Consulting – Page 5

Croixstone Consulting Turns “5”

We are celebrating! Founded by Patti Weber and Mark Weber in 2016, Croixstone Consulting celebrates its fifth business anniversary this month. Launched in a loft in Charlotte’s South End neighborhood with the aspiration to provide a highly-differentiated business model in management consulting, Croixstone has grown rapidly thanks to the deep expertise, talents and support of our consulting team, internal staff and partners/supporters.

As all entrepreneurs understand, the art of the start-up is filled with times of both great exhilaration and sleepless nights (hello global pandemic)! We are fortunate in that our five-year ride at Croixstone has been one of tremendous positivity.

Here are some of our favorite special moments over the past 5 years.

Launch: Croixstone began operations in June 2016 in Loft 309 in the former Lance Crackers building on South Boulevard in Charlotte’s booming South End neighborhood.

Hello Uptown: Croixstone relocated from the start-up loft to the new Industrious Charlotte Uptown co-working community in the Bank of America Plaza tower at Trade & Tryon in December 2017.

TABL: Croixstone introduced TABL, the firm’s unique culinary team building experience, with a playful social media launch in January 2018.

New Practice Area: Croixstone announced the launch of its new human capital solutions practice and a new executive search offering in June 2019.

FORTUNE Magazine: Croixstone announced in May 2020 that Patti Weber (CEO) had been accepted as part of a competitive application process into FORTUNE magazine’s Rebuild Program that was inspired in response to the global pandemic.

Hello NoDa: Croixstone relocated into larger offices in the newly-opened Industrious Charlotte NoDa co-working community in June 2020.

Supplier Diversity Certification: Croixstone received national certification in July 2020 as a Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) by the Greater Women’s Business Council, a regional certifying partner of the Women’s Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

Accelerated Growth: Croixstone announced in January 2021 that Patti Weber (CEO) was one of 25 women across the USA accepted in the NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners) Accelerated Growth Program sponsored by Wells Fargo.

Forty Over 40: Croixstone’s CEO Patti Weber was named as a “Forty Over 40” award recipient by The Charlotte Ledger in May 2021.

Consulting Industry Insights: Restructurings & Turnarounds

The global pandemic has fueled an increase in consulting engagements focused on restructurings and turnarounds over the past 15 months. In its May 2021 newsletter, BDO Consulting Group published the below informative chart highlighting U.S. corporate bankruptcies with debt greater than $10MM by industry. Interestingly, approximately 40% of the 302 bankruptcies filings were in two industries: 1) Oil & Gas and 2) Retail & Consumer Products.

Source: BDO Consulting Group, LLC, Debtwire Restructuring Database
* Includes companies with at least $10 million in funded debt

So what are the common restructuring and turnaround services that consulting firms like Croixstone offer? As published in a recent article by Consultancy.eu, these services include:

Diagnosing the problem: Identifying drivers for the crisis, stage & severity of crisis
Stabilizing operations: Managing short-term liquidity & working capital concerns
Cost efficiency & austerity strategies: Evaluating business needs for cost-cutting measures; designing & implementing austerity plans
Procurement cost reduction: Analyzing contracted spend & redesigning & renegotiating contracts
Business model innovation: Rethinking operating & core business models, value creation & enhancement
Divestiture strategies: Offloading non-performing business units, distressed segments, portfolios, etc.
Organizational effectiveness: Streamlining resources; revamping processes & business segments; interim C-level deployment
Change management: Developing change implementation plans to ensure minimal people disruption

The Rise of the PORTFOLIO Career

Much like COVID-19 has accelerated the pace of digital transformation, future of work experts are seeing a rise in the pervasiveness of professionals with “portfolio careers.”

Ben Legg is an engineer, serial CEO of global digital businesses, former COO of Google Europe, and former McKinsey consultant. He believes the portfolio career is a continuation of the automation of work and is here to stay.

Croixstone’s business model is built around our deep understanding of the portfolio professional. So what is a portfolio career?

A portfolio career isn’t reliant on a single source of income.

Income is derived from serving multiple clients that might include project work, consulting engagements, interim roles and/or board roles.

Unlike a “gig economy worker,” a portfolio career is thoughtfully put together and is focused on offering differentiated services in order to maximize earnings.

Learn more about portfolio career insights from Ben Legg.

Croixstone Welcomes Grace Lynch

Croixstone is excited to announce today that Grace Lynch has joined our team in the newly-created role of Senior Manager, Business Operations.

Grace is an operations and process expert who drives business outcomes for fast-growth and transformative organizations. Her background includes nearly two decades at Wells Fargo during the bank’s growth spree where she served in the Office of the President and provided leadership focused on problem resolution and process optimization.

