eBusiness Weekly
Our business reporter (BR) sat down with Ethel Kuuya (EK), the founder and managing director of Advisory K to talk about the impact of this partnership.
BR: How significant is this partnership for Advisory K?
EK: Firstly and importantly, we would not be here without the support of our clients, who since our inception in 2014, believed in a small firm, a small team with big ideas and strong skills. I’d like to thank all of our clients, partners, and suppliers. We look forward to continuing to work together and achieving great things. When Mercer chose us as the most suitable partner for them in this market, we were naturally very honoured to receive such an endorsement. We have been able to build a strong track record of quality and so we are excited that we will be able to do more, and positively impact the careers of our team.
BR: What does this partnership mean for your clients?
EK: Mercer is the world leader in talent solutions, and essentially we are able to marry their world class solutions with our local expertise and provide our clients with deep support in two key platforms. The first being organisational transformation and change management. We can take on large change management, restructuring and organisation transformation projects which are supported by our access to a network of over 20 000 professionals world wide. The second platform is that we are better equipped to help clients improve their ability to attract, develop and retain talent through our own expertise which is strengthened by Mercer’s technology and best practice methodologies around executive compensation, workforce rewards, talent mobility, HR transformation, and employee communication.
BR: Let’s talk about the first platform. When you say transformation, what does that entail and who does it benefit?
EK: If we look at successful companies the world over, they do two things well — continually evolve and improve their strategy and value delivery, and create great cultures that people can thrive. Advisory K’s view on transformation is that we help the company chart a course to these two success elements. From the crafting of a strategy to supporting the implementation of the strategy we create strong structures, processes and systems for the organisation to embed continuous improvement and innovation. In reference to building great cultures, we offer organisations the opportunity to define the culture they need – not just the one they want – and then we design the infrastructure to make change happen and last. To answer your question on the benefit, we work with mapping benefits to all stakeholders. There are no employees that don’t enjoy a great place to work, and there are no employers that want a failing organisation. When we can connect these two, then we have kick-started the birthing of a better business for our client.
BR: The second platform is related to culture and talent management — is this not another fad, there is so much talent management talk, is it really a tangible business factor?
EK: The best way to decide the importance of talent management is to ponder the effects of its absence. What you will have is a workforce that is not fit for purpose, unmotivated, outdated skill-set and so disengaged that they become active saboteurs of the organisation. On the other hand, if you invest in selecting the right people and creating a connected framework of interventions and tools that address both their emotional well being and their competency levels, what you get is a more engaged workforce who can exercise discretionary effort and improve performance.
BR: Shifting our attention to recent development in the country, what do you think organisations should be doing differently in the changed environment and how can they succeed?
EK: It is very hard to generate – out of thin air — the amount of energy that has been created; and therefore organisations need to harness this short window of opportunity and start deep conversations around strategy, culture and transformation. The time to change is now. When the macro environment shifts, it is only prudent – at the very least — to introspect. A picture of success would be to work on the trio of factors that influence change — strategy, culture and structure — simultaneously. Leaving one out will dilute the effects of the other.
BR: How does the services of research and analytics tie in with your offering?
EK: Research and analytics are actually a pre-cursor to the work we do around strategy organisation and people. Too many strategies are planned with too little knowledge around the customer, the market and the economy. It was this understanding that led us to focus on helping our clients know more, so they can do more. Our focus is on working with what is known and building a predictive picture that helps organisations design ever more impactful value propositions for their clients. By analysing their data we can unlock hidden insights they have been collecting over time, and when we combine that with market research we can provide decision making data to our clients.
BR: Lastly, why Executive Search?
EK Over time we have developed a keen understanding of the quality of leaders that organisations need to succeed, and we also have a good network of exceptional talent in senior positions, regionally and internationally. Our approach to executive search is unique, discreet wide reaching and this improves the pool of choice for our clients.
