Frequently Asked Questions
What does Gestaldt do?
Gestaldt is a management consulting company. We are hired by executives, managers and procurement leaders in the private and public sector to advice on strategy, human resources, finance, information technology, management development and other related organisational matters.
We are often asked to develop a new strategic plan to realise more growth, for instance, or commissioned to advise on innovation or cost reduction strategies. Implementing the proposed solutions also features among our tasks, and the execution side of our consulting forms the largest market for our management consultants.
Our assignments vary from improving the efficiency of business processes, the implementation of new IT systems, outsourcing of non-core tasks, or optimising the supply chain. We remain involved until change transitions are complete and new ways of working have become part of 'business as usual' operations.
We are often asked to develop a new strategic plan to realise more growth, for instance, or commissioned to advise on innovation or cost reduction strategies. Implementing the proposed solutions also features among our tasks, and the execution side of our consulting forms the largest market for our management consultants.
Our assignments vary from improving the efficiency of business processes, the implementation of new IT systems, outsourcing of non-core tasks, or optimising the supply chain. We remain involved until change transitions are complete and new ways of working have become part of 'business as usual' operations.
What industries does Gestaldt specialise in?
We take pride in our ability to learn the fundamentals of virtually any industry or technology quickly. Some of the markets we have served include telecommunications, financial services, gaming & entertainment, social & public, hospitality, education, and sports & recreation.
An added advantage is that our consultants are highly experienced after having spent over 20 years in conventional corporate positions in the public and private sector, and have acquired significant knowledge and understanding of different market places and industries.
An added advantage is that our consultants are highly experienced after having spent over 20 years in conventional corporate positions in the public and private sector, and have acquired significant knowledge and understanding of different market places and industries.
Does Gestaldt ever invest in its clients?
Why should we call in Gestaldt Consultants instead of doing it ourselves?
There are numerous projects in which partnering with our consultants can help your organisation create value more efficiently and effectively. As external providers, our consultants are frequently able to see concerns that stakeholders and individuals with too much organisational involvement cannot. So, why do clients hire our consultants?
Expertise
The main values of our consultants include their knowledge, expert skills, and influence. Because our consultants work with a variety of organisations, they may have a much broader and deeper knowledge of business trends, industry challenges, and new technologies and processes than internal employees.
Cost Savings
When you hire our consultant, you pay only for the services that you need, when you need them. This can provide substantial savings over hiring a salaried employee with the same level of expertise to complete similar tasks.
Further, our consultants in multiple areas—ERP services, talent management, financial advisory, etc.—can identify areas where you are currently spending more than you need to and help you cut costs.
Time Savings
The experience of our consultants means that they know best practices already. For example, our strategy consultant can look at a client’s business processes and very quickly identify inefficiencies. With our consultant, there is no need for organisations and leaders to reinvent the wheel or lose valuable time to something that can be completed by an expert Gestaldt Consultant.
Objectivity
Our consultants provide a useful distance from organisational challenges; they are not emotionally invested in operations in the same way that executives are and they can more easily identify and address challenges, whether the issue is strategy implementation, cultivating a high performance culture or managing diversity, equity and inclusion.
Our consultant’s objectivity can be especially important in high performance/aggressive targets organisations, where dynamics could be emotional and core problems more difficult to discuss.
Customisation
Our consultants do not offer a one-size-fits-all solution. Their value comes in learning about each client’s business and goals and tailoring advice and strategy consulting to the specific challenges that the organisation faces.
This customisation means that our consultant’s solutions are much more effective than generic advisory services. For example, our IT consultant can develop a new IT strategy or IT cyber-security approach to enable your organisation to meet its business objectives or overcome problems.
Expertise
The main values of our consultants include their knowledge, expert skills, and influence. Because our consultants work with a variety of organisations, they may have a much broader and deeper knowledge of business trends, industry challenges, and new technologies and processes than internal employees.
Cost Savings
When you hire our consultant, you pay only for the services that you need, when you need them. This can provide substantial savings over hiring a salaried employee with the same level of expertise to complete similar tasks.
