Why does a company need a focused business optimization engagement/project?
The company needs it to better and more efficiently achieve its strategic and economic goals. The engagement won’t respond to every challenge the company faces in these turbulent times but it will definitely make a noteworthy contribution to company’s response to these challenges.
Will the engagement produce any tangible and measurable results?
Definitely. Any engagement is very practically oriented and strives for meaningful, measurable results in both strategic and economic sense. The results will not fail to manifest themselves provided that identified necessary actions are properly implemented. In case a particular engagement is not both strategically and economically justified up front, OneSun will not engage at all. We will engage only after the justification has been obtained and with a healthy safety margin, too.
Is the engagement worth both its external costs and tying up of internal resources?
Yes. As far as strategy is concerned, the company can’t afford structural non-optimalities in the long run as these would endanger its competitiveness and erode its market position. And regarding economic aspect, all engagements are designed in such a way that they pay for themselves within first 12 months from the beginning of the implementation, provided of course that they were properly implemented. In both cases, there’s a clear win for the company and its stakeholders.
Is this the right time to start the consulting engagement?
By all means. There’s no time like present one. By delaying non-optimal conditions the company gains nothing. The economic depression is now long gone and some new, maybe even tougher challenges have emerged. In the boom period the game has roughened even more and the players and their positions are in constant flux. A lot can be gained or lost under these circumstances. The Chinese saying “In the storm some seek shelter and others build a windmill” still applies.
Is such an engagement the right move in current upswing conditions? Is it necessary at all?
Yes, for it represents a positive and active response. And as such, it can never be wrong. The company doesn’t first need to wait for things to go wrong and only then act, it should act pre-emptively. Also, optimization response and corresponding results are economically justified in any case.
Wouldn’t it be better for the company to take a breath and finish all currently open projects first and only then deal with the proposed optimization engagement?
No, we at OneSun don’t think so. The world revolves faster and faster and the business environment will not permit the company to have its own development tempo. The endeavours related to competitiveness, market position, growth and development are a necessity, not a matter of choice. What needs to be done, needs to be done. If there’s a need for optimization in the company, the company should act immediately.
Indeed, the optimization is needed, but why would we hire an external consultant in the first place? We are the masters of our business and we still have some slack in our internal resources. We don’t need somebody from the outside who will borrow our watch and then tell us the time!
A quality external consultant brings on board specific knowledge, experience and work methods that the company is usually short of. He also brings unbiased and unburdened view, experience regarding similar situations in other companies, implementation experience etc. Since it has executed similar tasks many times over, a quality consultant is specialized in optimization undertakings and it will ensure that resources, both external and internal, are used optimally and that company’s daily business is disrupted as little as possible during the engagement. In the end, the price-performance ratio will be much more favourable if a specialized consulting company is engaged.
Couldn’t the company do the necessary optimizations with internal resources?
Yes, it probably could. But the question is how successfully and at what costs. With additional internal resources being tied up, wouldn’t that disrupt daily operations? Because of that, even if the optimizations were optimally executed, wouldn’t that cause problems in some other areas? Also, if the company is capable of doing things on its own, the question is, why hasn’t it already done so? Out of these and other reasons outsourcing of specialized consulting services is a much better way for the company to proceed, as it is with many other services that the company already outsources.
Can an optimization engagement be successfully executed without the involvement of internal resources?
No, unfortunately not. A cooperation between internal people and consultant’ crew is absolutely necessary. Internal people are needed to provide data and to interpret the situation and developments. On top of that, full cooperation of company’s management and its sincere willingness to change things is also needed. If all stated is provided the consultant will make sure that disruptions to daily business will be minimized. It is also worth mentioning that the engagement is treated holistically, therefore costs of all resources, external and internal are taken into account when cost-benefit calculations are performed.
There are many similar consulting offerings in the market. Why choose consulting from OneSun? What sets this consultant apart from the others?
Yes, definitely, there are many similar offerings available, but not at this level and not of this quality. Services offered by OneSun are personalized and of top shelf, boutique quality. OneSun actually doesn’t approach its job from a typical consulting perspective, but from a managerial one. It doesn’t engage so that it could deliver general advice regarding the ropes of company’s core business as beyond any doubt this knowledge resides within the company itself and its leading people. Neither does it provide visually nice theoretical end reports that are of little practical use to the company, as it is, sadly, the norm today. Instead, its managerial approach bears solutions and suggestions that are worldly, practical, verified regarding their strategic and economic effectiveness and above all directly implementable. They are based on true managerial knowledge and many years of experience that OneSun’s team members have been gathering while performing service in demanding engagements in Slovenia and abroad.