When it comes to management consulting, most traditional consultants use a top-down approach. They listen to the client’s pain points and apply what they know to fit into the solution. They may talk to a few of the client’s customers, if they talk to any at all, but the top-down approach does not lend itself well to crafting solutions, especially if the client’s challenges pertain to customer behavior in multiple geographies or involves numerous constituents.
Ichor Strategies takes a bottom-up approach to consulting. Ichor engages trusted voices on the ground identified through stakeholder mapping and integrates their expertise and input into the overall solution offered to the client. With presence on the ground in more than 70 locations throughout the U.S., Ichor offers clients local expertise and intelligence from all corners of the country.
How Ichor Takes Things Local
Many consultancies rely on focus groups to provide answers on consumer behavior to their clients. While this method of data gathering has been around for a long time, it usually falls short in providing a full picture. First, many focus groups are not adequately represented, often not including a sufficient number of members of racial and ethnic minority communities, thus skewing the results. Second, a focus group setting is unnatural, entailing sharing thoughts with strangers, all of whom are being led in a discussion by another stranger. The structure of a focus group is transactional, in which a participant gets paid for his or her time to answer questions that might or might not be relevant to them.
Ichor does research differently, facilitating small group and one-on-one discussions to understand the needs of the community and identify opportunities that benefit the community and the client. These discussions provide firsthand knowledge of the challenges the community faces and help build trust. Ichor then uses the feedback gained from dialogues to develop a tailored, long-term community engagement strategy that informs the client’s approach.
Hyperlocal Dialogues
Putting in the effort to conduct hyperlocal dialogues pays dividends. A large, Fortune 50 telecommunications company learned just how much of an impact these conversations can have. The company planned to deploy billions of dollars in capital across 65 cities within two years. But the project was being held up by slow municipal permitting processes.
Ichor identified trusted community voices and engaged with activists and other groups to help the client understand the nuances of each community, as well as what mattered most to stakeholders in the target cities. Ichor also launched community dialogues to increase employee engagement and conducted hyperlocal analysis to identify the challenges for each of the proposed markets.
Based on Ichor’s multi-pronged local efforts, the client was able to successfully deploy capital in each of the selected cities, and later expanded its reach to additional 60 cities.
Risk Management
The success of any project depends largely on the steps taken before it launches. Ichor conducts an exhaustive analysis of client strategy prior to launch to reveal any potential challenges. When a large manufacturing company sought to improve its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategy, Ichor analyzed the company’s previous year's DEI report to understand how it performed externally. Ichor also conducted a “pre-mortem” risk assessment of the upcoming report, including the analysis of the prior internal stakeholders’ responses, the progress made since then, and the realistic goal-setting for the upcoming year.
In addition to obtaining and acting on the internal stakeholder feedback, Ichor also engaged local outside constituents who had previously criticized the company’s initiatives. Then Ichor tailored recommendations for employee engagement around DEI, set the standard for best practices moving forward, and provided strategic and tactical support to mitigate internal risk.
The client was able to roll out tactical engagement strategies, improve its DEI reporting and outreach, and deepen leadership’s focus and commitment to equity and inclusion long-term, resulting in better traction with current and prospective employees.
Services to Help Businesses Expand
Ichor’s approach to management consulting prioritizes genuine community engagement and hyperlocal dialogues. By cultivating relationships with trusted community members and influencers, Ichor helps bridge the gap between companies and communities to build a foundation for sustainable growth.
Contact Ichor today to learn how our bottom-up approach can help you.