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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.
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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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2009
»Top 25 Consultants, 2009: David Rodman
 David Rodman
Managing Vice President
Hitachi Consulting
Excellence in Technology
As a 17-year veteran of Arthur Andersen, David Rodman could have moved on to BearingPoint as many of his former colleagues did back in 2002. “A few of us—Michael Travis (Hitachi COO) and Phil Parr (Hitachi Consulting CEO) included—decided we didn’t want to go that route so we began a search, and we just knew Hitachi Consulting would be a good fit.”
And as it turns out, it was.
Rodman, now a group vice president and leader of Hitachi’s strategic technology practices, has made quite an impact with Hitachi since joining seven years ago. “We’re a small consulting business of a very large company,” he says. “The reason I came here was to help grow this into a large global consultancy and to have my hands on the steering wheel.”
His leadership has helped to steer the firm in several new directions. “We know we’re not the biggest, but I think we’re the best at what we do.” Rodman says. “We try to come at a business problem with an innovative approach. It’s using Hitachi’s ‘building the market responsive company’ approach to solve problems. That differentiates us in the space.”
Those differentiators have paid off in the work Hitachi does in the Microsoft, SAP and Oracle practices, “the firm’s crown jewels and what we want to be known for,” he says. Prior to 2008, Rodman led the firm’s Oracle practice and drove growth from $10 million to $100 million in five years, the firm’s largest practice. “We don’t go to clients as the ‘Oracle implementation firm,’ we go to them as business consultants who are there to solve a business problem.”
While the Oracle business is still growing, it has softened a bit of late and Rodman says the biggest new opportunities are with Microsoft and SAP. Last year, the firm was named an SAP Global Services Partner, strengthening its alliance with a leading enterprise software provider. In addition, Hitachi now has an $80 million Microsoft business, its fastest growing practice last year.
“I think the market is finally starting to notice who we are,” Rodman says. “That’s important to us, I think that validates that we’re doing the right things.”
—Joseph Kornik
>> Full list of Top 25 Consultants 2009
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