Our story starts with a totem pole & some coloured pens.
In 2007 we started life as Totem Limited. The world didn’t shake, the skies didn’t tremble, but we were very excited.
It’s a cliché we know, but we wanted to do something different. Business in a different way. We had worked for consultancies before that were product-driven, and sales-driven, and we saw how that distracted away from the desire to help companies and their people in the best way possible. We wanted to be independent: free to offer the most appropriate product or service on the market, to best meet each need.
Our founder was keen to choose a name for the business that was visual, even tangible, and after weeks of searching with no joy, she flicked through a dictionary and landed on the word totem:
a symbol of a tribe and its unity
That’s it! That’s what this business is about – helping people find their tribe, helping people belong, thrive, be at their best.
And our way of working has always been to draw out ideas – coloured pens and landscape sketchpads at the ready! It’s this process of collaborating as a team and with our clients, shaping solutions to problems and getting creative, that we love.
The business has changed shape a few times over the years, yet the constant foundation has been a drive to help people enjoy work more, do better work, make life better for colleagues and customers, and delight in the positive cycle of confidence, better outcomes and life satisfaction that comes from those things.
In early 2020 we had grown to a point where we could take on new adventures, including more formalised corporate giving. So now Totem is the parent company of a group of subsidiaries: Totem Consulting, Totem Capital & the Totem Foundation.
Totem Consulting represents the core of our business activities and this website is dedicated to the work we do there. But it’s now supported by Totem Capital, our venture capital & investment arm which is our way to connect with businesses and entrepreneurs, a vehicle that lets us share our money, time and skills with existing or emerging companies that would benefit from them.
The Totem Foundation is our greatest joy. Long before Environmental, Social, and Governance matters shaped the decision making of corporate boards, our research led us to an understanding of People at their Best. And some of the strongest behaviours that allow us to work at our best are community, humility, stewardship and generosity.
As well as non-financial giving, through the foundation Totem is formally committed to donate the equivalent of 5% of revenues or more to charitable partners each year, and this is arguably the most exciting area of the group’s work. Through this Foundation we select charitable partners to work with, giving time, expertise and financial contributions – helping national and international charities to achieve their aims.
Our vision is for every human to have the opportunity to be at their best: connected with a sense of purpose, their values, strengths and passions. Any difference we can make in a business and with individuals to move the dial on that, one person at a time, is a great day at Totem.
