Newton acquires Magnetic to bolster its strength in design and innovation
Newton, the strategic delivery consultancy, is excited to announce its acquisition of Magnetic, an independent human-centred design and innovation company.
The transaction will see Magnetic’s 70+ designers and innovators join Newton’s 450+ consultants across the UK, with both companies’ skills adding depth and
breadth to their offerings to clients.
Magnetic will continue to be run as a separate business beyond the transaction and for the foreseeable future. However, both companies will explore opportunities to
boost the impact they deliver to clients through partnership. Magnetic will continue to operate under its existing name and branding.
Existing foundations
Newton and Magnetic have previously worked in partnership for several large clients, also collaborating on the steering groups of various joint projects. Accordingly, they
were aware of their similarities in working style and shared beliefs. The acquisition is a natural next step that builds on common aspirations and a shared experience of
delivering exceptional client value.
The two companies have complementary skills portfolios, a mutual impetus to disrupt the traditional consulting model, and a strong blend of commercial
innovation and creative ingenuity. Both are renowned for helping clients resolve complex, intractable challenges blending a data-driven approach with human-centric
design and innovation.
Both are driven to give client organisations dramatic improvements in performance, efficiency and competitive edge. Both Newton and Magnetic have strong credentials in the retail and consumer space, with a shared understanding of consumer business dynamics.
Both use a client-centric approach that is industry agnostic. This approach starts from first principles and is tailored to every client situation. There are many more natural synergies between the two businesses, which will be explored in the years ahead.
Design and innovation
Magnetic, formed in 2021 from the merger of independent consultancies Fluxx and magneticNorth, has thrived by applying a multidisciplinary and holistic approach to
create innovative, commercially successful products and services for multinationals, government entities and fast-growing start-ups. With an intensely collaborative client
engagement approach, Magnetic's teams uncover customer insights that lead to the design of new products and services that address client problems.
With expertise in business design, design thinking, innovation, leadership development, culture change and building product-led communities, it continues to pursue a mission of creating better futures for businesses, people and the planet through design and innovation.
As a collective of people passionate about solving the world’s environmental and social challenges, Magnetic attained B Corp certification in 2023.
Delivering through its combined hub of innovation and digital design, Magnetic has seen a rapid increase in demand from organisations across a range of sectors,
including Google, HSBC, Mars, the BBC, Parliamentary Digital Service, adidas and The Economist among its partners.
Meaningful impact
In Newton’s case, success in the areas of healthcare, local and central government, retail, defence and infrastructure, and a focus on translating strategic intent into
tangible actions and outcomes backed by a fee guarantee, have maintained a 25% growth rate YOY over 20 years. Newton has worked with more than 100 public
sector organisations in the UK, on the nation's most significant defence programmes and with many of the country’s largest retailers.
As a behind-the-scenes force for creating lasting value within large organisations, Newton builds strong partnerships with client teams, often with a low profile but a
critical role in multimillion-pound change and transformation programmes.
Newton’s approach to strategic delivery is uniquely data-driven, forensically detailed, digitally enabled and human-powered. The company’s purpose is unlocking
complexity for meaningful impact, and it thrives in highly complex, high-stakes environments. Newton orchestrates programmes that keep citizens, consumers and
tax payers safer, healthier, better served and benefiting from organisations, systems and processes that run more efficiently and deliver better outcomes and greater
value.
The company remains deeply invested in the impact of its work through an unusually client-centric engagement and commercial model, where it fully guarantee all its
fees. Newton regularly appears on the rankings of the most desirable companies in the UK for university graduates, with 14,000 applicants contesting 100 new positions
in the 2023 academic year.
A critical juncture
The acquisition of Magnetic by Newton comes at a critical moment in each company’s respective history. Both are rapidly growing. After more than 20 years in
the UK, Newton is poised to broaden its reach into sectors where it already has a substantial presence, while also extending its offer into new industry sectors and
international geographies.
“We’re very excited about the new capabilities and capacity for design and innovation that Magnetic brings to Newton,” says Managing Partner of Newton Europe, Steven Phillips.
“Since our first meeting, it was apparent that our respective leadership teams and cultures have much in common. The better we got to know each other, the more apparent it became that we are both motivated by similar things: curiosity and passion to unlock complexity, an optimism about the future and our ability to contribute towards it, and a determination to leave a meaningful impact with our clients, and within society.”
Jenny Burns, CEO of Magnetic, said: “We believe in the power of design to accelerate progress and create positive, sustainable impact. In Newton, we’ve found kindred spirits with strongly complementary skills that will combine to deliver a more holistic approach for more impactful outcomes. We also believe in designing our future with optimism. It’s a mindset that begins within us and has a ripple effect on the world at large.
“We were convinced that we’d found the right fit with Newton when it became apparent that both companies shared so many similarities: high growth rates, big
ambitions to create positive change at scale, and cultures underpinned by strong values. We each have parallel but equally effective approaches to solving client
challenges, and we both value the building of close relationships with our clients; relationships that provide the fuel for extraordinary breakthroughs and enduringly
positive outcomes.”
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