 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
What sorts of situations bring our clients to Revealed Resources?
Our clients come to us for a variety of reasons. They may know what they need to do, but don't. They may need someone to bounce ideas off. Or they may need someone to hold them accountable.
Below is a sample of real client case studies.
A business owner in the Travel industry was struggling to survive. While he had successfully built up and run subsidiaries of large multi national organisations in the region, and “knew” what he needed to do, now that he was on his own, he wasn’t doing it.
Over the last 5 years, business had been up and down, and currently he was losing significant amounts of money.
There was inadequate structure in the organisation. Roles and responsibilities, as well as process flow were not defined. While there was limited delegation, the required authority and trust were not present, so staff had no clear boundaries as to their responsibility and authority. As a result, the staff did not fulfil their obligations in the owner’s eyes. This led to tension on both sides.
We took a multi faceted approach.
Working in collaboration with the owner and staff, we designed a process model that improved efficiency from taking the order, delivering the tickets and collecting the commission.
Together, we defined roles and responsibilities and clear boundaries. Our aim was to encourage innovation and ownership. As part of this process, we interviewed and recommended candidates for a vacant role.
Subsequently, we coached the owner to define his vision and goals for himself and the organisation. Together we put a strategy in place to get him there. This was subsequently communicated to the staff, and we defined an incentive scheme to encourage personal performance.
The owner is now taking action.
One team member who wasn’t pulling her weight, has left.
Two new staff members, (recommended by us), have been hired. The team is melding well and there is a new vibe of expectancy in the air.
The owner is now clear in his expectations (and is communicating them more effectively). Staff have taken on far more responsibility and know that the owner trusts them. As a result, they mirror that trust back. New contracts are coming through the door, the business is growing and is now cash flow positive.
A business owner suffered a traumatic event in his business. Due to severe reactive depression, he could not work for 9 months. For the next 4 years he was counselled by a psychiatrist on a weekly basis, while on anti-depressant medication.
In terminating the business arrangement with his supplier, he was advised that it would be unlikely and definitely inappropriate for him to work in the industry again, and that according to the definition in DSM IV, he was essentially suffering from a post traumatic stress disorder.
I met him in 1999, 4 years after this traumatic event.
We did a two-hour session, and subsequent to that session, his feelings of anxiety, anger and all the other associated emotions including depression have not been experienced.
In his own words,
“In the past, if I thought about the events, I would have become quite upset and re-lived the trauma, and would immediately head for my bedroom and go to sleep, sometimes all day. Now, while I can think about the events, it is at a distance, and the emotional attachment has disappeared.
“In May 2001, I made a comfortable, conscious decision to return to the industry and have embarked on industry study qualifications to do so.
“To date, revisiting all the case studies and exposure to the industry background, laws and functionality, I've experienced no negative emotions. To the contrary, I am enthused about the future, and actively contemplate working in the industry past normal retirement age - 25 years ahead.”
There is more…
In 2002, I was contacted again, and we initiated a coaching program as he was not focused on his goals. He knew what he needed to do, but was not doing it. Procrastination was one of the main issues.
Within 4 weeks of coaching, he earned over $30,000 in one premium alone! In the subsequent months, we defined goals, determined what was holding him back from performing, and put in new strategies for effective work.
As a result, he now has a new contractual basis of working with his supplier, including creating a saleable asset. He has a dedicated staff member who will do “paperwork”, allowing him to do what he does best – sell. His attitude is positive and he now has a tangible goal to work towards.
A Regional VP of a multi national had a staff member who was not performing. When confronted, this employee played politics back to head office in Canada. The VP came to us for advice on how to deal with the situation.
We advised the VP on how to deal with the situation, including what would be the necessary steps in terminating the employee without leaving the VP open to litigation. The employee was subsequently terminated without any recourse on his part.
As this VP had a history of “bad” hires, we worked with him to find a suitable replacement. This was done by interviewing the VP to determine his leadership and management style, the role to be filled, and the personality that would best fit both the role and his style of management.
We interviewed a short list of candidates and on our recommendation, one was hired. He has worked out extremely well in the role.
A Regional Director for a multi national that had just been taken over, felt that his new manager wasn’t being honest with him. This led to feelings of misuse and distrust as to his manager’s motives.
We determined a list of possible scenarios that could be occurring. These ranged from the manager just not knowing how to deal with people, to his being covertly or openly hostile.
We then role played various responses and how the Director could handle the situation.
The Director was subsequently fired, but the way it was done left the company open to litigation. On our advice, the Director asked for and received almost 12 months termination pay with bonuses. He is now working for himself running another business.
A Technical Director of a multi national computer hardware company wanted a change of career. He did not know what he wanted to do, he just knew that it wasn’t what he was doing.
We worked together to define what would interest him, cleared up some issues from his past, and gave him options.
He subsequently moved into a sales role and is enjoying his new career.
A new business owner was struggling with how to get his business up and running. He had been a successful employee in this space, but now wanted to do it for himself.
We acted as a sounding board, and advisor or simply a reality check. We made suggestions as to strategy, business structure, sales and marketing.
This business has formed relationships with complimentary businesses reducing the marketing effort, has over 5 sales people and is steadily growing.
A successful business owner wanted to become a full time writer. He wanted have the business run by his partners, while he concentrated on writing. His issue was that while he “believed” he could write, he didn’t “know” that he would be successful.
In one, one hour session, we used Neuro Linguistic Programming techniques to enable him to “know” that he would be successful. He visualised and had a date for when his first book would be published, saw the successful launch and subsequent interviews.
He is now in England, writing full time. While he does have moments where the old issues come up, he is moving forward and expects to have the first draft of the book finished in December 2002.
A highly competent IT expert decided to run his own business. He now had to transition from IT expert to business owner and realised that he needed skills in dealing with people.
This individual liked nothing better than to delve into all the technical aspects of his business and was never happier than when “fixing” technical problems. Unfortunately, this led to a lack of focus on the business. He was incapable of delegating tasks, and even if he did so, would take them over again as he didn’t trust his staff.
When we started the assignment, his business was in a mess. The accounts were totally inaccurate, invoices had been outstanding for months as he didn’t like collecting money, and he was overwhelmed with the amount of work to be done.
We first cleared up significant issues from his past which were holding him back. We de-cluttered his office and arranged it so that he could work effectively.
We hired staff, worked with him on his people skills, and got him over his resistance to billing for services.
He now has a support structure around him that takes care of the items he
is not good at. His business is now improving,
he is in the black.
 |
 |
Our Contribution to making the world a better place:
We donate 10% and more of our total gross income to charities including Opportunity International who specialise in giving people a hand up rather than a hand out.
This is done via enabling the poorest of the poor to create micro businesses that support not only themselves, but up to 70-80 people in their local communities.
In other words, teaching them how to fish and finding new fishing grounds.