My Business Philosophy
Patrick Daly of Alba Consulting sets out his business philosophy.
Whatever the input from an external consultant, whether it be expertise, mentoring, analysis, surveys or training, it is always in your best interest as the client and also in the best interest of the consultant to be absolutely clear at the start about the results and the benefits that you will get from the consultant’s involvement in your project.
You need to be asking yourself the following:
- What is the killer gap that I need to fill?
- What is it that I will point to at the end of a project and say “this was a resounding success”?
- How will I know that things are better – how will it look and how will it feel?
The value of the benefits that you obtain must be really significant and compelling relative to what you pay in order to justify the consultant’s involvement and any self-respecting consultant wouldn’t have it any other way.
For you, as the person committing budget, getting to a common understanding with the consultant on this value is the single greatest catalyst to ensuring your return on investment. It can take some time to get to this common understanding but it is very worthwhile.
The conventional consultant is only interested in day rates and how many days they are going to spend with you – in my view this is unethical because it incentivizes time wasting and non-value-added activity. It focuses on inputs and not results.
I am a value-oriented consultant and I am only interested in adding value as quickly as I can to my client’s business in exchange for fees that are a good deal for both parties.
This a different way of doing business and is dependent on the quality of the relationship and a good degree of trust, but without this common understanding, the consultant’s involvement becomes just another cost to be minimized and the real opportunity of the partnership is missed altogether.
In every situation and for every person buying consultancy services, the value that they perceive is different – some aspects of value are tangible and some are intangible and this is normal and valid.
Here are some of the typical outcomes that many clients view as highly valuable to their business:
- Creating the capability to do certain things.
- Transferring of knowledge and skills.
- Achieving target levels of profitability, efficiency, productivity, quality and compliance.
- Reducing Risk.
- Enhancing reputation and prestige.
- Providing confidence and peace of mind.
All of these are results focused on what comes out at the end and not what goes in at the beginning such as time, methodologies, materials, equipment, training sessions and so on. All of these items are simply means to the end and represent no value themselves.
Achieving valuable business outcomes and getting there fast is the real value that a consultant should bring to your business. Explicit agreement on the value of those business outcomes between the person committing the budget and the consultant must always be the start point of the partnership.
This is the formula for success.
Supply Chain Improvement – Do you Know What you Need?
Well you may think that you know what you want, but do you really know what you need?
If you are going to invest time and money in improving things in your supply chain, how do you know which things you should be improving?
How do you know which things will make a real difference to the business?
It’s not enough to know which processes and practices could be better. You must understand which processes and practices actually matter.
- Attempting to optimize the wrong processes and practices will lead to no measurable improvement in desired business results.
- Attempting to optimize all processes and practices is simply dysfunctional and is not achievable.
Both approaches are a waste of time, effort and resource.
To really know where to focus your effort, you need a two-pronged approach:
- A clear understanding of the practical capabilities that really contribute to fulfilling the declared strategy of your business.
- An objective benchmark of the current state of the processes and practices that underpin these strategic capabilities.
Once you are clear on both of these points, then you are in a position to commit your time, money and resources to improvements that will achieve the desired results - not before.
Here are the business benefits of this approach:
- The current state of every process and practice that matters is benchmarked on a scale vis-à-vis industry best practice.
- Specific measures and metrics can be developed to track and manage improvements in these attributes.
- Improvements can be prioritized and targeted where they will deliver maximum business benefit quickly.
- The investment in every improvement initiative can be evaluated explicitly against the value that it will provide in real business outcomes such as quality, profitability, compliance, capacity and capability.
Here is what some of our clients are saying about us:
Liam cassidy. General Manager, Braun (Shanghai) Ltd. China.
“When I came to Shanghai in 2007, the warehouse at our factory was traditional in its design, with corresponding systems and practices. I wanted to implement a full program of Lean Manufacturing Practices from Supplier to the despatch of our final product. The transformation of our warehouse to allow for this was critical. I engaged Patrick Daly of Alba confident in the knowledge that the most effective solution would be found. I was not disappointed.
I had first met Patrick in 1996. He is hard working, sincere, of the highest integrity, and most important of all, has an absolute willingness to build his personal mastery in his chosen field. I have not been in the least surprised to watch his organization build an outstanding reputation, increasingly on a global basis. It is with full confidence that I recommend his work to anyone who needs transformation in their operation.”
Tom Howard, Commercial Director, Independent Pharmacy Ownership Scheme (IPOS), Uniphar Group, Ireland.
“UniPhar Group engaged the services of Alba Logistics at the very outset of our journey towards a new automated warehouse and distribution facility. The extremely close working relationship that we enjoyed with Alba ensured that the original request for tender, vendor selection and final specification stages of the project went very smoothly and that we ended up constructing what will be a truly best-in-class facility.
Alba helped make what seemed extremely complicated become understandable whilst ensuring that we were not being constrained by the limits of our own imaginations. This enabled us to effectively establish an operating base that will support and drive the developments of the UniPhar Group over the coming decades.”
Mukesh Ghai, General Manager, PepsiCo Concentrate Operations, Puerto Rico
“Alba Logistics have worked with PepsiCo at several manufacturing site locations around the world. Working closely with Alba, in each case we achieved warehouse solutions that are practical, easy to implement and guaranteed to deliver productivity gains.
Furthermore, Alba deserve the credit for showing their flexibility to accommodate the changes and modifications to plans that are required during the project work.”
Michael Mansfield, Operations Manager, GlaxoSmithKline, Dungarvan, Ireland
“Alba Logistics have worked with GlaxoSmithKline, Dungarvan on several key projects. The knowledge and experience imparted to us together with their extensive technical and logistical capability has brought a new dimension to our project teams.
Ultimately our business solutions have been enhanced in terms of design and of benefit delivery. We recognize Alba as being a key component in the successful completion of our logistical and supply chain improvement projects and we will continue to engage Alba in supporting us to identify and drive competitive advantage for our business”
Michael Grogan, VP Global Trade & Logistics, Actavis Group, Iceland
“Actavis engaged Alba Logistics in the process of translating ser requirements into efficient and workable design for one of our warehouse developments. I was confident in recommending Alba to my colleagues as I had worked previously with Alba in a similar role.
Alba complimented our internal knowledge by making us aware of the options available to us and then quantifying the impact of each choice. This ability to interact at the definition stage lead to a shared ownership of the solution proposed.”
Patrick Daly of Alba says,
“There is nothing like tough times to trigger action and improvement in business, to challenge the status quo, to find new and better ways to bring value to your customers.
We are now seeing the top global organizations harnessing the challenges posed by today’s economic environment to bring forward change programmes, and to take targeted action for improvement and added value in their global supply chains.
These businesses will thrive in the face of challenge and emerge stronger than ever. To be among the winners, the time for action is now.”
