Strategy
Management Consulting

At Demkovitz Consulting, we use systems thinking to improve productivity and resilience of startups and companies in the consumer goods and healthcare sectors.

Our Philosophy

We see the companies as complex systems with interconnected variables affecting its overall performance. However, running a successful business is not a mystery, and it follows the rules of good strategy and management. Through our work, we aim to analyse the company holistically, in the context of a sustainable long-term strategy, and improve its financial and operational health. In particular we specialise in organisational culture and structure as well as strategy and business model.

We provide services for high-growth startups, established SMBs, and individual business units of large organisations. For the former, we offer board advisory or fractional COO involvement. For the latter two groups, we specialise in the turnaround and performance improvement through strategic analysis and project management work.

Due to our multidisciplinary background, we are inspired to get ideas from sciences, arts and business studies, however, we remain focused on the systemic approach to problem solving and the applications to business. To learn more about our philosophy, please feel free to read more about how we see business organisations as systems in comparison to the human body in the document available below.

Click here to read our philosophy about business as a complex system in the PDF format.

Family Business and Succession

We are founded with heritage and passing family values in our DNA. That is why our specialisation lies in the niche of family business and succession planning. We have observed and advised on multiple wealth transfers from small companies to enterprises as well as our team has managed their succession process in the past.

We pride ourselves in offering the services covering executive coaching for multiple generations to work together effectively, operational advice on introducing the successor into the company and detailed guideline how to navigate this difficult yet rewarding change management process.

If you are concerned about separating work from family, ensuring respect for the successor and ensuring that the transition is adding value and sustainable for business growth and profitability, we will be able to help. Done properly, succession is the an extremely rewarding and beautiful experience for all involved.

Profile of Clients We Consult

While our range of services may serve a wide spectrum of businesses, our offering is currently best suited for companies in e-commerce, FMCG and retail sector with the following characteristics.

1. A high-growth startup defined between pre-seed and series A (inclusive) funding stage.

2. An SMB with up to 100 employees and/or £/€ 50MM annual revenue, with plans to scale and introduce structured processes. This includes family businesses with the plans of succession.

3. Individual business units within large corporate structures.

4. Portfolio companies of a Private Equity fund requiring restructuring, strategy and operational improvement.

5. A company that has a challenging period identified by at least one of the following symptoms.

Declining profitability and/or revenue
High people turnover and toxic culture
Bad reviews for products, brands and company as an employer
Cash liquidity issues and poor credibility among financial institutions
Declining market share

Our Approach

1/ Performance Assessment and Diagnostics

We start our business partnership with a free and comprehensive diagnostics of the company's performance in three stages. Firstly, we share with you a self-assessment tool to determine the strengths and areas of improvements in each of the distinct categories of managing an enterprise: 1) Leadership, People and Culture, 2) Business Model and Design, 3) Customer Obsession, 4) Financial Management, and 5) Operational Excellence. This is followed by the in-depth discovery interview with a consultant to understand how your company functions as a system. Lastly, we analyse selected metrics to determine performance trends and compare them to industry benchmarks. We provide an overview summary and recommendations of the next steps at the end of this process.

Learn more about our approach and methodology in the available PDF document.

2/ Strategic Analysis and Recommendations

Following the assessment, we offer a paid in-depth analysis of the company performance and its position in the market. We work alongside your teams for up to 2 weeks to deep dive the processes and culture. We use both well-established management models such as SWOT, PESTLE and Porter's Five Forces as well as our internal tools. Further, we provide strategic recommendations based on your requirements, however, typically we would provide the template for a 3-year strategy for your business with detailed implementation plan covering commercial approach, organisational culture and structure and opportunities to create more value for the customers. We also suggest how to leverage more data in the decision-making and automate operational processes.

3 / Holistic Company Improvement Projects

Dependant on your preference, we may work with you on implementing our strategy and recommendations. We usually work on a project management basis, however, sometimes we work closely with clients on a longer business transformation assignments, covering multiple areas and solving systemic issues in a company. Therefore, our offer includes delivering a 3-day workshop to the top management, introducing a new HR processes or BI reporting over 4-6 weeks period, or implementing the strategy for 8-12 months.

Our Offer

Strategy and Referral to Domain Experts for Implementation

In our detailed analysis and recommendations, we cover all five business categories: 1) Leadership, People and Culture, 2) Business Model and Design, 3) Customer Obsession, 4) Financial Management, and 5) Operational Excellence, as we have the research and practical knowledge in these areas. Our 3-year strategy work delivers the in-depth recommendations to implement across the three-year time horizon, with their financial evaluation, advantages, benefits, disadvantages and risk consideration for each proposal. We also include how to measure its success and a scenario analysis with multiple alternative approaches to consider if certain conditions are met. While we have the expertise to lead change in the first two areas, we are aware that we currently lack the capacity to run implementation projects in Customer Obsession, Financial Management and Operational Excellence, where we are able to refer to our partner domain experts.

Leadership, People and Culture

First area of expertise where Demkovitz Consulting may implement change is the domain of organisation culture, strong leadership and people development. This is the core to business performance and productivity, as people enable formation of high-performing teams that solve problems creatively and innovate outside of their scope of responsibilities. We have developed methodologies to increase trust within the organisation, strengthen the leadership, improve motivation among employees and implement HR processes to accelerate talent development. We also focus on managing cross-generational teams and advising on the mental well-being solutions. Lastly, we have expertise in the succession planning and ensuring a smooth transition of executive leadership/ownership of a business to a younger generation.

