WHILE some commentators grumble that the public sector makes up too big a share of the Scottish economy, there may be reasons to be grateful for the taxpayer's largesse as the credit crunch puts the squeeze on firms.

The thousands of staff employed in the public service have been joined by growing numbers of businesses which are looking to the public sector for their bread and butter.

In this week's SME Focus, we highlight the experience of a management consultant who is in the growth business of helping officialdom do things better. Years after a government agency bought him a one-way ticket to the Midlands to escape industrial decline in 1970s Scotland, Brian Mellon's Frontline is picking up lots of work in Whitehall.

However, Mellon has a word of warning for those who assume that the wonders of modern technology mean the English market can be tackled easily from a base north of the border.

Name: Brian Mellon.

Age: 52.

What is your business called? Frontline Consultants.

Where is it based? Strathclyde Business Park in Lanarkshire, and Holborn in London.

What does it do? What services does it offer? We are management consultants working across public services in the UK. We help people do things better. We work with organisations in helping them shape better strategies using tools like scenario planning, in developing people and organisations to enable better delivery, evaluation and measurement that tracks performance and draws on learning that people can use to get better outcomes.

To give an example, we worked with Globalscot, a unique business network of Scots working in senior jobs around the world. It offers Scottish organisations free, unrivalled access to that knowledge, advice and contacts to help accelerate business growth. Scottish Enterprise wanted to evaluate the benefits Globalscot generates and review how it works.

We found significant business benefits in the companies using it and excellent value for public money. Our recommendations on improving how it is used have seen the number of enquiries from Scottish companies double and that will see Globalscot generate more economic benefits for Scotland.

To whom does it sell? Mostly public service organisations, including Scottish and UK government departments, local authorities, the NHS, colleges, universities, economic development and a range of government agencies and bodies. We are now often working with multi-agency partnerships on projects. We also work for some very large companies on change support in large IT projects.

What is its turnover? £3.7m.

How many employees? We have 33 at the moment and we are growing in Glasgow and London.

When was it formed? On a sunny day in January 1991.

Why did you take the plunge? Seven of us believed we could deliver an alternative in Scotland to the then Big Six accountancy-based consultancies, particularly in the NHS and economic development agencies.

What were you doing before you took the plunge? Before we launched Frontline, I spent four years with KPMG and Deloitte. Before that, I worked for 10 years in the mechanical engineering industry making industrial clutches and brakes in the south of England.

When I graduated and left Scotland in 1977, the government employment agency bought me a one-way train ticket to Birmingham as part of its national programme of moving people out of areas of high unemployment to where there were jobs. Changed days, looking at what we are now doing to try and attract talent to Scotland.

How did you raise the start-up funding? Those of us who founded Frontline put up about £140,000 in equity and we had a matching bank overdraft facility, but we haven't used that in the last 15 years. Starting a consulting business does not need a lot of capital investment, but if you don't get the business right it will burn cash very fast.

What was your biggest break? There have been several client wins that have given the business a real buzz, breakthrough projects that open new doors.

My personal favourite was working for the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit. We were involved in scenario planning as part of work looking at UK government policy on GM crops. For the business, the biggest thing was getting onto S-CAT - the UK government's main purchasing framework contract - that gave us access to large-scale projects across many big government departments.

S-CAT is a very restricted shortlist of approved consultancy suppliers to government departments that have been through a competitive tendering process that meets European Union requirements.

Our bid document had 80,000 words, for which you would normally get a novel or a PhD. But it has really driven our growth in London and since then we have won work an order of magnitude bigger than before - including our first £1m-plus project.

The time and effort invested in the bidding process is significant but that's what was needed to play in the bigger game. It has paid off.

What was your worst moment? We are a people business, so all the worst moments have been about people - or more accurately, the wrong ones. People mistakes have seriously slowed business growth a couple of times. We have learned to become much better at recognising where someone is likely to be a successful consultant and where not.

What do you most enjoy about running the business? The buzz when we win a tender that the team has really sweated on - big smiles all round. Punching above our weight and winning tenders against international consulting firms that I respect also makes for a good day.

Watching our people's confidence and competence develop is also very rewarding. Personally it's about curiosity, I love the opportunity to get inside all sorts of organisations, talk to people and find out how things work or don't. I sometimes find myself surprised by the range of things we work on, but that's why I came into consulting in the first place, so that has always been a win.

What do you least enjoy? Standing in queues in UK airports. I much prefer the train where possible. I also hate losing tenders I know we should have won, and losing people I would rather had stayed.

What is your biggest bugbear? In the public sector you have to tender competitively for pretty well everything; which is fine. But while some organisations procure very professionally, there are others where the process displaces intelligent and rational behaviour. That's not good for the taxpayer because the "correct" procedures end up buying the wrong thing - hitting the targets but missing the point.

Sometimes being a Scottish company in Scotland has not been helpful and that is one of our reasons for opening in London. Success there has changed how we are perceived here - it's a strange type of glass ceiling - but it's not impenetrable.

What are your ambitions for the firm? Some time ago we stopped thinking about Frontline as a lifestyle business and decided to grow it. We started off with fairly modest ambitions, I think we focused more on being good consultants than on growing a good consulting business, and we decided we should have been doing both. We wanted to become Scotland's biggest indigenously-owned management consultancy, and when we were getting close to achieving that, it felt only natural that we should look south.

Opening in London was a (taxing) big step and that is taking us towards our aim of being a UK-wide niche player.

We are looking towards £7.5m turnover, with a work split of around 30% in Scotland and 70% in the rest of the UK, and about 60 consultants. That sort of critical mass will keep us competitive in winning really challenging and interesting work, and that will keep attracting the right kind of people.

What are your top priorities? Continuing to develop and attract really good people. Punching above our weight in the type of work we win and who we win it for. Maintaining the best elements of our organisation's culture, while growing into a different scale of business. Positioning ourselves as a credible tier-two sub-contractor with the tier-one suppliers that win mega-contracts. Continuing to generate the innovative thinking and intellectual firepower that gives us our competitive edge. Ensuring these continue to deliver our financial objectives.

What could the Westminster Government and/or the Scottish Government do that would most help? Look carefully at how public procurement really works for smaller businesses, rather than what policies say is supposed to happen.

The procedures are improving, but there is still a culture issue around the "nobody gets fired for buying IBM" type of approach. Progress is being made, but way too slowly. Also, if they are going to levy environmental taxes on air fares then they had better get the main Scotland-to-London trains running faster or the location will become increasingly uncompetitive.

What was the most valuable lesson you learned? Forget about working on your personal weaknesses - give that stuff to someone who is much better at doing it and play to your strengths.

How do you relax? When I get the chance I like reading about history and following current affairs, as well as visiting art galleries for a regular dose of culture.

I also find the gym and coastal walking immensely helpful in winding down; there's definitely something to be said about working out your stress on the treadmill, and there can't be many people who don't find sea air helpful in de-cluttering their thoughts.