Frequently Asked Questions
Why use ATO
"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn"
All organisations, small and large, enlist external expertise to assist them. Traditionally this has been in the form of legal or fiduciary services, to provide periodic corporate compliance, or to assist on planned and non-planned legal matters. What businesses are less likely to call upon is external expertise to focus on those areas of operation that a business depends upon, sales revenue growth, and the services to support this. We are not a consultancy practice in the traditional sense, one which applies theoretical solutions to problems an organisation faces. We are not theorists, we are practitioners, professionals that have held senior (C-Level) positions within commercial organisations, that have faced and in turn, successfully overcome the challenges within these businesses that we now provide our consultancy services on. We have experienced first hand, the highs, and lows, the challenges, and opportunities that all businesses encounter. We do not claim to have all the answers. No external advisor can claim with all certainty to have all the answers. Our experience has often proven that the answers being sought are already within the organisations we advise. Our role and our services focus on bringing these answers to the fore and creating a roadmap to realise them as efficiently and effectively as possible. We do this by providing our clients with our practical, current, and proven experience where their involvement in the process is key to success.
How to measure the success of our services
"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do"
ATO are firm advocates of measuring the success of our services by the impact we have on the corporate metrics of our clients. These metrics include revenue, profit, market expansion, and resource effectiveness. That is why three of the most important questions we ask at the start of any client engagement are:
- “What do you want to achieve?”
- “How do you want to measure it?”
- “What outcome determines whether the activity has been successful or not?”
These questions and their subsequent answers form the foundation of the work we do for you. They provide us, and you, with the point of reference throughout the engagement to ensure we never lose focus of what YOU want.
Geographic Footprint
Whilst ATO is based in Northern Ireland, we have either directly provided services to, or assisted organizations, in more than 50 countries across 5 continents. Countries of experience include:
Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malawi, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Russia, Samoa, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia
Confidentiality
ATO fully understands the importance of protecting Commercial in Confidence information. Before we accept any new clients or specific projects of work, a comprehensive due diligence check is conducted to identify any potential conflict of interest. This will be completed within 24hrs of registration of interest in our services upon which we will notify you directly of the results of the check and whether or not a conflict of interest exists.
ATO does have pre-existing retainer agreements in place with several clients. As such, should a potential new client express interest in our services, and, should a conflict of interest be established which contravenes the terms of these individual agreements and specifically, those of exclusivity, we will not be in a position to offer our services to that business.
Fees
ATO's fees are structured in a modular and tiered system. Modular relates to the specific services contracted to provide. Tiered, based on metrics linked to the size and corporate structure of the enterprise we are contracted to assist.
We appreciate any value-added service must have a transparent and measurable fee structure and we detail this at the outset of any inquiry for our services.
We are firm advocates of measuring the success of our services by the outcomes your business has engaged us to assist you to achieve.
We are confident in the outcome of the services we provide, especially those which will be measured in revenue and profit growth in your business which are linked to ATO's inputs. We, therefore, provide the option of a fee linked to the measurable outcomes of revenue, market growth, and profits.