Further, our consultants in multiple areas—ERP services, talent management, financial advisory, etc.—can identify areas where you are currently spending more than you need to and help you cut costs.
Time Savings
The experience of our consultants means that they know best practices already. For example, our strategy consultant can look at a client’s business processes and very quickly identify inefficiencies. With our consultant, there is no need for organisations and leaders to reinvent the wheel or lose valuable time to something that can be completed by an expert Gestaldt Consultant.
Objectivity
Our consultants provide a useful distance from organisational challenges; they are not emotionally invested in operations in the same way that executives are and they can more easily identify and address challenges, whether the issue is strategy implementation, cultivating a high performance culture or managing diversity, equity and inclusion.
Our consultant’s objectivity can be especially important in high performance/aggressive targets organisations, where dynamics could be emotional and core problems more difficult to discuss.
Customisation
Our consultants do not offer a one-size-fits-all solution. Their value comes in learning about each client’s business and goals and tailoring advice and strategy consulting to the specific challenges that the organisation faces.
This customisation means that our consultant’s solutions are much more effective than generic advisory services. For example, our IT consultant can develop a new IT strategy or IT cyber-security approach to enable your organisation to meet its business objectives or overcome problems.
What makes Gestaldt's management consulting services unique?
The Gestaldt Approach consistently acknowledges that organisations function as integrated units in which the individual members become subject to the larger psyche of the organisation. Thus, our expertise in management consulting has always considered coherent systems operating in an organisation.
Many projects produce change in one aspect of an organisation’s functioning that does not last or that proves counterproductive because it doesn’t mesh with other aspects of the system. If lower-level employees in one department assume new responsibilities, friction may result in another department. Or a new marketing strategy that makes great sense because of changes in the environment might flounder because of its unforeseen impact on production and scheduling.
Because such repercussions are likely, we help our clients recognise that unless our recommendations take into account the entire picture, they may be impossible to implement or may create future difficulties elsewhere in the organisation.
We are genuinely concerned with the organisation as a whole even when the immediate assignment is limited.
Many projects produce change in one aspect of an organisation’s functioning that does not last or that proves counterproductive because it doesn’t mesh with other aspects of the system. If lower-level employees in one department assume new responsibilities, friction may result in another department. Or a new marketing strategy that makes great sense because of changes in the environment might flounder because of its unforeseen impact on production and scheduling.
Because such repercussions are likely, we help our clients recognise that unless our recommendations take into account the entire picture, they may be impossible to implement or may create future difficulties elsewhere in the organisation.
We are genuinely concerned with the organisation as a whole even when the immediate assignment is limited.
What are the steps in Gestaldt's consultation process?
Every situation is unique and remember, each phase of our consultation process can be contracted individually. However, our common consulting phases include the following:
Phase 1: Assess
Phase one is what we call “Assess.”
In this phase, we assess the client’s situation and current condition. Requests for Proposal (RFPs) are valuable in this phase.
This first phase helps us understand:
This phase gives us clarity on how to progress through the rest of the consulting process.
The outcome — the deliverable from this — is that we are going to put together a high-level plan. This plan includes our recommendations.
Our clients highly appreciate this because they get a sense of where things are at and how best to move forward.
Phase 2: Plan
The second phase of our consulting process here is what we call “Plan.”
You might be thinking, “You just said plan in the 1st phase. What’s the difference?”
The difference is that the second phase is a much more detailed plan.
Instead of a high-level plan, think strategic recommendations. Think phase-by-phase.
In “Assess” we’re giving high-level recommendations and a high-level plan of what should come next.
In “Plan” we say, “Okay. We’ve done the initial assessment. Here’s what we know we need to do. Here’s what has to happen for this project to succeed.”
EXAMPLE: Let’s say our management consultant is working with an insurance company looking to get more clients.
In Phase 1, we assessed their marketing materials: their website, content, paid advertising, and social media. We provided them with a high-level assessment of what is wrong with their marketing and the opportunity for improvement.
