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National and Global, United States

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Consulting: It's All Vanilla to Me...

“Modern managers often utter clichés about wanting employees to "think outside the box," take risks, and be creative. But the fact is that most organizations are inhospitable to those who challenge old ways of doing things...” And this includes management consulting firms.

OK. Here’s a test.
I’ve written a “Mission Statement”. It could be my firm or any other. Read it through. I know it's too long for a "Mission Statement", but this is a test, not a business plan.

Our mission is to deliver measurable and sustainable financial benefits to our clients by developing and installing processes and programs to rapidly improve our clients’ operations. We are experts in business process improvement.

We are a global operations management consulting firm that creates value for clients by delivering results using experienced professionals and proven methods. We specialize in executing and implementing change management, operational strategies, process innovation, and continuous process improvement. We work with our clients to produce superior operational and financial performance.

We use a variety of tools and techniques to give our clients the guidance they need to solve their most complex and pressing problems and achieve their long-term goals.

Our clients are government agencies, corporations, and institutions that want to change their organizations and the world for the better. Our clients face daunting challenges. They need to manage ever-deeper and faster change.

We are a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, committed to delivering innovation.

We help management make the big decisions: on strategy, operations, mergers & acquisitions, technology and organization.

Our clients call us when they have something pressing on their minds—whether it is a major strategic or operational need or an organizational challenge.

Now, below I’ve listed seven relatively well-known management consulting firms:

McKinsey
Bain
Accenture
Booz-Allen
Toffler Associates
Thomas Group
Proudfoot Consulting
Well, your job is to match up each of paragraphs above with the consulting firm .


The problem today with the business of consulting is that it sounds pretty much the same. There’s a brand built over years of work; but there’s little substance in further identifying the brand, outside the name of the firm. There's no 'brand extension'. In consumer terms, that is taking the Wheaties and adding blueberries. And today, that is a challenging problem: how to differentiate and add-value. How to extend beyond tradition. How in fact, to conduct strategic business development that brings that 'value add' to prominence so they don't become 'commodity'.

Traditional firms are having to re-invent themselves. It’s tough, because they are traditionalists and relatively ‘top-heavy’. With present economic environments, corporations are either not making decisions, or procrastinating in making them. Many firms have not only people ‘on the beach’, but they are there as well.
What they really need to do is hire people from package goods companies like P&G, Kraft,etc to conduct strategic marketing and business development. They don't.
They still believe that busdev is 'friends and family'...or even worse the more work' syndrome. Basically, I'm 'in', I'm 'here'...so 'more work' from the same people. Finite end to that one.

That’s a reason why smaller, nimbler, and yes, just as intelligent and smart firms, are flexible enough to take advantage of present circumstance.

Now, take a look at this list again, and read the statement above it. Match any?

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
— T. S. Eliot

3 comments:

  1. Great Test. Of course, I failed. But I get the point. Not totally pointless!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You hit the nail on that head. I fully understand. Great stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The insight here is excellent. Those firms should hire your group to do their busdev. That way, they'll receive objectivity and pro-activity without the internal politics of kissing their arsh! And they'd make money too!
    "Money is as good as cash"?

    ReplyDelete

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