Executive Coaching for High-Stakes Leadership

“To reach our ambitious organisational goals, we decided that we had to do things differently as we had not reached our target for the last 10 years, and basically had hit a glass ceiling.

We engaged with ECG and they created a bespoke training program for us that addressed our specific needs. We are now 4 months down the track and things have really changed! Our whole interaction with prospects and clients has changed – who we talk to, what we talk about, the way we pitch our value proposition, and our follow-up process. Not only our business development approach has changed, but also our sales pipeline has changed. We are closing deals faster and with better financial outcomes.

For the first time in 10 years, we are not only heading toward reaching our targets this financial year, but we will actually smash them!
I highly recommend a sales training partnership with ECG as they guided us through our sales glass ceiling!”

Chris Strickland
CEO, Lacima Group

“Over the past year Ralph and Jim have worked with the team at Moncel in a variety of capacities and have demonstrated value each step of the way.

In particular, strategic planning exercises that were facilitated by Ralph & Jim have enabled our organisation to further refine our North Star, create clearer goals and value propositions to help develop our leadership structure, as well as to simplify and align our internal strategic messaging and focus across the entire organisation.

The result has been an overall focus on growth driven priorities, ultimately leading to performance gains.

Additionally, by refining our strategic objectives we have been able to effectively recruit and build our management structure, doubling the size of the leadership team in less than 6 months.

I would not hesitate to recommend the ECG team for support with strategic planning, executive coaching, and recruitment.”

Stu Hilditch
CEO, Moncel

“After two years of working with ECG, we are well on track to realising our ambitious five-year growth objectives to triple our revenue.

The investment we made in working with ECG has had the best return of all the improvement projects we have ever undertaken, while also empowering our entire team to play an active role in our business growth journey.

We look forward to the next phase of working with ECG where we will further extend our business through additional service offerings, winning even more market share and helping our clients to further excel in their endeavours.”

Michael Connelly
Managing Director, CPR Group

Before I engaged Executive Consulting Group to run the Strategy Development and Alignment workshop for me and my Leadership Team, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect in terms of the content.

However, the workshop delivered much more than I thought. Ralph brought great insights into the strengths and weaknesses of my Leadership Team and facilitated some great teamwork. I found that getting to know each other’s strengths was a crucial way of improving our working relationships. Apart from sharing his wealth of knowledge and delivering the workshop in a very motivational and structured way, there were also moments of fun that encouraged excellent participation amongst the team!

Now we are all aligned on the plan moving forward and we each know which priorities to work on for the next 12-18 months, and who is responsible for delivering them.

I am very confident that by using our newly developed leading-edge models and practices, it will enable our company to get to the next level and achieve our goals.

I know that Jim and Ralph can really help a lot of companies and make them as thrilled and excited about their future as I am.

Kseniya Vasylenko
Managing Director, Value Added Meats

“We contracted Ralph from Executive Consulting Group after a period of serious turmoil. For our organisation he has played a key role in a decisive moment through effectively coaching our management team, and changing their mindsets. Together with him, we created our first Strategic Plan and Operational Plan. His approach has helped us to turn the members of our Executive Team into highly effective leaders, who love their jobs. While doing this, he went above and beyond the call of duty. With Ralph’s help, we started our journey in which we have turned our Technical University from a under-performing institute that had no properly working internet, no financial accountability and which was fully dependent on government funding, into a Technical University with international accreditation, being audited by an international accountancy firm without any discrepancies, having the best internet in the country and now being seen as a valued member in the global academic world. Now we are financially supported by industry stakeholders and as such, the investment in working with Executive Consulting Group was worth every Kina!”

Dr. Albert Schram
Vice Chancellor Unitech, Lae, Papua New Guinea

“Having worked with ECG for 18 months now we are extremely happy with the results.

They go above and beyond their promises in helping us build our company’s sales revenue. In addition, they have helped us create a clear strategy, optimized our processes, trained and held us accountable so that we execute the plan and achieve our goals.

In the last 6 months, we broke our monthly sales record 3 times!

I highly recommend ECG to any company that wants to improve and grow.”

Nelson May
Managing Director, Elite Medical

“Ralph accompanied me as an executive coach. His broad general management experience, including competencies in change management, mergers, business re-engineering and business integration has taught me a lot. I am convinced that Ralph will add value to other international organisations as well.”

“The Leadership Track Program kick-off workshops, delivered by Executive Consulting Group, have been instrumental in setting our leaders up for success — two years running.
In the first year, we had 10 participants, and in the second, 7.

In both cohorts, the impact was immediate.

