Why should a company engage a management consultant?

Why should a business – large or small – engage a management consultant?

Most owners of small business believe no one knows more about their business than they do. CEOs of mid-sized companies often believe that the kinds of activities performed by management consultants can and should be carried out by their own management on top of their day-to-day responsibilities. And CEOs and senior executives of large global corporations, while generally more open to management consultants than their counterparts with small and mid-sized companies, often resist engaging management consultants either due to their corporate ego or in view of cost controls.

Why and when should a company engagement a management consultant?

- Management consultants bring an independent perspective. Periods of high growth, low growth, tepid financial performance, creative stagnance and organizational change are a few of the many symptoms when an independent perspective is essential for a business.

- They often have specialized skills in areas such as strategy, finance, operations, human resources or marketing.

- Management consultants work from the perspective of best practices and use these as a benchmark for evaluation and recommendations.

- They can provide additional resource in specialized areas for a limited period of time to support a project, initiative or change such as an acquisition or divestiture.

While the reasons to engage management consultants are numerous, more often than not, these four are key to the decision-making of businesses of all sizes.

What are your reasons for bringing on management consultants? Did it result in a position result for the business and why? If not, what was the reason the engagement did not result in success for the business?

George Franks is the founder of Franks Consulting Group – a management consulting and leadership coaching firm. Visit:

www.franksconsultinggroup.com

What does it take to be successful?

The "keys to success" is the central topic of many books, articles, lectures and courses. Is there a secret? A special trick? Can anyone be successful?

Let me offer the following based on years of reading, studying, global work experience and life experience...

What does it take to be successful?
- Have a goal. This must be what gets you up in the morning. This is the thing that drives you, that you are passionate about. Remember, setting the bar too low will do nothing to stretch you to achieve amazing things.

- Work hard. Wheter it is business, sports, an avocation, political office or in personal life, there are no short cuts to success. It takes hard work. Does this mean you shouldnt work smart? Of course not! It is just that any worthy goal requires hard work over time.

- Absorb setbacks. Any worthy goal is going to require persistance. Doggedness. Any have near term setbacks and failures. If it doesn't you again may be setting the bar too low. Examine every failure. Learn from it. And then move on smarter but with a scar or too.

- Share the glory. When you do achieve your goal, share you experience, learnings and praise those who have helped you along the way. Few people achieve great things all by themselves. Put the spotlight on others.

- Celebrate and move on. Once you have achieved your goal take a bit of time to bask in what you have achieved. Let it sink in. What have you learned from it? What would you do again? What would you do differently? Then examine you priorities in life and set your sights on your next goal.

Let the journey begin.

What do you think it takes to be successful?

George Franks is the founder of Franks Consulting Group – a management consulting and leadership coaching firm. Visit:

www.franksconsultinggroup.com

Five Questions Every New Boss Must Ask

Whether joining a new company, organization or brought in as an outsider to turn around a business, there are some key questions one should ask.

While I feel strongly about these, I am interested in hearing what other experienced executives, manager and consultants views as their “top five questions”.

- What is the financial performance, on a P&L basis, for the past three years by quarter?
- What are the vision, mission and goals of the business?
- Who are the competitors and how are they performing against you?
- What do the opportunities in the market look like now and over the next 24 months?
- Who are the top customers and what are they saying about our …(people, products, services, etc.)?

Once these questions have been asked and data are presented to respond to them, then it is on to many other questions – internal and external. But almost without exception, these questions are the outgrowth of the five key questions outlined above.

What are your top five questions?

George Franks is the founder of Franks Consulting Group – a management consulting and leadership coaching firm. Visit:

www.franksconsultinggroup.com

Multi-Tasking and Focus

Most people in business, whether entrepreneurs with start-ups, managers with growing companies or senior executives with global public corporations, face a common dilemma. How can one juggle competing priorities effectively and still maintain a level of focus to insure consistently high performance levels? While roles and companies differ greatly, some of the essential skills they require are common.

- What essential things will not get done if you do not do them? How important are they to the success of your business? In other words, do these impact your key performance objectives? While there are many things that can and should be done on any given day (and night – and weekend), what are the most important? These should be your top priority.

- What are your business objectives? What are the outcomes that you have committed (to yourself, your boss, your board, the investors) to achieving? What are the time frames? Think in terms of specifics not how they are achieved. Insure that these are documented and have the buy-in of all the key stakeholders of the business.

- What are your interruptions – real and potential? These may include: co-workers, vendors, customers, phone calls, cell phone, e-mail, snail mail and other potential time and focus stealers. This is not to downplay the importance of any of these. Customers are essential to all successful businesses. Technology is vital to efficiency and communication. Co-workers and vendors are also crucial to many if not most enterprises large or small.

- Schedule your day and control your environment so you can do ONE THING AT A TIME. Most successful people list the ability to focus as one of the elements essential to achieve success and maintain optimal performance.
List your priorities. Revisit them. Some must be revisited daily. Others weekly. Some monthly. Others annually. Schedule a weekly and monthly review of objectives. Prioritization is directly related to accomplishing them.

George Franks is the founder of Franks Consulting Group – a management consulting and leadership coaching firm. Visit:

www.franksconsultinggroup.com