Why NetGain Partners Inc
We have stepped in often enough when other consultants have failed to know that not every person calling themselves a consultant is worth his or her salt. Summed up for your convenience, here, are the eight defining qualities of NetGain that will help you to understand how we do our work.- We write plans you can follow, and that work if you follow them.
- We are passionate about working with our clients. You know your business better than we do—that’s a reality. So we work with our clients – we listen to their directors and their staff and their clients. Only by doing this can we understand the crucial issues and needs affecting the future of the organization as you see it. We may be the smartest and the funniest, but we’re not afraid of collaboration. If your consultants aren’t working with you, they may as well be working against you.
- We bring our own knowledge to the table. Countless successful business plans and over 50 collective years of experience later, we bring an unbiased view of your organization and whatever problems it faces. But it’s not about relying on our laurels or the wide range of our collective experiences (fancy degrees, hard labor in the world of arts and non-profit world). We are not afraid of conducting massive amounts of research to supplement our knowledge of your field of expertise. That’s how we got those laurels.
- We aim for buy-in from the ground up. Getting buy-in from the ground up means that when we write a plan, we take it to the people who are going to have to make the necessary changes in the organization and ensure that they understand it. It’s dead simple yet people repeatedly fail to consult with the staff on the ground about what is actually happening. Does your staff understand the plan? Do they have the tools to implement it? Do they understand the critical path? Does the plan make sense? Only when the answers are a resounding “yes” do we consider our job done. They don’t have to like the change, but they have to be able to make it happen when we’re gone. We won’t thrust at you a fancy plan in fancy language that is only good for papering your office.
- Only what’s necessary. We won’t try to sell you on compasses if you already have a roadmap. We won’t write a survey that would take 30 minutes to answer when a brief survey will do. Why? First, we know if you’re not spending money on compasses you don’t need, you can shift those resources into a different part of your business, instead of into our pockets (perhaps why we remain small but beloved). Secondly, we know that your response rate for a 30 minute survey is…oh…about 20% as good as the response rate for a 10 minute survey. And again, it will cost you more at every level to ask your constituents superfluous questions.
- Straight Talking. Yes we do have some fancy consultant terms around strategy, streamlining, that crazy thing called “net gain”. Those terms may crop up in our reports. But we will never use the phrase “interventional catalyst” or the word “organizationalality”.
- Real Solutions. Many times consultants are hired to make it look like a study was done, but no studying was actually done. Or they are hired to solve problems but instead of solutions, the client gets a series of observations about the problems in the organization. We know that any dummy can interview and research and regurgitate it in jargon for the Board. In fact, many people are comfortable reiterating the problems again and again. Our real work – creative and otherwise-- happens after we’ve done the research. The process doesn’t end until a solution that works for our client is presented, reviewed and accepted.
- Boutique goodness without the boutique price. “Boutique” can now refer to any kind of specialized business: a boutique hotel, the cheese boutique, or a boutique investment bank. Boutique service tends to be top-notch, doled out in limited qualities, and highly specialized. Unfortunately, above-average service is often accompanied by an above average price. Well, think of us as boutique without the insane price tag.
To sum things up: We’ve always been a small, intimate firm. We support our clients with highly specialized expertise in the needs of non-profit cultural, aboriginal and conservation organizations. In a firm like this, your project will never be passed on to the assistant of the assistant of the Junior Manager’s assistant to the Director of VP Marketing and Communication. We have no VPs. VIPs yes, VPs no. Your project will be in the hands of the Managing Director, the Principals and our experienced experts in Fundraising, Sponsorship, Marketing and Data Mining. You will talk to them live. They even answer their own phone – sometimes. We are able to deliver services at a better price than most of our competitors because we carry less overheads and extra capacity. We also have never (never!) gone over budget. Maybe in part because of all of this, our clients usually become our friends. (No pressure though).
Link on boutique consulting firms from the perspective of a consultant working for one: “Is Boutique Consulting Right for you?” By Chris Sieber.
