If you've got any burning questions - you can either find the answers here or get in touch with us via our Contact page and we'll get back to you!
What is it that Raven Strategic do?
To put it simply - we help people to better lead their business. We do this by helping business leaders unlock their unique strategic secrets to success, developing leadership skills of individuals & teams, uncover data-led insights, and growth driven corporate strategies, and operationalising strategies from words on a page into actionable, achievable plans.
How much will partnering with Raven Strategic cost?
There is no easy answer here because the truth is, we need to talk to you first to tailor a plan of how we will work together. Our initial meeting with you is free; the intention of which is to learn more about your business, establish our credibility with you and see if there is anything that we can help you with.
Everyone has a unique need, and as such we develop a unique plan for all our partners - including working in line with your budget and timelines wherever we can.
Will I be paying a per-hour rate, or a fixed fee?
Once we establish what we can help you with, and what your needs are, we will agree jointly upon an engagement agreement. Typically, this will outline scope, costs, expectations and responsibilities. The cost to you is then typically based on a 'per-service' rate appropriate to the service we are providing. Sometimes it may be more agreeable for both parties to be a fixed fee for a given project.
Is better strategic development worth the money?
If you're viewing this aspect of your business' future as a 'cost', and not an investment - then perhaps you need to reach out to us more than you realise!
Smart leaders know that investment in the right strategy, the right structures, and right leaders will help you to become sustainable, profitable, and agile enough to keep succeeding when others fail.
Our experience is that your business can quickly recover our costs through the impact we make on the profitability and performance of your business.
What is a typical strategic review process?
Every situation is unique. However, some fairly common steps include the following:
- Initial discussion to understand your basic needs.
- Review your existing materials (existing business plans, financials, market research, competitor research, etc.).
- Follow-up discussions to clarify details and agree upon the scope and fees for the project.
- Several in-depth discussions to better understand the details, develop strategies, and agree on all major elements of the business plan and financial model.
- Conduct additional research, as needed.
- Draft the Executive Summary and review it with our client to ensure that we all agree on the next level of detail.
- Prepare a draft outline of the report and recommendations for your review.
- Finalize all deliverables.
- Execute!
- Coach you, and your teams, on how this process can be reviewed and re-developed in the future.
- Provide ongoing support, including updates to the deliverables if desired.
What if I disagree with what Raven Strategic recommends?
To be blunt - It is not the role of a strategic consultant to always find a solution that you will unanimously agree with - Rather our role is to ask the right questions and come up with the appropriate recommendations following our expert review your business position.
If you don't agree with a consultant’s findings, we will discuss the reasons this conclusion has been reached. If you wish to re-shape the scope of our service based on these initial findings - then we would of course work with you to ensure the objectives have been met and outcomes are fully transparent.
Will all of the work undertaken be confidential?
Absolutely. Our engagement agreement with you strictly forbids any of our consultants to discuss your business with anyone outside of those pre-agreed - this is outlined in a standard non-disclosure agreement (NDA) signed by both parties. This also applies to any specialists who are engaged to work in the company.
In return - our engagement requires your agreement that clients will not share, duplicate or disseminate our tools, processes or systems any further than what is agreed in the project scope.
What industries do you specialise in?
The good thing about business, resource, and operational strategy is that is transcends industry and location - but in terms of the industries, and associated disciplines, Raven Strategic have extensive prior work experience in - they are:
- Tourism & Travel
- Hotels & Hospitality
- Transport and Logistics
- FMCG
- Multi-site Operations & Manufacturing
What benefit is there in hiring Raven Strategic to help develop our Strategy - as opposed to what we could do ourselves?
You could easily chew up hours upon hours of your leader's time preparing your business, and your leaders, to be ready to develop a board-level business plan, from scratch - and even then how do you know you've done it well?
Or alternatively you could utilise our expertise in preparing these materials, knowing also that Raven Strategic offer independent, third-party insights into your business, and seek to raise questions that you might not have thought to ask yourself.
How long will a typical strategic review take?
In a typical strategic review process the typical time to completion is 6-8 weeks, as illustrated below. The timeline can be influenced by the quality of your existing materials, the level of your participation, the complexity of your market and business model, and current workload.
Some very simple projects, or requests can be completed in just a few days, or even a few hours, and other projects can extend well over a year (these engagements involve not only strategic review processes - but likely include execution planning, change management implementation, and ongoing support).
Can you show us examples of your work before we engage you?
Certainly - And we would be pleased to introduce you to some of our past clients. However, in order to respect the time and generosity of our past clients, we provide references as the final step before you sign the engagement letter.