Finally, My Job is in VOGUE!

Well, finally after 20 years or so, my professional career is finally coming into vogue. Yes, the Interim executive. I recognized the fact a long tme ago, that we are all 'interim' but nobody knows it. Whether the feds like or not, this new news is good news. Finally, control your own destiny. Forget the 'pecking order' and the workplace politics. The titles go also. We will all be better off in the long run.

According to Jody Greenstone Miller, in the Wall Street Journal, the White House is turning its nose up at last month's spurt in temporary work—the one bright spot in an otherwise grim jobs report. It claims that such work is proof that the economy is still malfunctioning. The truth is that this surge in temporary workers is not only good news for the economy, it's the future of the 21st century labor market. If Washington wants to jump start job growth for the 3.5 million white-collar workers who have lost jobs in this recession, it should start by scrapping the outdated legal and regulatory hurdles to temporary work.

Today, demand for high-end temporary business talent is not focused on cost-cutting projects, as some might suspect. Instead, firms use temporary executives to drive innovation. In uncertain times, firms are simply more comfortable with deploying talent on a flexible basis.

Temporary work also boosts economic efficiency because not all executive roles require permanent staff. The availability of temporary staff who can get the job done quickly means that firms can rethink how work is organized.

Which brings us to another case for temporary work: Top business talent increasingly wants to work this way. In one situation, a VP-level executive we placed was developing his own new business. He valued the way a part-time senior role allowed him to support his family while he worked on his own project. For others, working in a series of temporary assignments may be their preferred full-time occupation.

Given the contribution that temporary work makes to the economy, it's time Washington embraced it.

As we reboot the great American jobs machine, it's time to shelve outdated assumptions and accept that a portfolio of multiple assignments is what growing legions of companies and executives want. This new relationship between talent and firms isn't a failure to be stigmatized, but the latest sign of our economy's endless capacity for renewal and innovation.

The Grand Canyon Overnight Permits Need a Revamp

Getting one of the roughly 11,500 permits granted each year to backpack overnight in the Grand Canyon has become so competitive and "unfair" that park managers have decided to change the system.

Currently, those who want the coveted permits either show up in person or try their luck with mail or fax machines on the day the permits become available.

Those who go in person line up at the backcountry office early in the morning. People who try to fax often are in for hours of constant redialing because of the demand.
National Park Service administrators at the Grand Canyon have decided the system is unfair because it favors those who live near the gorge or have the time and resources to fly there to get a permit.

The agency is proposing to end the current system in February.

Here's how:
Have a knowledge test every third Monday of the month, sent in via computer.
Make certain the demographics are fair (women, minorities, etc). Answer that question about your background at the end of the form. Attach your resume and whatever fees there are. Attach your FedTax 1040 form. Then, after the feds pick their relatives and friends, wait 90-days for a 14657-Q form response, telling you that you forgot to fill in Line 6, page 22 sub-section 15, and therefore, you are rejected. You can call this 800# for more information, but if someone actually does answer after the 24 computer response options they give you, you will get a rude individual on the phone...and you still won't get the permit.

Consulting: Where are Today's Opportunities

It’s a brave new telecommunications ecosystem, and consultants are venturing into an increasingly competitive wilderness to help different breeds of companies adapt so they can survive and thrive, says Consulting Magazine.

The most highly evolved telecommunications consulting firms and practices understand the impact of ongoing economic, regulatory, competitive and technological change and respond by seeding their teams with relevant expertise to help clients adapt to these factors.

Nearly every telecommunications practice at mid- to large-sized consulting firms have renamed their practices now that clients no longer exclusively offer what industry veterans refer to as POTS, or “plain old telephone service.”

The convergence occurred because the capacity of pipes have greatly increased. Today’s increasingly ubiquitous broadband networks send voice, data and video streaming into an ever-increasing collection of nifty gadgets powered by equally nifty applications.

Fatter pipes also explain why cable-television providers now offer telephone and why traditional telephone companies and wireless companies offer video.

Overall, the nature of telecommunications consulting work appears focused on increasing customer value and devising innovative ways to drive more revenue. A media or entertainment company needs to figure out how to derive more value from its primary asset, content.

Despite the gee-whiz nature of much of their work, telecom firms and practices deliver offerings that break down along familiar lines: strategy, operational/management and technology consulting.

