Interviews
- »One on One with Eric Pelander – part 2
As consulting firms gear up for another wave of M&A, Consulting’s One on One sat down with Eric Perander, a partner inside the strategy-consulting firm Waterstone Management Group, to better understand the lessons he learned from one of the largest, and most successful, acquisitions in the profession’s history.
- »One on One with KPMG's Koecher & Rodriguez
KPMG’s Restructuring Services group just got a lot stronger. On July 16, KPMG acquired Grant Thornton’s supply chain advisory practice, effectively doubling the size of its core restructuring team and broadened its service offerings.
- »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.
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Upcoming Events
- Webinar - Best Practices in Firm Management - A 360° Update - September 22, 2010
- Virtual Symposium - New Ideas in Consulting Firm Management - September 30, 2010
- Consulting Summit - Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Growth - November 4, 2010
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2010
»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.
Consulting: When and why did you change marketing approaches?
Craren: We’ve been doing our 10-minute series since October 2007. What caused us to launch it was that we thought that a lot of the thought leadership we were reading in the marketplace was too self-serving. Clients in the c-suite don’t have time to read white papers. And most of the material was on very technical topics and used a lot of jargon. The pieces in our 10-minute series are never allowed to go over 1,800 words. And if someone wants to dive deeper, there’s more content behind all of the pieces. But we don’t require they read more up front.
Consulting: What were you producing prior to October 2007?
Craren: We were mostly into technical white papers, which were dense, multiple page documents. Frankly, I found them very hard to read. And certainly those in the c-suite were not paying much attention to them – and they’re our main clients: senior executives at large companies.
Consulting: What are you able to accomplish with the 10-minute series that you couldn’t with the bulky white papers?
Craren: By saying that our initial piece will take no more than 10 minutes to read, it sends a signal that we’re respecting the client’s time. And the reaction we got was almost immediate. One CEO called and told me that he had a difficult audit committee meeting to go to and that we provided research that was easy for him to digest.
Consulting: What other reactions have you received?
Craren: It’s hard to measure, but we do think it has improved awareness of what we do. Each of our 10-minute pieces has been downloaded between 5,000 to 20,000 times. And if you think about our target market, that’s substantial. We think it is brand enhancing and has certainly improved our client pursuit opportunities and wins. Winning an engagement is the result of a series of activities and interactions. But clearly we believe that the 10-minute pieces make it easier to set up face to face meetings. We can casually tell clients to ‘read this piece on health care reform and if you have any questions or think we can help you, come and talk to me.’
Consulting: How are the 10-minute pieces produced?
Craren: I manage a team of writers, mostly ex-journalists. PwC employs about 30,000 people across the world, and many of them are subject matter experts. My team works with them, encouraging our experts to talk about what’s new or coming up in their space. We like to believe that each of our 10-minute pieces tells a story. And we’ve found that people with journalistic backgrounds are professional story tellers. We think the combination of people with technical capabilities and story-telling capabilities is key. To maintain quality control, we’ve got a senior partner that reviews each one. The editorial board will turn down ideas that aren’t ready to be turned into a 10-minute piece. The board’s challenge is to cull out the very best pieces. Our editorial board is comprised of very senior partners from each line of service: a tax partner, an audit partner, and a consulting partner. At first, we were disappointing partners whose ideas were rejected. But over time, they’ve learned the criteria we expect before committing to a 10-minute piece.
Consulting: What’s the internal reaction to the 10-minute pieces?
Craren: The fact that partners are pitching us ideas is great. They tell us that having a 10-minute piece in their area of expertise helps them to start conversations with prospective clients. Their clients tell them that they see the pieces as ‘free consulting’ and clients appreciate that. They say, ‘I know you’re pitching us, but it doesn’t feel like it. It feels like you’re trying to help me.’ Partners also tell me that the pieces help them better articulate their point of view. A lot of the technical writers tend to use too many words. We’ve found that once you begin to write more economically, you speak more economically too. As a result, despite a companywide hiring freeze the last few years, our group was seen as valuable and we were able to replace those we lost through attrition.
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