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Quick Takes for Service Providers

April 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

michael mclaughlinIs McKinsey & Co. the Root of All Evil? A catalogue of McKinsey-inspired strategies gone wrong.

Exposing the CULT in ConsULTant. A lawyer’s take on the myth of the business consultant.

How to Become a Management Consultant. If it was this straightforward, everyone would do it.

How to lose a client–fast. Some obvious points, but good reminders.

What do “social media” consultants actually do? Here are a few clues.

According to M2 Consulting, most independent consultants (76%) are satisfied or extremely satisfied with their career choice.

How much do management consultants earn? These numbers seem low.

Six Ways to Identify a Company in Decline. Add over-reliance on consultants to the list?

Good IT consultants can make bad employees. Is independent thinking an impediment to being a good employee?

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Podcast: Daniel Burrus on Seeing the Future

March 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Meet the MasterMinds: Daniel Burrus on Flash Foresight

Dan Burrus, futuristDaniel Burrus is the author of the bestselling new book, Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible, and Technotrends.

Dan is one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and business strategists. He’s the founder of Burrus Research, a firm that monitors global advancements in technology-driven trends to help clients understand how technological, social, and business forces are converging to create untapped opportunities.

I asked Burrus how we can use the futurist’s tools to guide our businesses and help clients find those new opportunities.

Listen Now

Run Time: 18 minutes

Find out more about Daniel Burrus at www.flashforesight.com and www.burrus.com.

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The Best (Large) Consulting Firms to Work For

March 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

 

Last month, Fortune magazine released its annual list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. Eight consulting/accounting firms earned a place on this year’s list. For most of those firms, job growth in 2010 was non-existent. Ernst & Young, for example, reported a 7% reduction in jobs, and KPMG shrank by 5%.

Most job growth was concentrated in the pure consulting firms–not in the full-service professional service firms. Boston Consulting Group grew jobs by 2% and Booz Allen Hamilton by 9%. These two firms were also offering the highest average salary of the consulting/accounting firms, but not the highest among the top 100 companies. For instance, a senior account executive at SalesForce.com (#52 on the list) reportedly earned an annual salary of $318,323.

 

Ranking and Firm
Average Salary
 2010 Job Growth
# 2 Boston Consulting Group
$154,501
2%
#26 Plante & Moran
$ 64,300
-4%
#63 Deloitte
$ 81,622
-1%
#73 PricewaterhouseCoopers
$ 86,826
-4%
#77 Ernst & Young
$102,593
-7%
#85 Booz Allen Hamilton
$112,728
9%
#86 KPMG
$ 73,300
-5%
#99 Accenture
$ 83,500
4%

 

Most of the firms on this list are still struggling to align their businesses with the market realities they face. So executives had to make tough decisions about how to size their practices and serve their markets most profitably.

 

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The Top 4 Leadership Characteristics

February 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The shelves in most bookstores are full of leadership books, but some really stand out. For me, the work of James Kouzes and Barry Posner is among the best on the topic of leadership. In their book, The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner report on a survey they’ve conducted around the world for many years.

Using a list of 20 leadership characteristics, they’ve asked more than 75,000 survey respondents to identify the qualities that they “most look for and admire in a leader, someone whose direction they would willingly follow.”

What’s striking is that the same four leadership characteristics that people admire and look for have remained consistent from year to year, regardless of demographic, organizational, or cultural differences. The authors conclude that there are a few “character tests” that people must pass before they’re viewed as a leader.

Below are the 20 leadership characteristics that the authors use in their study. Can you identify the top four characteristics that people consistently look for in their leaders?

What Are the Top 4 Leadership Characteristics?
Independent Competent Ambitious Determined
Cooperative Self-Controlled Loyal Dependable
Honest Straightforward Supportive Mature
Intelligent Forward-Looking Caring Courageous
Fair-Minded Imaginative Broad-Minded Inspiring

 

If you want to learn more about the authors, you can read the interview I conducted with James Kouzes.

