Being a booming and highly profitable industry, Management Consulting is going to be significantly disrupted by technology in upcoming years. The new innovations in technology make business easier by providing simpler and more elegant solutions to problems often at a lower cost.
The consulting world today is flooded with new trends and buzzwords. Big Data, AI, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, RPA, Machine Learning, and RDA are just a few examples to mention. The art of all these trends is the same: to keep the business simple and focused on achieving greater results.
Founded in 2016, Exactus Advisors is a Chicago-based boutique advisory firm specializing in driving operational improvement for its clients. The company excels in quickly addressing complex business problems for its clients, providing the detailed roadmap and world-class advisory support to deliver maximum value. The company focuses on scaling the clients’ business for the next level of growth while improving alignment for people, processes and business systems. Exactus is a force multiplier to the client management team, helping to illuminate the creative and operational excellence of the client employees.
Philosophy of the Multifaceted Leader
Thomas Lebamoff, CEO and Founder of Exactus Advisors, specializes in operational and profit improvement with passionate execution and delivery expertise. Prior to Exactus Advisors, Thomas was Founder and Managing Partner at Liberty Advisor Group; a senior partner at Diamond Management & Technology Consultants, Executive VP & CIO at Drinks Inc.; and an Associate Partner with Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting). His relentless focus on business value and deep expertise on operational risk management has resulted in millions of dollars of bottom line savings for his clients.
Thomas operates with balance; his emphasis is on choosing the right path to achieve the long term goal, rather than jumping into immediate results with a wrong short-term approach.
“My advice to my clients follows this same philosophy. Giving advice to a client that cannot execute the plan or deliver near-term benefits is worthless advice. I’ve built my career on telling it like it is and fixing the aftermath from large and small consulting companies who time and time again, provide disastrous guidance. I have traveled the world and had the privilege to consult with more than 75 companies—small and large, global and local—across a plethora of industries,” Tom cited.
“Tom’s key asset is his ability to quickly break down complex problems, identify business and IT risks, assess business value and provide actionable and practical recommendations. I consider him a trusted advisor who truly partners with his clients.” Ken Johnsen, the CIO of Energy and Transportation Group at Caterpillar Inc. offers words of praise for the Charismatic leader.
Thomas lives in Naperville, IL with his wife, four daughters and three dogs, a Weimaraner and two American Pit Bull Terriers. His love for his daughters is exemplary – not only does he enjoy watching them perform in competitive cheerleading and dance, but two of them have gotten the Purdue grad to support Indiana University. He enjoys cooking and range shooting with his daughters, and relaxes by an occasional cigar and bourbon or reading fiction books by Vince Flynn and Allan Folsom. A happy family is the soul of a successful professional life.
On Overcoming the Initial Challenges
“Braving it alone is not fun and having a partner to share risk, who thinks differently and of course add cash to fund the startup is beneficial”, believes Thomas. Further, he adds that one should never start a consulting company without strong relationships that are willing to “give” the new company an opportunity. Tom did not need cash while he initiated two consultant companies as he leveraged his relationships with clients and friends who were looking to do something different.
Inspiration behind its Formation
Great consultants focus on understanding the complex problem, breaking it down into smaller components, designing the solution, then putting integrated plans into action that address people, process and technology to get results. Growing up in a family retail business kept Thomas grounded and helped build inter and intrapersonal skills in challenging customer situations. This built the foundation for his strong problem-solving skills.
Graduating from Purdue University in Industrial Engineering continued to shape and hone these already acquired skills and prepared him for future leadership positions.
Areas of Expertise
Exactus’ expertise is laser-focused on three areas to deliver maximum value and leadership support. It leverages the clients’ insights and guidance along with operational and transactional data, and provides fact-based information for better decision making. The three main areas where Exactus Advisors excels, are: Business Improvement & Risk Mitigation; Value Execution and Extraction; and Recovery. Exactus Advisors’ greatest strength is the experience of the people and the unique way in which they engage their clients to provide sustainable value.
Core Practices
Big consultants are good at making things up and using new and cool buzz words, but Exactus Advisors knows how to help clients most efficiently spend their time and funding. Being aware of these facts, Exactus Advisors is building different platform industry solutions using the latest technology with SAP’s Cloud Platform, Salesforce, and custom solutions. For Exactus Advisors, delivering is about understanding the client culture, capacity, alignment, practicality and getting results for the near term while balancing the long term.
Artful Communication is the Key
The innovative and passionate team of the organization excels at articulating tough messages in a thoughtful and helpful way. The team brings the right amount of finesse and directness, effectively guiding clients through challenges and complexity toward simple, practical solutions.
Work Culture that Attracts Clients
Exactus Advisors follows an entrepreneurial culture and always look for ways to partner with the clients to grow their business and leverage their products with the solutions provided by them.
Currently, the company is developing RPA use-cases and accelerators to deploy a silicon-based workforce versus carbon-based. The team also has an Agent Briefcase for the independent insurance broker market to increase lead generation, in addition to a buying group ERP solution and a simplified margin improvement tool.
The company has its clients from all across the globe. Omni, USG, Bemis, Bradley, Kofax, Dynatrace, Barracuda, Cummins, Caterpillar, Knauf Insulation NA are companies to name a few.
Reflecting on the Future of the Consulting Business
Expressing his views on the future of consulting business, Lebamoff cites,
“Carbon-based offshore businesses will be destroyed by robotic process automation. The benefit of the old labor arbitrage concept will be replaced by a silicon-based workforce. The digital workforce is born. The big consulting companies are lagging behind and don’t know what to do with this technology since it will eat away their profit elephant for their offshore workforce business. The old consulting pyramid is dead because experienced resources and true experts are required for the increased complexity businesses and are dealing with from strategy to cyber threat intelligence.”
Source :-The 10 Most Trusted Consultant Companies 2018