Speaker 1: Operational Consulting 101. Ten things you need to know. For a business to run, it needs simultaneous gears to run. On most occasions, these can continue running after hours because others will only start considering a venture to be successful when money continues to flow regardless of what time it is. When you do reach this point, it is only a matter of time before you reach a breaking point where managing all these can become too overwhelming. Operational Consulting helps by aid in helping solve problems that you may have encountered. Sometimes they can be brought ahead to plan operations in advance before they even start. This way you avoid any hitch during its execution. But we are jumping ahead. Let us go down to the basics of what Operational Consulting is. Here are 10 things that you need to know about Operational Consulting. But first, if you are new here, consider subscribing to this channel to continue receiving great weekly videos on consulting. Don't forget to hit that notification bell so you can get informed every time I publish a new video. What is Operational Consulting? As mentioned above, Operational Consulting is the process of solving the many problems that you may encounter in the middle of moving those gears for your venture to work well. The process that Organizational Consulting agents and agencies go through is to collect information about how the organization operates and assess these as objectively as possible based on how they normally work. By doing so, expert agents can identify where corrections need to be made to enhance how they work. By identifying these areas for improvement, they can identify how to optimize functionality. In general, Operating Consulting basically helps you solve problems that might already be too overwhelming for you to solve. Calling in Operational Consulting On most occasions, Operational Consulting is brought in after a significant event happened. Examples of these include fluctuation in the market, changes in management or ownership, and the massive turnover of employees. However, as you might have already surmised, Operational Consulting can also be called in prior to executing a planned operation. In fact, this makes more sense because it prevents you from going both backwards and forwards, which avoids redundancy. Additionally, pre-planning all these saves you both time and money lost just for an operation to fail. Characteristics of a Good Operational Consulting Agents or Agencies Hiring an Operation Consultant can be a very big step, especially because you are bringing a third party to make changes to what you might have envisaged your organization running. They do take your thoughts into account, however, they will be making changes that you might not be comfortable with. As a result of this, hiring one requires a lot of thought. To make this decision, it is vital that you have a checklist of traits that the agent or agency must have for you to consider their services. Characteristics that you should look for include 1. Able to play as a team with a team 2. Professionalism while being able to relate to the clients 3. Have a charisma to inspire change in clients 4. Analytical, which is at the core of what agents do 5. Driven and works hard and smart enough to be productive even when given a short deadline 6. Takes initiative and is willing to take the extra step 7. Open-minded and is always willing to learn 8. Able to determine what is applicable today and yet still significant in the future 9. Thinks on their feet and able to make decisions at the snap of a finger 10. Resilient in the face of high-stress situations At the end of the day, some traits may take precedence over the others, and that is up for you to decide. Things to expect from your operations consulting agents Once you have picked an agent or agency that you can work with, it is only right to set expectations because you chose them for a reason and it is part of their responsibility to meet your expectations. However, if you are new to hiring outside help, it is important to remember that these are some of the things that you can expect from operation consultants. 1. A flexible strategy This simply means whatever solution they come up with should be flexible enough to grow with your organization. 2. Quicker response This is vital to show your customers how important their satisfaction is when it comes to your ability to fulfill their orders. To do so, shortening their wait time is a must and expected outcome from any consultant. 3. Continuous reductions in cost A one-off solution is never enough. It is vital that the strategy that is put in place must continue to introduce ways in reducing the cost of your operation, which includes reducing the time in developing products and introducing them to the market quicker while paying particular attention to the quality of which is being put out. 4. Improving and sustaining management The best strategies are those which help enhance the system that is put in place for the daily operations of the organization while ensuring a sustainable practice. 5. Align the strategy and priorities Just like any third-party help, a discussion must be made in the beginning of the partnership where you voice out your expectations. These should be taken into consideration when developing a strategy. When one is developed, you should expect for these to be in line with the priorities mentioned in the initial discussion. These should be the very minimum that you expect from clients and it is alright to have more. 6. The aspects of a business that operations consulting considers In order to bring the outcome that an organization expects from consulting agents, they need to affect change in certain aspects of the organization. In order to do so, when developing a strategy, they normally look at the following and make the decisions around these. 1. Improving capital 2. Transform the operations to reach full potential 3. Service operations 4. Sustain a global manufacturing and supply chain 5. Procurement and the development of an organization's products Of course, how they develop these strategies will be up for continued discussions between them and you as their client because aligning expectations and outcomes is vital in what they do. What questions need addressing by operational consulting? In order to formulate a strategy to address certain concerns or issues, you should be aware that the agents need to address certain questions such as 1. What current process has failed? 2. How did the issue occur? 3. Does this happen frequently? Being able to answer these questions will alert you as a client that your consulting agent is addressing the right concerns and should be able to come up with solutions that address your concerns. Benefits of hiring operation consulting agents There are organizations who are hesitant to hire outside help. There are times when you want your operations to be well-guarded. However, doing so does not give your venture the opportunity to develop through the eyes of someone who does not have any biases when making decisions. Other than that, several benefits of making a consulting agent part of your team include 1. Value for money, since they do both the planning and the implementation, passively and or actively. 2. Saves time and costs, which is always at the core of outsourcing. 3. Expansion into other markets by using their professional insight with which to take advantage of. 4. Expertise in all fronts. 5. Causes greater efficiency in the workplace's productivity. The main difference between operations and strategic consulting On the surface, operations management is very similar to what strategic management is. Both take time in asking questions on how to improve the organization in a way that will make it more efficient while cutting down on costs to better serve the company and the clients. If taken apart and looked at individually, you will see that operations consulting agencies are more concerned about the internal struggle of the facility to improve productivity to serve the clients better. It deals mostly with what is going on inside. Strategic, on the other hand, deals mostly on what goes on outside the company while putting the business's direction at the forefront of coming up with a plan. In short, the difference between the two is which part of the organization are their recommendations being implemented. Operational Consulting and Implementation Operational consulting firms and their agents' jobs do not end when a strategy for the future of the organization is developed. If required to do so, they can also aid in its implementation, and they can do so either actively or passively. Active participation is self-explanatory. A passive role, on the other hand, means still being available to consult why the strategy is not working and provide suggestions on how to act on the recommendations correctly. Eventually, passive participation might just lead to an active role, which is why it is better to take on an active part during the implementation from the start. The Future of Operations Consulting The pandemic has fast-tracked the digitalization of operations to a point that some sectors have abandoned their original plans and jumped forward to using electronics, and it has become an essential part of the daily operations of individuals. Taking that into consideration, below are things that the industry is working on as operations consulting is taking a step towards the future. 1. Resiliency of operations 2. Fast-tracking the digitization of entire operations 3. Becoming more transparent in expenses involving capital and operations 4. Changing what competitive operational sustainability means Taking all these, it is clearer now how important having an operations consultant is for an organization in spite of outside help. It is never a bad thing to reach out to someone outside your close-knit circle because that bias might just become a hindrance in what is supposed to be a success waiting to happen. If you liked this video, give us a like so we can make more videos like this one and tell us in the comments section below what type of videos you want. Lastly, don't forget to subscribe to the channel for more weekly videos.