A lot of international and Russian companies have to spend millions of dollars trying keep or improve their situation on the Russian market by investing into the activities designed to raise their efficiency and get better performance indicators. In order to achieve these goals, owners or top management of such companies, as a rule, invite quite expensive international and/or Russian consultants to develop and implement Strategic Business Initiatives, such as:

• IPO Preparation
• M&A Deals/Due Diligence
• JV Creation
• Corporate Management Reorganization
• Business Restructuring
• Re-branding
• IT Strategy/ IT System Integration
• HR Strategy
• Investment Strategy/Management
• Risk Management
• Business Value Management
• Continuous Change Management/Optimization Function
• Strategic International Projects Management
• Reputation Management
• Cost Management
• Corporate Management Reporting System
• Strategic Planning
• Budgeting
• Accounting Consolidation and Fast Close Reporting
• Strategic Controlling System on Behalf of the Owner
• ERP/CRM/BSC Implementation
• Business Processes Reengineering
• Benchmarking
• Lean Production/6 Sigma, etc.

According to the current estimates, up to 70% of such initiatives fail to reach the expected goals. About 23% may be considered to get satisfactory results, while only 7% are a real success. Failures may be accounted for by various reasons, the main being as follows:
• Initially, the Customer sets up unrealistic, wrong or improper targets.
• The Customer itself does not know what he may really expect as a result of these Initiatives.
• The Strategic Initiatives contradict to each other.
• The Initiatives run counter to the Core Business Strategy.
• The consultants neglect the synergy in the Strategic Initiatives results.
• The consultants develop a Strategic Initiative "as is" without adjusting it to the real situation on the market or to the trends in the company.
• The Customer is not ready to accept the innovation.
• The consultants develop the Strategic Initiative, but do not take responsibility for its implementation.
• The implementation may also go wrong for various reasons: the Strategic Initiative documents have not been prepared well, or they are not clear to the Customer, the Customer lacks necessary experience, the consultants can not explain clearly what should be done in order to adjust the Strategic Initiative results to the real situation, there’s a bad Customer relationship management, etc.

That’s why Independent Consulting Group (ICG) assists its clients in developing and implementing these and other Strategic Business Initiatives in the following way. Being Independent Consultants, which means that we are absolutely impartial in our judgments, we provide Consulting Services Audit for the Customers within the framework of corresponding projects. Such Audit includes analysis and assessment of the proposals and of all materials related to the Strategic Business Initiatives development and implementation prepared and made by international and Russian consultancies, as well as working out of corresponding recommendations to the Customer.

Independent Consulting Group helps its Customers understand if they really can achieve their goals through these Initiatives, if the targets are crystal clear to the consultants, whether the consultants can really offer the right solution to the problems facing the Customers, if the deliverables furnished by the consultants really meet the Customers’ requirements and are in line with the project tasks. Thus, our services are supposed to let our Customers reduce the cost of consulting projects related to the development and implementation of strategic business initiatives while getting the best possible deliverables from the hired international and/or Russian consultants within the framework of these projects.

These words by Thomas Steams Eliot to a great extend may be referred to the deliverables presented by many consultants, both Russian and international, to their clients. That’s why we offer Quality Assurance (QA) Services to the consultancies involved in such Strategic Business Initiatives projects. QA will allow the consultancies present the materials to be understood and accepted by Russian or/and international customers. QA includes content, semantic (logic), as well as linguistic analyses of project deliverables.

Both Consulting Services Audit and Quality Assurance tasks are performed only on the basis of corresponding Confidentiality Agreements. But, for the avoidance of any ambiguity or doubt, if Independent Consulting Group is in charge of Consulting Services Audit for some Customer under a specific project, it cannot provide QA Services to the interested consultancies involved into the same project, and vice versa.

Brief Summary

Thus, Independent Consulting Group renders two different types of services within the framework of strategic initiatives projects - Consulting Services Audit for the Customers and Quality Assurance of project documents for the consultants. It’s vitally important that within the framework of a specific project ICG may offer only one type of services – either audit or quality assuarance.

Objective of Consulting Services Audit is to give our Customer crystal clear and complete understanding of what the Customer may really expect from the Strategic Business Initiatives proposed by various consultancies, both Russian and international, in terms of feasibility of expected investments and corresponding projects’ results.

Tasks of Consulting Services Audit:
• Provide independent expert opinion on the proposals and materials related to the Strategic Business Initiatives development and implementation presented to the Customer by the interested consultancies at the initial stage of relative projects
• Work out necessary recommendations to the Customer on further steps under Strategic Business Initiatives projects
• Provide effective support to the Customer in the implementation of the Strategic Business Initiatives in terms of assisting the Customer with the acceptance of the deliverables presented by the consultancies involved into Strategic Business Initiatives development and implementation projects.

Basic deliverables of Consulting Services Audit:
• Report on the results of analysis of the proposals and materials related to the Strategic Business Initiatives development and implementation presented to the Customer by the interested consultancies at the initial stage of relative projects
• Recommendations to the Customer on further steps under Strategic Business Initiatives projects
• Independent expert opinion to be taken into consideration by the Customer during acceptance of the deliverables presented by the consultancies involved into Strategic Business Initiatives development and implementation projects.

Objective of Quality Assurance (QA) Services is to support international and/or Russian consultancies in adjusting their proposals, presentations, correspondence and other materials related to the Strategic Business Initiatives development and implementation projects (jointly referred to as “Project Documents”) to Russian or/and international clients’ needs in order to get them be understood and accepted by these clients.

Tasks of Quality Assurance (QA) Services:
• Insure high quality of all Strategic Business Initiatives development and implementation project documentation delivered by international and/or Russian consultancies to their customers under corresponding Strategic Business Initiatives projects (by proof reading, as well as by making subject-matter review, semantic (logic) and linguistic analyses of the proposals, presentations, correspondence and of other project materials)
• Work out necessary recommendations to the consultancies on further improvement of the subject-matter and introduction of Strategic Business Initiatives projects’ deliverables
• Provide effective support to international and/or Russian consultancies in delivering their project results to the customers in order to facilitate the acceptance procedures.

Basic deliverables of Quality Assurance (QA) Services:
• Revised and amended documentation on Strategic Business Initiatives development and implementation project designed delivered by consultancies to their customers under corresponding Strategic Business Initiatives projects
• Recommendations to the consultancies on further improvement of the subject-matter and presentation of Strategic Business Initiatives projects’ deliverables
• Project deliverables prepared by international and/or Russian consultancies with assistance of Independent Consulting Group and accepted by the corresponding clients.

How to proceed?

1. If interested in these or other services provided by Independent Consulting Group, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us via e-mail: Этот адрес e-mail защищен от спам-ботов. Чтобы увидеть его, у Вас должен быть включен Java-Script , or by phone: +7 (499) 501 64 17 (multichannel), or by Skype – independent.consulting

2. We’ll specify your needs and will offer you to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).

3. You will prepare a Request for Proposal (RFP). Since correct target and tasks are crucial for the future cooperation and success, you may rely on our assistance in preparation of the RFP too.

4. We’ll prepare a draft Proposal to be discussed with you.

5. When we come to general terms of cooperation, a draft Consulting Services Agreement (CSA) shall be jointly prepared and discussed.

6. The project starts as soon as the CSA is signed by the Parties.

7. The project is over when both Parties have fully fulfilled their obligations under the CSA.