The Difference

More than typical consultants, John Von Achen and his team are sought after strategic advisors with solid and proven experience in helping organizations successfully address their challenges and solve their problems.

The following is a brief outline as to what makes Johns approach to strategic consulting unique and so valuable.


The Focus is Always RESULTS
John and his team never engage in projects for the sake of “doing a project” just because it might be a good idea or because there is money in the budget set aside for a particular activity. With John, the focus is always on producing tangible results an organization or individual can profit from.

Using a process of working collaboratively with clients, John and his team help to accelerate individual and organizational change, along with achieving sustained performance improvement in the areas of sales, marketing, management and leadership.

And in the end, one of John’s goals is to work himself out of a job (finish projects as fast as possible), rather than try to create more work for the sake of activity, something too many consulting companies engage in as standard practice.

John’s Experience and Expertise is Substantial
John Von Achen is a truly a master in his areas of professional competency, both in terms of wisdom and practical real-world experience. He and his team have been involved with over 200 various consulting projects over a span of almost two decades. And, because of his substantial experience in strategic consulting and corporate reorganizations projects, John understands the nature and process of managing fast moving change and operating a business under extreme and stressful conditions; the very wisdom necessary to survive and succeed today in business.

In addition, John’s experience and expertise is invaluable due to his circle of influence and personal network. John is constantly working with top executives and leading business thinkers from all over the world whom he shares best practices with and learns from. So, John brings with him the advantage of this combined business wisdom every project.

John is Involved with all Projects Personally
John is always involved in a project in the beginning and throughout its entirety until a project is completed. John’s approach is not to show up in the beginning of a project and then disappear, replacing his presence with “juniors” ho have less or limited experience.

John does have an experienced support team of partners, both internal and eternal, who work with John on all projects; however, John leads all projects personally and is always available for his clients directly.

Expectations are Always Clear
Too often, the specific results and deliverables in consulting projects are vague and unclear. This is never the case with John. In all of his projects, John and his client first work together to identify problems and tasks to be done from both sides and then set specific and measurable goals, so that all expectations can ultimately be met.

To John, this is of critical importance because far too often an organization hires an outside consulting company for help with the hope they can make “miracles happen”. John does not believe in “miracles” in business. And, John does not believe any consulting company can help any organization unless the organization itself is fully engaged in a project. To John, success can only be achieved when the consulting company and the organization are working together toward a specific goal. This is why expectations are always clear up front.

John Works Directly With the Top
Real and lasting change always comes from the top, so it should be no surprise that John will only work on a project if the owner and/or senior management of an organization are directly involved and behind a project personally. This is not to say John will not work with other members of an organization. Often, John is asked to work with and train staff from all levels of an organization.

Still, if the top is not involved, John will decline to participate in a project.

Results Are Delivered Fast
Lasting and profitable change can never occur overnight. Still, change should not take forever and the longer it takes for an organization to make a change, the more the costly the change process will be.

In John’s opinion, most consulting work takes far too much time to complete, leaving the organization feeling they did not benefit form the consulting project as much as they could have.

With this in mind, all of the work John’s team does is streamlined to help an organization move forward as fast as possible, sidestepping much of the standard consulting process that typically wastes time and money. And, because of the experience of John and his team and because John works directly with owners and/or senior executives, this is possible because time is never wasted, decisions are made very quickly and action is taken to realize results much quicker.

All Projects are Cost Effective
Because of John’s experience, and because John works directly with owners and/or senior executives and because John’s projects are completed faster than the industry norm, he able to avoid charging exorbitant fees and typically completes projects for far less than most consulting companies.

Furthermore, for most projects, John bills for the projects results, not the amount of time it takes to complete a project. So with John, you never feel he or any member of his team is more concerned with “clocking hours”, rather than solving problems and delivering results.

The Truth Always Takes Precedence
John is know for his candor, honesty and direct approach with all of his consulting projects. He does not tell clients only what they want to hear and he takes nothing for granted.

So, it should be understood up front that John expects all of his clients to be open and open-minded during a project, since that will be his approach as well. This is not to suggest that John thinks he is always right or that he believes his ideas and methodologies are the only path to success. Rather, John’s main focus in always on results and to John that can only happen when challenges and problems are dealt with openly and directly.


To learn more about how John and his team may be able to help you and your organization with a challenge, problem or project, click here.