Business Consulting and other Growth Strategies in the era of AI

How do you use business consulting services and more precisely, Artificial Intelligence (AI) integrated with business consulting to run, solve business challenges, and grow your business into, and beyond 2024?

In this article, I discuss business consulting in our current era of AI and four (4) other business growth strategies.

Firstly, I explain why business consulting should be your first go-to strategy, both before and after going into business. Thereafter, I explore and discuss how, as a consulting firm, at Comecinc Communications and Strategic Solutions Services Inc., we have AI-integrated and enhanced our workflow in the process.  

Lastly, I conclude by looking at four (4) other growth strategies that as a small business owner or medium to large corporation that’s determined to stick to traditional, tried, and tested business growth strategies, you can leverage to grow your business.

1. Business Consulting

Historically, running, let alone growing a business has never been an easy feat. From sourcing start-up finances to managing them to dealing with regulatory legal issues, there are numerous challenges small business owners face daily.

Depending on your start-up or small business’ capitalization, and your perspective of business consulting, it is always advisable to anchor your operations on business consulting from the very beginning.  

Indeed, working with a team of professional and reputable business consultants from the beginning of your business venture ensures that you avoid making mistakes which might be detrimental to your business in the long run, early.

More so, especially as business consulting is vital to connecting your business to its business strategy and ultimately, its growth.

But just what is business consulting?

Put simply, business consulting is a professional service provided by experts with specialized knowledge and experience in various areas of your business. At Comecinc, we like to consider business consulting as assessing a business owner’s perception, from a perspective other than the client’s.  

AE Shamgunova (2022) writing on consulting notes that, “The global consulting services market plays a crucial role in the global economy, with four priority sectors identified: economics, marketing, and human resources. Consulting in the financial and economic sphere is one of the professional activities that acts as a link between the theoretical and practical components of the economy. This is especially evident in the context of a globalizing business, based largely on the business interaction of companies and their divisions located in different regions and countries of the world.”

Done by business consultants, AE Shamgunova (2022) identifies as “Consulting specialists (who) accumulate the full potential of their theoretical and practical knowledge to solve issues formulated by clients”, business consulting helps organizations, small, medium to large businesses improve their performance, tackle their challenges, solve problems, and achieve their goals. In this regard, it is a more objective perception of various aspects of your business, its “health” if you will.  

When you business consult, business consultants use their expertise and experience, to provide you with insights, recommendations, and guidance based on their expert analyses of your business. To do so, business consultants will typically follow a structured approach to their work. This may involve conducting research and analysis, gathering data and information, interviewing stakeholders, facilitating workshops or meetings, and developing action plans or recommendations.

Consequently, business consulting leads to and gives more concrete perceptions of your business from scientifically and professionally researched perspectives, which have been assessed and evaluated.

The Business Consulting Process

During the process of your business consultation, business consultants will work closely with you to understand your specific challenges, objectives, and opportunities. They then use both their knowledge and tools to analyze your organization or enterprise’s current practices, processes, and strategies to identify areas for improvement and develop tailored solutions.

As such, the scope of business consulting can vary widely. From covering a range of areas such as communications, and strategy development, to organizational change, at Comecinc for instance, we also business consult in operations management, marketing and sales, finance, human resources, and technology implementation, among others.

Our business consultants specialize in specific industries or functional areas, allowing them to bring deep knowledge and understanding to their clients.

And why business consulting?

As with many beneficial experiences, the value of business consulting might not be obvious until you use it.

Those who have business consulted before will tell you that, the value of business consulting lies in the objective and independent perspective that consultants bring to the table. This is especially true as business consultants act as trustworthy advisors who collaboratively work with you and your business to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, address challenges, and drive positive change within your organization or business.

Depending on your business acumen and the stage you are in your business journey, business consultants will often provide you with fresh insights, challenge any existing assumptions you might have had, and in an era of AI such as ours, offer you innovative productivity solutions that you may not have considered internally.

At Comecinc, our business consultants also bring to our clients, current trends, best practices and industry expertise, which help organizations and businesses gain a competitive edge and better navigate our ever-complex business environment.

Overall, business consulting aims to assist all kinds of businesses to optimize their operations, enhance performance, and achieve sustainable growth. It is in the context of business consulting, that as a small to medium business owner, you can specifically request strategy consulting to grow or scale your business.

