Fundamentals of Business Success and Simplification (Part One)

As one of the key note speakers at this year’s NVI Investor Forum, Simon G. Bell, Partner and Senior Consultant with The Apex Consulting Group discusses the fundamental principles of business success and the guiding principles of business simplification in order to Build a Scalable, Sustainable Business with high impact that pays the bills and grows in size and impact. Simon’s presentation was delivered to an audience of over one hundred SME owners, bankers and green investors on 22 October 2009 at the Grand Candi Hotel, Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia.

To find out more about the Firm and how we may be able to assist your organisation visit our website at http://www.apex-cg.com/.

Visit our Simpler Business Online Information Page at:

www.apex-cg.com/simplerbusiness.

The Apex Consulting Group

Fundamentals of Business Success and Simplification Part Two

As one of the key note speakers at this year’s NVI Investor Forum, Simon G. Bell, Partner and Senior Consultant with The Apex Consulting Group discusses the fundamental principles of business success and the guiding principles of business simplification in order to Build a Scalable, Sustainable Business with high impact that pays the bills and grows in size and impact. Simon’s presentation was delivered to an audience of over one hundred SME owners, bankers and green investors on 22 October 2009 at the Grand Candi Hotel, Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia.

To find out more about the Firm and how we may be able to assist your organisation visit our website at http://www.apex-cg.com/.

Visit our Simpler Business Online Information Page at:

www.apex-cg.com/simplerbusiness.

The Apex Consulting Group

EXPERT SUPPORT TO FACILITATE YOUR 2010 BUSINESS PLANNING SESSIONS

To find out more about our offsite business planning facilitation services please visit our online information page at:

www.apex-cg.com/sbusplanning

From The People at The Apex Consulting Group

Is Complexity Destroying Your Profits?

“Apex’s Business Turnaround Workshop”

Are you are frustrated with the current state and results of your business? Or, even worse, is your business in crisis or on the verge of a crisis position?

Has this situation destroyed your profits or is your very survival at stake?

Apex’s one-day Business Turnaround workshop is designed to assist companies and individual business units turn around the performance of their business. We can assist your management team to:

• Understand and implement an effective and proven improvement and turnaround method;
• Implement the few key tools to help you make the right business decisions; and
• Develop the step-by-step actions necessary to put your decisions into practice.

The process will drive your team to:

• Think 80 / 20 to always look for the most from the least;
• Take the initiative to solve problems consistently and simply;
• Remove complexity;
• Focus on your core competencies;
• Clearly identify issues and trends in your business;
• Make the right decisions based on business trends;
• Effectively involve your internal and external accountants and financial advisors in the process; and
• Develop the step-by-step actions necessary to put your decisions into practice.

Numerous organisations have benefited from participating in this workshop. Here’s what some of them have to say…

• “We’re making profits again!”
• “We have a better feel for problems with staff and customers”
•  “Our employees are more confident in making decisions”
• “It seems that change is easier now”
• “There is more innovation when the business is simple”
• “We can respond more quickly to opportunities and threats”

 The Facilitators:

Dr. Ian Dover, BSc MEng PhD CMP FAICD. Based in Australia, Ian’s work often involves looking for cost reductions through simplification of business processes including projects for Alcoa and General Motors in the US, alloy and process development for Norsk Hydro in Norway, and several production improvement projects in Australia. He has worked as a general manager, business advisor and board-member to increase the performance of a range of businesses in the manufacturing, IT, telecommunications, healthcare, professional services, resources, utilities and education sectors.

Simon G. Bell, Senior Consultant and Business Coach. Based in Jakarta, Simon has nine years management, consulting and coaching experience in the Indonesian business environment. He has led a number of turnarounds and has advised the Indonesia operations of several Multinationals. Sector experience includes oil, gas, mining, energy transmission and distribution, banking, government, publishing, F&B and not-for profit. Simon is fluent in both the written and spoken forms of the Indonesian language.

More Information:

Visit our information webpage at www.apex-cg.com/simplerbuisness

To find out more about how Apex’s Strategic Focusing Workshop can assist your organisation contact our Jakarta office +62 21 515 7792 or email simplerbusiness@apex-cg.com.

