Whether you are an SME or a large group, transformation is part of the life of a company and requires the right partners. Due to purchasing policies aimed at optimising the supplier panel, managers are often limited in their choice of service providers. Selecting the right partners upstream is therefore a real strategic challenge for companies.
What are the main criteria to keep in mind when selecting the best partners?
Beyond the purely operational aspects, what are the assets put forward by companies in their search for the best profiles to lead transformation projects?
Fatih Yerlikaya, IT Program Manager at Imerys, the world leader in mineral specialties for industry, has been a FocusTribes customer for 5 years. Here he talks about his collaboration with FocusTribes. In particular, he highlights the key strengths of the community in supporting transformation projects and points out the elements that, in his opinion, make the difference with a good partner:
My name is Fatih Yerlikaya.
I'm an IT Program Manager at Imerys.
We work with FocusTribes, to have quality experienced resources on different types of projects.
Firstly on deployment projects. But we also work to provide input to the teams that are working on enriching the Core Model.
Our adventure with FocusTribes started with a few resources at the beginning.
Later, we decided to continue with FocusTribes for different reasons.
For me, it was because of the quality of the CVs that were presented to us, but also the ease and fluidity of the administrative procedures.
FocusTribes consultants are generally experts in their technical field. They have a good knowledge of business processes as well. But we value them highly for their way of being and for what we call soft skills.
A transformation project involves many resources, in several departments and entities, sometimes even on several continents. The search for simplicity in exchanges is therefore a major asset for those in charge of project management! Working with partners who have fluid and proven processes secures operations and allows you to focus on the priority issue, namely the progress of the overall project. At FocusTribes, we adapt from the very beginning to the specificities of our clients to guarantee reliability and speed in the processing of requests.
The constant search for added value means the quest for excellence!
As Aurélie Queruau Lamerie, Marketing & TA Director and co-founder of FocusTribes, explains:
"At FocusTribes, our goal is to systematically make life easier for our stakeholders. Whether it's with our clients or our consultants, or even among ourselves within the FocusTribes internal team, we always position ourselves in a "client-supplier" mode of operation. We have a deep desire for excellence and strive to do our best to respond in the most relevant way possible. This is one of our founding values and a true philosophy that we share. For example, when we respond to a call for proposals for one of our clients, we only send out high-quality CVs that are relevant to our clients' needs. And if none of our qualified consultants for the project are available, we prefer not to propose anyone; clients appreciate this because they know that we are not waisting their time! Similarly, on the consultants' side, we spend time during the accreditation process getting to know each profile and understanding their expectations. So when we offer them assignments, these are initially targeted according to their skills."
"Soft skills" are not skills acquired in training, but are more related to a state of mind (sense of teamwork, humility, reliability, etc.) or to a character trait (extroverted, empathetic, sense of humour, etc.) specific to each person. These behavioural and psychological skills can be a real differentiating factor in the success of projects. Any transformation, in essence, because of the change it brings, forces teams to leave their comfort zone. Therefore, it most often (if not always) raises fears and questions. Being accompanied by consultants who are experts in their field, but who also listen, in a climate of trust, facilitates the progress of projects and the federation of the parties involved.
To go further, read the following articles on our Blog:
6 essential soft skills for a good freelance consultant
How to select the right people to carry out transformation projects
5 fundamentals for managing transformation projects