Operations Consulting

Senior managers at community financial institutions want to operate their organization at peak efficiency. It benefits all stakeholders to periodically review the operations within the organization to uncover inefficiencies that unnecessarily drain resources from other, more profitable areas.

The Kafafian Group has built its operations consulting practice by uncovering inefficiencies or revenue opportunities in a manner sensitive to the culture within the organization. Our significant industry experience combined with the costing studies we performed at over 100 financial institutions gives us unique expertise in evaluating an organization’s operations. We take a common sense, partnership approach with operational personnel by identifying a unit’s objectives, reviewing workflow, and asking pertinent questions. Together with your staff, we identify those tasks that do not add value and take work out of the process, thereby increasing a unit’s capacity or reducing the resources required to get things done.

A typical operations consulting engagement can be focused on one particular area of an institution or a more broad-based approach, looking for efficiencies throughout the organization. You will not receive a masters thesis or an off-the-shelf consulting document from us. Rather, at the conclusion of the process, we will make specific recommendations to senior management on where to reduce costs, increase revenue, or both. We typically identify inefficiencies that cost clients far more than our fee.

Can outside assistance benefit your organization? We provide:

1. Peace of Mind - Operational tasks within a community financial institution are so customized it is very difficult for senior managers to ascertain if certain areas are performing at peak efficiency. Periodically reviewing operations, using a third party that is sensitive to organizational culture and cohesiveness, can provide management the perspective necessary to make modifications that improves performance.
2. Unique Expertise - The majority of our staff are former bankers. We understand the sensitivities within the organization and work as partners with operations staff to find a better way to accomplish their unit’s objectives. As part of our profitability outsourcing business, we routinely interview operations staff to determine what they do, why they do it, and the resources required. This perspective gives us a tremendous pool of knowledge from which to make suggestions on how things could be accomplished more efficiently.