|
Midtown Consulting Group |
|
|
|
|
September 8, 2014 Issue |
||
|
The Most Powerful Name In Corporate News and Information |
|||
|
Collaborative, Client-Centric Management and Technology Consulting |
|||
|
About Midtown Consulting Group Midtown Consulting Group engages a large number of expert consultants who are focused on reducing operational complexity and optimizing core business processes. MCG helps leading organizations achieve a competitive advantage through the proper alignment of technology, personnel, and business strategy through management and technology consulting services.
Service areas include: business intelligence, enterprise application optimization, IT management, regulatory compliance and risk management, and CFO services. Founded in 2004, MCG is a member of Metro Atlanta Chamber and has offices in Charlotte, Orlando, and Nashville.
Managing Director
Moss has been in the management consulting business for over 25 years. He brings a broad range of experience to his clients. He has worked on Process Improvement, Business Strategy, IT strategy, and Application Development, Vendor Selection, Financial Systems, Outsourcing and Sales projects. Moss has worked for large firms like Deloitte Consulting and more regional firms. Moss has business development, account management and delivery expertise. Current and former clients view Moss as a trusted advisor and one that provides objective recommendations focused on making the client successful.
Interview conducted by:
CEOCFO: Mr. Davis, what is the concept at Midtown Consulting Group? Mr. Davis: We are a management and technology consulting firm working with a variety of companies, usually with at least two or more billion dollars in revenue. We help provide seasoned consultants with an average 15 years of experience and are able to come in with a very pragmatic, collaborative, client-centric approach thus enabling our clients to bridge the gap between strategy and execution.
CEOCFO: What is different for a company at the two billion dollar mark? Mr. Davis: Ideally, those are the companies that have used consultants before and are willing to leverage outside expertise to help with their business. With our locally based model, we try to work with clients and develop deep relationships with them because we are all in the same community. We all have kids at the same schools who are on the same baseball team, we can relate to our clients both at work and outside of work. Our goal is to deliver first and build that trust. This leads to relationships with our clients that are long term.
CEOCFO: To get an idea of the range of services, would you give us an example of a fairly common project or time when you would be called in and something a little more outside the box? Mr. Davis: A fairly common project is to help a client through what we call a transformation event. That means they are making significant changes to the business operations of the company or technology that they have in place. They may want to look at new technology or shore up existing technology. On the business operations side, they may want to look at their business processes and figure out how they can reduce cost or figure out how they can make their processes more efficient or start to generate more revenue. Our approach is to listen to the client, understand their needs, and customize an approach that will be cost effective and timely. We are not the kind of firm that just goes into a conference room, hangs out for six months and then turns around and gives you a three inch-thick binder.
We work side by side with the client’s personnel and help make sure that when we leave, the solution we help create and continues to provide benefits.
We do not take it for granted that we know somebody’s business better than they do. The people who are on the ground at the company, they know their business better than anyone. What we bring to the table are consultants that have seen these types of issues before with other clients and help apply that knowledge.
CEOCFO: What is the key to understanding what a client really wants and needs, not what they say they want and need or what they think they might want and need? Mr. Davis: The key is to focus on listening to the client and talking through their issues, and then working with them to drill down to exact root cause. In many cases, you start to have the client think outside the box and understand that the problem they are trying to solve is either much bigger or much smaller than they originally believed. There might be a quick resolution. By having consultants on our team that are highly experienced, 9 times out of 10 we have seen the issue before and collaborate with our clients on the right solution.
CEOCFO: Technology is changing so frequently these days. How are you able to plan for something that is going to last more than six months when there could be something new out that would really have an effect for a company? Mr. Davis: Technology does change. Typically, we focus on the longer term solutions that can be modified to incorporate advances in technology. We also hire people who have been in the technology space, understand it, live it and breathe it. Just because a new technology comes out, that does not mean it is always great. We tend to wait and let that technology prove itself and let other people be the beta sites and minimize risks to our clients.
CEOCFO: Other than size, are there typical industries or types of companies you might tend to work with more than others? Mr. Davis: We are across the board. We are in the retail space, the consumer products, financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications, and automotive. We span many different industries, so we do not have a specific industry focus.
CEOCFO: When you are first talking with a client, is there an aha moment when they realize the difference, the depth and the approach, or is that more when you start to work with them? Mr. Davis: I think it is more when they start to work with us and when they start to see what our people can do, how professional they are, how experienced they are and how much they care about the quality of their work. Our consultants are not focused on selling another project. Rather, our team is focused on delivering the project at hand and making sure that the client gets the highest results possible. That is invariably what happens once we get teams started. We get calls from clients who say they did not realize how good our people are, but they are fantastic. Our teams relate to the client and the personnel at the client and provide innovative solutions. They know when to push back on the client and not to be task managers and challenge a client’s thinking. That is our role as consultants. We do not just want to do everything robotically. We want to be able to be creative and provide innovative solutions when we see the opportunity.
