Foodmicroconsulting

GIVING ACCESS TO FOOD CONSULTING TO THOSE WHO COULD NOT AFFORD IT

Olivier Goudineau created food microconsulting to advise food professionals who do not have access to traditional consulting due to the high costs involved. Today coaching, mentoring, and advising are mostly reserved to a few well-off CEOs and MDs. He intends to change that.

Most existing food and beverage consultants are expensive and over-complex in their approach. SMEs and food professionals cannot afford such expense and feel uncomfortable with the approach. Over the years, while advising friends and colleagues, Olivier realised that there was a need for simple, fast, and affordable consulting in the food industry.

The model he created provides pragmatic and “actionable” help to his clients. Olivier knows the food industry inside out having worked there for 28 years in 11 different countries. He developed a talent for analysis and appropriate methodology in fixing problems. This is the base of his food microconsulting method.

EFFICIENCY, EFFICIENCY, EFFICIENCY

At food microconsulting we aim at efficiency first. It does not matter whether what we do is consulting, mentoring, or coaching if it makes our clients and their businesses more efficient. Costs and time are important and we optimise our consulting by using modern means of communication.

Writing emails or messages has many advantages over face to face meetings. Our clients can make the best of their time during the day to put things in writing. It can be reviewed, amended, improved. There is no rush. Ideas come at some unexpected time and can always enrich the thinking. In return, our food and beverage consultants have also time to analyse and review the messages. We will then answer in writing, giving the possibility to our clients to review our suggestions at their own pace.
When a “live” discussion seems necessary we use Skype or WhatsApp at no cost. Face to face meetings are rarely required (but can be arranged).
Such approach ensures that time and costs are optimised. We have no additional admin costs or add-ons.

OUR CLIENTS PROPOSE THE FEES

This possibly is the most surprising way of doing business with food microconsulting.
We know that each business and personal situation is different. We work with companies and food professionals all over the world. A fixed hourly rate would not make sense.
We believe that our clients know best what the consulting they need is worth to them. We therefore ask them to propose, in all fairness, how much they propose to spend on the consulting.
If we think that the offer is a fair one (in more than 90% of the cases) we accept and it becomes the consultation fee or rate. If we do not, there is no further discussion and we will not engage in the consulting.

A “PAY & GO” APPROACH RATHER THAN LONG-TERM CONTRACTS

It would be inconsistent to put efficiency at the top of our values and ask for long-term contracts.
We are convinced that the liberty given to our clients to stop the consulting at any time is a sign of trust. The aim of our food and beverage consultants is to make our clients’ business more efficient so we encourage our clients to stop working with us if they feel that they do not get any added value anymore.
We want a healthy relationship, not a bureaucratic one.

BE READY FOR SOME VERY DIRECT INTERACTION

We want to make our clients’ businesses more efficient, so we are not afraid to say what we think. Our food and beverage consultants have experience and think that the best way to benefit is when both parts have very direct and sincere exchanges.
It may be surprising at first but by experience such directness favours trust and creates constructive relationships. Once trust is established the consulting can do wonders.