Why I Started Excelerate
Why did I start Excelerate?
Oh man. That’s a tough question. Where to start? I have so many thoughts in my head - many good and many bad experiences from my 20-year career in industry and consulting. What was it that finally pushed me to take that leap?
My family, that’s what it was.
I have two incredible kids and an amazing wife. I’m so lucky to have them in my
life. I don’t tell them that enough, but I should. I was so busy with the day to day management of running a large practice that I couldn’t be available for my family. I wasn’t there for my wife, my daughter or my son. The aha moment struck while my wife was at the hospital with my daughter (during an unexpected surgery) and I had to drop my son off at preschool. It was nearly the end of the school year and the preschool director looked very confused. I quickly realized – I had never been there and she had no idea who I was. I thought a lot about it on the BART train after, going to work in downtown San Francisco. And, I realized, I love consulting because I get to solve new and complex business problems for companies on daily or weekly basis. However, as part of a traditional consulting firm, I was doing it at a sacrifice. I was sacrificing my family, my clients and the way I like to do business. I started to ask myself…..
Could I start a new type of consulting firm, grounded in my beliefs for business and business culture?
Take care of employees. Period. Low administrative burden, for
everyone.Do interesting and challenging projects for impactful clients. ·
Headquarter in a location that inspires through its diversity,
positivity and outside beauty…in this case, the beach. ·Make things easy for client. ·
Respect consultants by giving them autonomy to self-manage their
workload and customer needs alongside their personal life. In short, treat them
like the adults they are.
Could I also address the challenges I had experienced in the traditional consulting world?
Success measured by results, not how many hours were billed.
Positioning yourself and protecting your turf is more important than solving problems together.
Being the smartest person in the room is more important than collaboration and inspiration.
Treating employees like widgets (to simply burn billable hours),
not like humans.Reporting, reporting, unproductive meeting, unproductive meeting, more reporting all taking us away from client and employee interactions.
I believe that if employees are passionate about their client’s business challenges and also feel empowered to manage their personal and professional life, they will be fresh enough to deliver great solutions. It’s with that passion that we are building Excelerate’s reputation and helping our clients go “faster.”
So that’s the plan, and I have my family, to thank for it.