Innovative Management Consulting
Our (non-web) consulting occurs in three broad areas, which involve our traditional areas of expertise:
- Managerial Control: Information & Incentives
- Risk Analysis, Valuation and Modeling
- Talent Recruitment
(We also work in the exciting intersection of (1) control and (2) risk.)
1. Information & Incentives
Simply stated, control involves finding the best ways to achieve your (or your organization’s) objective.
Decisions & Information Systems
“Finding the best ways” depends upon having the right information to make the best decisions.
But information isn’t free, so a system–whether involves people conversing or something on a computer–that collects, aggregates, and presents facts must also be efficient:
- Too many details are expensive to gather and maintain and don’t influence enough decisions to be worth the costs of recording and storing and reporting those facts.
- Too few details are cheap to maintain but increase the likelihood that something be missed and value will be destroyed. That’s the opportunity cost of not enough information.
By analyzing both the external environment and internal factors, like your workforce and its knowledge level, we design optimal information systems, including qualitative information systems and cost systems.
In addition, our rigorous, systematic approach helps with large, ad hoc decisions when an experienced and objective expert is needed to allay concerns of whether the analysis was performed correctly (and comprehensively).
Incentives, Performance Measures & Other Controls
Look again at our definition of control, particularly the phrase, “best ways to achieve.” In an organization, those strategies and tacticss–various small pieces of those plans–and actions are usually implemented by different individuals.
When those employees or agents have different interests and goals than those of the organization or firm, incentive problems arise.
We help minimize the costs of those problems by designing policies and controls, like performance measures and compensation schemes, to motivate cooperation behavior and effort. Like everything else, incentives can be too strong or too weak: we strive for that economic level that induces not too much greed and not too much sloth.
Every aspect of this practice involves determining or predicting how others will respond to different sets of information or policies. So, it’s essential that the designer be empathetic; otherwise, one is likely to face severe unintended consequences and near-certain failure. Don’t scoff and underestimate the importance of empathy; we understand.
2. Risk Analysis, Valuation and Modeling
No one operates in a vacuum.
Dynamic environments expose individuals and firms to potential harms. Where possible, we expertly measure, estimate, and model those harms, particularly with respect to adverse effects in markets and credit relationships.
We perform (and explain) advanced quantitative modeling and analyses, including valuation and risk analysis. We carefully model market and economic phenomena and emphasize both the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches that are available. This practice, which often focuses on all that could go wrong, both supplements and complements our control practice, including the integration of managerial control and risk management.
3. Talent Recruitment
Many organizations don’t have the subject matter expertise to hire specialists. We do, and that’s how we can help.
By utilizing our broad subject matter expertise, small and medium-sized (and large) organizations benefit from our ancillary services like specialized talent recruitment and assessment. As organizations grow and require employees with special skills and talents in accounting, finance, information, etc., we use our subject-matter expertise to determine the most qualified candidates so our client doesn’t hire someone who was “all-talk and is no action.”
