Environmental Scan
A BEACON ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN SUPPLIES BROKER-DEALERS WITH:
- An objective evaluation of your current business strategy, how well it is being executed and an identification of the greatest risk factors to your success.
- A summary presentation of your strengths and challenges based on our “State of the Industry” review of business practices, regulatory trends and other drivers that are currently impacting the market.
- A competitive profile to illustrate where your firm stands compared to similar broker-dealers.
- Prioritized recommendations for achieving the alignment of your technology and information strategy to achieve your stated business goals.
- Identification of emerging market/product opportunities based upon your firm profile and strengths.
Do you have enough time and sufficient market insight to consider:
- What firms like yours are doing to succeed in the current business environment?
- Whether your people and resources are optimally aligned to execute your strategy?
- What new investments you should make, and which ones you should cease?
- What key technologies you should leverage, and which ones are obsolete?
“Legend hired Beacon Strategies in 2009 to help the firm identify technological business solutions that would move our firm forward with the next generation of our business. Beacon worked closely with us, getting to know our firm and the staff, to identify the areas of our business that could benefit from technological enhancements. With so many vendors and so many options available, he proved to be a tremendous resource in helping us understand our needs and vetting out the best vendors providing solutions. We were pleased with the input, guidance and professionalism provided by Beacon Strategies and we would recommend his services to any firm confronting similar issues.”
-James J. Halvosa, Former Executive Vice President, The Legend Group
Beacon’s Environmental Scan is an intensive, two-day, on-site exercise that provides senior decision makers the ability to keep abreast of the marketplace and business environment. It allows leadership to think beyond the standard day-to-day processes and focuses on business at a higher, more strategic level.
Firms who have participated in an Environmental Scan have found that looking at the bigger picture has enabled them to successfully address complex issues like increasing advisor productivity, improving operating efficiencies, accelerating business growth and achieving higher operating margins. Beacon’s senior staff combines our proprietary research with our extensive industry knowledge and experience to:
- Develop a business profile for your firm that provides a comparison of your firm to similar peer-group firms.
- Identify proven best practices that most effectively align with your needs and style of business.
- Review core functions including technology, marketing communications, operations, practice management, recruiting and training.
- Compare these core functions to those of firms with similar business profiles and evaluate how they align with your current strategy.
- Identify your strengths, weaknesses and critical pain points through one-on-one interviews with key members of your leadership team.
- Facilitate a round table review session for your leadership team to discuss our findings and explore the opportunities or threats identified.
We work with you to tailor the scan to your needs. Many of our clients schedule an annual Environmental Scan to benchmark their firms, keep abreast of industry trends and issues and ensure that their business strategies remain on point. Others use the scan to provide context and planning to address a specific issue.
Beacon Environmental Scan:
Sample Timeline and On-Site Agenda
3 weeks prior to the On-Site
Initial Conference Call with the scan sponsor to:
- Define any specific issues that you desire us to focus on.
- Gain an initial understanding of the organization and who will be participating in interviews and group presentations.
- Schedule demonstrations of the relevant systems and technologies currently in use.
- Request any marketing communications for our review.
- Gather general information about the firm.
- Review on site logistics (tour of operations, interview schedules, etc.)
Beacon will send you a custom firm profile, based the information provided on the initial call. The profile would be completed and returned no less than 3 business days prior to the on-site.
1 Week prior to the On-Site
Second Conference call to:
- Review draft agenda.
- Finalize list of interview participants. (If a critical team member will not be available while we are on site we will schedule a phone interview prior to our visit.)
- Finalize on-site logistics.
On-Site Day 1 (8:30 – 5:00)
- Meet with the sponsor to review and confirm objectives.
- Review any outstanding questions about profile info, etc. with specific individuals.
- Tour facility.
- Conduct (approximately 30 minute) interviews with members of the Leadership Team, key personnel and Investment Professionals.
- Day 1 review with sponsor.
- Dinner with Leadership Team.
On-Site Day 2 (9:00 – 2:00)
Beacon Presentation to Leadership Team. The presentation is designed to be interactive and open to encourage participation.
- State of the Industry.
- Your firm’s strengths and challenges.
- How your firm measures up against like firms/best practices.
- Strategy evaluation and execution risk assessment.
- Specific recommendations for achieving better alignment of technology and information to your business goals.
- Identified opportunities.
- Open discussion.
Contact us today if you are interested in discussing “Thought-Leading” broker-dealer research. We can be reached at: info@beaconstrategiesllc.com or 720-227-4595.
