FIRE SQUAD
ADVISORY LEVERAGE
IS
ADVISORY BOARD ON CALL FOR YOU
Practical or Strategic Advice from Independent Experts
It is hard running a business, isn't it? And never more so than today.
Even if your business is successful you may worry it will withstand and grow.
“You are suffering under an enormous weight - we provide you the Leverage” - Nate Ford
Advisory Leverage
FIRE SQUAD
Firefighters say, that the first five minutes will determine the next five hours. It may not be the fire department you need when crisis erupts. But this is the time when prepared, dedicated assistance can make a lasting impact in your response, recovery, and long-term resilience.
A crisis tends to gather speed exponentially. And whatever the initial problem may be, it can quickly generate auxiliary challenges such as lack of clarity, inadequate decision-making time.
In a turbulent economy, businesses need to effectively manage critical events that have the potential to cause significant business interruption and generate extensive media coverage. Whether you are an executive or owner of an organization that is experiencing a business crisis, or an adviser or lender to one, PwC can help you respond to and control the situation. We offer a broad spectrum of services-with the ability to deploy a cross-border team-on a moment's notice.
Business recovery services
PwC' business recovery specialists are trained to:
- Rapidly identify problem areas,
- Gain cooperation and consensus,
- Resolve issues quickly and efficiently, and
- Implement solutions with sensitivity and precision.
Dispute analysis & investigations
As the economic downturn intensifies, the potential for disputes and other difficulties inevitably arise more frequently. Such challenges often involve diverse cultures and legal systems, as well as unfamiliar regulatory and accountability requirements. Our dispute analysis & investigations practice combines financial accounting skills with investigative rigor, deep industry knowledge, and some of the most advanced forensic technologies available-all on a global scale. Whether in the boardroom or the courtroom, our teams specialise in minimising business disruptions, financial loss, and reputational damage-and implementing effective remedial action.
Disaster recovery
When a financial, natural or human disaster strikes, PwC's local teams mobilise quickly to provide a wide range of assistance. Our professionals are trained to respond with sensitivity and support to both the emotional and economic turmoil that such events create. Working with both clients and public sector resources, our professionals focus on restoring your organisation’s stability and operational integrity rapidly and cost-effectively.
Advisory Leverage forms an Advisory Board for your business from a select group of “independent” people with wide range of expertize, who provide advice and support.
Advisory Board provides business with non-binding, non-biased strategic advice informal in nature, unlike board of directors.
Our Vision
No entrepreneur feels lonely and frustrated because he or she has nobody to talk "it" through whatever "it" might be.
Our Mission
Advisory Leverage enables business owners or managers to have access to an independent view and a “safe” place to discuss the issues of major significance such as
- encourage and support the exploration of new business idea and innovation,
- financial and business plan, operating and productivity matters.
- branding and marketing
- developing a social media strategy
- provide management advice about the direction the company should follow
We can provide one time problem solving support
or
Run a six months innovation project with your team
or
Keep regular quarterly meetings
We substitute a partner for the single-owner business,
We act as an advisor for the startup without equity participation,
We look out-of-the-box at your business issue that seems to be insurmountable.
Give us a shout – fill the form !
If you possess experience in some business area and would like to join our network of experts – please contact us, we are interested. Thank you.
So, how it goes?
It might be one the following:
Innovation Report
we leverage your current business situation by looking outwardly of your outer box with a fresh eye
Advisory Board / Nominal Partner meetings
we leverage your management team (yourself) by impartially evaluating your progress (past result and future plans) at regular intervals or at benchmarks
Brainstorming
we leverage your team creativity by a fresh pair of eyes of experts with dissimilar background
Ignition Session
we leverage you by a kick of freshness or by a call of duty
Idea Evaluation
we leverage your creative business imagination by a second inspiring opinion
Role of an Advisory Board According to Business Leaders:
It is not unusual for the CEO to be a “one-man band,” personally seeing to every detail and micromanaging his business. Isolated, he tends to manage everything himself.
An advisory board allows entrepreneurs to break free from their isolation and to have a sounding board to validate their strategies. An advisory board allows business leaders to question themselves and forces them to reflect.
The mission of an advisory board is to ask the most relevant questions and delve deeper into underlying issues.
It can also help compensate for weaknesses.
An entrepreneur who lacks financial expertise can benefit from the recommendations of an advisory board member who has financial expertise.
Moreover, an advisory board forces the leader to be prepared, triggering the thinking process: “When preparing, one often self-corrects one’s strategy.
Having an advisory board builds discipline.”
When would a small or medium business need an advisory board?
An advisory board may prove a valuable resource in any multitude of scenarios, including the following:
• A company experiencing rapid growth
• A company needing to raise funds
• A company wanting to build strategic partnerships
• A company facing major decisions and/or changes in direction, including entering new markets, products or
geography
• A company establishing more formal structures involving professional managers
• A company dealing with succession issues
• A company managing the development stages in the business and assisting with staff development
• A company facing challenges with other shareholders
• A company wanting to raise the level of strategic conversation in every aspect of the business
• A company with specific technical and functional issues
Why establish an advisory board?
An advisory board enables the owners or managers of the business to have access to an independent view and/or a “safe” place to discuss issues of major significance.
Advisory Board meetings are not meant to be a decision-making forum.
The role of the advisory board will evolve over time, but it is useful to document a charter to provide some direction for its members.
An Essential Tool
Entrepreneurs who had set up an advisory boards were asked to rate the advantages from one to 10. They gave the following ratings.
- An essential tool (8.2)
- Like having a sounding board (8.1)
- Allows you to develop a broader vision (8.0)
- Improves strategic business choices (8.0)
- Strengthens management’s convictions (8.0)
- Broadens the universe of knowledge and skills (7.8)
- Develops new ideas (7.8)
An Ambitious Vision for the Future
“I believe we are now headed to become a $5-million to $10-million company and that’s only possible because of the steps we’ve taken,” she says.
“If we hadn’t initiated an Advisory Board and grown in this way, we probably would have been a $1 million company forever, a mom-and-pop shop.”
