainly with large government organisations in the Wellington Region. It was the first "virtual organisation" for consultants in New Zealand and, to our knowledge, in the world. It was launched in a pinstriped tent in Frank Kitts Park as a symbol of pinstriped quality, total flexibility and canvas-thin overheads.

Virtual Group's motto is: "Wisdom Without Walls." For us these three words are highly meaningful. Imagine the power of an organisation with lots of wisdom and no walls. We still think it is the ultimate statement of resilience. Helping achieve resilient organisations is still what drives us 22 years later.

The motto also refers to our "virtual" structure and the "wisdom" part refers to the background and length of business experience of all our consultants who have all been carefully selected from people who are already at the top of their speciality. For us this is important because each consultant is self managing so we don't need managers to supervise our consultants; for you it is important because you work directly with partner-level consultants for 100% of the project for a cost similar to the juniors who do most of the work in bigger consultancies. Unlike many other consultants, all Virtual Group consultants have a background in business rather than consulting. We know what it is like to manage and work in large organisations; doing rather than advising, achieving solutions that work rather than theory.

Through our "virtual" business model, Virtual Group has achieved many of the characteristics of bigger consultancies (quality standards, agreed procedures, backup, peer review, breadth of service and full guarantee) as well as the swiftness, flexibility and personal contact associated with small independent consultants.

Whilst Virtual Group is virtual in the sense of having almost no fixed assets, right from our launch in 1992 we understood the importance of having quality processes for quality control, selection of consultants, peer review, consultant development and other processes, like sharing of successes and lessons learned, that you would expect to find in a large consulting company. We have also invested heavily in the development of culture, communication styles and technology, and for understanding of each other and our strengths.