Other types of consulting work in demand in North America and Europe include:

Home entertainment
Supply chain management
Merger integration

Beyond industry knowledge, consulting leaders identify the following expertise areas as particularly valuable right now:

»Process expertise
»Business intelligence
»Technology architects
»CRM expertise

Change in the telecommunications industry has occurred so dramatically, that time travel seems less like science fiction and more like the next new service offering. Rest assured, if and when that capability crops up, consultants will work closely with clients and other members of their ecosystems to ensure that time travel is piped into all of our homes, businesses and nifty devices.

Recession= New Wave of Innovation and Corporate Growth

For consulting firms, THE UPSIDE TO THE RECESSION OF THE PAST TWO YEARS is that it may have unleashed a new wave of innovation and corporate growth that otherwise would have been buried in better economic times. When times are tough, companies are forced to work smarter, be more creative, and jettison old methods of business that are no longer working. The net result is a changing of the guard in the business world as those companies that are unable to make the switch get passed by their nimbler competitors.

A study by management consulting firm Bain & Company showed that during the 1991-92 recession, there was a significant re-ordering of the pecking order of companies in a wide variety of fields. Specifically, companies that were in the bottom quartile in their industry jumped to the top quartile of their industry at twice the rate during recessionary times as compared to non-recessionary times, according to the study as reported in The Economist. Other studies have reached similar conclusions that recessions bring out the best - and the worst - in companies.

From an investment standpoint, this suggests that the winners coming out of this recession may be quite different from those who went into it as winners. This "changing of the guard" may create new investment opportunities and we should diligently do our best as consultants to find the winners from among the wreckage...or the losers, for that matter.

If You Want to Be A Great Consultant, Go Look at Your Dog

Go look at your dog. Go on, look—perhaps he is sitting by your side right now, lying on his doggie bed, with his feet in the air, or sprawled on his side on the cement floor, or sleeping under the bed, paws flitting through his dog dreams.

Consulting: Take Advantage

Take positive advantage of all new consulting situations.

Reggie Jackson stated in his new book on baseball: "There are at least three kinds of advantages that the pitcher and batter contest. There’s the physical advantage, the strategic advantage, and also the psychological advantage. I didn’t want two out of three. I wanted them all."

And so too should we, when dealing in our business space. We need to demand the physical, strategic, and psychological high road. Not two of three. All three. We need to work towards that goal. Because when you get there, you are in control of your own destiny. It could be short-lived, like three-strikes-your-out; or it could go on for a very long time. It depends on how you position it all, and what kind of presence you have when you stand up to the plate, or walk through the conference room door. So, be prepared.

We need the mental toughness to take control of the uniqueness, the expertise. That 'stake in the sand' mentality.

Reggie also wrote: "When I was facing a great pitcher late in a ballgame, and the ballgame was close, I’d try to get really focused on doing what I do best."

And that's good advice...in baseball, or in real life.

Consulting Firms: Staff Attrition as The Economy Improves

According to Consulting Magazine, As the economy improves, most consulting firms will brace themselves for a spike in staff attrition. Firms that have sacrificed firm culture and employee satisfaction in the hopes of driving greater profitability during the downturn, probably have the most to fear. Other firms, who have remained focused on retention efforts throughout the downturn, probably have less to worry about.

So it would logically appear that firms that panicked and only looked at the erosion of their bottom-line, gave up their culture and employee satisfaction, for short term gain would be the hardest hit. And they should be.

They will suffer the most as the economy rebounds, and their professional staff decides they have had enough of the self-indulgent Partners, who selfishly looked at their own personal survival and cared less about their staff...and therefore their clients. Those are the firms that lost their focus, threw the strategy out (or never did have one), and began to lose their 'brand'. And goodbye to those firms, frankly.

On The Beach. West Africa. Digital Media

I received the hotel brochure from the client. By African standards this was a first class place. On the beach, great restaurant, balconies facing the ocean, swimming pool, outdoor bar, clean rooms, individual bathroom. “Great!” I thought. “On the beach in Nigeria on a great digital media consulting project”.

Consulting Firms: Revenue Still In Decline....

Dante once said "that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of crisis maintain their neutrality”.

More than half of global business executives say that the current economic crisis has revealed shortcomings in their organization and two-thirds say their organization is using the crisis as an opportunity to drive change, according to new research by Celerant Consulting.

Nevertheless, Consulting Magazine reports that many public consulting firms continue to struggle. At least three companies reported double-digit declines in consulting revenue for the latest quarter.