PT. The Apex Consulting Group: Jakarta Stock Exchange Building, Tower 2, 17th Floor, Jl. Jend. Sudirman Kav. 52-53, Jakarta 12190, Indonesia.

Telephone: +62 21 515 7792. Email: enquiries@apex-cg.com

From the People at the Apex Consulting Group

Is Complexity killing Your Profits?

“Apex’s Strategic Focusing Workshop”

Are your business teams focused on the strategic priorities of your organisation?

Is your management team on the same page, focused on achieving a set of aligned targets and goals?

Does your organisation have a clear, concise strategic action plan that is easily communicated to key stakeholders?

Is a lack of focus (or trying to do too much) costing you profits?

Apex’s one-day workshop and facilitation assists companies and business units to regain focus with simplicity. We help your management team to:

• Better understand your current business situation;
• Develop simple, effective goals and targets to design your future position; and
• Create a step-by-step attainment and action plan of how to get there.

 The process will motivate your team to:

• Think 80 / 20 to always look for the most from the least
• Take initiative to solve problems consistently and simply
• Understand the real current state of your organisation
• Develop practical strategic goals that build on your attractive business
• Remove unnecessary, costly complexity
• Focus on your core competencies
• Understand and create the processes to deliver true customer value
• Create simple, meaningful business targets that align with your strategic goals
• Develop a focused one-page strategy and action plan

Numerous organisations have benefited from conducting this workshop with their management teams. Here’s what some of them have to say…

• “We’re making profits again!”
• “We have a better feel for problems with staff and customers”
• “Our employees are more confident in making decisions”
• “It seems that change is easier now”
• “There is more innovation when the business is simple”
• “We can respond more quickly to opportunities and threats”

The Facilitators:

Dr. Ian Dover, BSc MEng PhD CMP FAICD. Ian has 20 years experience as a general manager, business advisor and board-member to increase the performance of a range of businesses in the manufacturing, IT, telecommunications, healthcare, professional services, resources, utilities and education sectors. His work often involved looking for cost reductions through simplification of business processes including projects for Alcoa and General Motors in the US, technical process development for Norsk Hydro in Norway, and several production improvement and value chain projects in Australia.

Simon G. Bell, Senior Consultant and Business Coach. Simon has nine years executive, consulting and coaching experience in the Indonesian business environment. He has led a number of turnarounds and has advised the Indonesia operations of several Multinationals. Sector experience includes oil, gas, mining, energy transmission and distribution, banking, government, publishing, F&B and not-for profit. Simon is fluent in both the written and spoken forms of the Indonesian language.

More information:

Visit our information webpage at www.apex-cg.com/simplerbuisness

To find out more about how Apex’s Strategic Focusing Workshop can assist your organisation contact our Jakarta office +62 21 515 7792 or email simplerbusiness@apex-cg.com.

PT. The Apex Consulting Group: Jakarta Stock Exchange Building, Tower 2, 17th Floor, Jl. Jend. Sudirman Kav. 52-53, Jakarta 12190, Indonesia.

Telephone: +62 21 515 7792. Email: enquiries@apex-cg.com

From the People at the Apex Consulting Group

S i m p l i c i t y : The Next Big Thing? Published by The Jakarta Post

An abridged version of our complete article on Simpler Business was published by The Jakarta Post on Wednesday 21 October 2009 in the Management Section on Page 17.


You can view this article online at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/21/simplicity-the-next-big-thing.html

To find out more about our Simpler Business Pathway Program for businesses looking to improve their business results as well as the additional coaching and consulting services we deliver to leading organisations, visit our services webpage at:

http://www.apex-cg.com/eng/mainservices3.php

We look forward to connecting with you soon.

The People from the Apex Consulting Group

S i m p l i c i t y : The Next Big Thing?

by Simon G. Bell, The Apex Consulting Group

"Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly."
--- Francis Bacon

"Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction."
--- Albert Einstein

We believe both of these quotes touch on the key aspect of complexity vs. simplicity. They highlight the power of making things simpler as opposed to the trend of complicating the way we work for reasons of either lack of attention or the need to appear smarter because only “we” understand.

