We help our clients identify opportunities for improvement and then work with clients to implement the improvements. As a result, we help clients achieve higher efficiency and effectiveness.
Through strategic alliance with Larive Group, we have access to experts and professionals in various industries and functional areas. This enables to draw upon necessary expertise when needed by for particular projects, while TBSC staff remains generalists.
Our performance improvement work can be divided into the following services:
Root-cause analysis
The wish for performance improvement usually suggests that there is some type of performance problem. The problem could be serious for company health or it could just be troublesome. Regardless, something needs to change to improve performance.
Usually the symptoms of poor performance are obvious: sales are falling, defect rates are high or increasing. A mistake many companies do is to try to solve the symptom without fully assessing what the root-cause of the symptom might be. For example, if sales are falling the root-cause could be poor product quality, improper pricing or promotion, incorrect staffing and compensation of the sales staff, a competitor that is simply doing better and so forth. Obviously correcting the symptom – falling sales – would be best approached from solving the root-cause only. That is, if the root-cause is improper pricing then make changes only there rather than in the sales staff.
There are over one dozen different ways of determining the root-cause of performance problems. TBSC selects the best method for the particular situation in the company. None of the methods are particularly complex (no rocket science here) but finding the real root-cause usually requires a set of outside experts that can bring a dispassionate view to the situation.
Consultant-supported performance improvement is not widely used in Georgia, but it is very common in the rest of the developed world. TBSC consultants have done this type of work for more than a quarter century. Our experience helps clients get to the real root-cause as quickly as possible and then implement the cures to the root-cause in the easiest way possible.
STRATEGY FORMULATION AND IMPLEMENTATION
For nearly all businesses the competitive landscape is changing. External rules and regulations are changing. New competitors are entering the market with the same or different products. Suppliers are changing as well. Perhaps most important, the company itself is changing in size, sophistication and management style.
In such a situation even the best-run company can suffer from an off-point strategy; what worked well in the past is no longer producing the results owners would like.
Despite the prejudices of many managers, at the highest level of companies there are relatively few differences from industry to industry. Said differently, what needs to be considered from a strategic perspective is about 80 percent the same industry to industry; only 20 percent is industry-specific. Consequently, a review of strategy requires applying strategy principles from many industries (the 80 percent part) to the industry-specific aspects (the 20 percent part).
To the end, there are few company directors that have extensive experience in many industries to bring the 80 percent perspective to the table. However those same directors are very knowledgeable about the 20 percent industry-specific perspective. This is a perfect fit for using outside specialists; this combines the broad multi-industry experience of the consultants with the industry-specific experience of the director.
Nearly all projects undertaken by TBSC are in industries that are new to us; hence our positioning as a general management consulting firm. We deal with issues of concern to the senior managers of companies. As a result, we are well positioned to help companies do a quick assessment of their strategic situation and then recommend additional work if the company strategy should be carefully reevaluated.
ORGANIZATION AND RIGHT-SIZING
Organization structure matters. It is much more than boxes and lines on an organization chart. Rather, it is making sure that 1) all required functions are properly organized and performed (so that everything important is done as efficiently as possible); 2) that functions not required are either eliminated or outsourced and 3) that the best person is placed in each position.
To the end a properly organized company delivers superior products or services to customers in the most efficient fashion.
Unfortunately few companies can really say they are properly organized or that they are even the right size. This is because the organization structure is usually the result of historical changes that may or not make sense today if one was to start with a blank sheet of paper.
Consequently, managers in many companies would probably admit that the organization needs to be restructured in some fashion. Unfortunately this is very hard to do in practice because the result of restructuring is the changing of responsibilities for (senior) managers and they are usually reluctant to support such efforts.
TBSC consultants have been doing organization and right-sizing work for more than a quarter century. We can bring a variety of methods to the table to solve the organization design problems of most companies.
COMPENSATION MANAGEMENT AND WAGE
At any point in time every company might have several concerns related to compensation management. Legitimate questions at the company level with this regards are: How do our wages generally compare with other companies? Is our overall compensation budget appropriate? When it comes to individual employees, the question is whether the wage of a particular employee compare with others doing similar work in companies with whom we compete for staff.
For already years TBSC Consulting offers a comprehensive toolkit to address these paramount questions which keep HR managers wake at night. Our Wage and Benefit Surveys provide a solid starting point and foundation to contently solve the compensation issues both at company and employee levels.
Our methodology envisions collecting individual wages from companies across many industries. We evaluate the contents of the positions in terms of major requirements and rate them to make positions highly comparable across companies. Then we develop statistical distributions, which perfectly reflect the compensation market situation for various functions and positions. Wage And Benefit Survey report provides statistical distributions at the level of individual positions, organizational levels and functional areas, which enables us to look at the market rates from various angles.
The final block of our Compensation Management service is to analyze the compensation policy of our Client company vis-à-vis the market conditions. We prioritize the positions according to their criticality to the company and then apply various market benchmarks to each of them.
Our service makes the management of the compensation policy more aligned to the objectives of optimization of the compensation budget and minimization of employee turnover. Complementing the decisions with the information about prevailing non-cash benefit practices on the market considerably contribute to these goals.
PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKING
As part of our Performance Improvement package, we offer our clients comparative analysis of their operations with the best practices in the industry. We have experience in about 20 industries and are also very well-capable of getting sufficiently familiar to a new one in order to be able to consult our client professionally. Relying on the international network of Larive Group (Dutch consulting group), we are able to get first-hand knowledge about the cutting-edge companies in various fields. Moreover, we have the opportunity to draw upon our other partners.
