“Business goes where it is invited and stays where it is well treated” – 20th century American proverb
In a contemporary context, on demand services may be the best example of a business being well-treated and, by the same token, of a customer being well-treated.
The increasing expectation of services on demand for both B2B and B2C companies means that unless businesses keep up, they are at risk of falling behind the pack.
Technological innovation has allowed corporations to move towards leaner business models to remain competitive. This means that Boards, CEO’s and founders are thinking lean and strategic in order to treat their clients; customers and shareholders well.
The Importance Of Lean Talent Management
Talent management agility has become a business imperative and on demand talent platforms are enabling this need. These platforms have revolutionized business agility from the core up.
However, online talent is no longer restricted to low and mid skilled workers as it once was. As experienced executives seek improved lifestyles and explore flexible work options in order to transition into a new phase of life, we are seeing an influx of highly-skilled, executive level independent consultants.
McKinsey calculates that the adoption of on demand talent platforms could increase output by up to 9 per cent and reduce costs related to talent and human resources by as much as 7 per cent.
According to the Workforce 2020 report, 83% of executives plan to increase use of contingent, intermittent, or consultant employees to increase business agility in the next 3 years.
The ability to access employees on demand has become essential for businesses to keep up with disruptors and competitors that have the ability to upscale in an instant. The rise of the executive independent consultant has added a new element to this dynamic, by enabling instant access to highly-skilled and experienced independent workers.
Running a lean model means using technology to improve operations. For many corporate enterprises, this means strategically leveraging technology to hire on a needs basis. The modern ability to upscale and downsize teams on demand is fostering an unprecedented level of talent management agility in big companies.
Finding executives for project work can be particularly useful for filling a short-term skills gap or when in need of an interim executive.
The roles that on demand executives can fill in your business are wide-ranging and span across a number of disciplines.
Here are five roles an experienced consultant can help fill out your C-Suite and maximize your profit:
Finance:
Hiring a Virtual CFO (VCFO) is a smart business decision. You could hire a VCFO to review the available finance technology solutions that can help make your business more efficient, agile and focused on its core business offering. A VCFO can often fill a strategic finance roles without having the large salaries most full time CFO’s demand.
Operations:
Our markets have gone from local to global almost overnight and the good thing about this is that the entire world is now our business environment. If your business is accelerating quickly and you find a new market say in Asia, you could set up an executive consultant team on the ground in your growth location with the click of a button.
IT:
This is one industry that moves so fast that it would be unfair to expect an internal CTO to keep up with all the options. Having CTO options in the “outside” world means that it’s their business to know what the latest technology fixes are and also be experts in areas like data security. All you need to do is find a CTO who fits your company’s project instruction and timeline and hire a consultant within those parameters.
Marketing and Communications:
When businesses are in an acceleration phase they need top level executives to help drive momentum. Executive consultants like a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) will have the right connections and industry knowledge in areas like advertising, marketing, PR, communications and digital marketing to take advantage of the acceleration and set you up to expand further.
Lateral Advantage:
Use an Executive consultant like a lateral hire. Research the consultant, find out who they know, how well will they fit your business culture and what potential clients can they connect you with.