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- »One on One with Ed Hess
Grow or Die. It’s probably the most common business axiom, and the least accurate, according to the new book “Smart Growth: Building an Enduring Business by Managing the Risks of Growth” (Columbia Business School Publishing). To better understand the book’s implications for firms, Consulting’s One-on-One sat down with the book’s author, Ed Hess, a former Arthur Andersen strategy consultant and current professor at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business.
- »One on One with Summit's David Litherland
When prospective employees interview for a job, they obsess over making a good, lasting impression. Firms should do the same. To learn how firms can avoid typical pitfalls, Consulting’s One on One sat down with David Litherland, managing partner of Summit Search Group, an executive search firm specializing in placing professionals within professional service firms.
- »One on One with PwC's Tom Craren
Senior executives are becoming immune to traditional marketing. Marketing consultants tell us that to pierce through the white noise of corporate communication, firms should consider “content marketing”. Instead of more traditional marketing, providing valuable insight and perspective in a blog or electronic newsletter can serve as a more effective door opener. One of the best examples is PricewaterhouseCoopers’ “10-Minute” series. For almost three years, PwC has boiled down complex thought leadership into small electronic pieces an executive can read in about ten minutes. To learn more about PwC’s marketing efforts, Consulting’s One-on-One sat down with Tom Craren, the firm’s brand strategy and thought leadership leader. His team of 20 writers produces between two to three 10-minute pieces each month, along with more detailed white papers.
- »One on One with Stanford Hospital's Kate Surman
Transitioning healthcare companies from paper to electronic records presents huge consulting opportunities.
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»Top 25 Consultants, 2009: John Kovalchick
 John Kovalchick
Project Director
Proudfoot Consulting
Excellence in Client Service
John Kovalchick likes to say that Proudfoot Consulting sells bottom-line results to clients. Many consulting firms, of course, make this claim, but Kovalchick and Proudfoot have the numbers to back it up. In his 30 years with the firm, Proudfoot estimates that Kovalchick has been directly involved in some 85 projects that have lead to more than $1 billion in savings for clients. During the past few years alone, Kovalchick has led Proudfoot teams that have delivered between $120 million and $150 million in savings to two separate clients—one in manufacturing and one healthcare. Needless to say, Kovalchick has been in high demand.
“I get great satisfaction in going into a client with my operating team and doing a business review to scope the magnitude of the opportunity for the client,” he says. “The client often says they would be happy to realize half of the savings of the estimate that we present. We always deliver 100 percent of the number and often even exceed it by 20 or 30 percent.”
One of the reasons Proudfoot has been so successful, he says, is because the firm customizes the application for each and every client. “We install permanent changes that drive bottom-line results,” he says. “The whole key to that is rolling up your sleeves, working with the client’s front-line supervisory group, understanding what’s preventing them from being effective, and then designing a customized solution for them.”
Kovalchick says Proudfoot works very hard not be seen as a third party but rather to fully integrate itself into the client’s environment. “That way, when we leave, those improvements in productivity or whatever we were brought in to do not only continue, but they continue to be improved upon year over year,” he says. “That’s really important to me.”
Kovalchick says he was recently with a client he had worked with in 1992. “At the time we finished the project, we had saved the company $15 million,” he says. “[The client] went back and showed me additional savings every year. Through 2007, it was more than $400 million. That’s powerful stuff and one of the reasons I’m still in the business after 30 years.”
—Joseph Kornik
>> Full list of Top 25 Consultants 2009
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