Clive Dickens launches international consultancy
Former Optus digital product boss Clive Dickens has launched a consultancy that will operate in three markets and aims to upend traditional models.
The consultancy, named Meliora (a Latin word the company interprets as “the pursuit of better”), will focus on AI enablement and will have a presence in Sydney, London and Los Angeles.
Dickens has a long track record in digital innovation, being involved with Shazam and several other successful startups. He headed up digital at both Seven West Media and Southern Cross Austereo through the 2010s.
Clive Dickens
Dickens says he has formed Meliora with five other partners.
“Three of us are based in APAC, three of us are based in the Northern Hemisphere,” he said. “They are all currently employed and negotiating with their husbands and partners about the right time to step out of their corporate roles … the partners will be full-time.”
The scope of the consultancy is broad, with ambitions to not only advise clients on product design and AI, but also run a ventures investing arm and a fund to back content creators.
Dickens told Mumbrella that AI – while currently being hyped – was a monumental shift sitting outside the “hype cycle”. He points to the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 as being on the same level as the launch of the iPhone.
“This was another moment that has changed technology and history and humanity forever. Arguably, we still haven’t noticed it due to the combination of conflict around the world, tariffs and the rise of populism. But this … is an incredible period of industrial change.”
“We want to try and take advantage of that, and show how we can help drive change off the back of that.”
He is launching Meliora because he sees established consultancies as unequal to the task of dealing with this level of change.
“We exist to drive change. We describe ourselves as an intelligent experience to tackle big consultancy fatigue, and we’re really excited as a new breed of advisory to get started.”
Dickens did not name any founding clients, but said the consultancy had six “strategic partnerships that will allow us to hit the ground running.”
“We are literally just about to embark on a very significant business development launch and marketing launch and that sees me heading off to meet some of my partners in the Northern Hemisphere. And we’ve got possibly around 70 meetings set up with people who want to talk with us.”
“We’ve very much kept our powder dry in terms of foundation partners, and that’s because we’ll have a certain amount of exclusivity in each jurisdiction or each category.”
Along with Meliora’s partners, Dickens said he had lined up 10 associates who were available to work with the consultancy. These include Future Media founder Ricky Sutton and ex-IAB CEO Vijay Solanki.
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