AI Magazine Issue 10 2018

Acquisition International - Issue 10 2018 51 The Refinery is a professional services firm formed to primarily assist small business owners with their back-office operations. Recently, the firm found success in AI’s 2018 Global Excellence Awards where they were awarded the title Best Leadership Development Consultancy 2018 - Washington, D.C. On the back of this win, we profiled The Refinery and spoke to President, Marian Saunders White who revealed to us more about the innovative solutions they provide. he Refinery handles many of the operational tasks and activities regarding contract management, human resources, and financial management. The firm’s clients come from a wide range of industries, including Informational Technology consulting, childcare development, transportation, and human and social services. The industry itself doesn’t matter, the problems and challenges the business owners face are common across their varied service offerings. Since their inception, the team at The Refinery have learnt that every client has different needs, as such, the firm’s approach to successfully working with each client is customised to address their needs at their particular time in the business cycle. Even clients within the same industry have different needs; some seek our services as a one-time, stand-alone solution, while others look for us to partner with them as an extension of their staff on an on-going basis. Going into greater detail about the firm’s approach to undertaking a new client, Marian begins by informing us how the team at The Refinery ensure right from the start that the outcome meets the needs of everyone involved. “At our initial meeting, which may occur in-person or virtually, we ask the client to explain not only their immediate concerns, but to first provide an overview of their business so we have an overall understanding of why they exist. This type of consultation is designed to educate both sides of the table. Once we feel we have a good understanding of their business and immediate challenges, we provide a review of our understanding back to client. This all occurs during this Contact: Marian Saunders White Company: The Refinery Address: The Refinery Owings Mills Maryland, 21117, USA Telephone: 001 410 299 7558 Web Address: www.refineryconsulting.net Delivering Excellence, Without Compromising Integrity T 1810AI50 first meeting; we believe it helps to ensure everyone is working from the same understanding from the very start. If we feel we can assist them, we provide several engagement options for the client to choose. If there are areas we believe they can effectively address some portions of their issues without engaging us full- time, we will make them aware of that option as well. Our goal is to add value and we are looking to develop a long-term partnership, not necessarily from this one engagement, but we strive to ensure our clients know we are here to support them as much or as little as needed, there are no hard sells, and no one size fits all packages.” When discussing the internal culture at The Refinery, Marian is keen to highlight how she has cultivated a productive working environment. “The Refinery keeps a very small in-house staff, one that encourages personal growth and development for those seeking to move outside of their comfort zone. The staff know that they are empowered to make decisions on their own; they just need to be able to justify the decisions they make. It’s hard to fight against logical and well- informed decision- making. The type of staff that embrace this type of environment do well in our organisation.” Moving forward, Marian signs off by looking ahead to what the future holds for The Refinery and where they hope the company will be in the new year. “The Refinery operates best as a small, boutique professional services firm. We are not looking to become a business with a large number of employees. We don’t do a lot of large scale marketing or advertising. I love it when our new clients are referred to us by former or existing clients. My main goal is to continue the business, working primarily on referrals, as this means we are meeting our goal of adding value for our clients. Anew line of services that we will be adding to our roster in 2019 is our corporate retreat services. We are very excited about sharing our knowledge and expertise regarding professional and personal development outside of the office.” “The Refinery keeps a very small in-house staff, one that encourages personal growth and development for those seeking to move outside of their comfort zone.”