Tuesday 30 September 2014

Why consulting firms are failing medium-sized businesses


Here is the Executive Summary from this month's White Paper, 'Why consulting firms are failing medium-sized businesses'.

Executive Summary

service delivery gap is reported consistently in consultancy practices.
  • 79% of consulting practices reported that they delivered an above-average customer experience
  • When asked, only 16% of the clients felt they received an above-average experience.
The reality is that consultancy practices are failing to deliver.
Between the synthetic siren calls of the gurus and the laden drones of certain academics lies a sweetspot that can really appeal to experienced business people.
What works for the entrepreneurial owner-directors of medium-sized businesses is something which does not have the dictatorial basis of either gurus, academics or management consultancies. Something that is more collaborative and participative. Something that is more respectful of their experience, expertise and achievements – and is more enduring.
What they want, what they lack, is a bigger picture that comes from focusing on Corporate Eudaimonia (‘human flourishing’), the best possible balance of financial, physical and moral well-being. Consequently, it has wider perspectives than pure maximisation of profit.
Experienced owner-directors don’t believe in miracles, or the efficacy of quick fixes. They think they have some – but not all – of the answers. They understandably don’t want to be preached to, nor have their experience and expertise ignored, or undervalued. They want heterarchy (a system of organisation where the elements are unranked) not hierarchy. They want to work peer-to-peer with mutual respect.
Owner-directors don’t believe that their business can be, or needs to be, transformed. They want improvement, not revolution, and they know that improvement is as much to do with how their business operates as anything related to direction or strategy.
They are looking for evolution: performance improvement over time, fitness in changing markets.


Tuesday 23 September 2014

How to Win Business awards

Robert Craven shares his insights on making your awards application stand out from the crowd.
How to win business awards
Over the past few years I have been a judge for numerous national business awards and competitions: Great British Entrepreneur, Start-ups, Growing Business, Fast Growth, Bio-Tech, working with the ‘good and the great’ to recognise and celebrate the achievements of individual businesses and their owners.
The process of judging is always a humbling affair; it involves a lot of highly-heated debate as well as a lot of laughter. The refining and narrowing down of a group choice to one winner is not as scientific as a one would like, but at the end of the day the best business wins. There is a lot of similarity between the way that job applications get handled and award applications get dealt with.
The sifting process...

How to win business awards
GBEA image

Read on at http://robert-craven.com/how-to-win-business-awards/