ABOUT
We are a boutique communications and strategy consultancy with a unique perspective on the future.
We believe the best guide to a changing world lies in the one thing we can ever know for sure: our own lived experience.
Experience explains who we are, what we do best and why. It defines what we stand for, and won't stand for. It shapes how we see the world, and how others see us. Above all, it holds options and possibilities for the future.
Before we can make history, we need to understand how history has made us.
That's where Saybrook comes in.
We help organizations and families capture their own lived experience and use it to accelerate transformation, drive engagement, and grow with integrity. The result: a more resilient, purpose-driven enterprise that is built to last.
PAST
What is enduring and distinctive
FUTURE
What is changing or must change
APPROACH
Our unique approach combines creative storytelling and proven historical methodologies with deep industry and consulting expertise. We seek not only to build compelling narratives, but to make legacy a platform for innovation and engagement—one that can both illuminate the way forward and bring people along on that journey.
We work with senior decision-makers from clients across the private and nonprofit sectors. They engage us at moments of opportunity or adversity—whenever they need to understand and articulate more clearly the principles that guide them or the challenges they face.
OUR STORY
John Seaman
Founder, CEO
Saybrook's story, like that of most entrepreneurial ventures, is also a personal one.
I began my career as an academic historian with a passion for biography. This taught me to see history through the lens of human endeavor—as something that has shaped us and that we, in some measure, have shaped in return.
I also spent many years in strategy roles for a global consulting firm, which underscored the power of long-term perspective for leaders operating in a volatile world.
My twin experiences in business and academia led me to become a consulting historian, and for the next decade, I helped organizations and families tell their stories. Yet the real reward in such work, I discovered, was not in storytelling for its own sake, but in what those stories could do for clients striving to do great things.
So I founded Saybrook Partners: a boutique consulting firm specializing in the strategic uses of history.
Since then, Saybrook has evolved with our clients into new products and services, channels and formats, as we seek to meet audiences where they are. What hasn't changed is our founding purpose: to help our clients create positive, lasting change through lessons drawn from their own lived experience.
THE SAYBROOK DIFFERENCE
RESEARCH
We bring world-class research capabilities grounded in rigorous methodologies. This enables us to produce deep, well-differentiated content that resonates and breaks new ground.
EXPERTISE
We are professionals with PhDs and other advanced degrees along with deep domain knowledge. We are also peers of the clients we serve, with decades of combined consulting experience at senior levels.
CUSTOM APPROACH
We spend time getting to know our clients and build the trust needed to advance bold solutions. The consultants who start on an engagement will be there until the end.
IMPACT
In concept and execution, our work is designed to produce significant and measurable improvements. We have a proven track record of helping clients navigate complex issues in culture, brand, and reputation.
INTEGRITY
We work with sensitivity, professionalism, and discretion. We seek to deliver a positive experience for our clients, with the capacity to accept and act on candid feedback.