Barry Samria spent more than two decades working in consulting before launching Audere Partners with some colleagues in 2016. During those 20 years, he noticed a few things: One, even though consulting firms are proponents of change, when it comes to changing internally, they are very conservative; and two, firm leaders all talk about values but it's often a "check the box" exercise. Few firms practice what they preach.
"Those were the two things that drove us as we sat down to create something really daring and bold," says Samria, a Managing Partner with Audere. "We're really trying to build a brand based on values, no exceptions. We wanted to have a clear set of values that everyone understood. We set out to change the course of consulting. We wouldn't be afraid to be daring and bold."
In fact, the word "Audere" is Latin for "to dare." Samria says Audere Partners is out to prove that consulting can be done a different way. He says earlier in their careers, he and the other founding members of the firm noticed how rare it was to have open and honest discussions with clients for fear of upsetting them. "We simply were not going to do that at Audere," he says. "We live our core values; that's the genesis of the firm."
