Many organizations struggle with the decision to hire a consulting firm to provide strategic guidance. Traditionally, strategic direction has been the domain of chief officers and vice presidents, and tactical consulting might be the area that is outsourced.
Leaders are often strategically considering the capabilities they need to achieve their objectives. For instance, do you have the necessary resources, talent, and/or expertise to drive needed outcomes at present? (You probably have an answer, no matter your role within your company!)
But often, teams look to outsource tasks … not strategy. And I think they’ve robbed themselves of a few benefits to help them build a sustainable roadmap to greater success.
So, why hire a strategic consulting firm? Here’s seven simple reasons.
Related: We handle strategy through execution. Learn more about us!
1. Cost savings
I know, it may seem a bit backwards – you’re spending money to hire a consulting firm.
But you don’t have to recruit and hire highly skilled resources, which can be even more attractive when hiring conditions are tough for employers. Instead, talent is on-demand and can scale a solution to meet your budget.
By engaging strategy consultants, you’ll add time back to day-to-day operations, rather than adding new projects that typically require reprioritizing your team’s job responsibilities and with increased planning cycles.
And it’s worth noting that for many organizations, there’s another benefit: Hiring outsourced resources is often a much smoother process than hiring a headcount. If time is money, that’s a lot of savings for you!
2. Objectivity
Strategy consultants will contribute dynamic new approaches to your solutions by:
- Offering an outside perspective. Staff members can sometimes be wrapped up with emotion or company politics.
- Providing a fresh set of eyes. Sometimes you are just too close to the issues to see a solution.
- Delivering an understanding of how other clients have approached similar problems. This enables you to reorganize common attributes of effective solutions, applying lessons learned in applicable situations.
- Bringing unbiased, creative solutions to the table. Sometimes, these solutions have been considered by parts of the organization, but a strategy consultant brings a credibility that can push a good idea across the finish line.
- Being invested in the outcome, not in the past problems. They have a clear view of their own role in your company, how to set the right goals and milestones for progress and the specific results that will equate to a successful outcome on your project.
3. Deep expertise
With most consultants having many years of experience in their fields, they bring added value in already having insights and experience in initiatives that can seem new and frightening
Consultants understand risks and mitigation practices and are able to bring stability and consistency during chaotic times. They bring specialized, market-leading skill sets as well as knowledge of market-leading technology. These skills are often not found in-house, and an experienced consultant can build your solution and train your existing staff.
They also provide consistent, replicable results by using process-oriented and method-driven delivery practices. In fact, they are often the authors of the most successful and productive delivery methods.
4. Agility and speed
Consultants can engage immediately because they’ve already developed the expertise you need.
There’s no ramp-up for training, documentation, process creation, method authoring, planning or staffing plans. They are focused on the project with no distractions; they know what they are there to do, and are not caught up in the minutia of day to day operations.
Most strategy consultants follow agile business processes, which means they are able to navigate complexity (organizational, process, or any other) with speed and clarity.
Agile thinking eliminates unneeded processes and artificial boundaries to fuel a culture of collaboration, helping to focus on what matters most to clients.
5. Defined and proven methods and processes
Strategy consultants demonstrate competence and justify the cost of their services by achieving certifications such as Marketing Automation and Project Management Institute certifications. They demonstrate to their clients that they use established methods and processes that have been refined and honed over the course of hundreds of engagements.
So not only do these teams stay on top of the latest developments in relevant technology and practices, but they know how to seamlessly apply them to a variety of different projects!
Bonus: The best also excel at proving their value, doing more than just highlighting what they accomplished but actually tying it to revenue (and making your business case easier).
6. Key partnerships
Strategy consulting firms typically partner with many leading market-leading softwares. This allows for a less-biased approach to key questions surrounding your tech stack and processes as you look to evolve as a company.
Furthermore, resellers, partners, and channel partners have dedicated resources within tech companies making problem resolution faster and easier.
Related: Optimize your tech stack with our consulting services
7. Market leadership
Strategy consultants have the ability to choose market leaders to provide solutions for situations, environments and needs that are unique to each client. Most are not only aware of industry trends, but are often the ones setting them.
If…
- your organization is struggling with a stagnant issue
- forward momentum has been disrupted by a lack of internal resources or disagreement and discord internally
- you don’t have time to train up your own staff and create your own intellectual capital
- you don’t have the ability to forge deep relationships with industry-leading tech companies
…then a strategic partner should be a serious consideration – and a consulting partner may prove invaluable to moving you closer to your key business objectives!
Need a business partner comfortable with strategy through execution … and provides a guarantee of work quality? Learn more about us!