About CurioValue
Who are we?
CurioValue is an independent consultancy providing advice and support to avoid value leaking from purchasing and relationships. We help enhance management of cost, contracts and risk, whilst enabling decision making. We want our clients to have a vitality – energy, strength and power – to govern and manage affairs and expenditure both efficiently and effectively.
We want to save you money, time and stress – and help maximise the utility from your business ecosystem and technology related spending. Our work varies from tactical support to embedding frameworks. We have worked across diverse industries, from financial services to media, the public sector to technology.
We combine experience in IT asset management (e.g. SAM, FinOps, HAM), governing suppliers and partners (e.g. licensees, licensors, service providers, internal functions), solution design and service delivery. We have a rounded perspective from many years working client side, for producers/publishers, in the channel, and in consulting scenarios.
Our story
CurioValue exists because of inefficiency in the business world.
We observed the same challenges being repeated over many years across purchasing, licensing, contracting and service delivery arrangements. The subject of deals did not seem to matter – from goods and services to revenue distribution for digital content to self-reporting of cost recharges in industrial programmes. Almost every organisation endures a combination of failing to get value for money, missing out on benefits, and exposure to unnecessary risk or obligations.
Value leakage can usually be reduced, whether for a single major relationship or in handling hundreds of suppliers. The technology sector provides significant opportunity because there are many moving parts: rapid change is a constant, intangible elements and lots of configuration options. Seeing this and combining it with a natural distaste for waste and unfairness, it was time to help.
We want to aid the betterment of well meaning organisations through the application of curiosity to achieve value, hence the portmanteau that is CurioValue.
Curiosity
We are fascinated with the world. From simplest reading of cereal packets to uncovering mysteries about how things work.
The word curious means both ‘eager to know or learn’ and ‘strange or unusual’. This seemed apt as the value gap between what is bought or contracted and what is supplied, used, reported or exploited appears ubiquitous if you look into situations.
The trick comes in balancing the level of curiosity with the potential benefits and surprises it may uncover.
Value
Most people have an innate desire to achieve value. In the working world some roles are focused purely on this whereas for others it is a way to allow them to put focus on other things. We think both work well together.
Value also has multiple definitions, including ‘something deserving’ and ‘judgement or standards’ as well as the worth or benefit something is ascribed. This fits with how we want to help clients – to get the most out of your trading and purchasing, whilst maintaining good relationships.
Our values
We help organisations with a desire to improve their ecosystem.
‘Improve their ecosystem’ has a double meaning – the ‘help your situation’ that CurioValue’s services are all about, but also to be a force for good in the role the organisation plays. We do not knowingly support entities that have a loose moral compass.
Here are the guiding principles for the way we operate.
Think client
We seek to operate in your interests, and act as if we were in your position. Having clients at the centre of all we do helps deliver the right outcomes and satisfaction.
Integrity without agendas
We choose who to work with based on a desire for them to succeed. Our suggestions are based on your interests, not driven by incentives. This might mean we tell you to go elsewhere or not to spend with us.
Do the right thing
We are ethical and honest. Getting the best outcome is important, but not at all costs. Applying the ‘sniff test’ idiom is built in to how we behave. The best relationships you have build trust and mutual benefits, even those that are temporary.
Improve the world
We want a happier place, seeking for everyone to enjoy their working day. We look to apply an encouraging demeanour and appropriate good humour in the way that we work. Positive interactions provide tiny steps towards making the world a better place.
Quality baked-in
Perfection is not always feasible; in fact pursuing it can limit performance. However, we aspire to great standards and eschew the easiest route if it is not the right thing to do. To maintain quality, we build in layers of reconsideration or review.
Honest candour
We want to be clear about what can be achieved and provide opinions on options and challenges. We believe it is right to be transparent and share observations. This engenders trust, which further drives results.
Know our limitations
We will tell you where we cannot deliver. However we are likely to know who can and will help investigate your options. We take on an investigative approach to finding solutions as part of our ethos of jointly owning your issues and goals.
Collaborative approach
Our work will often lighten your load, yet regular discussion of progress and ideas remains important. We approach this in the spirit of partnership and not simply being a supplier, treating your objectives and challenges as if they are ours.
Sustainable and responsible
We want to have positive effects, including to our ecosystem. In the environmental sense, we operate sustainably in a realistic way without greenwashing. We will seek to alleviate or offset impacts across the ESR (environmental, and social responsibility) spectrum.
Codes of conduct and general ethos.
As a small organisation, we focus the majority of our time on serving our client community. We have limited resources to apply to accreditations and certifications such as ISO standards, or subscribing to codes of practice. However, we do aspire to many of them and like to think we would be in the upper grouping in our behaviours and standards for things like business ethics, modern slavery, meritocratic equality, living wage employment, excellent working environments, prompt payment etc. If there a certain areas that are essential to you, we are always willing to listen.
Get to know us
About our founder
Howard Daws has a storied record of delivering greater success levels from business relationships and optimising technology spending. For almost 25 years Howard has applied curiosity to deliver value across many geographies and cultures.
Howard helped grow early stage business units within two of the the ‘big 4’ consultancies. This initially centred on architecting intellectual property audit and compliance programmes, including IBM’s software compliance function, digital content royalties for rights holders in media industries and incentive management for distribution channels. He went on to support numerous eminent software publishers.
He leveraged this experience to enhance supplier and contract governance for many clients, with a significant focus on software asset management (‘SAM’). This traversed industry verticals including financial services, construction, FMCG, technology, media, telecoms and the public sector, along with integrating services with business consultancy, procurement and corporate finance engagements.
Howard moved to a leading SAM tool publisher, supporting enterprise clients and helping to transform the services organisation. Before founding CurioValue, Howard reengineered the ‘SAM’ and contract optimisation function at a global technology reseller, growing it to include managed SAM and FinOps. Finally, he took on a role to lead strategy across a variety of technology linked solutions.
If you want more detail …
We would be delighted to share insights into the consistent commercial results we have delivered – it is countless hundreds of millions across thousands of projects and programmes. The same goes for operational improvements and wonderful stories of where inefficiencies were remedied and quirks uncovered.