About Us
What We Do
Our clients call us when they need advice on difficult problems. They call when the solution to their climate change issues is unclear. They talk to us when relevant facts on the climate change and sustainability initiatives are hard to obtain but essential to have. They get in touch when under pressure to make major decisions that will affect the future of the firm.
Our clients get in touch when they are wrestling with complex projects that need accurate data and robust analysis to fix. Our clients ask us to support their decisions in the uncharted waters created by climate change risks, transformational improvements in energy efficiency and carbon regulations. They count on us for fact-based, independent analysis to identify the right decisions.
What We Believe
We believe that executives must understand climate change to preserve profitability and deliver shareholder value. We believe that company profitability is essential to fund the transition to a low carbon economy. We believe that the negative impacts of climate change on people and ecosystems will be much more costly and damaging than today’s consensus suggests. We believe that some firms will act too late and others will seize new opportunities. We believe that all business people have a duty to share information to accelerate climate change solutions -- because it will save thousands of lives. We believe the smartest people will want to make the biggest contribution.
To deliver on these beliefs we apply stringent professional standards to our work. This means that:
- Independence is our foundation stone. Our clients rely on our advice to make business decisions with huge implications. We always reason from our data to reach conclusions -- not the other way round. We make the call on what we believe is right or wrong, what works and what doesn’t, what will succeed and what will fail, which suppliers can help and which can’t. Independent analysis is our foundation stone.
- Accuracy is our guiding light. To make the right decisions our clients need to know which industry scenario is most likely, which supplier is the best fit for them today, what are the best practices exactly, and why the price of carbon will be 22.3 euros and not 24.5 euros in June 2013. Our forecasts are designed to be accurate not conservative. We are not swayed by market consensus, individual gurus or industry politics.
- Confidentiality is our guarantee. We engage with hundreds of senior decision makers every year and ask probing questions about spending, governance, risks, investments, costs and strategy. By guaranteeing the confidentiality of these discussions we create a safe haven for the sharing of challenges, testing of new ideas and requests for help on sensitive issues. Confidentiality is essential for our research.
- Curiosity is our idea generator. We hire people with an outstanding ability to think creatively. We favour behavioural economics over rational economics. We know that stochastic models trump linear models. We find that explicit assumptions provide more insight than black-box forecasts. We take time to ask "why?" before we solve "what?" and "how?". We know that line managers frequently lack the time for creative analysis.
Who We Are
We are a respected source of analysis and advice to some of the world’s most successful firms. We are a team of dedicated business research professionals guided by the principles of independence, accuracy and curiosity. We are a team of analysts with rich business experience in many industries and qualifications from the world’s leading universities. We are people who create, collect and sharpen ideas to balance business strategies with resource constraints and environmental needs.
David Metcalfe, Director
David is a an experienced executive with a background in technology, economic research and public policy. He was previously Senior Vice President at Forrester Research, the NASDAQ-listed technology analyst firm, where he managed the EMEA research, consulting and client services teams. His experience in corporate strategy analysis and forecasting includes a period at BT Group where he was Head of Analyis and Forecasting. He has also managed his own internet software firm and worked in Brussels, Paris and Maastricht on European policy issues. David is a frequent speaker and panel chair of industry events and has presented at Technology and Energy meetings of the World Economic Forum.
To earn his PhD from Cambridge University, David used game theory and decision analysis to assess negotiations on the liberalisation of European energy markets. In 1997 he won a Research Fellowship to the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and was a member of the research staff at the Harvard Business School’s negotiation and decision-making unit. He is a co-author, with HBS Emeritus Professor Howard Raiffa, of the award-winning book "Negotiation Analysis" published by Harvard University Press.
Rodolphe d’Arjuzon, Director
Rodolphe joined the Verdantix management team from a strategy consulting background having worked in the London office of L.E.K. Consulting and in the strategy team at Barclays, one of the UK’s largest banking groups. He brings a wealth of strategy advisory experience and financial analysis skills to the Verdantix knowledge service. Together with climate change and sustainability, he has worked in the retail, transport and financial services sectors through a variety of consulting and in-house assignments for government, corporates and private equity clients.
Following his undergraduate studies at Jesus College, Cambridge, Rodolphe gained a PhD in Physics also from Cambridge University.
Research Team
Verdantix research is created by a team of research professionals who have graduated from the UK’s leading universities including Cambridge University, Imperial College, LSE and University College London. If you are interested in joining the Verdantix team please visit the Careers section.