If your company or organization is striving to succeed in a dynamic and changing environment, you often need a fresh perspective. That’s where Western Management Consultants (WMC) and its team of over 50 professionals come in.

For 28 years, the folks at WMC have been helping executives and business leaders achieve their organizational goals with creative and innovative approaches to general and strategic management, human resource management, information technology management and executive search. Their offices in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Saskatoon and Toronto help support sharing of ideas across the country.

“These days there’s also a lot of emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures and reorganizations – things that dramatically affect the fabric of an organization. Whenever you have a lot of change, you often need help with it,” says Mauro Meneghetti, Managing Director in Calgary.

Whether large or small, for-profit or not-for-profit, from health care to the oil patch, organizations often need help managing the shifting environments of growth, shrinkage, competition, human resources strategies and new markets.

“In this environment, it’s crucial for an organization to be audible ready,” stresses Allen Snart, National Director.

Kim Murch-Francis, left, and Allen Snart, of Western Management Consultants in Edmonton, customize their advice to fit their clients.

“This sports concept makes sense because, winning teams have to be ready to adapt instantly to the changing conditions on the field and adapt when the set plays aren’t working.” In sports, this is done through “audible” calls that redirect the team’s activity.

“The same applies to successful organizations,” adds Snart, a 24-year veteran of management consulting. “When your leadership team looks at the present situation and into the future, things are not always what you were expecting. You need to be resilient and nimble, evaluate the new situation and adjust to the new challenges.” Leaders must also be aware of the social and business environment and respond quickly and cost effectively.

So why would one turn to outsiders for help? The key reasons are objectivity and expertise. WMC is an independent consulting organization that prides itself on building relationships with clients based on trust, integrity and objectivity.

“Companies trust our integrity and objectivity to help them to develop strategies that work as opposed to what’s cool or what’s the flavour of the month,” says John Steffensen, Managing Director in the Edmonton Office. “We tend to partner with our clients. We do things WITH them, not TO them.”

The foundation of WMC’s professional success is its people, the majority of whom are Certified Management Consultants, many of whom have senior leadership experience in large public and private-sector organizations. WMC’s focus is on understanding the client, their issues and the executive perspective, then working with them to create approaches and solutions that are specific to the client’s situation.

“We don’t have affiliations or other commercial relationships that dictate the use of specific products and services,” says WMC director Dale Hedges. “This allows us to keep our advice independent and objective.”

WMC is particularly proud of its track record of building long-term relationships with clients, the product of a consulting style that is sensitive to the uniqueness of each specific situation. This collaborative style contributes insights based on experience and relies on sound, timely advice – all in the interest of the client.

“Our experience ranges from short, group facilitations to leading multi-year, eight-figure projects,” adds Meneghetti. “There is pressure to excel not only in your own little world, but across the planet and that pushes people to make changes.”

In the final analysis, however, WMC believes such change has to come from within an organization. “This means that although the consultant may be the ‘catalyst of change,’ client staff will have to ‘buy in’ to recommendations,” says WMC director Robert Barrett.

“We are sensitive to the reactions that can occur when consultants are engaged and we gear our approach to work effectively with client staff and motivate them to bring about change.”

Adds Snart: “The client owns the business. We can assist, we can support, we can enable and we can facilitate, but the bottom line is that they’re running the organization. We succeed because our clients succeed.”

Management consulting is a service profession and the service WMC provides is helping their clients succeed. It is people building relationships with people to enable effective understanding and response to a dynamic and changing environment. “In any customer-service business, it all starts with the people and, if they feel good, empowered and enabled, they will bring that to their clients,” says Kim Murch-Francis, one of the Edmonton consultants.

If you look across the landscape of WMC throughout Canada, their people are in the profession because they enjoy it. “They love the client relationships, the camaraderie, the challenges that push those creative buttons and the freedom to consult,” says Snart. A lot of that has to do with the fact that they have minimal internal administration and bureaucracy, which allows them the flexibility to dedicate themselves fully to their clients’ success.

Western Management Consultants boasts diverse academic backgrounds – business administration, accounting, engineering, economics, management and behavioral sciences. “We bring a vast range of knowledge, experience and management consulting services that can be customized into engagements as small or large as required,” says Steffensen.

After 28 years of assisting diverse organizations in myriad circumstances, WMC is ‘audible ready’ and responsive. “We bring that experience and expertise to the service of our clients,” concludes Snart, “and we think that’s worth sharing.”