We work with boards, business leaders and people at all levels focusing on the critical elements that will lead to organisational success. Our expertise enables us to focus on an organisation’s total business life-cycle, through to small process based changes that enhance performance.
Through creating business excellence, we provide:
Acumen are adept in supporting businesses define, review and set their direction. Our experience extends from working with ASX companies, State and Local Government bodies, through to small to medium organisations. We bring our personal experience of having led and managed complex businesses together with our knowledge and skills in team facilitation, planning concepts and frameworks to assist clients define their direction and strategies for continued success.
Our services extend to:
- Corporate Planning: we assist many leading organisations with planning - be it strategic planning with executives and boards, business unit planning with senior managers, or smaller team-based planning with managers and their staff. Our whole of business approach encompasses exploring external and internal strategy options and defining how best to succeed.
- Market / Business Analysis and Strategy Development: we undertake market research, environmental scanning and customer research, entry/exit assessments, market opportunities, competitor, supplier and partner analysis. Our aim is to provide reliable knowledge and information to inform the evaluation of options and selection of fit for purpose strategies.
Our strength is in integrating direction with people, processes and systems. We actively work with leaders to communicate plans, goals and objectives and engage with staff in building alignment and commitment to a better future.
We work with leadership groups to gain clarity around accountability for decision making and performance relating to people, finances, assets, information, community relations and business administration. We build understanding and commitment around roles, responsibilities and relationships and translate corporate and business objectives into individual performance agreements and development plans.
Our services extend to:
- Developing policies, standards and guidelines which promote and support effective decision making and ensure good governance and best practice.
- Developing and implementing Codes of Conduct (personal and business), regulatory requirements and expectations into existing operations. We design and deliver training to educate and inform staff on best practice ethics and business integrity.
- Defining and setting performance criteria, targets and measurement - We develop management frameworks which include performance setting, reporting regimes and measures to monitor and review achievement towards agreed objectives.
- Developing and implementing communication channels and tools that inform and educate all staff and stakeholders on achievements, progress and performance.
We actively seek to align plans (at all levels) with people and through gaining understanding and commitment, we define actions that deliver sustainable results.
We employ a pragmatic and tailored approach to every client engagement. Our focus considers business wide and / or individual departmental operations to build improvements that lift business performance. We support our clients with alignment and performance improvement initiatives across a range of areas, including:
- Business and operating models - to align strategic intent with business capabilities and structure, and the integration of all players (e.g. partners, suppliers etc) in the delivery of your business.
- Organisational structures – design, evaluation and selection of structural options to align people to strategy.
- Program management and resource allocation – defining and aligning corporate initiatives and ensuring a balance in resourcing core business and business improvements. We assist leaders to invest in managing what is important.
Acumen is capable of guiding and supporting you communicate and engage with your people, partners and suppliers to achieve an aligned organisation that delivers results.
We work with many organisations in exploring and defining what is critical for ensuring current and future success. Our integrated approach carefully seeks to understand and consider how people, processes and systems work together to deliver value. Our methodologies also consider the importance of assets and suppliers / partners in service delivery.
Our services include:
- Defining knowledge, skills and capabilities required by the business and how best to arrange them in organisational structures. We undertake research into industry best practice and bring informed advice to guide management decisions concerning core intellectual knowledge for business delivery.
- Evaluating Service delivery options (e.g. outsourcing, partnering, supply chain options) and business enhancement options.
- Business process redesign – through process mapping, re-engineering or enabling technologies. We work with client teams to evaluate processes and generate and test new ideas and opportunities.
- Research and evaluation of information systems and technologies to support business operations. We are not aligned with any software or hardware provider and offer an independent view.
We do not believe in reinventing the wheel and wasting your time and resources. Our extensive experience enables us to bring proven ideas and solutions to your business challenge.
Many of our clients operate successful businesses – but to remain successful they need to continuously improve.
Acumen has proven success in working constructively with leading organisations to plan and manage change projects that transform organisations. We employ proven practices and methodologies across the following services to ensure our clients succeed in their project and change objectives:
- Change strategy facilitation and planning - we work with our clients on designing appropriate change strategies and implementation plans. Our services include undertaking change readiness assessments (and cultural surveys) and identifying key elements for change, developing integrated plans and milestones to guide any transition or transformation.
- Change impact and risk management assessments - we recognise that change requires significant investment – not just money, but the commitment of management and employees and other resources. Our approach incorporates the regular assessment and evaluation of progress, risk and potential barriers to change.
- Stakeholder management and communications – we put people first. Our approach strongly emphasises communication and engagement of stakeholders.
- Learning and development - we ensure your people are equipped to continually and effectively address your business improvement requirements. Our approach is to provide guidance and support when needed, sharing our knowledge and building the capability of those we work with.
