Firstly, we work on your objectives and highlight where you see the opportunities and obstacles. This is very much a strategic level fact finding task under our Delivery phase. More than anything, this will focus on the shareholder value and how that might be increased. It could be better cash, more profitability, improved stock turns, reporting – or more likely a combination of all of those.

In our Design phase, we look at the priorities of activity; those operational tasks that will deliver the strategy effectively. Where are the breakthroughs going to come from, what do we need to by when and how do we achieve it? Timeframes and critical resources all form part of the design. We are very much involved at the point where most consultants will exit.

Finally we look at Delivery. Here, our CFO is usually engaged periodically only, perhaps to oversee a Finance Bean or Bookkeeper. We make sure the objectives remain on track, but the process also needs to be affordable and flexible.