2. Strategy Consulting in Business Consulting

Strategy consulting is part and parcel of business consulting. It is a type of business consulting that focuses on helping small businesses strategically improve their overall performance and achieve their goals. It primarily includes developing new strategies, optimizing existing processes, and identifying areas for your business’s growth and improvement.

Strategy consulting is sometimes referred to as an art because it requires a unique blend of creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. As such, strategic business consultants must be able to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions to complex problems. They must also be able to effectively communicate their ideas and recommendations to clients in a clear, analytical, and persuasive manner.

As Whittington (2019) points out, while some “Strategy consulting firms face challenges like cyclical demand, low entry barriers, weak financial structures, and short pipeline, but (they) manage these by cultivating professionalism, building relationships, and investing in knowledge.” The same could also be said of us at Comecinc C & SSS Inc.

Our business strategy consultants work with a wide range of clients, from small businesses to departments of large corporations to provide valuable insights and recommendations to help them achieve success in either business formation or implementing changes during a process of transformation.

The outcome of strategy consulting should lead to strategic planning for various aspects of your small business or medium to large corporation, but primarily those which have to do with the development and growth of your business.

From Strategy Consulting to Strategic Planning

Well, before strategic planning can be included in the process of addressing any business challenge, a solid strategic plan must first be put in place at the business planning phase. Such strategic planning must involve setting clear goals and objectives, determining value propositions, pricing, action plans and identifying potential obstacles and threats to the business.

Essentially, a strategic plan involves creating a roadmap to achieving success for your business.

By having a well-defined strategic plan, your business can stay focused and make informed decisions when faced with challenges.

Unfortunately, since most small businesses and medium to large corporations for that matter do not strategically plan from the onset, strategy consulting has over the years become known more as a type of management consulting.

Business Consulting: Strategy Consulting as Management Consulting

Almost akin to strategy consulting, management consulting also focuses on helping organizations improve their overall performance and achieve their goals. It too can include developing new strategies, but especially optimizing existing processes, and identifying areas for growth and improvement.

As with strategy consultants, management consultants also work with a wide range of clients, from large corporations to small businesses to provide valuable insights and recommendations to help them achieve success.

Lastly, like strategy consultants, as highlighted by A. Simon and V. Kumar (2001) “Management consultants’ success is primarily driven by their ability to listen, provide quality service, communicate effectively, and maintain integrity and honesty.” Requirements that are not only the cornerstone of successful business consultancy and consulting, but strategy consulting as well.

As with strategy consultants, management consultants also work with a wide range of clients, from large corporations to small businesses to provide valuable insights and recommendations to help them achieve success.

Lastly, like strategy consultants, as highlighted by A. Simon and V. Kumar (2001) “Management consultants’ success is primarily driven by their ability to listen, provide quality service, communicate effectively, and maintain integrity and honesty.” Requirements that are not only the cornerstone of successful business consultancy and consulting, but strategy consulting as well.

 Secrets to Success: The Art of Strategy Consulting

So, what does it take to succeed in strategy consulting? While there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, there are a few key traits and skills that are essential for success in strategy consulting.

 These include strong analytical and problem-solving skills, excellent communication and presentation abilities, and the ability to work well under pressure and meet tight deadlines. In addition, having a strong understanding of business principles and a passion for helping organizations achieve their goals.

The ability to think strategically and come up with creative solutions to complex challenges is also essential. Working in strategy consulting requires you to be able to look at the big picture and identify the underlying issues that could be causing a particular problem.

You also need to be able to understand the financial and operational implications of your recommendations and be able to present them to your clients clearly and briefly.

Finally, having a strong background in business consulting or related fields, such as marketing, finance, and economics, can also help you to be successful in the field.

Lately, the ability to integrate AI into both strategy consulting specifically, and business consulting generally, has become an open secret to successful business consulting.

3. Business Consulting Before AI

Until late November 2022, to improve businesses’ performance, tackle businesses’ challenges, solve businesses’ problems, and help them achieve their business goals, business consultants largely relied on their deep understanding of business principles, economics, and data analysis to provide valuable insights and recommendations to their small business and medium to large corporation clients.

Then, business consultants had to laboriously gather and analyze large amounts of data to identify trends and patterns that could then inform their strategies. However, since December 2022 and into 2023, thanks largely to AI, the business consulting load has been made simpler.