CEOCFO: Do you find, by and large, that your clients follow your suggestions? Mr. Davis: For the most part they do. Sometimes there are certain instances beyond our control that affect the timing of a project, whether organizational, political, or a change in the macroeconomic environment.
CEOCFO: Midtown Consulting has been on Atlantic Fastest Growing lists and you have made the Inc. List. How do you continue the trajectory? Mr. Davis: It is keeping and hiring the right types of people and delivering the results our clients expect, high quality results. It is also looking at expansion opportunities and growing into other markets. We opened up two new offices. One in Nashville and one in Orlando. We now have Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Orlando. Atlanta is our largest office and Charlotte is our second largest. Our new locations are starting to get some traction.
CEOCFO: What are some of the challenges when you have people in locations and it is a different atmosphere when you are not in one or two offices? As you start to go, how do you plan to keep the corporate culture and to be sure that each office is presenting the image that you want? Mr. Davis: I think it is simple. It is making sure that we hire the right office leaders in those particular markets. This begins with our vetting process – making sure we continue to grow a team with the same core values instilled over the past ten years. We have a software called Jive that we use for collaboration, and it helps keep our employees learn about what is happening in other offices, how the company is doing overall, clients that we are engaged with or would like to do business with, and articles relevant to our service offerings. It also reinforces our values, standardizes our collateral, and creates awareness across all our offices. It is key to making sure that everybody is on the same page. We also conduct “Town Hall” meetings to bring our teams together in one place and enable more interaction face-to-face.
CEOCFO: What surprised you as the business has grown, developed and prospered? Mr. Davis: The speed at which it has developed has surprised me. I think we have carved out a niche where our brand is getting more well-known and we are starting to get people to call us versus going out and pounding the pavement and beating the bushes to generate new business. I think that the biggest surprise has just been the rate of growth and the reception that our clients have had to the quality of work and the quality of our people.
CEOCFO: What have you learned over time? What might be different in how you approach a client or project that maybe five years ago you did not see and you have realized today? Mr. Davis: I think what we have learned and one thing that we have changed in our strategy is not to say yes to everything that comes our way. We cannot be all things to all clients, so we have narrowed down our core service offerings to five key areas, and we have narrowed down the types of clients that we go after.
CEOCFO: Do you know when you are first looking at a new client or project if they are the right fit for the company? Mr. Davis: Yes, I think so. I have been doing this for 25 years and there have been plenty of interactions where I can say this is probably not a client we want to work with at this juncture versus is this a client we want to partner with for the long term. It is all about people and the trust we build with our clients.
CEOCFO: Put it together. We reach many high-end executives monthly and many people who need services. Why Midtown Consulting Group? Mr. Davis: It is the number of the years of experience our people have. They have on average 15 years. Every single person we hire has three core skills. One is process improvement. In other words, they help companies document, analyze and define different processes to identify improvement opportunities. The other is program management and project management skills, so they can lead a small project or a large project that has multiple work streams. Lastly, there is change management – understanding the qualitative side of a particular project and making sure that people affected by the project are communicated to correctly and that they understand what change is coming down the road, why that change is happening, when it is going to happen and how they can benefit from it. You overlay that on top of our service offerings of business insights, intelligence, enterprise application optimization, information technology management, CFO services, regulatory compliance and risk management. You have an excellent mix of skills and subject matter expertise that gives a very practical approach that can be customized and put into action. We deliver actionable results to our clients. |
“[We] have an excellent mix of skills and subject matter expertise that gives a very practical approach that can be customized and put into action. We deliver actionable results to our clients.” - Moss Davis
Midtown Consulting Group
75 5th Street NW, Suite 342
www.midtowncg.com
|
||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Consulting Firms, Midtown Consulting Group, Business Services Companies, CEO Interviews 2014, Moss Davis, Collaborative, Client-Centric Management and Technology Consulting, service areas include: business intelligence, enterprise application optimization, IT management, regulatory compliance and risk management, and CFO services, Recent CEO Interviews, consultants focused on reducing operational complexity and optimizing core business processes, MCG helps leading organizations achieve a competitive advantage through the proper alignment of technology, personnel, and business strategy through management and technology consulting services, consultants with an average 15 years of experience and are able to come in with a very pragmatic, collaborative, client-centric approach thus enabling our clients to bridge the gap between strategy and execution, help client through a transformation event in making significant changes to the business operations of the company or technology that they have in place. They may want to look at new technology or shore up existing technology, review their business processes and figure out how they can reduce cost or figure out how they can make their processes more efficient or start to generate more revenue, Midtown Consulting Group Press Releases, News, Companies looking for venture capital, Angel Investors, private companies looking for investors, business services companies seeking investors, consulting companies needing investment capital, midtown consulting group facebook, linkedin |
|||
|
|
|||
Moss
Davis