Consultants?

westy · Post by **westy** » Thu Aug 05, 2010 6:00 am

We brought in a consultant at work to "re-wire" our business and get it on track. (We've been having a couple of bad years). Our president doesn't know how to run a business and I think he's at the end of his rope.

What am I in for? Anyone have any experience with this kind of thing?

The outfit coming in is:

http://www.hcmm.com/

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Aug 05, 2010 6:33 am

What is the company you work for? What do they do? Size of staff? Departments? Services?

The consulting firm will look at a lot of different things..your products/services, what your client base is, what competition there is out there, marketing strategies, costs, expenses, size of staff, possible streamlining (could mean layoffs), cash flow, etc.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Aug 05, 2010 6:57 am

How important is your job at the place and how many do it well?

westy · Post by **westy** » Thu Aug 05, 2010 8:21 am

I'm the Operations Manager for a metal fabrication job shop that has around 55 employees. We were up to around 80 in 2008, before the economy took a slide. We're an ESOP (employee owned). We are heavy on the front end, 26 exempt managers (including 6 shop supervisors) to 33 non-exempt in the shop.

As for departments, we have the typical business departments in the office- admin., production control, HR, estimating, Engineering, but we really don't engineer- they are basically CAD guys. We don't have a sales department which is one of our many issues. In the shop we have the press room (fabrication-lasers, punches, ect). tool room, welding, paint and assembly.

Not a lot of training for managers, which is one of our issues too.

We do need an overhaul because I think we've gotten pretty complacent about allot of things.

RoundEye · Post by **RoundEye** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 1:06 am

My wife works in the office of a shop where they fabricate items related to fire mostly for the oil industry. It’s been rough for them too, they’ve been laying off random people from different departments for a couple months. The only company I worked at that brought in a consultant was years ago. That was a failure, the guy didn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground.

Depending on how much you like the place and if your paychecks aren’t bouncing, stick it out. There’s a lot of small businesses going through hard times, if their employees are aware of it or not.

CableDude · Post by **CableDude** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 7:32 am

The IT department brought in consultants a few years ago....Nothing materialized out of that.

The department I am in now is need of a serious house cleaning.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 7:36 am

CableDude wrote:The IT department brought in consultants a few years ago....Nothing materialized out of that.

The department I am in now is need of a serious house cleaning.

I'll make a trip and do some serious house cleaning!

Da Cat is in da House!

koldchillah · Post by **koldchillah** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 10:11 am

YeOldeStonecat wrote:I'll make a trip and do some serious house cleaning!

Da Cat is in da House!

First things first... put that damn NT server in the litter box!

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 11:18 am

koldchillah wrote:First things first... put that damn NT server in the litter box!

And fire chair guy.

24giovanni · Post by **24giovanni** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 3:53 pm

CableDude wrote:The IT department brought in consultants a few years ago....Nothing materialized out of that.

The department I am in now is need of a serious house cleaning.

Are you one of the ones that needs/wants to be house cleaned?

Easto · Post by **Easto** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 4:19 pm

Westy, I understand where you're coming from. I've worked at several companies that have had this done including where I'm working now. Change isn't always easy. Especially in these times where so many companies are trying to get by with virtual skeleton crews. That actually is the problem where I am now. We're hanging in there but not by much. Everyone is stressed having to do the work of 2 employees.

With that said... I think the first thing to do is have a company meeting with the managers and key employees. This might take several sessions but everyone needs to understand the situation and realize the company may be on the brink. You're not doing this to scare anyone, use it to solicit suggestions. Let everyone know they play a part and that their part is important but change is in the future and the future is now. If you let everyone participate in the change you'll get better results.

CableDude · Post by **CableDude** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 6:47 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:I'll make a trip and do some serious house cleaning!

Da Cat is in da House!

you can consult me on how to do the IT stuff better with just 1 person.

koldchillah wrote:First things first... put that damn NT server in the litter box!

Tryin man, tryin.

YARDofSTUF wrote:And fire chair guy.

24giovanni wrote:Are you one of the ones that needs/wants to be house cleaned?

If they tell me to go, the are going to have to pay me to leave.

terrancelam · Post by **terrancelam** » Sat Aug 07, 2010 5:45 pm

This really depends on what kind of business your in, but mostly it depends on how things are going now. I'm currently a student at a business school and I'm going to be a part of a team of students that'll be doing some consulting for a couple of business in sept. We'll mostly be helping with things like business plans, but we'll also be involved with things like marketing and accounting as well.

Just a few tips on things they'll be looking for:

1.) Numbers. They are going to want to see how much money the business is bringing in and which business segments (if your company is involved in more then one) brings in the most dough. They'll also want to see staff numbers and payroll stuff, they mostly be looking over cashflow stuff to make sure your able to maintain cash to float you between months.

2.) Current and Potential markets. They'll probably have to measure how u are doing now and look at the potential markets your looking to break into (if at all possible).

Just from what you said, I'd be kind of concerned about your business as you probably do need some sales / marketing people to help maintain / grow your business.

Human resources is one of the biggest problems facing most business as they can only recruit what's locally available (unless your uber advanced and allow tele-working or working remotely). My guess is that they will come in, look at all the staff and being marking people for replacement and through out the idea of replacing people with more qualified / educated / experienced people. May not always be possible but they are going to definitely look at the options and present them to you as such.