CONSULTANTS play an important role in today’s business environment, as they offer valuable advice on how business organizations can thrive in the digital age.
Nevertheless, the hiring the right consultants is not going to be easy because of various factors such as work ethic, backgrounds and mindsets. Moreover, the result will be a jumble of recommendations that may be good in the short term but may falter on the long term.
Two young lady entrepreneurs have realized there is a need to bring an integrated platform approach to consulting in the local market. This has led Lea Remulla-Maté and Arlyn Riego de Dios-Aliño to establish Masterminds Business Collective Co., or Masterminds, on May 8 last month.
“We identified inefficiency in the corporate landscape in relation to the way outsourced work is contracted and facilitated. Often, a business will hire unrelated consultants to fulfill a certain need or address a particular concern,” Masterminds cofounder Remulla-Maté said in an e-mail interview.
“Masterminds also streamline the identification and selection process of outside providers. A way of looking at Masterminds is an outsourced management team composed of A-players. The platform allows organizations to ‘build their own team’ of professionals who are great at what they do, speak the same language, and are able to deliver the best results through their collective power,” Aliño told the BusinessMirror in the same e-mail interview.
Before, Remulla-Maté worked as a business and marketing consultant for small and medium businesses in the Philippines and abroad, while Aliño was a director for human resources in the hospitality industry and an organizational systems development specialist.
For organizations, Remulla-Maté said, Masterminds provides support and services for all stages of the business lifecycle, from business ideation, registration and incorporation (through Masterminds’s lawyer), launch, growth, transformation and through to exit. Using the Masterminds platform, she said, entrepreneur, start-ups, small and medium enterprises and family businesses can develop their own team of well-educated, experienced and level-headed consultants who are all experts in their own fields.
Masterminds also provides coaching, consulting and matchmaking services to help organizations focus on the right things to become more productive and profitable by ensuring they stay relevant in the current business environment.
For entrepreneurs, Remulla-Maté said, Masterminds can help them jump to any point of the business lifecycle. Meanwhile, it can assist start-ups, and even established businesses, on the crossroad to take that next big leap.
Aliño said the company can assist growing organizations to teach their people to prepare for that big leap toward growth.
“We can also offer organizations a fresh perspective for more efficient operations. For brands, we can develop the right perception for their marker to achieve their desired position,” she said.
Masterminds combine the traditional and digital solutions to ensure effective products, efficient operations and productive people. Remulla-Maté said the company is aware that each organization is unique and the requirements for digital solutions will vary depending on the nature of the business and the industry in which organization operates. However, Masterminds recognize that each organization will eventually have to adopt more digital tools and automated processes to be relevant, profitable and operationally efficient in the current business environment.
Aliño said Masterminds sees a great opportunity in the digital age as technology has disrupted the business environment and the effects are being felt by businesses in varying degrees, depending on their respective industries.
For some industries, she said, digital disruption has had such a big impact forcing some businesses to rethink their business models, while some businesses only needed to make slight tweaks to their operations and marketing. Either way, she also pointed out that the business environment has changed significantly over the years and businesses that want to gain and maintain competitive advantage need to integrate digital solutions to their businesses.
Masterminds’s core team is composed of 18 professionals who have different expertise and have a vast experience helping organizations achieve their goals. All the professionals have studied in highly rated schools in the Philippines as well as abroad. Moreover, the professionals in the network also boast of hands-on experience having worked in reputable companies here and abroad.
Remulla-Maté revealed that Masterminds will be opening up the platform for subscription to highly skilled professionals who share their mission of using data to guide the development of business strategies and well informed business decisions.
Professionals who seek out Masterminds will have to undergo vetting process to ensure that they are qualified and have the same mind-set and attitude as the rest of the team. “Masterminds will then give the training and administration support to help these professionals build their brand, sharpen their skills and build their portfolio of consulting clients,” she said.
At any given time, she said the company tries to maintain only one or two active clients to ensure the quality of their services. Only when a service has been completed can a professional move on to another project.
Presently, Masterminds has a network of 18 professionals with different expertise and four support team members to address the varying needs of an organization at all stages of the business lifecycle. The company’s recommendations always consider the organizational vision, mission, values and objectives and are based on careful analysis of
available data.
Based on their observations, Remulla-Maté said an organization usually allocates 5 percent to 15 percent of revenue on learning and development programs alone. More organizations, from varying industries, are also outsourcing services that they do not have time or skills to execute. Hiring consultants and coaching services is a norm.
“The demand is definitely there. What makes Masterminds different from other consulting firms is that we offer an integrated approach to consulting with services to address all the needs of an organization at all the stages of the business lifecycle,” she pointed out.
“There is also that untapped need to provide a platform for highly competent professionals. We can provide the avenue where a professional can put oneself out there with a brand that clients can trust but without the hassle of administrative work,” Aliño said.