Consultants compare the performance of the client externally with their competitors’ and that of cutting-edge companies; on the other hand, we compare the performance of each process (under question) to other operations within the firm. The aim is to find the best in business and understand the secret to success – how the processes are managed to lead superior performance. Of course, this does not mean copying but rather understanding and adjusting. When one company is not directly comparable with the best practice, we make assumptions in order to normalize the data.
Our CPT (Certified Performance Technologist; International Society for Performance Improvement) oversees such projects and provides insights based on 30 years of performance improvement experience.
FINANCIAL AND PROCESS MODELING
As part of our Performance Improvement package, we offer our clients detailed analysis of the existing processes in the organization and ways of strengthening them in order to achieve higher efficiency. We do the analysis by first preparing a process map that lays out all the connecting activities that take place during the creation of the products or services. The map visually presents the flow among necessary steps, inputs and outputs. Our main instrument to generate the process maps is face-to-face in-depth interviews with the employees who are involved in each process.
Once we apply critical thinking to the process maps and analyze them, we prepare recommendations on which processes can be improved and how. The recommendations include expected outcomes if the client decides to implement.
Our CPT (Certified Performance Technologist; International Society for Performance Improvement) oversees such projects and provides insights based on 30 years of performance improvement experience.
MANAGEMENT PROCESSES
Every organization has management processes. These processes are the way things get done. Management processes include everything from the new product development process to the cash-management process to the customer service process. Perhaps more than any other company features, management processes determine the success or failure of the company.
The quality of management processes can vary widely within a company. Most managers would admit that certain management processes are sub-optimal. Said differently there are opportunities for improvement. Sometimes these opportunities are within a single department so the solution of the problem is within that single department and within the competency of a single manager.
More commonly, the opportunities for improvement cut across departments; consider customer service where many departments perform one customer-service element or another. In such situations improving the management process requires a decision by very senior managers in the company. Unfortunately senior managers may not have the time or experience to actually design the optimal process. Relying on less-senior managers is an option but those managers often have some personal interests that might shade results. As a result the management process may remain defective or improvements may not produce the hoped-for benefits.
TBSC consultants have worked with hundreds of organizations improve their management processes, particularly those that cut across departmental lines. We have the skills, experience and time to do this properly for nearly any organization. We can either deliver turn-key solutions to companies (for their implementation) or take the management team through an improvement process that creates full buy-in to the final solution.
TURNAROUND
It is an unfortunate fact of business that poorly performing companies often reach the tipping point. At the tipping point company management has failed and if anything the situation is getting worse. The company is performing so poorly that the prospect of internally driven or even consultant-supported performance improvement is essentially zero. At the same time, the possibility of attracting a new management team to the failing company also is low; who wants to join a sinking ship? In any case, turning around a failing company requires skills that are different than your typical business manager.
In this situation a company turnaround by TBSC could be in order. We would be retained by owners and creditors to assume temporary management of the failing company. The existing management team is usually completely replaced by our own staff of turnaround specialists. Our first task is to stabilize the cash situation in the company; to stop the bleeding. This usually entails making and enforcing some very unpopular decisions.
We then spend a short while assessing the prospects of the company considering its strengths and weaknesses and the market situation. If we believe the company can be rehabilitated in some fashion then we inform the owners or creditors of that fact and jointly decide how to implement the turnaround program If we conclude the company cannot be rehabilitated then we work with creditors and owners on an orderly liquidation with the objective of maximizing the liquidation value that can be returned to creditors and owners.
After six to nine months the new direction of the company should be well established; the crisis period has largely past although much improvement work typically remains. At this point we work with owners to recruit a new professional management team. When that team is on-board we either withdraw from the company or remain as advisors to the owners and the new management team.
Turnarounds are not common in Georgia, although maybe they should be given the current condition of many companies. TBSC is ready to help owners and creditors with companies that cause unending worry.
COMPANY DIAGNOSTICS
No matter how successful the company is, there are always reserves for improvements. Some areas of the business have more potential, while others might be well-exploited. Rather than focusing on finding solutions to symptoms, which might be easily evident, it is necessary to identify the root-causes of inefficiencies in the company.
To understand true problems a comprehensive company-wide diagnostics is required. This means researching all the main areas of operations within the company, working closely with employees and searching together for those root causes which reduces the competitiveness of the organization. By collecting and analyzing significant amount of information TBSC will identify reasons for inefficiencies and will develop a comprehensive report, which will show to the management main reasons of underperformance, key opportunities for improvements and its implications in one or more areas within the company.
Knowing the reasons of inefficiency is a problem half solved. What remains after having a correct diagnosis is a development of the strategy on how to target identified challenges.
EFFECTIVENESS OF MARKETING SPENDING
Today in Georgia the competition in some industries lead companies to strongly race in the size of the of marketing budgets. Consequently, two types of challenges emerge: 1) Challenge for Marketers – how to wisely distribute their marketing budget across dozens of channels and tens of sub-channels available today and to account for it; 2) Challenge for CEOs and Finance Directors – to compare alternative costs of investments that go to Marketing to other investments. In other words, what is the return on the investment that company directs towards marketing?
Our product – Study of Effectiveness of Marketing Spending – helps companies to address these challenges successfully. Based on historical data about marketing spending of the company as well as its key marketing KPIs, we establish econometric relationships and develop the complex model which provides answers to the questions for our clients:
- What is the customer lifetime value (future stream of income from clients) of my company?
- Which marketing channels have been good at increasing customer lifetime values of my company till today?
- What isthe relative costs and effectiveness of various marketing chnnels in terms of increasing customer lifetime value?
- And finally, how to distribute my marketing budget in order to be more efficient – make savings and achieving same with the smaller marketing budget or be more effective – reach more with the current spending?
This product has worked in other countries and Clients have achieved up to 30% savings in marketing spending.