Business Consulting in the era of AI

Nowadays, with AI accessibility, when it comes to business consultants’ delivery of consultancy services to small businesses and medium to large corporations, they no longer have just their expertise and experience to assist them in providing you with insights, recommendations, and guidance based on their expert analyses of your business.

Instead, whereas previously business consultants typically followed a structured approach to their work of possibly first conducting onsite research, gathering data and information, interviewing stakeholders, facilitating workshops or meetings, and developing action plans or recommendations etc.

Today, while the business structured approach still exists, Comecinc’s tech-savvy business consultants’ workflow has been integrated with AI. It starts and is strategically assisted along with advice and recommendations not only based on human expertise and experience but also AI. For example, ChatGPT-4, Perplexity.ai, Claude-2 and Monica. im.

AI has introduced new possibilities and capabilities to Comecinc’s business consulting.

However, helpful as AI is and has been to our business consulting processes, it is also important to point out that AI is and has not replaced our human business consultants. Instead, at Comecinc, AI integration is being used to complement our business consultants’ expertise, perspectives, analyses, and ideation.

AI Integration: The Science of Strategy and Management Consulting.

So, while there is certainly an artistic aspect to business consulting’s strategy consulting and management consulting segments, technologies such as AI have innovated strategy and management consulting’s already strong scientific foundation.

When it comes to business consulting, especially strategy consulting, the application of AI has tremendously assisted us by providing our business consultants with powerful business planning and analytical capabilities so invaluable to strategic consulting.

In the era of AI, business consulting involves leveraging advanced technologies, data analysis, and machine learning algorithms to provide more accurate and data-driven insights. AI such as Genius and Claude-Instant-100K, have assisted in our strategy consulting by analyzing and interpreting data results, thus freeing up our strategy business consultants’ time to focus on higher-value tasks, such as developing insights, and providing customized recommendations based on AI analyses.

More importantly, using AI, at Comecinc we have been able to generate predictive models and simulations of some of our clients’ small businesses and medium to large corporations. This has enabled our business consultants to anticipate future scenarios and evaluate the potential impact of different strategies. This allows businesses to make more informed and strategic decisions.

However, in the era of AI, business consulting involves more than just leveraging advanced AI technologies integration in data analysis and machine learning algorithms.

How to integrate AI into Business Consulting.

At Comecinc, we are also using AI for purposes of process optimization, market research, customer relations and performance monitoring.

Using AI tools such as Geekbot that can automate repetitive tasks, improve efficiency, and enhance decision-making processes, we have been able to automate our recurring tasks.

Geekbot runs our workflows for daily standups, surveys, custom responses, and posts updates to our Slack and Microsoft Teams channels at a time and pace that suits us. Requiring no developer skills, as expected of any AI worth its salt, Geekbot provides us with quick replies, a chat history for future reference, and surveys to our clients for market research.

All thanks to Fireflies AI, gone are the days of fighting over and grumbling about meeting minutes. Fireflies is the leading AI meeting assistant that helps record, transcribe, take notes, and complete actions during meetings. It integrates with all leading web-conferencing platforms along with business applications.

With Fireflies quietly in our corner –we have been able to get the most out of our meetings.

Add to the mix Yarnit and Talos Growth, and you have more than lift off, you have business growth.

Yarnit + Eurekaa +Talos Growth = Business Growth

Yarnit is an AI-powered content creation platform which allows you to create personalised content aligned to your brand and audience. Yarnit’s AI enables teams and companies to write, design, audit and publish content- all under one app, 10X faster and better.

Then there is the aptly named Eurekaa.io. This AI-powered tool for course creators and coaches is also for consultants and writers.

Using Eurekaa can enable you to discover, score and create multiple winning program ideas. Eurekaa. oi is the industry’s first cross-platform analytics tool that helps course and content creators validate and create courses or books in record time.

Is your LinkedIn social media management giving you a headache?

No fear, Talos Growth is there.

Talos Growth helps you to grow your LinkedIn page by liking articles that are interesting to you. You can specify the keywords to find the posts you want “liked”, select the language you use, and how many likes the post should have before “you” like it! And of course, other settings.

Coming with a 14-day free trial, Talos Growth is worth a trial!

Business consulting in the era of AI has seen and is undergoing significant transformations.

However, if you think that business consulting integrated with AI cannot help you grow your business into 2024, and you would rather use more traditional business growth strategies, then we recommend these other four (4).

