Key Insights from Crystallization happening in Advisory Services

Academician talks to Senior Financial Consultant in Advisory Services on crystallization happening in advisory services. 

10^th June 2014

                                                                  by Dr. Nitin Arora

Mr. Adnan Fareed,
Sr. Financial Consultant,
TAGO, Bahrain

Crystallization refers to the formation of solid crystals from a homogeneous solution. It is essentially a solid-liquid separation technique. In business context, crystallization indicates formation of insights from being in the business environment for long. This interview based article is essentially an experiential insight-effort separation activity.  Here we explore crystallization happening in advisory services from the perspective of Mr. Adnan Fareed,  Senior Financial Consultant in Bahrain. The author has proposed a model on ‘Crystallization of SpaceTime’ which looks for insights from different industry based on analogies between crystal growth process and business growth process. This is the first article of this interview based articles.

Arora: What one major change you have witnessed that has shaped advisory services?

Fareed: The advisory services had moved from centralization to decentralization to regionalization. All credit goes to the advent of teleconferencing and online knowledge collaboration technologies. This allows the advisories and consultants like us to provide expert advises without much physical travel. Else the physical travel consumes a major portion of our time. The global base of our Organization allows timely crystallizing of key advisors for a project to work jointly and bid for project successfully without leaving the desk or the country .

Arora: How do you explain on having successfully formed a  ‘heart connection with customers’ ?

Fareed: Strategies keep changing but it is the customer loyalty is what we want at the end of business. There is no golden rule for forming a successful heart connection with customers in advisory services. Some clients will not start new projects. Some clients come back depending on the commencement date of their new projects. Some clients give references of their suppliers or buyers as goodwill builds up, and this is also a part of winning their hearts. They trust us that we can provide support to their important stakeholders and this is how they also strengthen their heart connections within their network of stakeholders. But yes, it is during the period of crisis when the image is at stake of any organization and they will invite only those consultants whom they have immense trust for lifting them out of the crisis situation. We as advisory service providers have seen cases when our first bad impression can seriously erode the possibility of getting a second project even after a gap of six –seven years. So yes, even first impression is also important in building heart connection, even though it takes longer than that in most of the clientele.

Arora:  What do you see as organizational strength that helps achieving an immortal status (self-sustaining for long) ?

Fareed: Whatever we do we own it. We own it means that whatever we take both responsibility and accountability for the work we do. We are a global organization with headquarters in Jordan and presence in major parts of world under the brand name of Talal Abu Ghazaleh Organization. We just can’t run away from any mistake that any of our global office commits. It affects the entire group image globally. Our worthy Chairman, H.E. Dr. Talal Abu Ghazaleh, leads by example by embracing mistakes and failures of his highly paid expert employees. He believes that as he himself stands behind all of us like a shield, similarly we should stand behind the work we do in all its phases of ups and down. Client is important and we should not leave them at any phase of their execution. And this very attitude is very well absorbed and executed in TAGO culture. This culture of accountability and responsibility will keep us marching forward.

Arora: Is advisory service passive or active in providing innovative solutions to the clients.

Fareed: If you are not innovative, you cannot survive in many types of business sectors. We are no exceptions. But there is not much enough space and time available to us. We are limited by customers’ deadlines and the business space. We are also limited by industry specific specialists or strategic alliances who are the key partners in providing an innovative solution to out diverse clients. Yes, proactive solutions are presented to different companies on many occasions but its acceptance depends on the willingness of the organization to accept it or reject it. The reasons are numerous but yes, it’s being provided and it should be a continuous activity and not once in a blue moon kind of event.

Arora:  What are your organizational ‘possessed predictable-intelligence’ ?

Fareed: The possessed intelligence we have are majorly three - (a) Existing employees (b) Strategic alliances and (c) knowledge base generated from the past projects.

Arora: What is that ‘unpredictable intelligence’ that you are eager to capture?

