Focus: Client Industries

	Healthcare »A Healthy Diagnosis Healthcare’s in critical condition. As a result, it can provide firms with much-needed wellness in difficult times.
	Public Sector »Where They Are Now: Joyce Doria Former Booz Allen Hamilton partner is now vice chair of the National Parks Conservation Association
	Energy »Out of Office: Michael Desabris Heavy travel can take its toll on consultants. While life on the road can lead to poor eating, sleeping and health habits, it doesn’t have to. Management Resources Group’s Energy Markets practice leader Michael Desabris has managed to balance his 11- year consulting career with a remarkably fit lifestyle.
	Financial Services »Signs of Life Financial services firms see a light at the end of the tunnel The financial services market appears to be recovering from the most challenging period in recent memory.

Focus: Service Lines

Information Technology (IT) »Technologically Speaking: Accenture Launches Technology Growth Platform to Help ‘Simplify’ Client Service On Sept. 1, Accenture reorganized two of its business units and made a series of leadership changes, including the appointment of a new chief operating officer. Consulting’s senior editor, Jess Scheer, sat down with Kevin Campbell, who will serve as group chief executive of the newly created Technology growth platform. The unit combines the firm’s systems integration and technology consulting business, along with application outsourcing and infrastructure outsourcing businesses. Campbell previously served as group CEO of Outsourcing.

Strategy »KIA Corner: 'Sailing' in a Downturn In a previous KIA Corner article, KIA Managing Director JJ Sendelbach presented a cogent view of the current consulting marketplace: trends driving (or inhibiting) consulting work and what the most adept, best-prepared, and more realistic firms are doing to thrive in the downturn.

Travel Advisory

• »You Can’t Get There From Here In light of the economic slump and high fuel costs, airlines are reducing, and, in some cases, eliminating all together, service to hundreds of “second-tier” cities around the country in an effort to tighten their belts.
• »Delta Unveils Perks to SkyMiles Program Delta Airlines has announced some pretty significant changes to its SkyMiles frequent-flier program intended to encourage customer loyalty, and discourage the use of multiple airlines by its frequent customers. Under the new rules, Delta customers can “roll over” earned miles and credits not needed to reach an elite status level.
• »NBTA: China, India to Outpace U.S. in Business Travel The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) and Egencia, Expedia Inc.’s travel arm, have released some of the findings from a study enumerating spending by global businesses on travel. Business travel is anticipated to grow in all regions over the next five years, but some regions are expected to experience stronger growth than others.

Book It!

• »Get Real: Authenticity’s a Key to Success Even in a recession, some companies still find ways to experience tremendous growth. Jim Champy, chairman of Perot Systems and author of several best-selling books—most notable Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution—set out to tell their stories. The result was a series about new business models and how companies are beginning to operate in new ways. The first book in the series—Outsmart!—was released last year. This year, Champy’s back with his second installment, Inspire! Champy sat down with Joe Kornik, editor-in-chief of Consulting to discuss how business can attract and keep customers in this economy. The third book Deliver!, is due out sometime next year.
• »Book Review: The Cult of the Customer
  Everyone knows that excellent customer service is the lynchpin of any successful business. With the economic situation driving consumers to tighten their spending, vendors have the opportunity to prove to their customers that they value their business in good times and bad, and that their relationship with them is more important than any sale. Loyal customers who have very positive experiences with a company are worth their weight in gold. The Cult of the Customer emphasizes the link between a culture of loyalty within a company and the successful transfer of that loyalty to their customers.
• »Book Review: The Practice of Adaptive Leadership Turbulent times are no time for business as usual. Our national consciousness has been taken over by a deep sense of crisis. When uncertainty becomes the norm, the key to surviving despite economic challenges is adaptive leadership. In the book, authors Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow and Marty Linsky offer field-tested advice, tools, and tactics for leaders to thrive in spite of enormous challenges.
• »Book Review: Creating Value Through People How can your firm determine the effectiveness of its human capital strategies and its human resources programs? What drives people to perform to the best of their abilities? Creating Value Through People contains unique perspectives through interviews with human capital innovators from a variety of backgrounds.
• »Book Review: The Global Consultant Global commerce has become so widespread that events unfolding in one country can have a ripple effect that reaches halfway around the world. The Global Consultant is aimed at showing consultants how to be successful in these international markets, and avoid common pitfalls associated with consultants working beyond their borders.

Consultants on Consulting

• »Corporate Social Networking for Consulting Firms How can we use LinkedIn for our firm? It’s a question you may have heard from the managing partner, or you may have even thought yourself. It is a smart question with a not-so-obvious answer.
  
• »Solving Your Identity Crisis In tough economic times, many consulting firms revert to two tactics that appear essential, but actually dig them deeper in the hole both during and after the downturn. The first is selling work at which they cannot be truly great, and the second is pursuing clients that do not share their values.
  Both tactics can help fill the short-term revenue void, but the consequences can be severe: unhappy clients who will not come back; a damaged reputation in the marketplace; and disaffected staff who will leave at the first opportunity. All of these chickens will come home to roost when the upturn comes, as it will.
• »Innovation’s Triple Play: Curiosity, Networking & Fun Innovate or die! How many times have you cringed to hear that ominous business mantra? It seems to position the opportunity to modernize your operations as a dreaded ultimatum. We feel our clients and colleagues will be more inclined to leave the status quo behind if they recognize the cornerstones of innovation: curiosity, networking and fun.
• »A Leveraged Approach to Securing Incremental Income They filmed the 1993 movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray in Woodstock, Ill. The premise of the story was simple: Murray relives the same day over and over, doing the same things each time, forcing him (and us) to ask the question: “What would I do differently if I had the chance?”