Have you brought additional products or services into your business in the past few years? Have they delivered the increase in profitability you were expecting?

What about your customer base? Have you grown this but found your profitability has stagnated or even gone down although your total sales have gone up?

Are you putting more personal time into “improvement” projects than you were 5 or 10 years ago but becoming anxious because you’re not getting the returns on this effort?

You’re not alone. The business world is waking up to the fact that providing more products, managing more suppliers, introducing more improvements without regularly re-focusing on the few high return activities is sucking up hard-earned profits.

In today's business, complexity is killing profits!

Have you ever thought about making your business simpler and easier to manage as a way to thrive in the current economy?

Probably not. Why? It doesn't seem possible! We have been sold the complexity myth – without complexity results do not follow.

Perhaps now is the time to consider Simplicity.

This is not a new management fad. Our experience from the early 1990s recession in Australia, the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s, plus evidence from as far back as the 1940s, including detailed research on European companies by the international consultants McKinsey & Co, shows that businesses with simpler structures, processes and priorities deliver more profit and sustainability through all the economic ups and downs.

Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter of Harvard Business School suggested in February this year that simplicity in business may be the next big thing. “But” she said, “Simplification is not the norm, and that’s a problem!” If you’re constantly juggling issues of cash-flow, customer satisfaction and work-life balance, the benefits of keeping things simple are nothing new.

Professor Moss Kanter cites the global financial crisis and General Motors as examples where complexity has led to major problems or failure. In Indonesia we have seen a combination of complex and sometimes contradictory regulations as well as complicated geographical and logistics based challenges magnify the trend towards a more complicated business response to this environment.

The complexity of the Indonesian environment is also demonstrated by the experience of some of the conglomerates and larger domestic firms over the past decade. Complexity has been compounded by unsound financial structures, sharp increases in corporate leverage, reliance on external debt, and the availing of riskier business strategies in attempt to achieve greater success through higher-risk projects and activities.

We have seen that often Indonesian businesses believe the best response to the inherent complexity of the business environment is to add to this complexity by developing and implementing complicated business systems, structures, processes, planning and decision making to “meet the challenge head on”.

Multinationals have also not escaped the complexity trap. Among many factors is the desire to leverage on-the-ground intelligence and perspective. This has led to the development of more complicated structures where local business units are given greater autonomy while simultaneously having to meet head office demands for global standardization.

There is a push for locally customised products at the country level yet head offices demand operations are aligned with global strategy, and, to top off the challenge, in the current economic environment, there is a simultaneous push for cost reduction and significant revenue increases. Fail, and we will reduce your head count further is the reverberating theme.

Adding to the complexity of the situation, some analysts have predicted that the manufacturing sector here will go into recession this year, whether this technically eventuates or not – clearly the global downturn has had an adverse impact on the sector with order requests and employment levels significantly dropping in the first two quarters of the year.

Clearly, the list of failures from complex businesses is getting longer throughout the region and across the globe.

On the other hand, there have been some wonderful examples of comparatively simple businesses achieving great success.

So why don’t people seek simplicity in business? Perhaps it’s because we've been conditioned to believe that business has to get more complicated as management and technology get more sophisticated.

Nothing could be further from the truth! It doesn't matter the type of market you're in, the track record shows that 'un-complicating' your business multiplies your performance and your profits. It can revitalize the morale of your employees and make their work more satisfying. Ultimately it is about increasing the sustainability of your business.

We believe managers have just forgotten this in the hype of the information revolution. In looking back over a number of our business turnarounds starting from the early 1990s, we have found that the benefits to organisations were largely obtained by making the businesses simpler in some way.

What this means for you is that taking out some of the complications in your business will help you survive and thrive against your competitors and give you alternatives to staff retrenchments as the way to cut costs.

What sorts of things do owners and managers simplify? The main things are the business focus, its structure and processes, and the number of products, services, customers, suppliers, projects and plans. But we can also reduce the amount we write in reports, plans, submissions, justifications etc in our businesses by following the simple Now-Where-How approach to business communication.

