SMEs Believe in the Added Value of Consulting
22 December 2008
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Souad Filal, a sociologist, heads the consulting firm Delta Management. For twenty years, she has worked as a business consultant and is also the author of numerous books. In this interview, she discusses the evolution of her profession and analyzes how business leaders view consulting. For her, it's clear: SMEs believe in the added value of consulting.
- L’Economiste: How do business leaders view a consultant today?
- Souad Filal: I can only speak from my own experience. The consultant is seen as the manager's companion, helping them achieve their goals faster and more reliably thanks to proven experience and methodology. They offer an outside perspective, providing objective and benevolent neutrality—a mirror reflecting reality, allowing for action with the necessary precautions and controlled risk. Therefore, they are a catalyst and facilitator of change.
Management consulting is a journey where consultant and client reflect and support each other in a dynamic of progress, bringing out the best in themselves by accepting risks, errors, uncertainties, constraints, doubts, and hesitations, as well as their creative potential. It's like a quest; you move forward, but it's never linear.
- Consultants are sometimes criticized for "selling air" and resorting to copy-pasting…
- As with any profession, there are good and less good professionals. In consulting, you can't last long if you're not credible. Again, I can only speak from our experience over the last twenty years. We avoid taking the easy way out. In each of our interventions—recruitment, training, consulting, coaching—we focus on bespoke solutions, analyzing existing factors, objectives, constraints, opportunities, and challenges…
Whether it's job descriptions, candidate assessments, or skills assessments, we've developed our own personality, motivation, self-esteem, and leadership questionnaires that consider the characteristics of Moroccan culture and the socio-professional environment of Moroccan businesses.
Regarding training, we take care to understand the target audience's needs and characteristics, as well as the company's culture, to adapt the content, program, and active teaching methods as effectively as possible. In management consulting, we use a systemic approach, considering both the explicit and implicit aspects of the organization's various stakeholders through interviews and group meetings. These are analyzed to provide the most accurate and comprehensive content analysis possible, identifying key elements for diagnosis and action planning. The underlying client request can be summarized as: "What can we do to improve?"—that is, to be more efficient, more responsive, and more effective.
- Have SMEs grasped the importance of consulting?
- Using consulting services is a slow, complex, and winding process. However, it has become established in Morocco over the last two decades. The significant emergence of consulting firms in various fields—marketing, management, human resources management, coaching, communication, auditing, finance, etc.—shows that SMEs have understood the added value of consulting: reliability, time savings, and expertise.
Consultants facilitate decision-making towards changes that benefit organizations because they bring knowledge of realities, not just analytical methods. They can even have a decisive influence, provided they are neither a placebo nor a scapegoat. Their best service is managing the transition from a perilous situation to a dynamic equilibrium, while maintaining a critical role.
The added value of consulting is also measured by the intensity and relevance of the skills transfer between consultant and client. The consultant doesn't just analyze the problem perceived by the manager or the expected response to give a "pleasant" presentation. They provide value-added intelligence and encourage awareness so that the workplace becomes fertile ground for developing the potential of the men and women who work there.
Twenty years of working with leaders
• Delta Management values its "human scale"
• Three development areas: well-being, outplacement, and skills assessments
Twenty years after its creation, Delta Management has witnessed the changes in Moroccan businesses. However, the firm initially worked with the public sector. "Our first client was the Ministry of Equipment," reveals Souad Filal, CEO of Delta Management.
The Ministry of Equipment was a pioneer in modernizing work methods in the administration, helped by the culture of engineers and the will of the then-minister, Meziane Belfqih. Delta Management's experts conducted psychoprofessional evaluations of executives appointed to positions of responsibility.
This gradually led to "projects" in human resources management: developing job descriptions/profiles of key functions, streamlining recruitment procedures, formalizing the onboarding and integration system, developing a training plan, transparent career management, etc. This partnership, which extended to the Ministry of Equipment's satellite organizations, lasted ten years—undoubtedly the most significant experience in this SME's early stages.
Around twenty consultants, including the CEO's daughter, Ghita Filal, a work psychologist, work under the Delta Management banner. All are specialists in various fields: ergonomics, psychology, law, coaching, sociology, personal development, human resources, IT, etc.
• The next basis of competitiveness
Despite its growth, this consulting SME wants to maintain its human scale, insists CEO Souad Filal. This is essential for maintaining human contact with the client, she explains.
The firm has expanded from recruitment and psychoprofessional assessments to a range of management consulting services, with a strong presence in the private sector.
The management's goal is to develop activities in workplace well-being consulting, skills assessments, and outplacement. The CEO of Delta Management speaks passionately about it. She says this is the only way the company can endure.
Themes related to personal development in the company will become increasingly important: coaching, conflict management, non-violent communication, time management, stress management, creativity, teamwork…
Souad Filal is convinced that the pursuit of well-being will underpin the company's competitiveness. And facts are starting to prove her right: A call center in Rabat has created a stir in the sector by providing a crèche for its employees and a gym.