In Phase 2, we will provide them with a specific, detailed, and tactical plan for how we’ll improve their marketing materials.
During “Plan”, we get into developing the specific, strategic, step-by-step plan of what’s going to happen during the next phase: the implementation.
Phase 3: Implementation
Next is what we call “Implementation” or “Implement.”
This is where we implement the strategic recommendations from Phase 2.
Continuing with our example.
In this phase, we’ll implement the plan to improve our client’s marketing.
EXAMPLE:
Depending on how we structure our service offer, we may or may not be the person doing the implementation.
In most cases, we’ll be guiding or advising the team responsible for implementation.
However, we don’t just implement a project and then we’re finished forever.
There are always going to be ways to refine, improve, and optimise the client’s situation.
That’s what the next phase, “Optimisation” is all about.
Phase 4: Optimisation
The final phase is one that sets us apart from many other consultants. It’s the “Optimisation” phase, and it’s powerful.
When we’re trying to improve something (like a client’s business), we don’t just do a single improvement and think that we’re done.
There are always ways to refine, improve, and optimise. That’s what this phase is about.
By now in the consulting process, we’ve implemented our collaborated plan. Now that we’ve implemented it, we’ll get some feedback and data.
We’ll learn what levels of success we’ve created and what can be improved further.
There’s still going to be more work to do if we want to continue improving our client’s condition — or if we want to maintain that level of improvement.
That’s when we’ll begin optimisation.
In this phase, the output is ongoing implementation.
We’ll deliver services like:
There’s a lot of different ways that we deliver value to our clients during optimisation. It’s usually ongoing or for a set period of time. Retainer agreements are recommended for this phase.
Phase 1: Assess
Phase one is what we call “Assess.”
In this phase, we assess the client’s situation and current condition. Requests for Proposal (RFPs) are valuable in this phase.
This first phase helps us understand:
- What is going on in our client’s organisation
- What opportunities there are
- What threat/problems exist
- What can be done to improve their condition
This phase gives us clarity on how to progress through the rest of the consulting process.
The outcome — the deliverable from this — is that we are going to put together a high-level plan. This plan includes our recommendations.
Our clients highly appreciate this because they get a sense of where things are at and how best to move forward.
Phase 2: Plan
The second phase of our consulting process here is what we call “Plan.”
You might be thinking, “You just said plan in the 1st phase. What’s the difference?”
The difference is that the second phase is a much more detailed plan.
Instead of a high-level plan, think strategic recommendations. Think phase-by-phase.
In “Assess” we’re giving high-level recommendations and a high-level plan of what should come next.
In “Plan” we say, “Okay. We’ve done the initial assessment. Here’s what we know we need to do. Here’s what has to happen for this project to succeed.”
EXAMPLE: Let’s say our management consultant is working with an insurance company looking to get more clients.
In Phase 1, we assessed their marketing materials: their website, content, paid advertising, and social media. We provided them with a high-level assessment of what is wrong with their marketing and the opportunity for improvement.
In Phase 2, we will provide them with a specific, detailed, and tactical plan for how we’ll improve their marketing materials.
During “Plan”, we get into developing the specific, strategic, step-by-step plan of what’s going to happen during the next phase: the implementation.
Phase 3: Implementation
Next is what we call “Implementation” or “Implement.”
This is where we implement the strategic recommendations from Phase 2.
Continuing with our example.
In this phase, we’ll implement the plan to improve our client’s marketing.
EXAMPLE:
- Adjusting their positioning
- Improving their SEO
- Re-designing their marketing materials
Depending on how we structure our service offer, we may or may not be the person doing the implementation.
In most cases, we’ll be guiding or advising the team responsible for implementation.
However, we don’t just implement a project and then we’re finished forever.
There are always going to be ways to refine, improve, and optimise the client’s situation.
That’s what the next phase, “Optimisation” is all about.
Phase 4: Optimisation
The final phase is one that sets us apart from many other consultants. It’s the “Optimisation” phase, and it’s powerful.
