Rewards of An Entire Team of People Who Think Differently

Auticon is an IT consultancy where all the consultants are on the autistic spectrum. It's a strong business decision with a great competitive advantage. Their chief operating officer, Viola Sommer, shares: "That's the main reason why our clients choose to work with Auticon: they have problems that their own staff can't solve. They need someone who looks at their problems with a completely different perspective." Originally headquartered at Germany, they have expanded to the United Kingdom due to their significant growth and success.

Their success with clients is illustrated with a success story shared by one of their clients, KPMG, a well-renowned accounting organization. Through their collaboration with the consultants from auticon, they discovered how neurodiversity is a huge aid to drive success.

Nick Frost, Head of Audit Technology and Innocation, and Matthew Campbell, Director, share their experiences and reflection:

"Having people on the team who have a different way of doing things has gone down really well. A lot of what we do is very technical in nature, so having people who look at that in a slightly different way and spot better ways of doing things has been a real positive. There are some healthy conversations between the consultants and our team talking about how processes could be improved.

When you first hear that someone is on the autistic spectrum, you wouldn’t automatically think that they would be able to thrive in a typical professional services environment. There is a perception that this environment is very socially focused, with everyone looking to build their network and further their career. However, the work we did with auticon shows that there is not necessarily one single definition of what it means to be a successful analyst. By allowing auticon’s consultants to focus on their strengths they have produced great results and become key members of our team.

It has also helped to open our eyes at the leadership level as to how we might sometimes have unnecessary biases in where we get our talent from. This is a demonstrable example of how you can get talent from areas you might not have previously considered, if you are prepared to put the effort in. We can now access these opportunities and we can look further. This partnership has created many benefits at many levels, both operationally and strategically."

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