sleicest-consulting is a niche strategic consultancy service for organisations wanting to improve their business resilience and business flexibility, either to enable growth (thru internationalisation say), adapt to changes such as hybrid working. or to counter threats to their sustainability.
Such threats might be any combination of the following things; extreme weather events, artificial intelligence, remote working, decarbonisation legislation, market resistance to professional fee rises and the rising cost of risk mitigations. There may also be reputational threats from long term association with certain suppliers or alliance partners.
So what is meant by the term ‘business flexibility’? Four key aspects are; adaptability, agility (pivoting), resilience and options management.
At the next level down, what is meant by the term ‘business resilience’? Four key aspects are; protection, durability (wear and tear), human determination (grit) and healing rate (to bounce back).
Whether an organization’s business strategy emphasizes growth (organic or inorganic) or value improvement (offer better services for existing customers say), resilience is both a vital input and output of the business strategy.
Business resilience as an input to business strategy includes:
– developing policies relating to financial reserves levels held,
– developing a plan to handle inflation volatility, or volatility in the labour market,
– developing talent acquisition and talent retention strategies,
– developing plans to handle supply chain, credit crunch, or government-imposed changes, to deal with an emergency like a civil war, or pandemic outbreak.
Coping with those business challenges enables the business strategy to be executed. It follows that the business strategy (a concentration on vertical integration, global dominance, buying out competitors, operating excellence, product innovation, or customer intimacy say), ought to deliver not just growth, or product & service innovation. But business resilience too.
The protection aspect of resilience alone is big business. Ask the big lending firms (lines of credit), alarm system providers, data security companies, contract law advisors, project management and staff training companies. Ask the top football clubs paying large transfer fees to secure highly-skilled goal keepers.
High profile organisations like; Kodak, Enron, Barings Bank and the UK charity Kids Company, are amongst the cautionary tales of failed business resilience. Meanwhile, the organisations who have operated successfully for hundreds of years such as; Twinings, Cambridge University Press, Du Pont and Harper Collins are amongst the proven, ‘safe harbours’ of business resilience.
Traditionally, various members of the senior team have overseen different aspects of business resilience. The CFO typically oversees treasury & investments resilience, cashflow management, long term financial plans and internal controls. The COO typically oversees customer relations, risk registers, physical security and business continuity plans. The CIO/CTO typically oversees data and digital systems security and storage. The Chief People Officer typically oversees recruitment, talent management and workforce resilience, along with various line managers. But are there gaps? Is there a cohesive resilience framework? Is business resilience reviewed for different future scenarios? Who looks at funder, supplier and customer resilience and considers how they might bolster inhouse resilience?
About sleicest-consulting
X is an MBA qualified, lead consultant and chartered accountant, with 15 years of Finance Director experience in the UK Not for Profit sector (organisations ranging in size from £10M to £100M annual income) and further finance experience in retail banking, as well as HEIs and manufacturing companies in 2 countries. The last 9 years have included working for 9 client organisations of varying size, in change management roles typically lasting considerably longer than the average consulting assignment in the consulting sector. X has worked in C-level roles in 3 UK professional membership bodies. In the health sector alone, X has 8 years client experience; including in a UK health regulator, HEI faculty of medicine, health advocacy charity, health empowerment charity (impartial systematic reviews) and health membership body.
X has a comprehensive range of management oversight experience spanning; strategy, structure, systems, processes and team cultural change in multiple functions (finance, HR, IT, facilities, procurement, project office, risk reporting and governance support). X has overseen financial reporting set ups for major multi-year programmes, multiple member fee rises, finance policy changes, tenders, contract negotiations, risk reviews and some deep-dive investigations into key project partners as well. In addition, X has served as a charity trustee and Finance Committee chair for 4 years.
The sleicest-consulting business frameworks are original and offer fresh approaches to familiar and novel problems alike.
The core values and features of sleicest-consulting;
– build an enduring relationship with the client.
– provide first or second opinion services that are customized. collaborative and solution-orientated.
– bring rounded and fresh thinking to each client assignment.
By arrangement, some business consulting services include the following:
- Business flexibility and business resiliency reviews.
- Options Portfolio construction and links to Scenario Planning, Risk Registers and BCP
- Development of business resilience measures and benchmarking.
- Linking business flexibility and business resilience back the core business strategy.
Contact Details
X, Lead Consultant and Director of sleicest-consulting.
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