Benefits from Team Advisory

The benefits to the client organization include:

• An advisory group that has on-going understanding of the client’s business and organisation – decreases the need to continuously brief outsiders;
• A range of relevant experts available to assist and who understand the business;
• Lowers the cost of supporting a large board, and Advisory Board and some consulting tasks – access to team members on an on-going basis is typically less expensive than the cost of a single junior executive;
• No time-lagging in getting advice;
• Pre-circulated agenda enabling only relevant and focussed discussion;
• Can be conducted digitally or in-person or a mix of both;
• The Team nominates a single Team Leader to undertake all coordination and communication with the Team members thus minimising client workload;
• Team members are not Directors of the client organisation but may be invited by the client to join its Board;
• Wonderfully augments a small Board with limited skill-sets;
• The Team can bring in technical specialists in over 300 areas at no cost for the initial briefing.

Benefits from Subject Experts

The benefits to the client organization include:

• Enhancement of the management capability through the provision of immediate, expert and independent advice to the client organization;
• Client organisations can quickly access expertise specifically related to their issue, challenge or problem;
• Our experts have both deep industry depth and well as global experience;
• Our experts provide customised solutions and/or strategies that best suit the clients circumstances, character and needs;
  Our experts don’t “sell through the expert but juniors do the job”;
• Experts know best practice, as many have been instrumental in creating it;
• If the client’s solution requires specific technical skills, then our experts either have it or know where to get it;
• Most high-level expert recommendations/solutions require sophisticated change management to operationalise the solution – we can do that too;
• Our experts don’t try to embed their own staff to make money at the client’s expense (and the consultant’s benefit). Our experts are what the client gets – no substitutes;
• Our experts are objective, transparent, honest and aren’t shy – they’re older, more experienced and have already established their careers – they have much more to lose by upsetting us with poor performance for the client than losing the reward they will get from those clients;

Benefits from Mentoring

The benefits to the client organization include:

• Enhancement of  management capability through the provision of immediate, expert and independent advice to the client organization;
• Benefits to the organization far exceed the professional fees charged;
• Brings to the organization a wide range of independent subject matter experts as required.

The benefits to the mentored client include:

• Enhancement of their personal capability through the provision of immediate, expert and independent advice to the mentee;
• Provision of commercial and life counselling assistance that is totally invisible to the mentee’s organization: the assistance and advice conveyed to the organization is seen as that of the mentee and not of a third party;
• Independent advice that can be relied upon;
• Mentoring is conducted wherever and whenever it suits the mentor and mentee;
• Use of “Intensive Workshops” to resolve any specific issues required by the client;
• Gives the mentee both a practical and theoretical capability;
• Provides the mentee with a confidante who can assess areas of technical specialty outside the mentee’s skill-set or experience.

Team Advisory attributes

Advisory Teams are flexible and vary in size and composition, yet, their objectives are identical – deliver the client value by providing excellent, timely, pragmatic, honest, achievable and cost effective advice and strategies that will assist the client achieve their objectives.
Advisory & Mentoring meet with the client to discuss, in some detail, the nature, extent and impact of the issues facing them. Advisory & Mentoring then compose a tentative Advisory Team to meet the client’s objectives and deal with its issues and challenges.
A tentative list of Advisory Team members with a description of each member’s skills and experience are presented to the client for their consideration. The client may meet with each prospective Team members, either face-to-face or virtually. The client can, of course accept or request an alternate specialist for any of the skills necessary for that Team.
A team leader is chosen by Advisory & Mentoring and approved by the client.

• The Team Leader is the communication point from Team members to the client and from the client to the Team members.
• The Team may meet (virtually) as frequently as needed by the client.
• The Team and client may choose to run sub-committees of the Team that includes client executives who may have their own agenda, tasks and timeframes, but which is coordinated through the Team Leader.
• Where larger projects or tasks are required and agreed by the client, the Team or some or one of its members may undertake it as a special project outside the Advisory Team with a unique financial arrangement.
• The client pays for the Advisory Team on a monthly retainer basis.

Information for Subject Experts

A Subject Expert is a specialist (i.e. expert) in one or more disciplines relating to business and organisations.

The title of “Expert” is one that we determine based on qualifications, experience, achievements and validated testimonials in the expert’s chosen areas of speciality.

We undertake a rigorous process of validating an expert’s credentials before we offer them to our clients.

A mentor can introduce a subject expert as required by the client. The initial one to two-hour discussion between the expert and the client are commonly free of charge.

The client may wish to engage the expert for a project or assignment following the initial discussion. In such a case, any commercial arrangements are between the expert and client. The initial meeting between the expert and the client are not used to sell the expert’s services to the client, but rather to help the client deal with the issues that brought the expert to the table.

The experts provide independent and expert advice to the client. Generally, they present to the client options and an understanding of the implications of those options. They are aware of current thinking on the issues related to their areas of expertise.

Mentors can organise and facilitate intensive confidential workshops to target/solve/brainstorm specific client issues. Experts may be invited to participate in or lead workshops for a fee.

Information for Mentors

A mentor is a professional, very senior and generally mature person with a broad and deep understanding of people, organizations, commercial processes, political processes and organizational systems and structures.
The mentor has superior talents in identifying root causes of issues and quickly providing options for action.
The mentor acts as a strategic angel, confidante, network pivot, devil’s advocate, ‘technical filter’ and mentor who challenges, guides, suggests, helps, assists develop strategies, facilitates and coordinates for their client.
The relationship is guided by strict confidentiality, ethical, honest, open, sensitive, professional and forthright standards and discipline.
The core values of a mentor include:

• Enhancement of the personal capability of the mentee through the provision of immediate, expert and independent advice;
• Provision of commercial and life counselling assistance that is totally invisible to the mentee’s organization: the assistance and advice conveyed to the organization is seen as that of the mentee and not of a third party;
• Independent advice that can be relied upon;
• Mentoring is conducted wherever and whenever it suits the mentor and mentee;
• Use of “Intensive Workshops” to resolve any specific issues required by the client