Fareed: Eagerness to capture clients may become a habit for some to the point it becomes greediness. So we have to walk on razor’s edge that we don’t fall on the side of greediness to capture clients by giving unreasonable promises. But yes, it’s a known fact among consulting business that some clients are not very clear in what particular area of their business w.r.t. their own startups or existing business they actually want consultants. To pinpoint to the real issue or pain may take some time. And this means that the consultants may found themselves in a situation where they can solve 60% of problem using their own in-house experts, 20% they can hire do it with the help of their strategic alliances. But for the last 20% of work, they have no perfect guess on how to do it. No consulting company is expert in all business sectors. And they know for sure that they can’t do it for some sectors or some areas but then they have to take the leap of faith to accept the client. And no doubt, this phase is the most excruciating and frustrating phase as it needs endless exploration and that too within the deadline. The answer, the optimal solution for this phase is unpredictable intelligence for us and that we want to capture. And this phase is the actual stretch of our organizational learning curve where we learn and increase our knowledge base- one of the important component of ‘possessed predictable intelligence’ for future projects and advisors.

Arora: Is your ‘possessed predictable intelligence’ sufficient enough to capture the ‘unpredictable intelligence’?

Fareed: As I said, our organization strength is responsibility and accountability and we stand behind our clients. This means with every previous project our possessed intelligence increases and this gives us more confidence in next projects. The learning curve has touched new heights and has taken a permanent & irreversible shape. So, in a sense, yes, our growth in learning curve is sufficient enough to go for the next project and deploy the new possessed intelligence at service of exploring the never ending unpredictable demands of clients. This gives us confidence to cross the border between getting the job and getting the job done effectively. We can calibrate our risk appetite with ever rising possessed intelligence.  

Arora: How do you define your business lifeline?

Fareed: Our organization is not like an island but like multiple islands connected on an information superhighway. Our chairman keeps an eye on a concept called as ‘Golden Assignment’. This is a monthly financial report of all our global offices on their business generation. Some are top performers and some at the bottom. And the top performers and least performers keep changing on monthly basis. Business lifeline is not individual for us but a combined lifeline which is like a heartbeat of organization. The top performance has a unique story to tell while the bottom performer has another. No one is lower or higher in the eyes of management. All are joined together. We know that no company can be always profitable forever. There are numerous reasons for its success and also for its failures. So just flow with it and minimize the mistakes that lead to downfall and learn the core reason why we succeed in some places and not other.

Arora: What frightens your Organization the most. ?

Fareed: Loosing a client is not our fear but earning a bad reputation is our biggest fear. Smaller hiccups are fine and manageable using business tools but there is zero tolerance for any stigma attached to our brand name. And we prevent this from happening by using our best ethical practices in dealing with clients. But yes, accidents are inevitable but they can be minimized by fostering a culture of excellence and accountability.

Arora:  Does harmony exist in your work?

Fareed: Advisors are like puppets in the hand of clients. They have to tailor their report with number and facts to meet the objectives of clients. Our reports are like clean or not clean. We cannot just convince our clients that whatever they wish to do is possible. Our reports are also observed by many bankers, regulators, alliances, buyers besides clients. Biased report in favour of clients gives a bad reputation in front of others. And this is a tightrope that we have walk before we accept the consulting offer. For us harmony doesn’t mean to please everyone but yet we don’t want to disruptive too. But if the consultation is sometime disruptive then we stick to our possessed intelligence and allow the unpredictable intelligence to tackle it in its own ways. Sometimes we can applause and sometimes not. But this is the real harmony for us to move forward without getting bogged down from our chaotic moments.

On organization level, our worthy Chairman is doing a lot in the field of academics, welfare and also corporate front. This balance is what I see as harmony in our organization which keeps the intellect and heart balanced and yet self-sustaining. 

Arora: How does chaos look like in your work?

Fareed: Hmm…It is visible very clearly in employee performance issues especially when there is resentment among employees due to biased allocation of resources. Imbalance in work life issues of many employees also contributes to intensifying work chaos. And no doubt, chaos is much more visible than harmony. As harmony is smooth but chaos has edges and sharp corners. Smiles, talks and laughters are not noisy but not the silently simmering mini volcanoes.