Our research identified 5 key principles for simpler, better business:

1. Always base improvement on the universal 80/20 Rule where 80% of the benefits come from just 20% of the things you can do

2. Get everyone to learn and use a simple and consistent problem-solving technique, such as the Now-Where-How method or similar

3. Define customer value by asking “what makes our customers more successful” and get everyone focused on the answer

4. Look for the few key “constraints” in your business processes and remove these to make work easier for everyone

5. Before automating anything, firstly simplify it!

By following these principles your business will get better and simpler. They are backed up by international research showing that smarter, simpler businesses outperform more complex ones.

The track record of business focus and simplification over the past twenty years has been to boost profits in the good times and turn around performance in the tough times. What we've been missing from this body of knowledge is a collation of the simple techniques that people have used to make these changes.

Managers need ideas, techniques and products to help them de-clutter their business life and maximize the rewards. Tools are available now for simple problem solving and to handle business situations from 10 year plans to 10 hour crises. One priority setting tool not only tells them the few things that will deliver most of the benefits, but also the things they should not be doing.

Dr. Ian Dover, through the Simpler Business Institute in Australia has committed to delivering these solutions to managers and owners. Through strategic partnership, we are now delivering these solutions to Indonesian-based firms.

Once managers have the right tools, the best part about making a business simpler is that it’s as much about NOT doing things as it is about trying to achieve more.

Delaying the decision to start to simplify your business is to accept higher costs and lower profits. Please act now to put yourself in the best position to thrive - just a small step for you, but a giant leap forward for your business.

You can continue to learn about how to make business simpler and more successful and receive regular ideas and tips to increase your business’ performance by signing in to our complimentary regular communications at www.apex-cg.com.

oooOooo

You can find out more about Apex's Simpler Business Support Services by visiting our information page at:
 http://www.apex-cg.com/simplerbusiness.

Simon G. Bell, Senior Consultant and Business Coach

Simon is a Senior Advisor with The Apex Consulting Group, a Jakarta based management consulting firm. Apex focuses on transferring to organisations the straightforward management tools they can use to make business smarter, easier and more profitable.

Simon has nine years executive, consulting and coaching experience in the Indonesian business environment. He has led a number of turnarounds and has advised the Indonesia operations of several Multinationals. Sector experience includes oil, gas, mining, energy transmission and distribution, banking, government, publishing, F&B and not-for profit. Simon is fluent in both the written and spoken forms of the Indonesian language.

The Apex Consulting Group is now on Twitter

You can subscribe to our updates by clicking the following link: http://twitter.com/ApexConsult.

With kind regards,
The Apex Consulting Group


Twitter is a free networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. Find out more at www.twitter.com.

Employment Opportunity: SME Development Trainers, Coaches and Consultants

The Apex Consulting Group is a specialist management consulting firm. Apex’s CSR Services division specializes in the delivery of Corporate Social Responsibility Programs for the private sector across Indonesia.

We are currently seeking professionals to work with our organisation on short and long-term SME Development and Micro-Finance assignments in Indonesia.

Specifically we are seeking business consultants, business coaches and trainers for micro and small enterprises.

A majority of our assignments are conducted in regional and remote locations so a willingness to work away from home in rural communities is essential. Rotations are normally 4 weeks in the field with one week R&R.

Previous experience in Papua, Kalimantan and Sulawesi is a significant advantage.

Required attributes include:

• Minimum field experience of 8 years
• Previous field experience working with micro and small local businesses a must
• Previous business training for SME essential
• Experience in international donor funded projects or CSR projects in Indonesia
• Relevant educational qualifications
• Fluency in English preferred but not essential
• Strong personal ethics and integrity

We offer competitive remuneration packages and the opportunity to work in professionally challenging environments.

Interested consultants and professionals can email their CV (Max. 5 pages) to applications@apex-cg.com before 5pm, 17 June 2009. Due to the number of applications we receive, only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Employment Opportunity: Junior Admin Assistant

The Apex Consulting Group is a specialist management consulting firm based in Jakarta. We are currently seeking a Junior Admin Assistant.

Candidates who do not strictly meet the below criteria will not be considered.

