About us
Paul Matthews founded People Alchemy Ltd in 1999 after a distinguished career in industries as diverse as engineering, travel and information technology. He held many senior posts in sales, customer service and operations, through to a role as Director in a multinational IT company.
This extensive management experience, and a sought after coaching ability, led him to create a company that specialises in management development. People Alchemy was 12 years old in June 2011, which is testament to the success that Paul has created, working with clients like Barclays Bank plc, Credit Suisse First Boston bank, Philips Semiconductors, General Motors, Roche, Deutsche Bank, Zurich Insurance, Ricoh, West Midlands Police and The Open University.
All those years of working with managers across a broad spectrum of sectors and levels has given Paul some unique insights into what is required by managers to make that shift from ordinary to much more than that. And he also gained insights into what doesn’t work, which is just as important. According to him, so many management development initiatives are still full of old style thinking and approaches.
Paul grew up on a farm in New Zealand where what is most important is what works in practice; and he has brought this thoroughly pragmatic approach into management. His constant question: "What tool would be of most use to me as a manager in this particular situation?"
It became evident that although an abundance of learning products and training was available to managers of all grades, there was nothing expressly designed to give today’s managers the one real aid they wanted and needed: an easily accessible source of authoritative and practical help enabling them to solve the real problems they face on a day-to-day basis.
Drawing on his background in coaching, management development and IT, as well as an extensive network of senior business consultants, Paul embarked on a project to provide the solution to this obvious need.
The result is Alchemy for Managers.
debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.’