When we’re trying to improve something (like a client’s business), we don’t just do a single improvement and think that we’re done.
There are always ways to refine, improve, and optimise. That’s what this phase is about.
By now in the consulting process, we’ve implemented our collaborated plan. Now that we’ve implemented it, we’ll get some feedback and data.
We’ll learn what levels of success we’ve created and what can be improved further.
There’s still going to be more work to do if we want to continue improving our client’s condition — or if we want to maintain that level of improvement.
That’s when we’ll begin optimisation.
In this phase, the output is ongoing implementation.
We’ll deliver services like:
There’s a lot of different ways that we deliver value to our clients during optimisation. It’s usually ongoing or for a set period of time. Retainer agreements are recommended for this phase.
How does Gestaldt price its consulting services?
We have different price structures and ways of charging for our services but we usually charge hourly fee rates. At times we offer services on a per-project basis with pre-determined hours or involvement. Still we may charge per service, per appointment, or in some other structure. In the public sector, we adhere to the hourly fee rates as approved by the Department of Public Service and Administration.
We make sure that our clients understand how we charge for the consulting services that we provide. We therefore explain to them how and why we chose a particular method and how it benefits them (for example, if we do project rates, our clients save on hourly costs and generally get more for their money).
We make sure that our clients understand how we charge for the consulting services that we provide. We therefore explain to them how and why we chose a particular method and how it benefits them (for example, if we do project rates, our clients save on hourly costs and generally get more for their money).
Does Gestaldt offer free consultation?
What is Gestaldt's background and experience?
Our consulting experience spans over 20 years across industries. It is through our experience and high qualifications that we are able to uniquely help clients solve critical and challenging issues, by enabling them to see and visualise multiple and different perspectives to solving challenges and creating value. Our industry expertise is vast:
Financial Services
We enable financial services institutions to manage risk and streamline their processes in order to best serve their clients.
Education
Gestaldt works with education institutions to help them solve critical and complex challenges faced by the educational sector.
Telecommunications
Our experts in telecommunications enable clients in this space identify and leverage opportunities, as well as create value.
Gaming & Entertainment
The gaming and entertainment industry can be complex to navigate. Our role is to enable organisations in this industry to best manage and deal with the complexities.
Social & Public
We work with government, non-government and non-profit organisations to enable them with strategies to best serve the public and their stakeholders.
Hospitality
The uncertainty and volatility in the hospitality industry requires robust, agile and efficient strategies. We partner with the captains of this industry to help them navigate the challenges.
Sports & Recreation
Strategy and results are critical in any sporting organisation or team. We work with these institutions to devise winning and adaptable strategies.
Financial Services
We enable financial services institutions to manage risk and streamline their processes in order to best serve their clients.
Education
Gestaldt works with education institutions to help them solve critical and complex challenges faced by the educational sector.
Telecommunications
Our experts in telecommunications enable clients in this space identify and leverage opportunities, as well as create value.
Gaming & Entertainment
The gaming and entertainment industry can be complex to navigate. Our role is to enable organisations in this industry to best manage and deal with the complexities.
Social & Public
We work with government, non-government and non-profit organisations to enable them with strategies to best serve the public and their stakeholders.
Hospitality
The uncertainty and volatility in the hospitality industry requires robust, agile and efficient strategies. We partner with the captains of this industry to help them navigate the challenges.
Sports & Recreation
Strategy and results are critical in any sporting organisation or team. We work with these institutions to devise winning and adaptable strategies.
What results can I expect from working with a Gestaldt Consultant?
Accurate, up-to-date Information
When our clients are unable to spare the time and resources to develop the data internally, we provide them with valuable information. This involves attitude surveys, cost studies, feasibility studies, market surveys, or analyses of the competitive structure of an industry or business.
Our consultants have a responsibility to explore the underlying needs of our clients. They respond to requests for data in a way that allows them to decipher and address other needs as an accepted part of the engagement’s agenda.
