“Being prepared for the journey ahead is critical for successfully achieving your legacy.”
Adrian K. Bray
201 Spear Street
Suite 1100
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 286 5750
My clients want someone who’s been through it before to help them navigate the right path.
When we sold our middle market digital transformation company we didn’t know what to expect. We didn’t know our strategic options, the challenging process of mergers and acquisitions, and what happens after the sale. To say it was brutal is an understatement. It ended up being expensive, exhausting, and frustrating as we trial and errored our way through it.
Based on this experience and requests from other business owners asking me about how I did it, I wanted to address this gap and help others make the right calls so they can achieve greater success while avoiding the experience I had.
I collaborate with owners of privately held businesses to prepare them for the road ahead: understanding where they are in the business cycle, building the right infrastructure and/or growth strategies at the right time (the poor timing of these is often the source of so much trouble), and providing the insights they need to achieve better outcomes.
For more than 30 years I have consulted with a broad cross section of businesses in various sectors including finance, professional services, manufacturing, tech, and primary industries.
I am a Chartered Management Accountant holding diplomas from the Chartered Institute of Directors and the Chartered Institute of Export and an active member of these professional organizations.
I have spoken at several global conferences as well as local chapters of Association for Corporate Growth, British American Business Council, Financial Executives International, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and for other advisor’s client events.
I live in California with my family and enjoy traveling and exploring.
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Differences between business consulting and coaching FAQs
Business coaching focuses on guiding individuals and teams to develop their potential and achieve goals, while business consulting provides expert advice and solutions for specific business challenges and often includes implementation done by them.
Coaches facilitate self-discovery and empower clients to find their own solutions by asking questions and using frameworks. Their focus is asking the right questions. Consultants ask questions to analyze problems and offer expert solutions in an outsourced format. Their focus is to tell you the answer.
Coaching aims to develop the client’s potential, skills, capabilities, and self-awareness through asking the right questions. Consulting aims to deliver specific expertise and advise clients the solutions that often leave with the consultant.
Owners, entrepreneurs, leaders, and teams seeking personal capability growth, strategic thinking, and leadership skill development benefit from coaching.
Organizations or functions seeking to outsource the problem to gain the resolution through expert advice and solution implementation for specific business challenges benefit from consulting.
Coaches engage by questioning and then by active listening to facilitate client-driven insights, sometimes they use a framework or a model to focus and facilitate the session. Consultants provide direct advice and solutions. They also use frameworks and models to advise the client what they are going to do or should do.
A coach acts as a facilitator, guiding clients to explore their potential and develop their own strategies and capabilities for success, the client is required to do the work to develop and implement the strategy.
A consultant acts as an expert advisor telling clients which strategies, solutions, and recommendations should be deployed based on their expertise and experience.
Coaching deliverables focus on individual and team growth, capabilities, and action plans, while consulting deliverables often include reports, analyses, recommendations and implementation of their advice.
Coaching engagements focus on personal and team development, supporting your strategic thinking, challenging you and creative and collaborative problem solving to achieve individual and team goals.
Consulting engagements focus on addressing specific business challenges and providing expert solutions and recommendations.
Coaches measure success through client growth and achievement of goals, while consultants measure success through the implementation of their recommended solutions and results
Coaching engagements can a specific time based, be ongoing, and evolve with the client’s needs as their business grows and they continue to receive value. Consulting engagements are often project-based and time-limited.
Coaches help clients explore and navigate the solution options to challenges and problems that the clients face and build their capabilities and experience, while consultants provide expert outsourced solutions to the client’s challenges.
Coaches require excellent questioning, listening, and business skills, while consultants need analytical and problem-solving skills.
Coaches encourage self-reflection and client-driven feedback, while consultants provide feedback based on the solution provided.
In coaching, the focus is on facilitating the client’s own expertise and insights. A coach with similar business and leadership experience can provide insights and focus to the questions asked to the client. Expertise can be useful for the coach to support a client in a hybrid capacity. Methodology, domain, or technical expertise is crucial in consulting to provide solutions.
Coaches empower clients to make their own informed decisions, while consultants provide recommendations for decision-making.
Coaching empowers clients to develop their own solutions, knowledge, and take ownership of their growth, while consulting provides solutions and outsources the solution to the problem.
Coaches contribute by fostering sustainable personal growth and self-discovery, while consultants contribute by delivering expert solutions and faster fixes.