Balasin is specialist consultancy that works with scale-up and enterprise scale clients to deliver improved operational performance and organisational health by developing the strategic skillsets and leadership capabilities of its key people leaders; helping them to set a clear, strategic direction and aligning them around it.
Ben Ford is the Owner and MD of Balasin.
He’s most passionate about driving growth in people to sustain growth in business, product and services that positively affect the world.
Prior to founding Balasin in 2017, Ben spent 8 years working at McKinsey & Company, Ernst & Young and in the tech start-up sector, where he developed a broad and diverse skill-set encompassing strategy development, operations, people leadership, corporate finance, business finances and negotiations. He is a chartered accountant and holds a Master’s Degree in Physics from the University of Oxford.
Balasin, External McKinsey and Entrepreneur
2017 – Current
Since Ben left the employment of McKinsey at the end of 2016, he has split his time between Balasin, serving as an external advisor to McKinsey & Company and exploring development of some early-stage tech start-ups.
Expertise includes: corporate strategy, project leadership, people leadership development, operational integration capability, structured problem solving, consumer-centric design thinking, communication & influencing, leadership & EQ skills and cohort-based learning.
McKinsey & Company
2013 – 2016
A leader in McKinsey’s Travel, Transport & Logistics (TTL) and Consumer / Tech practices; serving as counsellor to C-level executives of publicly-listed companies, private corporations and government departments, whilst leading teams of consultants to solve business-critical problems across a wide range of industries, delivering projects which spanned growth strategy, post-merger management, design thinking / product development and operational performance improvement.
Developed strong commercial acumen, structured problem-solving techniques and complex stakeholder management skills whilst leading teams of consultants and clients to deliver strategy projects and solve business-critical problems.
Promoted twice, consistently achieving “distinctive” ratings in performance reviews (top 15% of peer group).
Ernst & Young
2009–2013
Developed a rigorous understanding of business finances whilst qualifying as a Chartered Accountant and working in a variety of different corporate financing fields including diligence, restructuring and lead advisory.
Qualified as a Chartered Accountant, placing first in my year nationally.
Primary experience gained in the renewable energy and recycling infrastructure industries.
Delivered projects which spanned M&A, PPP procurement, valuations, financial due diligence, IPO preparation, working capital management and transformation services.
Securecoms
2008 – 2009
Chief of Staff to the COO, supporting the operations, marketing and sales of this tech-start focussed on SME cyber security.
Securecoms was 25% equity owned by HSBC.
Intrawest
2007 – 2008
A customer relations and sales lead for the Intrawest Corporation at Whistler Blackcomb
The University of Oxford
2003–2007
Graduated with 1st Class Honours in a four-year Physics Master’s degree (MPhys).
Awarded a scholarship for a top-10 placing in third year “Finals” exams (class size of 150).