Our Operating Beliefs | Our Guiding Principles & Philosophy | Our Values

THE SCIENCE

The first element is the easiest one to assess. All good consultants share a basic set of tools — techniques they apply and products they use to effectively analyze and guide your organization. Unlike some firms, however, we do not employ a "cookie-cutter" approach when it comes to applying our products or services. Instead, each product, service, and strategy is customized to meet your unique needs.

In many cases, we create entirely new products, services, or strategies based on a client's particular objective. In every case, we rely on proven and traditional methods to arrive at new and innovative solutions. While it is true that we share in your success, we also willingly share in the risk that comes from being innovative.

This is a critical point of distinction when it comes to evaluating the firm you select.

Please refer to our list of tools and use it as a checklist when you look at each candidate's products and services. You don't need to be a consultant to recognize innovation, insight, and substance in samples of a company's proposals, tools, analyses, and conclusions.

THE ART

Holding a toolbox doesn't make one handy. Likewise, a consultant needs more than tools in order to create exceptional results. Innate skills are required to successfully merge and calibrate an organization's unique goals, resources, and people in order to create successful outcomes. Toward that end, Lester Consulting Group is firmly committed to hiring only the best and the brightest. The number of satisfied clients is the best measurement of the extent of our skills.

With every proposal, we include a brief list of our clients. For each firm and consultant you consider, check their experience and references in detail. Have they put their toolboxes to skilled use? In addition to having met or exceeded their objectives, have their clients enjoyed lasting benefits from their work together?

Once again, this is a critical point of distinction.

THE PHILOSOPHY

As is often the case, the most critical element to your decision, philosophy, is the one that seems most difficult to assess. But a consulting firm's philosophy — its mission, vision, values, ethics, and goals — is the point on which the final decision must be made.

By now, you will have narrowed your search to just a few candidates who have proven themselves to be well equipped and successful. What makes one the most appropriate for your organization?

Remember, you are choosing a partner who ideally will shape the direction of your organization for years to come. The philosophy of that person and his or her firm is crucial to the success of that partnership.