The sessions provided a strong foundation for our leadership development journey, engaging participants from the very beginning and aligning them with the program’s purpose.
What truly stood out was the quality of facilitation — professional, insightful, and tailored to our organisation’s context. The workshops were not only informative but also energising, equipping our leaders with the clarity, confidence, and tools to grow.

It was an exceptional way to launch a meaningful program, and we’re deeply grateful for our partnership with Executive Consulting Group.”

Sheemal Visun
Chief Operations and People Officer, KJR Australia

“I engaged Executive Consulting Group (ECG), as I needed sales expertise to help me drive my numbers of sales up along with my margins.

My sales team consisted of one senior BDM and two inbound salespeople, who had never had any prior sales training.

Ralph began a 6-month sales training and coaching program with my sales team and trained them on a fortnightly basis over 6 months. Jim worked as an outsourced Sales Manager with the sales guys on a weekly basis to help execute on the new learnings and ensure adherence to the new way of working.

The results over 2020 have been very impressive. My sales team’s abilities and professionalism increased significantly and we are now far exceeding our weekly sales targets. The sales training was a change program that has taken our business to a whole new level of capability.

I highly recommend ECG to anyone that needs to improve sales for their organisation, and the skills and professionalism of their teams.”

Pete Theron
Managing Director, OZ Excavator Buckets Pty Ltd

“When I began my Senior BDM role at Netstrategy, I was told I was reporting to the Sales Director, Jim Colonas from Executive Consulting Group. This was something I was not used to, as Jim is an external consultant that has been hired as a Sales Director.

I was a bit sceptical at first, that an external to the business could provide the level of support and motivation needed for our team to be successful.

It did not take long for me to realise that Jim was very close to the business and knew exactly what we had to do to reach our targets. We met weekly in our sales meetings that proved to not only keep us accountable to our KPIs, but was also an awesome sales coaching session where I got to further develop my Consultative sales skills and my Challenger sales methodology, as well as learning some very effective techniques that even a seasoned sales executive like me found extremely useful.

I find myself now looking forward to the weekly sales meetings as I am always up for improving my skills and success. Jim is also available when I call him throughout the week to discuss any situations or deals as I need.

I highly recommend Executive Consulting Group as Outsourced Sales Managers because they are professionals in sales and sales management. They know what it takes to grow sales and keep a sales team focussed and motivated on achieving their goals.”

Eric Doherty
Senior BDM, NetStrategy

“We engaged Executive Consulting Group to assist us identify the issues in our sales organisation and during this period, when we were not ready to hire a Sales Manager, we outsourced the Sales Management position to ECG.

After several months of managing our sales team, optimising our processes, putting kpi’s, structured reporting and accountability in place, we concluded that hiring a General Manager of Sales could make a big difference to our sales team.

ECG helped us bridge the gap during a period of uncertainty until we knew what kind of structure we were moving forward with and hence what type of Sales Manager to hire.”

Alex Farenden
Managing Director, ACT Logistics

“We reached out to Ralph Vossenberg of Executive Consulting Group when we were seeking ongoing professional development for our Technical Managers, operating in 5 different countries. The training brought a very good balance between theory and practice in topics as leadership and people management skills, including giving feedback and management of emotions. The workshop was very well received and the participants learned valuable skills that they could put into practice the very next day.”

Rajkumar Menon
Director Engineering & Fleet, Hevilift Group

“It was clear that Ricardo’s straight forward and honest approach was exactly what we were looking for as he helped us further understanding and improve our recruitment process. He assisted with candidate profiling, shortlisting, the skilful creation of interview questions and conducting Sales Assessments, which lead to an analysis which assisted us with onboarding our new hire. With their assistance we were able to get a true understanding of our candidates and make the right decision on who to hire. I would highly recommend Ricardo Barriga and the team at Executive Consulting Group to any company looking to engage with true professionals.”

Conor Healy
Chief Operating Officer, The Tad James Company

“Ralph spent 11 months working closely with our organisation delivering a sales and client-engagement coaching and mentoring program. His expert facilitation and mentoring allowed us to better understand the sales cycle, shorten sales lead times, and helped our team bond during a period of organisational change.”

Katie Barns
Technology Manager, Global Mining Company

“We were like many other mining services companies, a victim of the industry downturn and in scarcity mode. We knew we had to do something, but the idea that it would cost money and with no guarantee of success, made us hesitant.

After an initial session, we agreed to start with a 9 month sales skills training program for specialists and managers who had contact with clients. Half way through the program, we had a 2 day workshop, in which we did a lot of practice. This workshop really hit home and allowed us to practice the power of using excellent consultative selling skills.

More importantly, through the 9 months each of our people in the program started to understand that selling had to be followed up with a genuine commitment to delivering the outcomes discussed during the meetings with prospective clients. This enabled us to generate more repeat clients and had different conversations with prospective clients that led to better outcomes and setup our projects for success from the start.

