Executive Consultant: Four Signs Your Company Needs One
From the outside, executive leadership can look easy. But on the inside, its difficulties lead many executives to seek advice from a business consultant. Consultants who advise executives focus on improving executive insight, which improves business performance. The problem, of course, is realizing that consultation is needed when you aren’t receiving consultation. If you feel that consultation could improve your company’s performance (and your individual performance), but you remain unsure, below are four signs that it could.
Problems with Project Management
Project management issues such as poor task delegation, poor progress oversight, and lack of technical insight (e.g. an inability to generate strategic reports) are common at companies whose project management isn’t tailored to their project needs.
At many companies, poor project management results from technical and managerial deficiencies-a scenario that requires a new management system (e.g. project management software) and leadership training for project managers.
If your company delivers quality results at the expense of project deadlines, or timely results at the expense of project quality, it should pursue consulting for project management.
Difficulty Retaining Top Performers
As good as your company’s philosophy and business plans may be, it needs the right people to uphold and execute them, hence the emphasis on obtaining and retaining “top talent.”
The loss of top performers is devastating in three ways: you lose the training you invest in them, the income potential they brought, and you potentially lose them to your competitors.
Losing top performers seldom makes companies close their doors, but it can saddle them with mediocre results, which defeats the purpose of being in business.
Poor Assessment of Financial Interest
Almost everything a business does is a type of investment. If your company’s investments aren’t paying off, it’s time to reconsider your financial assessment strategies. Far from requiring complex financial analysis, many companies’ financial problems stem from leadership issues, such as investing too much money in projects that had minor profit potential to begin with.
If your companies’ market investments are performing poorly, however, calling on financial experts is the obvious choice.
Difficulty Retaining Customers
If you sell products or services on a business-to-business (B2B) model, the time and money you invest in nurturing potential customers and retaining established ones could be significant. In fact, depending on the size and duration of their accounts, the defection of even a few customers could mean financial trouble.
At some companies, more effort is put toward nurturing new customers than retaining existing ones. When a company fails to nurture its existing customer base, this means it could lack the incentives to make those customers stay instead of stray. The same applies to companies that sell on a business-to-consumer (B2C) model.
If your company has difficulty retaining customers, it isn’t realizing its full income potential and should seek an executive consultant who specializes in customer acquisition and retainment.
For businesses in the Atlanta area, finding a consultant through Atlanta Vistage, the Atlanta chapter of Vistage International-a peer-to-peer membership organization that focuses on business leadership-is the best option.