Monday, February
Barcheski founded Axios in 1988 with the idea to provide executive outsourcing services to West Michigan companies, but the concept was a hard sell and the demand wasn’t very high. The trend has been occurring on the East and West Coasts for two decades, but this region was slow to adapt, he said.
“It’s a good idea,” Barcheski told MiBiz. “A lot of times, a company will bring a person in because they don’t have resources internally. It helps them focus on things they need to focus on and it frees up resources for purposes that may be more important.”
Local marketing and communications professional Kim Bode, principal of 834 Design, has experienced that trend. Bode recently set out on her own and in a short time has developed a diverse client roster, who’ve brought her on board for high-level marketing services without the cost of an in-house department or a big agency. She’s worked with companies ranging from small medical companies and manufacturers to construction companies.
“Our niche is that 834 Design functions as the entire marketing department for small-, medium-, or even large-sized businesses,” Bode told Mibiz.
The concept of executive outsourcing taps into the great deal of available talent in the marketplace and helps keep that talent in West Michigan — not to mention that it helps companies save costs by effectively sharing an executive with other companies and only paying for the amount of services they need.
Source: MiBiz, November 2009