Published January 21, 2008
L’économiste du 14 janvier 2008
Souad Filal, a sociologist, heads the consulting firm Delta Management. For twenty years, she has worked as a business consultant and is also the author of numerous books. In this interview, she discusses the evolution of her profession and analyzes how business leaders view consulting. For her, it's clear: SMEs believe in the added value of consulting.
- L’Economiste: How do business leaders view a consultant today?
- Souad Filal: I can only speak from my own experience. The consultant is seen as the manager's companion, helping them achieve their goals faster and more reliably thanks to proven experience and methodology. They offer an outside perspective, providing objective and benevolent neutrality—a mirror reflecting reality, allowing for action with the necessary precautions and controlled risk. Therefore, they are a catalyst and facilitator of change.
Management consulting is a journey where consultant and client reflect and support each other in a dynamic of progress, bringing out the best in themselves by accepting risks, errors, uncertainties, constraints, doubts, and hesitations, as well as their creative potential. It's like a quest; you move forward, but it's never linear.
- Consultants are sometimes criticized for "selling air" and resorting to copy-pasting…
- As with any profession, there are good and less good professionals. In consulting, you can't last long if you're not credible. Again, I can only speak from our experience over the last twenty years. We avoid taking the easy way out. In each of our interventions—recruitment, training, consulting, coaching—we focus on bespoke solutions, analyzing existing factors, objectives, constraints, opportunities, and challenges…
Whether it's job descriptions, candidate assessments, or skills assessments, we've developed our own personality, motivation, self-esteem, and leadership questionnaires that consider the characteristics of Moroccan culture and the socio-professional environment of Moroccan businesses.
Regarding training, we take care to understand the target audience's needs and characteristics, as well as the company's culture, to adapt the content, program, and active teaching methods as effectively as possible. In management consulting, we use a systemic approach, considering both the explicit and implicit aspects of the organization's various stakeholders through interviews and group meetings. These are analyzed to provide the most accurate and comprehensive content analysis possible, identifying key elements for diagnosis and action planning. The underlying client request can be summarized as: "What can we do to improve?"—that is, to be more efficient, more responsive, and more effective.
- Have SMEs grasped the importance of consulting?
- Using consulting services is a slow, complex, and winding process. However, it has become established in Morocco over the last two decades. The significant emergence of consulting firms in various fields—marketing, management, human resources management, coaching, communication, auditing, finance, etc.—shows that SMEs have understood the added value of consulting: reliability, time savings, and expertise.
Consultants facilitate decision-making towards changes that benefit organizations because they bring knowledge of realities, not just analytical methods. They can even have a decisive influence, provided they are neither a placebo nor a scapegoat. Their best service is managing the transition from a perilous situation to a dynamic equilibrium, while maintaining a critical role.
The added value of consulting is also measured by the intensity and relevance of the skills transfer between consultant and client. The consultant doesn't just analyze the problem perceived by the manager or the expected response to give a "pleasant" presentation. They provide value-added intelligence and encourage awareness so that the workplace becomes fertile ground for developing the potential of the men and women who work there.
Twenty years of working with leaders
• Delta Management values its "human scale"
• Three development areas: well-being, outplacement, and skills assessments
Twenty years after its creation, Delta Management has witnessed the changes in Moroccan businesses. However, the firm initially worked with the public sector. "Our first client was the Ministry of Equipment," reveals Souad Filal, CEO of Delta Management.
The Ministry of Equipment was a pioneer in modernizing work methods in the administration, helped by the culture of engineers and the will of the then-minister, Meziane Belfqih. Delta Management's experts conducted psychoprofessional evaluations of executives appointed to positions of responsibility.
This gradually led to "projects" in human resources management: developing job descriptions/profiles of key functions, streamlining recruitment procedures, formalizing the onboarding and integration system, developing a training plan, transparent career management, etc. This partnership, which extended to the Ministry of Equipment's satellite organizations, lasted ten years—undoubtedly the most significant experience in this SME's early stages.
Around twenty consultants, including the CEO's daughter, Ghita Filal, a work psychologist, work under the Delta Management banner. All are specialists in various fields: ergonomics, psychology, law, coaching, sociology, personal development, human resources, IT, etc.
• The next basis of competitiveness
Despite its growth, this consulting SME wants to maintain its human scale, insists CEO Souad Filal. This is essential for maintaining human contact with the client, she explains.
The firm has expanded from recruitment and psychoprofessional assessments to a range of management consulting services, with a strong presence in the private sector.
The management's goal is to develop activities in workplace well-being consulting, skills assessments, and outplacement. The CEO of Delta Management speaks passionately about it. She says this is the only way the company can endure.
Themes related to personal development in the company will become increasingly important: coaching, conflict management, non-violent communication, time management, stress management, creativity, teamwork…
Souad Filal is convinced that the pursuit of well-being will underpin the company's competitiveness. And facts are starting to prove her right: A call center in Rabat has created a stir in the sector by providing a crèche for its employees and a gym.
Published January 21, 2008
L’économiste du 14 janvier 2008
