Teak Yew was established in 2004, to provide specialised consulting services to corporate clients in the areas of strategy and business design.
We are a thinking partner, as you plan the long-term success of your business.
Teak and Yew are two trees, both long-living and resilient. The wood of these trees is sought after for its valuable properties, being at once strong, yet flexible.
Teak and Yew symbolise our philosophy for business strategy and growth.
The Teak Yew logo consists of the teak leaf and the medieval long bow, which was made of yew wood.
Longevity in business requires a creative approach to strategic innovation.
You need a degree of continuity, but also the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances.
How can you use your existing resources in innovative ways to create sustainable value?
How can you build resilience in your organisation to generate long-term success?
Once upon a time, more than a thousand years ago, as spring began to warm the ground on the rolling hills of Southern England, the first green shoots of a young yew tree emerged into the light. This tree grew up as part of a large stand of yew trees, close to a small village.
A few hundred years passed and the tree grew healthy and strong. Then, one day the villagers came and chopped down most of the yew trees to make a clearing for a new stone church. Luckily, this one tree was spared, as it stood within the walls of the church’s graveyard.
The wood from these trees was strong, yet flexible, and so it was used to make longbows for firing arrows. The longbow was central to medieval military strategy and every man in England had to learn to use it, to defend the country from invasion.
Another hundred years passed and so many longbows were needed that yew wood began to become scarce. By now the single tree had grown tall and sturdy, with spiky needles and bright red berries. The villagers would dip the pointy ends of their arrows into the juice. It was a powerful poison and made for a swift kill with the longbow.
As yew wood stocks became ever more depleted, this yew tree, protected within the churchyard, was almost the last one standing when an innovation in military technology made the longbow obsolete: the musket was invented and changed the face of warfare forever.
For another four hundred years this yew tree stood silently in the churchyard, its useful life apparently over. Until, one day, a scientist discovered that the powerful poison of the yew berry could be used to treat cancer – a new use for an old and resilient tree.