Business Model and Design

A business is a system consisting of many variables that have to be organised in the most effective manner. It all starts with a 3-year strategy setting the direction and vision for the organisation, which Demkovitz Consulting is able to implement in the domain of business model and design. This includes the improvement of the key metrics and variables with the greatest impact on a company's goals. Also we implement the most suitable organisational structure and sales channels to allow execution of the plan. Additionally, we determine the teams' scope of responsibilities and goals to ensure they are aligned with the enterprise's strategy. Lastly, we propose solutions regarding the use of IT systems and data and how it supports the communication flow and decision-making in the company. This includes an advice on automation of some of the manual tasks to increase teams' productivity.

Enquire about our work

Benefits of Working With Us

Applied Academic Excellence

Our solutions are based on combination of academic and business knowledge as well as practical leadership experience. We are continuously learning and conducting research about new solutions and adapting them to the real-world requirements.

Network and Partners

Our experience and research is also based on collaborating with an extensive network of domain experts. If it's more value-adding for an organisation, we may recommend they seek advice from our partners instead delivering the service ourselves. Given approval, we connect our clients with each other to partner in their business activities.

Confidentiality and Commitment

Our name and reputation is our most important asset. We are committed to confidentiality of our clients and exceeding their expectations, even if it may come at a short-tem cost to us. Organisations that we work with may put any penalty fee in the NDA clause as we certain we will not break it.

Leadership Laboratory

We believe that behind every great organisation is a strong leader, and there's a formula to improve leadership skills. Therefore, we offer 1:1 or small group (up to 3 people) coaching and mentoring on developing emotional intelligence, reflection, critical thinking skills, stress management and personal values. Although we us psychological and business frameworks, our practice is tailored to the individual leader's needs.

Growing Startups

We recognise specific needs of high-growth startup companies and we designed our offer to support the companies in the following three aspects, either on a Board Advisory or Fractional Executive basis.

Commercial Strategy

Whether it's a Healthtech or an e-commerce startup, it requires a commercial strategy. We help structure customer feedback to support product development and establish pricing strategy. Lastly, we offer help with growth and go-to-market approach. For healthtech startups, we additionally support around regulatory guidance.

Scalable Operations

We support the founders with the operations that matter. At the early stages, issues like office, payroll, tax & accounting and even marketing can be outsourced. However, hiring, internal tools and processes, reporting, and compliance for fundraising are crucial to scale the business further. We advise on how to perform the necessary actions with the least time.

Door Opening

Startups require external support from many stakeholders: investors, advisors, domain experts and test customers. In addition to our services, we offer access to the network of the listed parties to help with the fundraising, testing the product and driving its adoption and further improvement of the process.

Meet the Team

Founder

Aleksander Nitecki

Aleksander has over 5 years of commercial and leadership experience at Amazon where he worked with the biggest Consumer Electronics vendors on their e-commerce strategy and growth. He also consulted 50+ startups on optimising their procurement and internal operations. In addition, he built pan-European projects bringing £100MM+ in value. Following this, he successfully turned around his family business in medical distribution (case study available on request) before launching Demkovitz Consulting to serve more clients and help them achieve their goals.

His approach to business is based on his leadership values, statistical skillset, and ability to recognise patterns. This allows him to view companies as complex systems aimed at achieving different goals. Identifying the key variables to success and continuously improving on them, allows businesses to win in the markets. Through this analysis, Aleksander deep dives the details of the operations and also consider them in the wider strategic context. He complements these skills with leadership abilities, as he led people both in corporate and small company settings. His biggest rewards in career is ability to develop others into future leaders in an organisation through coaching and mentoring. This philosophy of systems-thinking as well as focus on developing people talent in the organisations is the foundation of Demkovitz Consulting.

Outside of the consultancy work, Aleksander is a member of Institutes of Directors and an active alumnus of London Business School.

Our name, Demkovitz, is a tribute to Aleksander's family name that due to its intelligentsia and nobility status had to be changed in the 1930s when they had to flee their Polish/Ukrainian region under a threat of dekulakization and land redistribution.

In spare time, he is a true non-fiction book-worm and a thinker - continuously researching, exploring and debating new ideas that could be applied to business. He is also a competitive (on an amateur level) squash player after being a second team captain at the university.

Case Studies

Pre-seed SaMD (Software as Medical Device) startup in London

We joined the startup, building an AI medical device solution for MSK treatment, as a Fractional COO to support with the regulatory research and operational planning.

Through a 3-month engagement, we have delivered:

1. A detailed regulatory strategy including the necessary standards implementation roadmap and associated costs, allowing the company to apply for research grants.

2. Initial documentation of processes in compliance with EIC 62304, EIC 62366, ISO13485 and ISO14971 and procedures ensuring quality and risk compliance in the company.

3. A vendor evaluation for the eQMS software for quality management.

4. 5-year financial projections based on the UK and US market segmentation.

5. Product development roadmap including regulatory requirements and support with wireframing and planning milestones. Introduced the V-model for development methodology.

6. Organised the recruitment process, screened and interviewed for the co-founder CTO position.

Following the project, we have transitioned to the ongoing Board Advisory for the startup to support with product development, regulatory research and fundraising. We have also angel invested in the company.

Contact Us and Enquire about a Project

We operate both in London and Warsaw to work with UK and Polish businesses.

In order to contact us and ask for a discovery meeting, please message us directly at aleksander@demkovitz.com or book a time in our Calendly schedule.

https://calendly.com/aleksander-demkovitz/60min-consultation

Before the first meeting, we are going to additionally provide the link to the self-assessment tool for the first step of the free business diagnostic process.

The standard fee for agreed project work post-discovery is £225 (excl. VAT) per hour.

Strategy Management Consulting