Kennedy Corner
»Kennedy Corner: Roles and Responsibilities
I’m a college hoops fan. During the hysteria, I connected with several colleagues to discuss the games; some of these friends are client-facing consultants, others serve supporting roles inside their firms. We talked quite a bit about different players’ abilities, and how certain players can thrive under one coach’s system, but probably would only see the end of the bench in another program.
»Kennedy Corner: Keep Your Friends Close
Because of the power advisors wield, clients often feel beholden to their consultants. As a result, consultants have what I call a Don Corleone relationship with their clients: “Someday,” says the Godfather/Consultant, “and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me.”
»Kennedy Corner: Do Your Roots Determine Your Future?
This time of year, I’m planning my annual pilgrimage to a handful of business schools. It’s part of my give-back in terms of helping educate future practitioners. The forums are extremely satisfying—I provide insights on an industry that will employ more than a third of those graduates; and the students ask questions that more seasoned professionals would never deign to consider.
»Kennedy Corner: House of Lies—What’s in a Name?
Many of you have probably watched the new Showtime series, “House of Lies.” The black comedy’s portrayal of management consultants makes me blush. At least the guys and gals in AMC’s 1960s-era Mad Men look cool sipping martinis and smoking unfiltered Lucky Strikes. The “Lies” cast can’t pull off the same with their money-grubbing soullessness, and brilliant-but-vacuous characterizations of blood-sucking consultants.
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Interviews
»One on One with Strong-Bridge’s Ken Simpson
Based in Seattle, Strong-Bridge Consulting has a hand in some pretty hot-moving industries: from Telecommunication to Consumer Electronics to Healthcare and Financial Services. As key players in the industries shake off the last remnants of the Great Recession hangover, Strong-Bridge has found clients are once again kicking it into high gear, pushing products and services into the rebounding marketplace. Consulting One on One sat down to discuss it all with co-founder and CEO Ken Simpson.
»One on One with L.E.K. Consulting’s Stuart Jackson
Stuart Jackson, recently named President of North America for L.E.K. Consulting, has been with the firm for 25 years, and watched it grow from a young yet capable firm brimming with confidence to a proven entity with seven offices around the world. L.E.K. is focused on helping clients find something that has eluded even successful companies: growth.
»One on One with Aspen Advisors’ Dan Herman
When Dan Herman founded IT/Healthcare consulting firm Aspen Advisors in 2006, he set out to create a firm that would help executives make difficult decisions and manage large-scale technology-enabled projects, particularly on the clinical side, where Aspen strives to help healthcare providers reduce costs and improve patient care.
»One on One with Peppers & Rogers Group’s Orkun Oguz
How well companies adapt to the changing social landscape and harness the power of social media could mean the difference between making a meaningful and lasting connection with clients, and being passed over for a company that actually listens. Peppers & Rogers Group, which has long been a thought leader on the importance of treating customers as individuals, launched the Mobile App Index, which aims to help companies ensure their social media interactions with customers are a conversation, not a one way street.
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Cmag.com Exclusives
»Your Project Planning Processes May Be Causing You Unneeded Stress
If you are an executive in a professional services organization, then a few minutes spent on this article may reduce your daily stress by 15 percent. I am sure you will agree that projects that go bad (and cause you immense stress) do so because they were not planned very well to begin with. Planning a professional services project is the most important and challenging part of the engagement life cycle.
»Pause and Rethink; Pivot your Startup
While launching a venture, majority of the times the things do not go as expected. When the going gets tough, work on course correction or what is called “Pivoting” in the world of start-ups.
»Corporate Real Estate and Facilities Management Trends for 2012
Observations, discussions and market research, suggest that 2012 promises to be a year of contradictions, uncertainty, and also of increasing optimism in many industries, including Corporate Real Estate and Facilities Management.
»Who Needs an External IT Service Provider?
There are many things to look for when selecting an IT service provider, but the most important questions to ask yourself are: What do we need? Why do we need it? How can they help?
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News Briefings
»Booz & Company: Benchmarking can be 'Destructive'
Booz & Company is no fan of benchmarking, and two executives argue that it is actually destructive to companies that use it.
Booz & