Originally from Odesa, Maksym Kovalenko spent ten years in Kyiv working with international companies across the tobacco, food, automotive, aviation, and banking sectors. In every role, he helped establish and improve organizational workflows. Eventually, Maksym moved to the United States. In 2023, he started his own consulting agency and now works exclusively with American clients — from fruit purée and juice producers to even a medical company specializing in organ transplantation.
In a recent episode of the YBBP podcast I’m Just Asking!, we spoke with Maksym about working with executives who have a power complex, what lies behind professional burnout, whether U.S. companies prefer in-house staff or external consultants, and how much consulting services typically cost in the States. Below are key takeaways from the conversation. You can listen to the full episode via the link below.
How do you tell if a business needs consulting? It’s worth looking at how the product is developed and sold, and at the relationships between different people. One clear sign is when there’s too much coordination: everything gets approved by all the managers and sometimes even the CEO, even small things, and decisions take a very long time. For example, in startups with five people, decisions are made very quickly. But in companies with larger teams, responsibility gets passed around like a game of soccer.To fix this, you need to cut down on unnecessary steps, repeated questions, and clarifications. This speeds up processes and decision-making. And for that, the company needs to review all internal processes.
If no one can say who’s responsible for a specific task, that’s a sign the processes need to be improved. Here’s another question for employees: do you know why you’re doing this? What value does your work add to the product? Sometimes, companies have roles that don’t add value — it’s just shuffling papers or doing a fifth check in a row. The problem isn’t the people, it’s the processes. When owners are afraid to take risks, they pile on processes and end up stuck in place.
Everything is great when the owner launches a startup and has a team they fully trust. But when the startup scales and the owner has to manage not just five people, but five people who lead large departments, the fear arises that someone might not build the product to the quality he intended. So controlling becomes necessary, which automatically leads to more checks and approvals. Sometimes a person delegates well but still likes to control. Some people see themselves as indispensable in the company and perceive that as a form of power, keeping control over the flow of information.
When employees burn out, it usually means the company’s processes aren’t well organized. Those most prone to burnout aren’t the managers, but the ones doing the actual work. Burnout happens when someone doesn’t understand how their efforts contribute to the product or what value they’re really adding. If they spend only 20 percent of their time doing something meaningful, and the rest sitting in meetings or completing pointless tasks, while their expertise goes unused, that’s when the person burns out. Usually, it’s the best professionals who leave because they won’t tolerate this. Those who came just for the paycheque tend to stay, but they lack motivation and rarely bring real value to the work.
Sometimes companies claim to embrace strong shared values, like trust in their specialists. But in reality, if five signatures are needed to confirm that everything has been checked and approved, that’s not trust. The state of the team directly affects a company’s ability to grow. When internal processes are reviewed and simplified, people gain fresh motivation and start generating new ideas because they see that change is actually happening. When processes are reviewed and simplified, the team gains fresh motivation to achieve results and to come up with new product ideas because they can see that change is actually happening.
Another key indicator is when changes were last made, and what those changes were. If a company makes small improvements every month and this is part of the culture, then the people are open to change. But in my experience, I’ve often seen companies where the CEO wants change and asks for help, yet nothing has actually changed in ten years. My role as a consultant is to question everything. Can we do this a little differently? The goal is to get employees to take a critical look at their own processes.
There needs to be a clear goal, for example, to cut production time in half. When I work with directors, during our first meetings, we define the goal, what exactly needs to change, and make sure it spreads throughout the company. This is not about a consultant coming in to impose something. The company has this goal and we work together to achieve it. The goal has to be very ambitious because if it isn’t, employees might say, “So I will just work a little faster. Why hire someone else?” But the problem is not the number of people but the slow processes.
Sometimes bad processes suit everyone except the business owner and director. People end up approving things ten times over, everyone stays busy, and work is scheduled a week in advance. But when you start unraveling this mess and ask, “Why are you doing all this?” there’s often no clear answer. Employees often resist change because they’re used to doing things a certain way and fear layoffs. So, in my first meeting with directors, I tell them: when introducing me, make it clear right away that no one will be fired. However, sometimes the team is very large and costs need to be cut. In that case, we explain that what they are currently doing will change and that they’ll be redirected to another department where they can add value to the product in a different way.
Companies want process stability. It shouldn’t matter who is involved — whether it’s someone who’s worked there for twenty years or someone who just started yesterday. I need to create training materials and map out the process so that anyone can come in and perform their duties without stress. I don’t have to focus on individual personalities or temperaments. If a young employee leaves tomorrow and their position is filled by someone more conservative, the process should work the same way.
Sometimes managers want to hold all the control themselves. They can be difficult to work with because few people can influence them. I try to involve them in the process in a way that makes them feel they are in control. That way, they become allies and use their authority to support the work. Consulting is not about glory. The most important thing is to achieve the goals.