Solution to a Given Problem
Leaders often give us difficult problems to solve. For example, they might wish to know whether to make or buy a component, acquire or divest a line of business, or change a business strategy. Or they may ask how to restructure the organisation to be able to adapt more readily to change; which financial policies to adopt; or what the most practical solution is for a problem in compensation, morale, efficiency, internal communication, control or management succession.
Our problem-solving process is effective because it involves working with the problem as defined by our client in such a way that more-useful definitions emerge naturally as the engagement proceeds.
Accurate and Effective Diagnosis
Our value lies in our expertise as diagnosticians. Our competent diagnosis requires more than an examination of the external environment, the technology and economics of the business, and the behaviour of non-managerial members of the organisation. We ask why executives made certain choices that now appear to be mistakes or ignored certain factors that now seem important.
We establish effective mechanisms such as joint consultant-client task forces to work on data analysis and other parts of the diagnostic process. As the process continues, managers naturally begin to implement corrective action without having to wait for formal recommendations.
Logical Action Plan
Our engagement characteristically concludes with a written report that summarises what we have learned and that recommends in some detail what our client should do. The purpose of the engagement is fulfilled when our consultant presents a consistent, logical action plan of steps designed to improve the diagnosed problem. Our consultant recommends, and our client decides whether and how to implement.
In our most recent successful relationship, there was no rigid distinction between roles; formal recommendations contained no surprises because the client collaborated in developing them and our consultant was concerned with their implementation.
Effective Implementation of Changes
Viewing implementation as a central concern influences our conduct of all phases of the engagement. When our client requests information, our consultant asks how it will be used and what steps have already been taken to acquire it. Then he or she, along with members of the client organisation, determines which steps the company is ready to pursue and how to launch further actions.
We continually build support for the implementation phase by asking questions focused on action, repeatedly discussing progress made, and including organisation members on the team. Effective work on implementation problems requires a level of trust and cooperation that we develop gradually throughout the engagement.
Building Consensus and Commitment
Our engagement’s usefulness to an organisation depends on the degree to which members reach accord on the nature of problems and opportunities and on appropriate corrective actions. Otherwise, the diagnosis won’t be accepted, recommendations won’t be implemented, and valid data may be withheld.
To provide sound and convincing recommendations, our consultants are persuasive and have finely tuned analytic skills. But more important is their ability to design and conduct a process for (1) building an agreement about what steps are necessary and (2) establishing the momentum to see these steps through.
The relationship with our principal client is especially important in developing consensus and commitment. From the beginning, an effective relationship becomes a collaborative search for acceptable answers to our client’s real concerns. Ideally, each meeting involves two-way reporting on what has been done since the last contact and discussion of what both parties should do next. In this way a process of mutual influence develops, with natural shifts in agenda and focus as the project continues.
Facilitated Learning
Our consultants like to leave behind something of lasting value. This means not only enhancing clients’ ability to deal with immediate issues but also helping them learn methods needed to cope with future challenges.
Our consultants facilitate learning by including members of the organisation in the assignment’s processes. For example, demonstrating an appropriate technique or recommending a relevant course often accomplishes more than quietly performing a needed analysis. When the task requires a method outside our area of expertise, we recommend other consultants or educational programmes.
Organisational Effectiveness
We believe that sometimes successful implementation requires not only new management concepts and techniques but also different attitudes regarding management functions and prerogatives or even changes in how the basic purpose of the organisation is defined and carried out. We use the term organisational effectiveness to imply the ability to adapt future strategy and behaviour to environmental change and to optimise the contribution of the organisation’s human resources.
We include this purpose in our practice to contribute to top management’s most important task—maintaining the organisation’s future viability in a changing world. This may seem too vast a goal for many engagements. But just as a physician who tries to improve the functioning of one organ may contribute to the health of the whole organism, we are concerned with the company as a whole even when the immediate assignment is limited.
When our clients are unable to spare the time and resources to develop the data internally, we provide them with valuable information. This involves attitude surveys, cost studies, feasibility studies, market surveys, or analyses of the competitive structure of an industry or business.