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Recent News in the Consulting Industry

August 27, 2010 By

Last month, consolidation in the HR consulting market continued as Aon Corporation scooped up HR consulting giant Hewitt Associates for $4.9 billion. According to reports, Aon plans to integrate Hewitt with its existing consulting/outsourcing business, creating a new entity called Aon Hewitt. Current Hewitt CEO, Russ Fradin, would then become CEO of Aon Hewitt.

That transaction follows on the heels of Mercer’s acquisition of IPA, the health and benefits administration technology provider. And, in January of this year, Towers Watson completed the merger of Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt.

Speaking of Hewitt, according to a recent Hewitt study, global employee engagement and morale are nose-diving as the economy picks up steam. Almost half of surveyed organizations reported a drop in employee engagement levels at the end of June 2010. It’s the steepest drop-off Hewitt has reported since it began conducting employee engagement research 15 years ago.

Hewitt’s analysis shows a link between employee engagement levels and financial performance. Organizations with high levels of engagement (where 65 percent or more of employees are “engaged”) outperformed the total stock market index even in volatile economic conditions.

In a moment of clarity, executives at consultancies A.T. Kearney and Booz & Company ended talks about a possible merger. The two firms have danced around a possible combination before and reached the same conclusion. It’s doubtful that this latest round of talks did anything more than create unnecessary firm-wide turmoil at a time when both firms need market focus, not political intrigue.

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Is Your Thought Leadership a Waste of Time?

August 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

My colleagues at SourceforConsulting.com spend a lot of time sifting through the “thought leadership” work that consultants send into the market. I empathize with one of their contributors, Zoe Stumpf, who wrote, “I’ve recently spent some time looking at the thought leadership produced by a selection of global consulting firms and, to be quite frank, I now need a bit of a lie down.”

Why? Because too much of the so-called thought leadership in the market is an uninspiring mix of old ideas and unsupported claims. That’s unfortunate, especially given that Source for Consulting research shows that thought leadership plays an important role in clients’ hiring decisions.

In the context of a selection decision, clients will most likely check out a firm’s thought leadership–that is, if the work has relevance to their business and industry. Source for Consulting found that 62 percent of thought leadership fails that important test and doesn’t focus on a particular sector. Of the remaining 38 percent of thought leadership material:

  • 82 percent isn’t eye-catching or topical enough to attract a client’s attention
  • 74 percent doesn’t say something sufficiently new or different to make a lasting impression
  • 85 percent is not based on enough hard data to convince a client to take it seriously
  • 99 percent doesn’t create an effective link to the firm’s consulting services.

The message: If you’re engaging in a thought leadership strategy, ask at least these three questions before you publish:

Does the piece say anything new or different? Or does it offer a new insight on an old idea? If you’re just offering me-too ideas, you’re wasting your time.

Do you have proof for your conclusions? If you make specific recommendations for changing the direction or methods of a business, you need evidence to support your ideas.

Is there a connection between your thought leadership and your service offerings? If your clients can’t see how your ideas tie to your capabilities, you’re squandering the marketing opportunity that thought leadership offers.

In the last month or so, the largest 25 consulting firms in the world published almost 500 new books and articles. And their websites contain more than 16,000 pieces of thought leadership. You can save yourself from drowning in that sea of words, but you must focus on client needs, be rigorous in your analysis, and make the connection between your ideas and your work.

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The Best Airlines in North America

August 24, 2010 By 1 Comment

After three years of declines, customer satisfaction with airlines in North America has jumped, according to J.D. Power and Associates’ 2010 North America Airline Satisfaction Study. The study is based on opinions from more than 12,300 passengers who flew on major North American airlines between April 2009 and April 2010.