Watson Wyatt: Firmwide revenue fell 13 percent, to $396.5 million, in its most recent quarter. More alarming is that profit fell 25 percent in that three month span, down to $31.2 million from $41.7 million a year ago. Analysts blamed the declines on the economy, stressing that many HR consultancies are seeing significant declines in compensation consulting work.

With the economy limiting the number of high level job openings, fewer companies are worrying about compensation competitiveness. While the earnings news is sobering, it’s actually better than Wall Street anticipated. And the firm’s stock price continues to climb in anticipation of its upcoming merger with Towers Perrin.

Hewitt: In its most recently completed quarter, Hewitt’s consulting revenue fell by 13.8 percent and profits sank by 7.5 percent. Overall, the firm’s revenue fell to $729 million, down a modest two percent after adjusting for currency effects.

The firmwide number was bolstered by modest growth from its benefits outsourcing business, which now accounts for almost 27 percent of the firm. The firm’s HR BPO business saw revenue decline by almost 12 percent in the quarter. The good news for that unit was that it managed to post a profit, a positive sign after a loss last year.

CIBER: CIBER’s consulting revenues took a hit in its most recent quarter, falling from just over $300 million in the three months ending June 30, 2008 to just over $250 million in the same three months of 2009. The year-over-year 17 percent decline comes after a 11 percent decline in the firm’s consulting business between the first three months of 2009 and the same period of 2008.

Costs associated with the consulting business accounted for about 75 percent of revenue in the three months ending June 30, 2009, that’s up from 72 percent in the same period of 2008. The challenges facing CIBER’s consulting practice speak to the highly commoditized nature of many segments of IT consulting. Average hourly rates fell from $89/hour to $83/hour. Consultant utilization dipped from 90 percent to 87 percent. As a result, the firm’s headcount has also been reduced, down from 7,445 to 7,150.

And now there seems to be an apparent disjoint here: Why would More than half of global business executives say that the current economic crisis has revealed shortcomings in their organization and two-thirds say their organization is using the crisis as an opportunity to drive change, while most large consulting firms are seeing substantive reductions in revenues (new/more work) and headcount? Why are consulting firms not taking this crisis (business/personal) and addressing it from a strategic and business development perspective? You can't grow your business by reducing headcount. There's no math in that. It doesn't resonate! More then that, it does not work.

Perhaps it is time for these firms to start to 'outsource' their strategy and business development efforts to smaller, more flexible, agile firms who respond quicker to market changes, and can deliver new business without the high overhead.

I think Dante also once said" "Give 'em hell, Harry!" Or perhaps 'go to hell Harry'... or something to that effect. Maybe not.

More Bad News For Consulting Firms

According to a recent article in Consulting Magazine, half of all consultants plan to leave their current firm within the next four years, according to a survey of nearly 10,000 consultants conducted by Consulting Magazine. And, according to the same poll, three out of four consultants say that when they leave their current employer, they do not plan to work for another consultancy.

Given the anticipated exodus of consulting talent from consulting firms into industry, the more successful firms may be those that can reverse that talent drain by attracting professionals out of industry and into consulting.

So, in addition to serious business development and internal strategic planning issues, today's consultancies face the further challenge of professionals who just don't want to do it anymore. Serious challenges for a professional industry that has seen its 'bumps and bruises' in this economic malaise.

I'd like to know how they will handle it. Without 'reaching out' for the right people, challenging I would surmise.

NOTE: Updated Client Profiles on Linkedin: Slideshare ppt.

Management Consultant? Then Speak UP!

Have you ever had to get up and speak in front of your audience? As a consultant, that's a tough one. You need to be expert at the topic, and you need to get positive results.

To get results from speaking, consultants have to do something that isn't natural for them: they have to take a stand. They have to put a stake in the ground and stand for something. And that's not a powerpoint presentation. It's you. Generalists are reluctant to do that because they don't want to drive away business. However, in this world taking a stand is a great way to avoid business you don't want, and garner the business you do.

The stake in the ground is your uniqueness, your unparalleled expertise, because that stance can be applied to a variety of topics. For example, a speaker whose message is that success is about results, not process, would weave that message into every speaking topic.

Too many consultants who speak do not differentiate themselves. And because they don't, the audience does not accept them as a resource. It's fine to speak about change, for example, but you must have something to say about change that is unique and drives your expertise on the subject.

In Fast Company magazine, you can see this in action. Their "gurus" do one of three things with conventional wisdom: they disagree with it, twist it, or go beyond it.