Outsourcing as a Growth Strategy

Outsourcing some or all your business tasks or functions can be a strategic solution for especially small businesses that are looking to cut costs and improve efficiency. The result of strategic consulting or management consulting. Outsourcing can for example include outsourcing payroll services to a strategic payroll solutions company.

 Outsourcing can save you and your business time and resources, allowing business owners to focus on other important aspects of their business. Similarly, outsourcing IT services can help businesses stay current with technology and avoid costly downtime.

Thinking of outsourcing some or all of your business management?

Call us, for a FREE exploratory consultation.

We are here to help you help yourself.

Financial Management as a Growth Strategy

Managing finances is a major challenge for many small to large businesses. In line with strategy consulting, when it comes to it is advisable that you and your business turn to strategic financial solutions such as budgeting, cost-cutting measures, and seeking financial advice from financial experts.

Having a solid financial plan in place enables your business to weather any financial storm that comes your way.

However, if you are comfortable managing your business’s finances, then we recommend you engage the financial assistance of Joiin.  

Joiin is a financial reporting platform that simplifies the complex process of group financial consolidation to create great-looking financial, sales, and KPI reports quickly and seamlessly.  

Joiin works with Xero, QuickBooks, Sage & spreadsheets and is built for in-house finance teams and advisors and is trusted by over 32,000 companies worldwide.

Add to Joiin’s numbers and help yourself add your financial numbers.  

Legal Support as a Growth Strategy

Like bird droppings, legal issues can suddenly fall on you when you least expect them. They can significantly slow down your business growth especially if you are unprepared to handle them.

To address this potential challenge to the growth of your business, seek out strategic legal support from experienced attorneys. This can include keeping them on a retainer to create your business’s contracts and agreements, handle disputes, and guide compliance with laws and regulations.

By keeping a legal team on your side, small businesses and medium to large corporations like yours can navigate any legal challenge posing a threat to your business growth with confidence.

Employee Acquisition and Development as a Growth Strategy

Well-qualified, conscientious, and trained employees are indispensable to the growth of a business such as yours. Given the centrality of employees to your business’s growth, doesn’t it make sense to prioritize investing in the acquisition and development of your employees?

If you are still a micro-business that does not need a fully-fledged Human Resources department, then HireBeat could just be what you need for employee acquisition of quality trainable employees.

HireBeat is an automated recruiting platform that launches a single system’s built-in video interview software and AI-powered ATS. Unlike the first-generation applicant tracking systems, it streamlines your entire recruiting flow; allowing you to focus more on hiring the top candidates by automating administrative tasks.

With HireBeat in your corner, employee acquisition and subsequent development could just be the strategic solution to your HR challenges and business growth.

Acquiring quality employees and providing them with training and development opportunities, you improve employee skills and productivity, leading to better overall performance and growth.

Additionally, investing in your employees’ well-being and job satisfaction can help you reduce turnover, and improve company culture and growth.

Final Thoughts

Business consulting that combines human expertise with advanced technologies such as AI to effectively and efficiently deliver more accurate and data-driven insights is key to strategic business growth going into 2024 and beyond.

Undoubtedly, business consulting’s strong scientific foundation has from the beginning of 2023 onwards received a large boost from AI, especially strategic and management consulting.

When it comes to strategy consulting, AI tools and techniques not only enable consultants to analyze vast amounts of data, generate predictive models, and automate repetitive tasks, but the time it frees up for business consultants ultimately enhances the overall consulting process and enables business consultants to make better, more informed, and strategically effective decisions.

It is by engaging business consultants and implementing their strategic solutions, that most small businesses and medium to large corporations can not only effectively address their biggest challenges, but they also set themselves up for both growth and success.

Whether it’s through strategy consulting, management consulting or outsourcing, financial management, legal support, and employee development, AI-assisted business consulting is one sure way to overcome obstacles and achieve business goals and growth.

Understanding that business consulting is the best way you can position yourself for success in this competitive business is vitally important to growth anywhere in the business world.

Do you have any other strategic solutions that have helped your business? Share them with us in the comments below.

Author info:

Corwin L. Mhlahlo is, among others, the Principal Communications and Strategic Solutions Consultant at Comecinc C & SSS Inc., – a business consulting firm in Johannesburg, South Africa. His qualifications include certifications in Business Administration, Sales Marketing Management and Digital Marketing. Corwin is passionate and excited about the future of Artificial Intelligence and Software as a Service (SaaS) to business processes, operations and productivity.

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