Our history
Ours is an unusual journey. We believe staying true to our original values has played a big part in our success.
We set out as social entrepreneurs, founding two charities which continue to be successful: one working with young people in the UK (www.focus-charity.co.uk), the other seeking to transform elements of the education system in sub-Sahara Africa (www.lcd.org.uk).
Then in 1989 a group of business managers arrived from a number of blue chip organisations came to learn leadership skills whilst working with a group of disadvantaged teenagers. In this context Bridge was born.
The event proved a watershed. The business managers had what they describe as a ‘life changing experience’ and began making big changes in their organisations. Soon Bridge found itself moving beyond providing leadership programmes to the challenge of stimulating lasting change in big organisations.
As our consultancy and reputation have grown we have been privileged to work with some of the world’s most influential and complex organisations. In doing so, we have continually sought out and implemented the latest thinking.
In October 2009, Bridge became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) to build the CIPD’s capacity to lead thinking with senior business and HR leaders. A key purpose for partnering with the CIPD has been to pursue our shared common focus of driving sustainable performance in organisations.
Increasingly, our work is connecting and hardwiring leadership, business and social objectives for organisations – we are running a series of international leadership programmes which are transforming external communities, as well as the performance and leadership of our clients.
During our journey as social innovators, we have held to this purpose of integrating communities every step of the way, in every organisation we work with.