INDEX

• About Us
• Unique Value Add
• Our Vision
• Our Strategy
• Our Values

ABOUT US

We have been in the business world since 1974 in various disciplines including:

• Engineering
• Financial management
• Corporate governance
• Project management
• Quality management a-la ISO 9001:2000 (Internal auditor)
• Compliance
• Sarbanes Oxley including process modelling (Annexure 2), de-risking the processes (Annexure 3) as well as company-level controls (Annexure 4) starting with the financial statements in a top-down approach

• Clearing of financial and other audit items (including audits from the Auditor General)

• Management of a huge complex as part of body corporate and administration.

We are passionate about business excellence.

As far as international standards are concerned we have seen companies working for the certifications and we have seen certifications working for their companies. We have seen certifications being forced on business by customers and head offices and we have seen businesses embracing the benefits inherent in the certifications.

We have seen sales teams who have specifically defined services to take to market and we have seen those that make it up as they go - with the terrible consequences that comes with such an approach.

We have been involved in outsource deals where there is absolutely no transition program for the staff to the other extreme where people are replaced just to get the politics correct. We have also worked with outsource deals where the transition is done professionally and the benefits to both businesses extraordinary.

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UNIQUE VALUE ADD

It is crucial that a company that provides consultancy services are also able to project manage their recommendations into existence making use of the various disciplines within their organization. This prevents bogus recommendations and enables the consultants to "put their money where their mouths are". After all, it is easier to make recommendations that to test those recommendations on the battlefield.

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VISION

All companies should be running prosperously to the advantage of each and every employee, customer and the society in which it operates.

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STRATEGY

A strategy that could be followed is:

• Do an initial investigation, a gap analysis and agree this with the customer.
• Define and agree a project plan with milestones and deliverables. This enables the customer to cancel the project at any time while minimizing the risk to the contractor as payments are received at every milestone
• Run the endeavour according to project management principles with formal monthly feedback.
• Implement a formal change methodology for changes to the project
• Close the project by doing a post-project review with the customer and their staff
•  End the project with a customer satisfaction survey three months after completion of the project in order to ensure that the "burn-in" phase of the project has been implement successfully.

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VALUES

Businesses today have two sets of values:

1. Apparent Values: Those values that are put on all the notice boards and are the main points of discussion with the customers
2. Real Values: Those values that REALLY drive the business, those values that are discussed at regular review meetings, staff meetings, board meetings, executive meetings etc.

Apparent Values

These are values that companies think their customer would like to hear, i.e.

• We put our customers first
• We put our employees first
• We are here for you

Real Values

These are the values that actually drive the business, those items that take up the majority of management's attention when the customer is not around

• Market position
• Profit
• Profit
• Profit

Businesses should base their values on old-fashioned values like integrity, experience, expertise and love for the business and technology.

The reason this is going wrong can be blamed at least partially on the customers. They outsource a part of their business and then naively think that the outsource business will now run by itself. They do not take cognisance of the fact that the outsource partner has similar demands placed on it that the customer has:

• Ever-increasing profit targets (internal and external - like shareholders)
• Ever-decreasing manpower demands
• Skills shortage - technical, financial and especially management skills

We should not abdicate our responsibilities when it comes to outsourcing. Understand what you want out of the deal and put controls in place to ensure that you are getting what you are paying for. If you receive a below-standard service, first look into the mirror to see if the culprit is not perhaps within your own business. After you have solved that weakness, you will be able to see well how to solve the problem in your outsource partner's business.

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Last modified: 09/05/07