The study measures overall customer satisfaction in seven areas: cost and fees; flight crew; in-flight services; aircraft; boarding/deplaning/baggage; check-in; and reservations. For the third consecutive year, Alaska Airlines tops the list in the traditional carrier segment, followed by Continental, and American Airlines. United Airlines, which plans to merge with Continental, placed seventh on the list. For a fifth consecutive year, JetBlue Airways ranks highest in the low-cost carrier segment, followed by Southwest Airlines, and WestJet. Among other findings from the study:

  • 65 percent of the traditional carriers’ passengers want complimentary meals back
  • Nearly half of passengers say that prices for in-flight beverages and food, checked baggage, and preferred seating are unreasonably high
  • Customer satisfaction with boarding, deplaning, and baggage averages nearly 60 points higher among passengers who are not charged for the first checked bag.

Note to airline executives: Your customers may seem a bit more satisfied this year, but it’s more likely that they’ve just lowered their expectations. If you really want to get out of the doldrums, look for ways to delight your customers, instead of nickel and diming them to death.

You can start with dumping the annoying, incremental fees for everything a passenger needs to do. If that means a fare increase, your customers will understand. The North American airline industry won’t come out of its tailspin until executives learn that competing solely on price is a losing proposition in the long run. People need a reason to be your customers if you want them to stick with you.

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Can Social Media Pull Consultants into the 21st Century?

July 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

When it comes to adopting new trends and technologies, it’s not unusual for consulting firms to lag behind everyone else. And the rise of social media platforms for marketing is no exception.

After clients paved the way with their own programs, consultants now seem ready to get on board. That’s according to a study of 74 consulting firms conducted by Bloom Group, BlissPR, and the Association for Management Consulting Firms.

“The study shows that consulting firms are beginning to use social media to rethink the very marketing practice they pioneered years ago–what increasingly is referred to as thought leadership marketing,” said Bob Buday, president of Bloom Group.

Two of the study’s findings caught my attention. First, according to the study, consulting firms are expanding their budgets for social media to an estimated 18 percent of marketing expenses. This run up is happening even though “…a majority of consulting firms are still unsure about how to best market their ideas,” said Meg Wildrick, managing director at BlissPR.

Second, the emergence of social media could transform how consulting firms market their businesses. Five years from now, social media programs are projected to account for about a third of consultants’ marketing budgets. That’s about the same amount as firms currently spend for offline and “traditional” online thought leadership marketing initiatives.

If you’ve hesitated to add elements of social media to your marketing mix, this study should be your wake-up call: Thought Leadership Rewired: How Consulting Firms are Using Social Media to Market Their Ideas.

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Industry Watch-July 2010

July 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

According to researchers at the Boston Consulting Group, an economic downturn is a perfect time for mergers and acquisitions.

Apparently seeing it the same way, Deloitte is in the market for acquisitions. A year ago, Deloitte acquired the public sector practice of the bankrupt firm, BearingPoint. And now, the firm is on the lookout for new opportunities.

Consulting firm, Mercer, is also in the hunt. Mercer has acquired IPA, a health and benefits administration technology provider, hoping to use the acquisition to support its planned expansion into the health and benefits mid-market outsourcing business.

Rumors are still out there about the potential for a Booz & Company and AT Kearney merger. If it happens, the combined practice could gain a firm hold on the mediocre middle. The merger might realize substantial cost reductions from slashing overhead and administrative cost, but it would take value beyond that to make this a decent deal. If the merger is approved, expect an epic, ego-fueled battle for control of the combined firm and for the distribution of its earnings to partners.

In other news, consulting and business outsourcing giant, Accenture, reported encouraging third-quarter results that the firm characterized as a momentum builder. Accenture executives cited strong performance in their management and technology consulting practices as an indicator that the global economy is improving.

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Interview: Dave Ulrich on The Why of Work

July 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

For the July 2010 issue of Management Consulting News, I interviewed Dave Ulrich, who is a business professor at the University of Michigan, a partner at RBL Group, and the author of twenty-three books. In his new book, The Why of Work, Ulrich argues that to achieve extraordinary results, leaders must pay as much attention to creating meaning for employees as they do to making money.

Read my interview with Dave Ulrich.

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