Most businesses are ok at surviving, but few excel or achieve stellar performance. Those excelling can do it by chance, but they are few in number and many that try, often crash and burn. There’s no real substitute for a roadmap, something that provides a direction of travel, against which key decisions can be evaluated and all people (inside the business and looking in) can get their heads round and buy into.
People & Processes
Sometimes businesses have the right plan, but sit on outdated people structures & processes. Like a sports team, it needs managing, but once momentum has been established, it moves forward with its one energy & it feels good!
Brand
Everyone’s got a brand, but few understand it’s force, it’s potential or how to use it. We consider this and especially how to project it digitally in an online world.
Product
It’s my firm belief that if you do this well & are the best you can possibly be in your sector, people will beat a path to your door, almost irrespective of how poor you are at the other bits!
Technology
New tech always sounds attractive, but is expensive to install, never fully achieves its potential & typically comes in over time & budget. We make tech work for the business.
Distribution
How is the product sold to the customer? By what routes, methods & at what cost? Is this fully understood & is it sustainable commercially? A lot of businesses try & run several distribution systems side by side. We look for efficiency, especially online.
Customer Aquisition
We work hard to understand & map the customer journey, work out who we want to attract & in what numbers & then go & get them. Many businesses already have enough potential customers flowing into in their ‘bucket’, but it’s far too leaky & costs them a lot of money.
CRM
Systems claiming to deliver this can cost a lot of money. Rarely do they do deliver against their cost. We keep it simple, basic segmentation & profiling followed by working out what we want to say to who & when & measuring results.
Conference Moderating
& Presenting
Every presentation is different & custom built. The same with moderation; my interview technique is hard edged, I try to add value at all times during a conference. I tend not to work from tight scripts. I want people to learn something from attending the conferences I moderate. I do internal company or organisational conferences, topically themed meetings, breakfast, dinners, retreats, seminars & workshops.
Non-Executive
Directing
Much of my consultancy leads to a permanent non-executive role, but it doesn’t have to. Some companies appoint me formally as a non-exec, others call me one, but I’m employed in a consultancy capacity. Given the chance, I do sometimes invest in the companies I work with, but not always.
Strategic Consultancy
My consultancy is almost always strategic and medium, to long term. I rarely do very short term assignments because it’s difficult to achieve much in a short time frame, you don’t get completely under the skin of a business in days and weeks & it ends up in too much messy accounting & admin for a one man operation. By the way, I work very much on my own, but I do have a roster of dependable expert individuals & agencies I call upon for specialist work. Typically, what I work on with companies is a roadmap – normally a 3 year plan (anyone that thinks they can forecast beyond this is a charlatan in my book). The 3 year plan does roll however, following annual review. I can stick around to assist in the Implementation of the plan, or go away & come back periodically & help review.