Interview with Justin M.
COO of Prominent Management Consulting and Placement Firm
As COO of a prominent management consulting firm, Justin has access to an impressive and diverse array of talent from which to draw for his clients. And when his firm has projects requiring a combination of strategic depth and operational execution, they have repeatedly turned to Amira elAdawi.
One client, an earlier-stage consumer firm, was experiencing a very rapid increase in sales, which came with typical “growing pains”. To accommodate this maturation, and to prepare the business for even stronger forecasted growth, the company needed to undergo transformation at a similarly accelerated rate.
“The organization was straining under the weight of their own success,” said Justin. “The leadership team was managing by leadership committee, as is often the case with rapidly-growing mid-stage firms, which was causing challenges up and down the value chain. They needed more mature systems, processes and behaviours to match their current size and prepare them for future growth, thus were looking for someone who could become embedded within the business – someone who could identify the biggest pain points, diagnose what was causing them and quickly resolve those issues in a way that was effective and actionable.”
Due to the extreme “hands-on” nature of this transformation, Amira was selected based on her background, her experience and also her demonstrated ability to transform processes as well as people and behaviours. “Amira began by working with the C-Suite to understand the challenges they were facing, and coach them through how to lead the transformation process by example,” said Justin. “She then guided the client’s team through mapping their entire end-to-end processes – from ideation through commercialization – to identify areas where the process broke down and the root cause of this breakdown, and to develop realistic actionable solutions that would not only resolve the issues today but leave the team with the skills necessary to face these challenges on their own. She did an outstanding job.”
Justin continued: “Amira has mastery in a variety of functions. Her approach included a series of workshops, attended by 30 to 40 individuals from across functions and spanning the full hierarchy, that empowered the team to work through the greatest challenges collaboratively,” said Justin. “She brought structure, clarity and process- and decision-making skills where they belonged – along different elements of the value chain. Her highly communicative style motivates workers at all levels. She makes each department within the company feel included and part of the process… like they’re co-authoring change versus being hindered by it. That’s very empowering and it is highly effective – they thought she provided the best set of change workshops they’d ever attended!”
Today, the organization has overcome these challenges and continues to manage its growth. The systems and processes Amira defined are yielding positive results, and the alignment work she facilitated has translated into organizational success, empowering the organization to take on two additional C-level executives that can help ensure the scale and growth continues at a rapid pace.
“Amira brings a combination of strategic mastery and tactical execution that is unique and highly effective. She is a high-energy, high-presence, collaborative leader who you just want to work with. I’m all-in on her,” concluded Justin.