We already have internal resources to help us solve our business challenges, why are we not gaining a Resilient Competitive Advantage?

I often hear organisation tell me, that they already have internal resources to help solve their business challenges, therefore we don’t need an outside perspective, especially now when times are tough. The best advice I could ever give a business seeking to gain a resilient competitive advantage is hire professional help........he's bound to say that I here you say.....he's a consultant!

Due to the complexity of the dynamics running beneath your processes and systems, the return on investment from a quality business improvement consultant is not always obvious. The common perception is that hiring a consultant is expensive, and a consultant charges more than your employees cost you...or appears to. …

Here's the thing, have you ever tried fixing your own typo's in a letter? How often have you thought the document you have just written is perfect, you pass to someone to double check and they find something straight away! Business is no different and we are seeing this now more than ever.

If your organisation would benefit from improved financial performance, or accelerated growth, or both. It’s easy to fall into this trap of thinking you can't afford to go procure professional assistance because you're under profit, growth or cost pressure. Yet the need is dire! And is, in fact, the most appropriate time to seek assistance or a fresh perspective. 

In fact, making that investment can be a key driver to enable you to improve your results. Often the result of an organisation starting to believe that they will benefit from a fresh set of eyes starts to make them challenge their norms. Of course, the change may be in the future and harder to quantify, so it's easier to think you need to control your spending now and put a ban on hiring another set of eyes.

While it may seem that a consultant is more expensive, that external resource will bring a significant amount of value in best practice from multiple industries and organisations, along with a completely fresh set of eyes. The return on investment from working with an external consultant is significant and if they are worth their salt, they should be able to be clear how the value can be delivered. There is no reason why the improvement shouldn't be able to be delivered in a self-funded commercial arrangement that is rewarded on performance rather than a flat rate. If the consultant us truly confident of their approach and there is mutual trust, then a self funded approach can be extremely effective, remove the risk from the procurement process and align both parties to the outcomes.

Case Study: Missed Opportunity is Often Invisible

We carried out an assignment for an organisation that focused on streamlining their management protocols for getting tradespeople onto site to perform scheduled maintenance activities or upgrade work. There were many safety protocols and processes where contractors signed on to certain areas to do the work and manage the hazards. This was a high risk process manufacturing environment, therefore this was the correct approach to be taking.

However, the process for doing it was very inefficient. They had contractors spending 50% of their time waiting to do work rather than doing work. This was due to over checking and wasteful duplications in processes with too many stakeholders involved in sign-off. This had evolved with the right intentions; however, over time the processes and checks added had become cumbersome and didn’t really improve the overall safety.

We were asked to come in and do a process study. Since it was a large manufacturing site, this was a complex piece of work. It was priced on a small ongoing retainer (covering cost only) during the project rather than a fixed price or day rate, which would be self funding by the time the project was completed. There would be a commission paid at the end which from memory was circa $150,000 and at risk depending on outcomes. What is more, the cost of performing the work was subtracted from the savings before a commission would be paid to ensure the project was completely self funded.

At the time, our rate was viewed as expensive, and we were seen as possibly overcharging. This conclusion had been reached without understanding both the volume of work and effort required to analyse all the processes and the true dollar value of their problem. This left initial doubt as to how the project would be self-fund and in fact gain an attractive ROI, until the approach was linked to clear processes and outcomes.

An added barrier at the time was also that approaching a consultant was not popular internally as no one could really see that a solution was possible. After all, this is safety, right? We've been doing this way for years.

We completed the process study and streamlined the safety management processes as per our solution (bringing best practice from an entirely different industry.) The result transformed critical site access for trade and contractors saving the organisation $7 million dollars a year, year on year! The total investment was around $150,000 The return on investment was truly staggering.

At the time, I remember struggling to convince the client to proceed with the work because they just felt it was too big an investment, and I knew the ROI would not be immediately realised in the short term, however I also knew with full confidence, that by hiring us, they stood to benefit significantly from being exposed to best practice from elsewhere. 

The impact of hiring external help for your business improvement touches all areas of your business. By not getting professional help, you’re likely not optimising your strategic approach, your sales approach, and your return on investment for operations, asset maintenance, warehousing, distribution or service etc.

Whatever you do as an organisation, you have a business front end, a value-add, and a back end that services stakeholders. It is often quite difficult to optimise the many elements of these business principles and disciplines without a systematised holistic approach that can unlock the deeply hidden opportunity.

Don’t fall into the trap of so many organisations I’ve seen—even if your company is achieving positive results. This can lead to an assumption that all is well, and you don’t need any assistance. While that may be the case, often organisations, especially complex ones, don't see the missed opportunity that could be delivering even better results and that they are actually starting to lose their competitive advantage. After all, missed opportunity is often invisible and remembering high quality professional assistance should always be self funding.

We always take a clear approach to ensure this is the case:

1. Supply a Resilient Competitive Advantage Road Map with a clear start and a clear end to the process before the engagement takes place.
2. A deep snap shot of how all the integrated business systems are working together as an entity, how efficiently the entire enterprise is performing at a transnational level with a clear visual report out that can be understood at all business levels.
3. A deeper study of the opportunities for improvement that arise from the snap shot, to ensure maximum benefit can be realised in the shortest possible time, prioritised by Return On Investment.
4. Payment is outcomes based, with any costs of attaining the improvements being subtracted from the outcomes on which the payments are based, ensuing a self funded model.

This entire approach is delivered in a self-funded risk free model, that not only ensures professional help is cost effective....and instead of costing you money....it actually pays the organisation to carry out the work with business best practice, professional resource and techniques they would not normally have access to.

Peter Selby is an Author, Internationally Trusted Executive Advisor, and CEO at Business Drivers Ltd. His book, Defining Your Road Map To Profit & Growth shares the 10 critical disciplines that are essential for senior executives who want to achieve a resilient and competitive advantage in their market. Peter is passionate about business optimisation and has released his book as a complimentary resource to support executives in industry. Click here to learn more!