Now comfortably in the “silly season”, it might appear to be easier to delay the business to-do list for later down the track.
However, Elixir Consulting managing director Sue Viskovic has highlighted that many practices go into the new year with recurring pain points that need rectifying — and most aren’t keen on a repeat offence the year thereafter.
“We often find with our new clients, the new year is the time that they bring us in,” Ms Viskovic said.
“They’ve kind of limped over the line at the end of the year and go, ‘you know what, I don’t want another year like that. I’m finally going to pick up the phone and get you guys in to help us’.”
“Quite often in January we’ll be working with a lot of new clients, and they sort of then get into these good habits and they’ll be operating with them. Then they move their strategic plan into the financial year.”
According to Ms Viskovic, there are a number of standout concerns that advice firms may inadvertently let simmer over the course of the year.
She recounted a recent client interaction, wherein the CEO of a firm that was experiencing steady growth noted, nonetheless, that his practice lacked a regular cadence for strategic planning.
“[The CEO] said…‘we get caught up in what’s actually going on in the business, and it seems to be this vortex of operational stuff. Then we look up and go, oh gosh, we haven’t come back to the table again and made these conscious decisions’,” Ms Viskovic detailed.
“He was saying, ‘we really value having that independent facilitator to make sure that we come back to the table on a regular basis, because we have achieved great things and we want to achieve more’.”
Meanwhile, Ms Viskovic said the firms that have comparatively “limped over the line to Christmas” may similarly be looking towards the new year as the time to facilitate a change in pace for the business.
“It might be pricing, and a lot of the stuff we’re talking about at the moment is efficiency and trying to build the capacity of these teams to be able to service clients and handle the growth that they’re getting.”
Developing a people and culture strategy that complements business growth, Ms Viskovic added, may also be an underlying trigger point that advisory firms should keep across.
“A lot of firms sort of grow their business with great people. And then they get to a certain point where the team is of a size that they need to have a little bit more of a conscious focus on building a culture intentionally and trying to recruit people.
“It’s difficult in this market. And I think that’s when a lot of them are realising that, actually, they could do this a lot better,” she concluded.
A very good observation as most people these days take the time off to rest up and have a slow or slowish start to their new year on their return mid January? I am pleased to sit in the office at this quiet time and consider the past year in thinking about the year ahead. If I provided the right contribution to my business last year, performance will have improved? On the other hand, if business performance did not improve in the way I hoped, I have to change my approach in 2024 to impact the numbers i want improved? I always have a rational in my approach to improvement management.