Having finished the program, our company is now in a different space! Call it abundance mode. Even though the industry we are in still hasn’t completely recovered from the downturn, we absolutely have. We demonstrate to our clients the value we add to their business and the result is that we grow, we expand, and our margins have also improved.

We look forward to again working together with Ralph, because we know there is an excellent Return on investment!”

Gerard Wood
Managing Director, Bluefield

“I reached out to Ralph when our company was in need of training for our team which was about to attend a significant trade exhibition. From the instant that we connected we developed a great rapport.

Ralph delivered a two-day Exhibition and ran Perception Enhancement Workshop. This intensive workshop was tremendous preparation for this significant week-long exhibition. The workshop had a great positive impact on the morale & team spirit and equipped the participants with practical knowledge to carry out their respective roles during the exhibition and follow up process.

As a result of this, the company was successful in developing a significant number of quality leads. A number of these leads were successfully converted into sales. These sales made a 15% increase in the annual revenue for the year.”

Gregory Yon
CEO, NID Pty Ltd

“Ricardo is a breath of fresh air when it comes to the (executive) job search market.

I approached Ricardo when a position was advertised on LinkedIn.

It was a real pleasure working with Ricardo. He was so committed in his role, and remains connected throughout the process of hiring, gave me regular updates right from initial introduction till onboarding, and ensured that the negotiations with my Company were beneficial to my career. He continuously and consistently helped with the right information and addressed the issues the candidate might have.

His intimate knowledge of this specialised position and relationships as well as his ability to promote you as the best candidate through your resume and the interview process, have been second to none and insightful. Further, he took the extra mile and followed up about my status at the firm after I was recruited.

Calm, friendly, diligent, respectful, knowledgeable, and professionalism are some of the qualities you will experience when you commence your relationship with Ricardo in search of your new (executive) venture.
I cannot thank and recommend Ricardo strongly enough.”

Arthur Jacobs
Commercial and Operations Director, Advancetex

“We appointed Jim Colonas and the Executive Consulting Group team to launch a search for an executive role to head up our Australian operations.

They were extremely pro-active and managed this project with the right timing, rigor and commitment to bring it to a successful conclusion.

We did appreciate their approach and professionalism, especially in the context we are based overseas in Switzerland.

We highly recommend Executive Consulting Group.”

Hugues Salle
Group HR Director, Cha Technologies Trading and Services SA / Switzerland

“The whole process of recruiting a top position in the business was made effortless from start to end.

From the initial enquiry and right throughout the recruitment process, it was entirely professional. The recruitment team have excellent interpersonal and communication skills combined with an ethical approach that delivers results.

They took the time and made the effort to thoroughly understand our company, the role and were just as thorough in understanding the candidate we were seeking and the skills and attributes that we required.

Within a short timeframe, they had narrowed down excellent candidates.

The service is excellent and ECG are very attentive with regular updates. The words expertise, professionalism, transparency and friendliness characterise my experience.

For these reasons I provide a strong recommendation and look forward to future collaboration.”

Jon Bunch
General Manager, Bay Technologies

“We made the decision to expand our digital hub’s workforce with several new roles, and the thought of trying to find the right employees to both fit the role and complement our existing staff was daunting. Let alone going through the search and shortlisting process. After looking at various options we decided to go exclusively with Executive Consulting Group.

ECG took the lead every step of the way, covering the entire process, from working with us to clearly define role requirements, creating role descriptions and managing the selection and interview phase.

Throughout the process, their market insights, responsiveness and communication levels were excellent, and they kept me informed every step of the way. I particularly appreciate the meaningful and comprehensive reports that made it so much easier to not only be confident that the candidates presented can do the job but also to get a real feel for the candidates’ personality and suitability for our team’s culture.

The partnership with ECG meant that I could continue to focus on my daily tasks, as the shortlist ECG presented was spot on, and we were able to interview very suitable candidates.

Thank you so much for your expertise and efforts, and for making this a pleasant experience for everyone involved.”

Steve Costa
Chief Digital Officer, Axima Logistics and International YKGA

“Ricardo was one of the best recommendations I have received in Strategic Resourcing. My initial application and subsequent discussion with Ricardo were key to drawing out my personal strengths and emphasising my priorities. Surprisingly, the role for which I completed the process was not where Ricardo saw my strengths best applied and he offered me a more exclusive role, which I am pleased to say was a perfect match for me. I think that working with Ricardo as a partner has helped me to provide a more honest and personalised performance in my career, and I thank him for allowing me to recognise this. I am pleased to provide my support and recommend his services to his future clients.”

Douglas Jordan
Lease and Sales Manager Open Pit, Slope Stability Monitoring at Groundprobe