[tonyarkles]

I find this very interesting: "...they are paying you and not the other way around."

I've spent a fair bit of time consulting now, and one of the key things to remember is that in a functional relationship, the employer is extracting more value than they're paying the employee! If it's the other way around (as an average), the company is going to be bankrupt.

My go-to catch phrase is: If you don't like how things are run, you can "change your organization" or you can "change your organization". I.E. you can either put effort into fixing things, or you can put effort into finding a new job.

You can plan your strategy based on the value that your team is providing. If your team costs $X and you're making $4X, you've got pretty solid leverage to state that you guys know what you're doing and want to make things better (or you'll leave). Alternatively, if you're at $0.9X ROI, you can probably make a good argument that you can turn things around from losing money to making money.