Grace also performed due diligence and integration activities for mergers and acquisitions. She served as a leader in the bank’s credit risk area and worked in a number of other roles in customer service and branch operations.

Grace has supported the Charlotte region’s nonprofit and faith communities in leadership roles with the Charlotte Affiliate of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and Assurance United Methodist Church. As a social innovator, Grace is a co-founder of the Charlotte Pancreatic Cancer Alliance.

Grace holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree in Finance and Economics from Augusta University.

We invite you to visit Grace’s profile on LinkedIn to learn more about her professional background and impressive accomplishments.

Croixstone Strategy + Organizational Assessments

Q: So what happens when you put two bright business minds together during a global pandemic?

A: You get an on point white paper to help your organization come out of COVID-19 in growth mode.

Read our complimentary white paper.

Career Tips + Strategies for Experienced Professionals

More than 500,000 people in North Carolina have filed for unemployment in the weeks since businesses starting closing down due to the pandemic. This equates to 10% of North Carolina’s workforce. And the picture is certainly challenging in South Carolina, too. Last week, WalletHub released a study that compared unemployment claim increases in USA states for the week of March 30, 2019 to the same week in 2020. North Carolina’s unemployment claims rose 4282.7% year-over-year (7th highest in the nation), while South Carolina’s claims rose 3931.2% (33rd highest in the nation).

With the rise in unemployment, we have curated links that have relevance to professionals – especially those who are experienced in their career paths.

It might be time to think about a career change.
Times of crisis can fuel pivots in your career path. This article provides terrific insights and is aimed at professionals in the 50+ age range.
C lick here.

LinkedIn has free resources to help with job search strategies.
11 free courses to help you build a job search strategy, lean on your professional network, and improve your interviewing skills.
Click here.

Why losing a job deserves its own grieving process.
The loss of a job triggers grief. Understand the grieving process and use these 3 tips to get into a productive mindset.
Click here.

How to prepare for the future of work in uncertain times.
Some great career tips from Forbes on how to use the disruption created by the pandemic to take control and future-proof yourself.
Click here.

How to train your mind for high-pressure situations.
Tips from an Olympic Coach to help you excel during interviews, negotiations, etc.
Click here.

The Rules & Rigors of Consulting

With more than 40 years of experience in operational growth and improvement, both as a consultant and as an executive with Crayola Corporation, Peter Christian has served more than 300 companies. Earlier this month, CONSULTING magazine published an online article written by Peter that provides valuable tips on the consultant and client relationship. Read the article entitled “The Rules and Rigors of Consulting” here.

Top 25 Consultants in 2019

In the latest issue of its online magazine, CONSULTING is highlighting the top 25 consultants who are making a big impact in our industry in 2019. Be sure to read the Q&A for each consultant as there are interesting insights to be gleaned to help your consulting career! Read the latest issue of CONSULTING magazine here (free subscription required).

Write a Winning LinkedIn Headline

Ever wonder how to write a LinkedIn headline that will get you noticed? The following are key messages and tips on how to use your LinkedIn headline to advance your personal branding objectives.

The headline is the section on LinkedIn that gets searched the most.
Your job title is not necessarily the right, or best, headline. You have the ability to change your headline beyond the default that LinkedIn uses (your title). Be purposeful in choosing the right headline.
The headline has a limit of 120 characters so plan your text wisely.
For consulting, consider spotlighting what you do and who you help.

Read Forbes magazine’s full article here for more details and examples.

Five LinkedIn Tips

Personal branding pioneer William Arruda advises that you work with intentionality to differentiate your LinkedIn profile.

Here are five personal features that are available on LinkedIn to help you standout from the professional network’s 610 million users.

1. Specify your industry.

LinkedIn data shows that profiles of members who include their industry are 9x more likely to be viewed.

2. Create content.

Create articles using LinkedIn’s blogging feature. Here’s a great tip. Arruda suggests that you commit to writing just one article per quarter. This will help you to differentiate your profile, keep it fresh and share your thought leadership.

3. Master multimedia.

Your LinkedIn summary now allows you to add multimedia including videos, white papers, images and more. A great way to amplify your story while making your profile more visually interesting.

4. Brand your background.

Do not use LinkedIn’s generic background image. You need to stand apart from the crowd by customizing your image. Not sure how to do this? The Croixstone team would be happy to provide assistance.

5. Say it with symbols.

Symbols can be used to add character to your LinkedIn profile. We agree with Arruda that you must exercise caution with this tip. The key is to use symbols well and use them sparingly.

Learn more here.

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