Steve Jobs had a blunt take on consultants: “A mind’s too important to waste.” His argument was simple: 1) Too many consultants give advice on things they’ve never actually done themselves. 2) They hand over well-packaged reports but rarely see their recommendations through or take responsibility for the outcome.
I’ve seen this firsthand. I’ve sat in meetings, both in local agencies and central government offices, watching so-called top-tier consultants—armed with Ivy League credentials—present their grand strategies. The problem? Their reports often had little connection to reality. They failed to capture the complexity of government, the constraints people actually work within, or the invisible forces that make even the best ideas difficult to implement.
And when these recommendations—stripped of practical substance—inevitably stalled, the consultants were already off to their next engagement. They left behind teams struggling to make sense of what was supposed to be a transformative plan, but instead was an isolated deliverable—poorly understood and often randomly implemented.
That’s exactly why I hesitated before stepping into consulting. After years of leading service transformation inside government, I knew the real work wasn’t in presenting a strategy or a roadmap for a concept—it was in making it happen. It was in patiently building teams, strengthening capabilities, and advocating for change in ways that actually stick. And for a long time, I didn’t see myself in consulting because I didn’t want to be another outsider handing over a report that would end up gathering dust in an official’s office.
But then something changed.
A visionary leader —someone I had the privilege of working with for many years, and had seen too many impractical consulting engagements—encouraged me to start my own firm. He told me: “What we need here is someone who actually understands this work from the inside. Someone who’s been in the trenches. Who knows how to navigate roadblocks and get things done.”
That conversation changed everything for me. Could consulting be reimagined? Could it be more impactful if grounded in real experience? How can consultants go beyond delivering reports, ensure their recommendations are implemented, adapt when necessary, and take responsibility?
And just like that, my husband, Dr. Hassan Khudair, and I started our consulting firm in 2015. Between us, we brought 25+ years of experience in local and federal governments, along with two PhDs in performance and experience management. Nothing to fear, right? Wrong. Building the team came with its own challenges. It has been a journey of failing, learning, and improving. Creating a new generation of consultants driven by purpose, ready to handle the pressure as they carry the torch forward has been the most demanding yet rewarding experience of our lives.
It’s been 10 years now. When we started, we felt like lone wolves. But today, we’re blessed to be sought after by a growing number of government partners who recognize the value of this new model and are courageous enough to challenge the mainstream. We’re also thrilled to see more boutique firms emerge across the Arab world and beyond, staying the course and, like us, crazy in their commitment to improving themselves in the pursuit of bettering this world.