And if you, as a consultant, can go beyond the conventional wisdom; go beyond what is expected; go beyond the ordinary... you become the expert at non-conventional thinking. And that's why you get hired.

"When one door closes another door opens; but, we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, we do not see the ones which open for us."

-- Alexander Graham Bell

Think about it.

The "No Jerks Rule"

We’ve got a no jerks rule here. Jerk bosses and cultures drive good people out of many organizations. If we find out we’ve got a bad egg, we want them out as quickly as possible. Few human resource managers or executives take action to avoid hiring jerks. We don't.

We have a few simple rules:
"No politics, no parochialism, no silos, no games, no cynicism, no arrogance". Bring any one of these attitudes to the table, and you are gone.

I am an expert...

Hey, I have an I-pod, I-phone, and an Apple computer. I also have a PC. I know the difference between a HUB and a Router. I know DVB-RCS. I know SOW, RFP, RFQ, SQL. I have lived in London and West/South Africa. I know digital content vs linear content. I know what 'float glass' is. KPI,SMB, CPU, USB?

I know POS systems. I go wireless on a global basis. Do you know what 64-bit computing is? Cloud computing? I know CPM, GRP, TRP, and segmentation analytics. Transponders anyone? Co-location? Percaps? I can create fantastic diagrams and charts in ppt. Visio is my favorite software. For what it's worth, I've had lunch with all three billionaires in the state of Arizona. "The Last Mile" is not a movie.

The Analog Pigeon

Take that, technology, said BBC News. "Broadband promised to unite the world with super-fast data delivery—but in South Africa it seems the Web is still no faster than a humble pigeon." An IT company, Unlimited IT, set up the race between an 11-month-old bird named Winston and the ADSL service of the country's biggest Web firm, Telekom. Winston took two hours to carry a 4GB data stick 60 miles; in the same time, 4 percent of the data had been transferred via ADSL.

Add to that fact, that I was at a convenience store yesterday, and I questioned the amount of the bill. The clerk stated: "thinking is not what my mind does." Oh really.

The Marketing Consultant: Uniquely Ubiquitous

Ah! Another oxymoron. The definition of ubiquitous: "Being everywhere at the same time. Constantly encountering". That's simple. Someone or something all around us, never letting go, constantly engaging. That pretty much sums up the role of a consultant. The requirement to be here, there, and everywhere. Now, "unique" means being only one of a kind. Exclusive. Remember that. I love that terminology too!

For that reason I love being ubiquitous. I also love being unique. There's a certain ring to the 'brand'. Even Mr. Ubiquitous will do, thank you.

On Being a Marketing Consultant: “someone brought in from somewhere over there to here, to offer advice.”

The term consultant gets defined much too freely these days, but the core definition of a consultant seems to be “someone brought in from somewhere over there to here, to offer advice.” My group accomplishes ‘contract consulting’ which can last for a year or more.

That being said, here’s what I’ve found:

The Circle Game...50 Marketing Engagements Later...

When you are in the marketing agency space, you are either working and/or looking for work. It’s a habitual circle (I think that's an oxymoron) that never ends. It has become a habit, I need to break.

That’s correct. I’ve had 50+ engagements in my career.

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

The "No Jerks" Rule

Excerpts from Consulting Magazine

Upon approaching the mandatory retirement age at Deloitte, Thomas Doorley decided he wasn’t ready to quit the profession. He instead set out to found a new firm, Sage Partners.

The youngest consultant is 51 and our oldest is about 20 years older than that. Everybody is in the later stages of their career. They don’t have the same work/life balance issues you’d have at a traditional firm.

There’s no base compensation. There’s no guaranteed salary. How much you make is based entirely on the work you do.
Generally, five percent is set aside to cover overhead expenses. The lead generator/closer gets about 15 percent. And the remaining 80 percent is divided among those that do the work. As the project unfolds and individuals’ roles change, they make adjustments. On the venture development side they charge a small fee that represents between one-third to one-quarter of the typical daily rate plus out of pocket expenses. And the rest is paid with options when the client goes public.

"We’ve got a no jerks rule. If we find out we’ve got a bad egg, we want them out as quickly as possible. At a small firm, we don’t have time to deal with distractions form one person. We call it the airplane rule. When we hired someone, we’d imagine having to sit next to this person for eight hours on a plane. If we didn’t think we could stand it, we wouldn’t hire them. At this point in our careers, we don’t do anything we’re not excited about doing."