From Backroom Comforts to the Magnificent Front
Learnings for all
After working comfortably, happily, and very rewardingly from the backend strategic and tactical alleys and war rooms of both, the consulting services sector and client workspaces globally for over two and a half decades we decided that we needed to bring our rich, pristine and evergreen experience out in front, out into the open.
We stayed in the back-rooms till now for several reasons. Some had good business rationale and others were poorly thought out ones, that many would say, bordered on being dim-witted or to put things mildly, outrightly obtuse.
The Good Reasons
One strong reason was that we excelled in our performance and never, well, almost never had to pitch for business. Multiple new businesses in the form of clients and projects came from most existing clients that we worked with, through word-of-mouth recommendations, increased scopes and scales of work, etc. till we were at capacity most of the time.
Another reason was that staying in the backend made it very simple and easy for us to keep our client works and their content confidential. Most of the work we do are strategic or tactical in nature; these are very time-sensitive and so we consider them classified, hence the importance to confidentiality. Since we neither made any claims nor sought any credit in public, we never had to worry about this aspect at all.
‘We own the commitments we make, and get totally involved (more, if that’s possible) in tasks we undertake. This is personal to me, cultural to me and was so, way before I even started on my own. Thence it became cultural to us when I did. At every instance of a successful endeavor… every time we see a client’s delight, we feel our world had transcended, such is our involvement. I’m not sure I can explain this in many words, but I think every human has at least a small corner of their mind that feels these emotions; and so, agree with me or not, I think you’ll know what I’m saying. Our corner just got nurtured well. And yes, most client delights led to increased business and new business, so every success only fuelled and fed that tremendous internal pride plus brought in more business and income.
You see how the circle of reward and motivation worked here; We were already motivated and success drove it further. We were comfortable working behind the scenes and still are; while earlier, this was for many operational reasons, it also had much to do with harmony to my personal, comfort zone side.
But now for many strategic and forward-looking reasons, I think it is time that we put faces to our work. I cite some of these below because there are business lessons for everyone in each of them.’
The Not so Good...
There were other reasons that had some commercial rationale but all things considered, were rife with several avoidable small and big collateral impacts
For e.g.
Significant use of work aggregators gave us the advantage of continued business, timely payments, easy and joint invoicing (single for multiple projects), and quick, easy & affordable access to non-core expertise at very affordable costs; these are important from time to time in any consulting (especially business and marketing) due to functional interdependencies (areas like Finance, HR, IT, and legal consultants). These resources are expensive to outsource and our good aggregators have them available internally, available at hand at a tenth of such costs.
A substantial degree of pride & fulfillment in the unspoken knowledge that we are among the prime contributors to the success of our client businesses.
We enjoy very high client confidence, and always keeping client interests above all other interests is cultural for us; being known among our clients, close vendors, and partners felt very sufficient.
Decision to Step into a Visible Role
The bottom line was we ended up doing some things that are heretical daftness in entrepreneurship. Or rather getting impacted by these…
For e.g. Over dependence on aggregators was akin to putting all or several of our eggs in the same basket.
Focussing on work through highly automated third-party aggregators means you eventually lose direct and personal engagement with your client’s personnel, especially if your performance is great. Well-completed projects do not elicit complex queries or follow-ups from clients; unfortunately, this also means fewer instances of active engagement with them. These officials then move on to other companies and you do not realize that new personnel who you do not know have taken over. You are now virtual strangers to your own client. That was a bad risk to take. So three takeaways –
1) Aggregator clients are good but one must stay in active touch with the clients, operationally at least
2) Choose only to work with reputed aggregator clients or partners who respect professional boundaries and possible conflicts of interest
3) Regardless of the quantum of efficiencies driven by automation, business decisions are still human. This applies to your aggregator/partner companies too. So actively build and spread connections at the aggregator offices too.
Importance of Visibility and Online Presence
Another mistake was staying almost completely in the backend, visible only to the relevantly active teams, partners, vendors, associates, and existing clients. While it is the most beautiful comfort zone to be in, it is highly self-destructive, primarily because it is vastly very person-dependent.
Everyone uses the internet and relevant social media platforms (especially Linkedin) to research and your absence there gives rise to intense queries/doubts, thus lowering confidence and felt credibility. Even when you are strongly recommended, it’s second human nature to do a simple google search before meeting you; and when adequate information about you is not found, the recomendee loses confidence, and even when the recommender is a trusted source, people will be at least a bit skeptical to start a new relationship.
