What is strategy consulting? What will it do for your company? How do you know if you need it?
The usual types of companies that use the services of a strategy consulting firm usually look something like these examples:
- Family businesses, or ones that have changed owners (or controllers) due to an acquisition
- Companies that grew very fast
- Companies that are entering a market that suddenly changed, because of, for example, new technology (often a disruptive innovation) or a change in consumer behavior.
Before we talk about this in more detail, it’s worth remembering that using the help of strategy consultants is not exclusive to just those cases above.
Any company can choose to use a strategy consulting service.
Next we will get to the bottom of ‘what is strategy consulting?’
We also have a 7 question quiz that will help you determine whether or not your business needs strategy consulting.
See also: Disruptive innovation: Is it the new fashionable business expression?
What is strategy consulting?
When you’re intimately connected to something, whether it’s a company, a loved one, or even the clothing we love, it’s hard to tell when it’s time to correct certain things.
Like, scolding your beloved son, recognizing that your favorite suit is totally out of style, or getting advice from a stranger on how to run your business.
Therefore, if you want your child to be successful, and that people don’t laugh at your clothes, it’s best to face this “barrier”.
So, seek advice from a seasoned business strategy consultant to get through a bad business situation.
An external look is always helpful!
In fact, the people who benefit the most from your business are always external: your customers. The people that you need to convince of the value of your products or services, so you can get maximum profit from them.
Therefore, if you need help designing your processes correctly to deliver this perceived value, it’s time to call a strategy consulting firm.
After all, what is strategy consulting if not a group of professionals who understand business processes and modeling and want to improve yours?
So, what is strategy consulting? Here’s our concept:
A group of professionals who analyze a company and its market, in order to detect whether certain elements are solidly aligned and consistent with the business.
Elements like, strategic guidelines, mission, vision and values, market positioning, target audience, objectives, goals and its value chain.
All of which leads to a guarantee of sustainable results in the long term, which generates wealth for shareholders.
This practice also ensures employee safety and guarantees the delivery of a product or service that society needs.
All without harming the community.
Check out: Business Decision Making Process: Rational and Intuitive
Do you need a strategy consulting firm? Take this 7 question quiz to find out.
Let’s summarize the previous paragraph regarding strategy consulting.
So, what is strategy consulting in a few words?
A group of trained professionals who want to help your company find the right direction, so you can make the most appropriate decisions.
Now that you understand what strategy consulting is, let’s decide if your business needs its help:
1 – Is your company making a loss?
Of course, one or two slump periods, even in succession, doesn’t mean that you should call a consultant. So, analyze the economic context. Is it favorable? Are your competitors making profits? These may give you clues.
2- Are you losing market share?
This is a more serious signal, but like all the other questions, it’s not conclusive. You should make the decision to call a strategic consultant based on the combination of your answers to all 7 questions.
3- Does the company have a leadership change less than every 2 years?
If the CEO or President is unable to hold office for very long, it may be a sign that the company is lacking strategic direction.
4- Is the company losing top-level executives?
Executives have a history in their company.
If they want to stay put and they believe in the direction, it would take a very attractive pay offer for them to consider leaving.
The loss of directors and vice presidents may be a sign that they don’t trust the direction things are going.
5- Is the strategy decision-making process confusing and conflicting?
Of course, decisions like these are not taken lightly. Frictions and disagreements are normal. But if the level of stress and antagonism is too high, this may indicate strategy problems.
6- Does the company use any type of customer satisfaction survey? And are the results satisfactory?
Use modern techniques to measure customer satisfaction in your company, such as NPS, for example. Without this information things are already very serious.
If your company is using modern customer satisfaction measurements and the results are bad, take this into account in decision making.
7- Does the company use Business Process Management techniques?
Determining strategies without defining optimized processes to create value is complicated, especially if you don’t have management tools or process automation software.
Think about this.
For questions 1 – 5, a YES answer is worth 1 point. For questions 6 and 7, NO is worth 1 point.
If your sum is 3 or less, pat your head and take a deep breath. If you get 4, think about the serious possibility of calling consultants.
Anything above this, don’t hesitate, contact a strategy consulting firm immediately!