Candidates MUST have the following Qualifications:

• Female, Single ( maximum age 25 years ).
• Minimum Diploma 2 (Secretary/Business/Social Science or Economics)
• Minimum 1 year and maximum 3 years secretarial experience
• Confident and well presented
• Good communication Skills (written and spoken English)
• Able to work under pressure over long hours
• Salary range : IDR 1.000.000,- to IDR 2.000.000,- (gross – including all allowances)

This position is not based in our head office at the Jakarta Stock Exchange Building. It is located in our project office in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta.

If you are interested in being considered for this position, please email your CV to applications@apex-cg.com with "Application for Junior Admin Assistant" as the subject.

We thank you for your interest in this position. Due to the large number of applications we receive only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Employment Opportunity: Business Support Associate

The Apex Consulting Group (Apex) is a specialist management consulting firm. We are currently seeking a Business Support Associate to support our Consulting Teams, Business Development Division and Project Administration and Coordination Team. This position is located in our project office in Kebayoran Baru.

For further information on Apex visit our website at www.apex-cg.com.

The Role:

As part of the Business Support team, provide efficient administrative support to our teams in the following areas:

•Consulting, Training and Coaching
•Business Development
•Project Support

Position Requirements:

Candidates who do not strictly meet the below criteria will not be considered.

•Bachelor degree in Business Management or Business Administration
•Minimum 2 years experience working in a private company (Multinational preferred)
•Confident and well presented
•Proactive, intelligent and solutions-focused
•Excellent communication Skills (written and spoken English)
•Experience in managing sensitive documents and files
•Computer literate (MS Word, Excel, Project, Adobe Photoshop, PowerPoint)
•Prior experience working with an International Consultancy (Preferred)
•Able to work under pressure over long hours
•Female candidates encouraged to apply

If you are interested in being considered for this position, please email your CV to applications@apex-cg.com with "Application for Business Support Associate" as the subject.

Applications close on 30 June 2009. We thank you for your interest in this position. Due to the large number of applications we receive only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Employment Opportunity: Micro-Finance, Enterprise Development and Entrepreneurship Development

The Apex Consulting Group is a specialist management consulting firm. Apex’s CSR Services division specializes in the delivery of Corporate Social Responsibility Programs for the private sector across Indonesia.

We are currently seeking professionals to work with our organisation on short and long-term Micro-Finance, Enterprise Development and Entrepreneurship Development assignments in Indonesia.

Specifically we are seeking business consultants, business coaches and trainers for youth and micro and small enterprises.

A majority of our assignments in this area are based in Java.

Required attributes include:

•Minimum field experience of 8 years

•Previous field experience working with micro enterprises and/or Youth Entrepreneurship programs a must

•Previous business/entrepreneur training experience for Micro and SME essential

•Experience in international donor or NGO funded projects or CSR projects in Indonesia

•Relevant educational qualifications

•Fluency in English preferred but not essential

•Strong personal ethics and integrity

We offer competitive remuneration packages and the opportunity to work in professionally challenging environments.

Interested consultants and professionals can email their CV (Max. 5 pages) to
applications@apex-cg.com before 5pm, 17 June 2009. Due to the number of applications we receive, only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Realities of Executive Coaching Part 1

In This Executive Briefing on the Realities of Executive Coaching,
Simon G. Bell, Partner and Senior Consultant with The Apex Consulting Group discusses the process, format and approach of Executive Coaching. He also discusses the benefits to organisations; especially in times of economic challenge.

In the second half of the briefing, Simon provides advice for HR managers on how to better interact with Senior Management and build stronger partnerships in order to support sustained investment in people development so that organisations can experience the ongoing bottom-line benefits of investing in their key people.

To find out more about the Firm and how we may be able to assist your organisation visit our website at www.apex-cg.com.

A professional profile for Simon G. Bell can be found at http://www.linkedin.com/in/simongbell.

Realities of Executive Coaching Part 2

In This Executive Briefing on the Realities of Executive Coaching, Simon G. Bell, Partner and Senior Consultant with The Apex Consulting Group discusses the process, format and approach of Executive Coaching. He also discusses the benefits to organisations; especially in times of economic challenge.

In the second half of the briefing, Simon provides advice for HR managers on how to better interact with Senior Management and build stronger partnerships in order to support sustained investment in people development so that organisations can experience the ongoing bottom-line benefits of investing in their key people.

