Consultant, coach, outsourcing provider, technology specialist, project manager, change manager or another employee? They can all be useful. They overlap in places, but they are strongest at different things and leave different responsibilities with you.
This guide is designed to make the choice easier before you spend money, add headcount or start another project.
There is plenty of overlap between these roles. The useful difference is where each one is strongest, how involved they usually become, and how much of the improvement journey they can cover.
This is a guide, not a rule. Individual providers can work more broadly or narrowly than the typical role shown here.
None of these options is inherently better. The question is whether the model matches the problem you actually have.
Analysis, outside perspective, problem definition, process review and recommendations.
The work can stop at the recommendation, leaving implementation, coordination and adoption with you.
You need experienced thinking and already have the internal capacity to implement it.
Challenge, priorities, decision-making, accountability and momentum.
Coaching generally assumes you and your team will do the operational redesign and implementation.
You broadly know what needs to happen and need support to follow through.
Adding capacity, reducing internal workload and moving repeatable work to an appropriate cost base.
Outsourcing does not automatically remove unnecessary work or fix poor process design.
The work is necessary, repeatable and reasonably well designed; capacity or cost is the main constraint.
System selection, configuration, integration and implementation.
Technology providers naturally approach the problem through a technology lens.
You have established what capability the business actually needs and require specialist technical expertise.
Scope, milestones, dependencies, risks, resources and disciplined delivery.
Technical delivery does not automatically create the intended business outcome.
The initiative is already defined and the main need is organised delivery.
Readiness, communication, capability, adoption and reinforcement for the people affected by change.
Change management normally begins once the proposed change is reasonably clear; it is not always there to determine whether the underlying operational solution is right.
You know what is changing and need help making sure people can and will work differently afterwards.
Permanent ownership, day-to-day operational leadership, diagnosing issues and improving the business from inside.
A strong internal operations leader can diagnose, design and implement across the business. The trade-off is permanent cost, recruitment risk and needing enough ongoing work to justify the role.
You need continuing operational ownership and there is enough permanent work and responsibility to justify a dedicated role.
Working across the gap between advice and execution: understand what is getting in the way, design a practical response, help implement it and support adoption.
Heron is deliberately senior-led and hands-on. It is not designed to provide large consulting teams, unlimited delivery capacity or permanent operational management.
The problem or solution touches people, process, technology, marketing or management, and you need an experienced person who can both work out what needs changing and stay involved in getting it done.
Heron works alongside you to improve how the business actually operates. The person helping understand the problem stays close to the design, implementation and adoption rather than handing the work off and disappearing.
Separate symptoms from the things that actually matter so the business is not trying to fix everything at once.
The thinking and the doing remain connected rather than being separated across layers of people.
A recommendation that simply creates another owner-managed project is only partly useful.
Consider people, process, systems, controls and customers before implementation creates unintended consequences.
A solution creates value when people actually use it and the improvement holds after the initial push.
