We aren't into theoretical strategy - we think strategy should be directly executable and produce tangible, measurable increases to enterprise value. Our engagements have three things in common. First, they are structured into three steps: analyzing the current situation, including the options you have in front of you, choosing a path through those options, and executing the chosen plan. Second, we only work on value-creating projects. We are fact-based, data-driven, relentless proponents of a strict value-based approach to every activity of the modern enterprise. We assess the value of capacity, of specialization, or risk, and every other attribute of your business processes, and choose based on the aggregation, not the limited set of variables that seem to be in scope of the challenge at hand. We don't fall for the mythical project IRR's that never seem to manifest, and we'll help you step over these as well. Finally, we link most of our fees (and virtually all of our profits) to your results. We prefer to share the value that gets created rather than extract fees based on targets and aspirations. We share the risks with you - and we share the gains. As you can imagine, this gives us powerful incentives not to waste your time with theoretical or academic approaches to strategy... we care if it works, and we care how well it works. This also means that we care a lot about metrics and measurements. This benefits you in many ways. You get proof of your success, and you have a way to manage to value after we are gone, and yes, unlike some of competitors, we actually go. We have a limited set of consulting resources and we deploy them on the highest value engagements we find, so after we have worked with you to address your high-value targets we'll be moving on.
These are consulting products that we provide. These are predefined service offerings designed for small-midsized firms. The actual statement of work will be discussed and customized to your particular needs.
This is a diagnostic study to take a fast look at opportunity areas and to provide recommendations for deeper efforts. The goal is to build firm value by identifying strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. The result of these efforts is a project plan, or a set of plans that go from where you are to a state where your enterprise value is larger. Most of our compensation is contingent on you executing the plans and realizing the value.
This is a targeted study that starts by assessing the existing market situation, analyzing the various available actions, determining the best fit to the company's risk/asset/valuation criteria, making appropriate recommendations, and launching or executing the strategy. This may result in efforts to reposition your brands, to change your distribution channels, to adapt your compensation structure, to deploy assets into advertising or lead generation, or anything else. The final outcome, however, is the same: an increase in enterprise value.
This is an operations study that seeks to increase firm value by managing costs and purchases. We start with the obvious - how to buy better, but we go much deeper. When should we build versus buy, how should we structure purchases, when should we partner, how should we partner, etc. We look beyond costs into risks, management overhead, vendor leverage, total capacity constraints, etc. We are strong advocates for activity-based costing, perhaps extremely so, and we use this as a basis for value analysis. We champion bootstrapping as a funding mechanism for almost all process changes (excluding major asset deployments).