To find out more about the Firm and how we may be able to assist your organisation visit our website at www.apex-cg.com.

A professional profile for Simon G. Bell can be found at http://www.linkedin.com/in/simongbell.

Apex Executive Coaching in Jakarta, Indonesia

"The Key to Continuous Business Improvement"


What is Executive Coaching?

How can businesses overcome challenges or profit from opportunities that require skills outside of a managers’ experience? Where can they get access to the expertise they need to further develop their business?

An effective answer is to seek the assistance of an experienced business coach. A coach is a mentor. Someone who holds you to account, offers support and assists business owners and senior managers to improve the way they grow their business.

An executive coach has knowledge, experience and skills in specific areas and industries and shares this knowledge with you. Typically coaches work with entrepreneurs, independent professionals, business owners and business managers.

Why Coaching?

The purpose of executive coaching is to enable a person to tap into his or her own internal resources in order to reach their full potential. The mentor–mentee relationship requires both skills transfer and counselling.

Coaching includes cultivating the whole person - their values, goals and passions. Well motivated and skilled people improve the bottom line of your business. Executive coaching is therefore a cost effective way to get the best out of your staff so that profits are maximised.

Who Benefits from Coaching?

“Executive coaches are not for the meek. They’re for people who value unambiguous feedback. All coaches have one thing in common; it’s that they are ruthlessly resultsoriented.” -- Fast Company Magazine.

Almost anyone can benefit from working with an executive coach, as long as they are committed to personal and professional development. It is suitable for junior managers through to the most senior directors and owners within a business. Depending on the subject, coaching will include one-on-one meetings, upskilling sessions and phone or email communication.

The Coach’s Role

A coach’s role is to listen, to counsel and to discuss with business owners and managers to assist in further developing their skills and capacity. A coach will usually begin by looking at the whole business to make sure they fully understand how it works. He will then, together with the client, identify a particular project or isolate key business problems before working out a range of possible approaches.

When the coach and the person being coached have decided on what actions to take, the coach will guide them through a seven-step implementation process. Personal and professional development is rarely successful without the support of other people. A coach is someone who can give feedback, question, discuss, challenge, comfort and guide.

A coach’s role is to listen, to counsel and to discuss with business owners and managers to assist in further developing their skills and capacity. A coach will usually begin by looking at the whole business to make sure they fully understand how it works. He will then, together with the client, identify a particular project or isolate key business problems before working out a range of possible approaches.

When the coach and the person being coached have decided on what actions to take, the coach will guide them through a seven-step implementation process. Personal and professional development is rarely successful without the support of other people. A coach is someone who can give feedback, question, discuss, challenge, comfort and guide.

Five reasons why you should engage an executive coach:

1 Develop the skills you already have and learn new skills

2 Explore your strengths and weaknesses and gain insight into yourself and the people you work with

3 Discuss have a safe place to offload problems, while receiving unbiased, confidential support

4 Gain fresh perspectives on your issues as well as receiving advice, suggestions and options. Create new ways to approach old problems.

5 Create outstanding bottom line outcomes for your business; get the best out of your staff and find new business avenues and untapped potential

To find out more about The Apex Consulting Group and our Executive Coaching Services visit:

http://www.apex-cg.com/eng/mainservices3.php

With kind regards,
PT The Apex Consulting Group

“We Help Our Clients Capture the Inches…”

In this 8-minute video, you’ll hear an overview of a number of recent projects completed by The Apex Consulting Group.

The presentation was recorded at a recent Breakfast Briefing at the Mercantile Athletic Club, Jakarta in November 2008 which was delivered by Simon G. Bell, a Senior Consultant and Partner with The Apex Consulting Group.

The presentation covers five recent projects conducted by Apex and our teams including:

• Technical Training for the Banking Industry
• Business Improvement with Cocoa Growers
• Executive Coaching for the Manufacturing Sector
• Strategic Planning for Finance Institutions
• Corporate Restructuring in the Cement Industry

The Presentation also outlines our Value Proposition in a simple, straight forward manner so viewers can understand where we add value to our clients.

