Businesses are comprised of people and aside from competencies what separates the people are VALUES. Since many of our consultants are former executives we used our collective good and bad past experiences in hiring consultants to govern which consultants would be recruited by our firm and which companies we would partner with. Our firm is based on the following core values:
- Straight Talk: Since the meltdown in 2008 we have seen an alarming trend that a disproportionate percentage of the leaders who survived weren’t the best or the most impactful, they were the most politically savvy – they managed up the best. We believe a consultant needs to provide honest feedback and actionable counsel even if at times the message isn’t always a positive one.
- Passion: Confucius once said “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”. Our consultants are passionate about providing thought leadership and working collegially with our clients to solve complex business problems.
- Listening: Since our founding in the early 1990’s, about 50% of the time a client calls with a problem they are talking about “symptoms”. We strongly believe active listening and collecting data are keys to separating the symptoms from root causes. Success is dependent upon not becoming an “order taker,” but executing business solutions that create financial impact for our clients.
- Sense of urgency: We are advocates of time based competition. Often in business the competitor that is able to execute more effectively and faster creates a lead that makes it difficult to catch up to. We believe a sense of urgency around honoring commitments, not getting caught up in bureaucracy, and completing tasks are the foundations of corporate entrepreneurialism. We picked the name Catalyst because a catalyst in a chemical reaction makes something happen much faster. We are able to get results for our clients in 40-50% less time.
- Results Focus: Every CCG project starts with the identification of a baseline of current performance and utilizes a scorecard of metrics to assess success in a tangible way. This helps us to focus our efforts and aligns our client’s resources to maximize the realization of targeted benefits.