Our consultants have a responsibility to explore the underlying needs of our clients. They respond to requests for data in a way that allows them to decipher and address other needs as an accepted part of the engagement’s agenda.
Solution to a Given Problem
Leaders often give us difficult problems to solve. For example, they might wish to know whether to make or buy a component, acquire or divest a line of business, or change a business strategy. Or they may ask how to restructure the organisation to be able to adapt more readily to change; which financial policies to adopt; or what the most practical solution is for a problem in compensation, morale, efficiency, internal communication, control or management succession.
Our problem-solving process is effective because it involves working with the problem as defined by our client in such a way that more-useful definitions emerge naturally as the engagement proceeds.
Accurate and Effective Diagnosis
Our value lies in our expertise as diagnosticians. Our competent diagnosis requires more than an examination of the external environment, the technology and economics of the business, and the behaviour of non-managerial members of the organisation. We ask why executives made certain choices that now appear to be mistakes or ignored certain factors that now seem important.
We establish effective mechanisms such as joint consultant-client task forces to work on data analysis and other parts of the diagnostic process. As the process continues, managers naturally begin to implement corrective action without having to wait for formal recommendations.
Logical Action Plan
Our engagement characteristically concludes with a written report that summarises what we have learned and that recommends in some detail what our client should do. The purpose of the engagement is fulfilled when our consultant presents a consistent, logical action plan of steps designed to improve the diagnosed problem. Our consultant recommends, and our client decides whether and how to implement.
In our most recent successful relationship, there was no rigid distinction between roles; formal recommendations contained no surprises because the client collaborated in developing them and our consultant was concerned with their implementation.
Effective Implementation of Changes
Viewing implementation as a central concern influences our conduct of all phases of the engagement. When our client requests information, our consultant asks how it will be used and what steps have already been taken to acquire it. Then he or she, along with members of the client organisation, determines which steps the company is ready to pursue and how to launch further actions.
We continually build support for the implementation phase by asking questions focused on action, repeatedly discussing progress made, and including organisation members on the team. Effective work on implementation problems requires a level of trust and cooperation that we develop gradually throughout the engagement.
Building Consensus and Commitment
Our engagement’s usefulness to an organisation depends on the degree to which members reach accord on the nature of problems and opportunities and on appropriate corrective actions. Otherwise, the diagnosis won’t be accepted, recommendations won’t be implemented, and valid data may be withheld.
To provide sound and convincing recommendations, our consultants are persuasive and have finely tuned analytic skills. But more important is their ability to design and conduct a process for (1) building an agreement about what steps are necessary and (2) establishing the momentum to see these steps through.
The relationship with our principal client is especially important in developing consensus and commitment. From the beginning, an effective relationship becomes a collaborative search for acceptable answers to our client’s real concerns. Ideally, each meeting involves two-way reporting on what has been done since the last contact and discussion of what both parties should do next. In this way a process of mutual influence develops, with natural shifts in agenda and focus as the project continues.
Facilitated Learning
Our consultants like to leave behind something of lasting value. This means not only enhancing clients’ ability to deal with immediate issues but also helping them learn methods needed to cope with future challenges.
Our consultants facilitate learning by including members of the organisation in the assignment’s processes. For example, demonstrating an appropriate technique or recommending a relevant course often accomplishes more than quietly performing a needed analysis. When the task requires a method outside our area of expertise, we recommend other consultants or educational programmes.
Organisational Effectiveness
We believe that sometimes successful implementation requires not only new management concepts and techniques but also different attitudes regarding management functions and prerogatives or even changes in how the basic purpose of the organisation is defined and carried out. We use the term organisational effectiveness to imply the ability to adapt future strategy and behaviour to environmental change and to optimise the contribution of the organisation’s human resources.
We include this purpose in our practice to contribute to top management’s most important task—maintaining the organisation’s future viability in a changing world. This may seem too vast a goal for many engagements. But just as a physician who tries to improve the functioning of one organ may contribute to the health of the whole organism, we are concerned with the company as a whole even when the immediate assignment is limited.