As stated in the Presentation we are convinced our value is fundamentally based on two areas of business support:

1) Executive Coaching and Upskilling: We improve the competency of your key people and provide a focusing force to ensure you maintain your commitment to improvement and excellence

2) Management Consulting: We provide objective advice and practical solutions that assist you to overcome your major business challenges

The Presentation also mentions Apex’s Business Diagnostic Process:

To find out more about The Apex Consulting Group or to set up an appointment with one of our Engagement Managers contact our offices on +62 21 515 7792.

NB: To learn more about Simon G. Bell’s background and experience visit his LinkedIn profile at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/simongbell

With kind regards,
The Apex Consulting Group
http://www.apex-cg.com/

Professional Services in the Business World

Buy and Sell or Build a Mutually Beneficial Relationship?
By Colin Paroz

More and more we seem to be a society that likes things in nice neat packages. It might be the hamburger and fries that look taste and smell the same every time no matter the location. It might be those exact 30 minute bites of television that so many of us can’t live without or the 10 second grab from a politician that we use to form our political opinions and biases. This phenomenon seems to be spreading to the business world. I attribute the explosive growth of franchises and similar arrangements over the last decade to this trend. After all what is a franchise but a ready to run operation or "a business in a box"? It is also spreading to our professional service providers.

We can buy "accounting solutions" for our annual income tax returns, we have fixed price conveyancing, and for business advisers and management consultants, we are used to buying hourly or daily lumps of time. We sometimes have a focus on the process measure (time) rather than the desired outcome.

Some consumers of professional services have adopted the three quotes approach to selecting a provider. This is probably done with the belief that professional services are a commodity, in other words the product will be the same regardless of vendor. This approach works well for homogenous product groups such as electrical appliances or similar brand motorcars.

Things start to become more complex with unique products such as professional services. The business solution that I provide to a client for their needs will be different to those offered by my competitors. My clients must decide if my solution or product offering is suited to their needs. Only then can we discuss price and this discussion should be founded on the anticipated value of the outcomes.

When considering the procurement of a traded service we must look beyond apparent cost and consider the three financial aspects of the product-based relationship, price, value and risk. Let’s consider each of these in a little more detail.

Price should be considered as a short-term outlay which is to be spent with the expectation that there will be a return within a given period of time. Like most investments, it is reasonable to expect that the more we spend the greater the return on the investment.

Value is a measure of the return on the outlay. If you spend $ 50 000 on management consulting services, then you expect to get a bottom line return significantly greater than this. In simplest terms the value is the difference between the cost and the return. When considering professional service offerings a purchaser must avoid the temptation of simply comparing cost with cost and make the extra effort to evaluate the expected return on the initial outlay. Often a little more spent upfront will result in a significant yield later on.

The final consideration is risk. That is, the risk of not receiving the promised outcome. Consider the following example. You want to engage a professional service provider to design and install a management information system. Your expectation is that the package will cost you around $100000. You receive two proposals, one for $110000 and one for $20000. Which is the more attractive? Considered on price alone the decision is simple, but once we take risk of failure into account then the more expensive option probably offers far greater value for money.

A strategic and whole of organisation decision needs to be made regarding the procurement of goods and services. That decision is "do we buy on cost or value?" This applies as much to professional services as it does to goods and other products.

It is easy to focus on price as there is no need to really understand the product offering. There is also a short-term benefit in taking the cheapest price. Sophisticated consumers of professional services understand that value and price are not necessarily connected and risk minimisation is often a sound investment

So far we have considered the purchasing of professional services. What about those of us who sell professional services? For me, the message is clear. We are not necessarily in a price sensitive market. We must work with our clients to deliver value for money and demonstrate how we will maximise the probability of project or assignment success.

Is it possible to synthesise a mutually beneficial approach from both the buyers and sellers perspective? I believe the answer is yes provided the relationship is founded on mutually understood needs and expectations and value based outcomes that carry the maximum probability of success.

So, I leave you with this nice neat little package of thought on the matter of buying and selling professional services. 0f course, in the real world, its not necessarily that simple, but in our ordered world of high speed consumption, it will do for the moment!

Colin is a Senior Consultant with The Apex Consulting Group. To learn more visit our website at www.apex-cg.com

With kind regards,
The Apex Consulting Group