Mostly, my work is similar to that of an organizational psychologist. During the first audits, I come in and ask, “What problems do you have? What worries you? What don’t you like?” and then listen carefully. Talking through the situation helps reduce tension because people tend to avoid communication and conflict when they’re upset. But sharing with a neutral party is allowed, and it helps keep the conflict under control.
In the US, mergers and acquisitions are common — one company buys another, and everything needs to be restructured to align with the parent company. That’s a major undertaking. In these situations, internal processes also need to be reviewed so the companies can “speak the same language.” The same applies when an owner sells the business to someone else or takes it public through an IPO. Investors begin to expect growth because they want to sell their shares at a higher price in the future. But if people have been doing the same thing for 20 years, it’s hard to ask them to suddenly grow. One of my clients wants to build a culture of change in their company. Still, readiness for change is hard to measure — it’s not like tracking sales or profit margins. That’s why I’m developing a strategy where each department leads its own change-focused project. It’s like an old machine that needs to be oiled so it can move smoothly, quietly, and quickly.
In Ukraine, there are more protections from the government. I live in Washington State, which is very employee-friendly, but compared to Ukraine, labor laws in the US are actually stricter on employees. In the US, there are fewer guarantees from the government, and companies hold more power. Contracts can offer very attractive terms, but at the same time, an employee can be fired with just one day’s notice. You come to work, and your things are already packed in a box on your desk. Especially if the company finds out you’re trying to move to a competitor, it’s important that you don’t take a lot of data with you. I remember when I left jobs in Ukraine, I spent two weeks just getting stamps on my clearance papers.
Processes across different industries are generally quite similar. I have worked with the aviation industry, the automotive sector for a German company, which involved traveling worldwide, as well as the food and tobacco industries. Here in the US, I currently work with companies producing juices and dietary supplements, and last year, with the medical field including organ donation. Despite the diversity of these fields, the underlying processes are mostly the same. However, some industries have their specifics. For example, American healthcare has a strict hierarchy. While in manufacturing, a manager and a specialist might have similar educational backgrounds, in medicine, the manager possesses unique expertise. This creates challenges because, by law, only that person can make final decisions.
The cost of consulting depends on the goals. If the goal is to change the culture, it’s a process that takes years. I forecast my involvement but it depends on the scale of the company. Most of the time the equivalent of my work is calculated by the number of hours. In general the cost of consulting services is 200 dollars per hour. But if a large company provides me with three FTE, full-time employees, meaning I can allocate three people working eight hours a day, the price drops significantly.
If a company has fewer than 50 to 100 employees, consulting may not be cost-effective. A minimal project, for example to speed up product release by 25%, can last from one to three months. This depends a lot on how much time the director or staff can dedicate to me. One of my tasks is to find and coordinate the specialists’ time. In one company, I was told, “You have one hour per week for the specialists, don’t bother them more than that.” If the project involves producing berry purees, I need to visit the factory, understand how the technology works, and how people are arranged around the equipment. But if it’s a head office, logistics, or HR company, then we work remotely.
Building a process map is the most important part of my work. A key indicator of the company’s current level is whether they have these maps. Usually, 90% don’t. Visualizing the process is a crucial tool. The first step is to describe processes in some kind of procedure. But having a visualization is much better because then there’s a much higher chance you won’t need my services. People see the process and immediately come up with ideas on how to improve it.
We discuss cost-cutting at the start of projects. What we will address and what we won’t, to ensure safety or quality are not compromised. Is it really necessary? I do what’s been asked, but I always try to question the statement a bit — is it really worth it?
I believe there is more respect for you as an individual in the US. In Ukraine, I worked with international companies. Only at Antonov, in the aviation industry, was the leadership Ukrainian. The automotive company was German, the tobacco one British, and the chips company American. So even though the people were local, the processes and company values were not Ukrainian. But in Ukraine, I heard about the problem of large Soviet-style leadership — a “hard hand,” as they say. I haven’t seen that in America, everyone is very polite and respectful. Yes, you can be fired with just one day’s notice, but you’ll never be yelled at or humiliated. At home, people might be humiliated, but that doesn’t mean they get fired — they just keep working like that for 20 years.
In the US, managers are more open to consulting because hiring people is difficult here. The recruitment process is very expensive, but if the consulting doesn’t work out, the contract simply won’t be renewed after six months. Hiring and firing are among the most difficult processes. Companies offer many benefits, including several types of insurance, and there’s a lot of paperwork to open and close these benefits, handled by different people, which puts a heavy load on the staff. Personnel costs are much higher here too. In Ukraine, the product cost is often higher than labor, but in the US it’s the opposite — products are relatively cheap, but hiring and firing staff is expensive. That’s why automation is adopted more quickly here. In Ukraine, investing in new equipment might take 10 or 20 years to pay off because it costs a million or two dollars. In the US, it usually pays off within one or two years. So consultants, as contractors, aren’t expected to be loyal to the company. But for me, that’s motivation: I want to be the one who creates a wow result.
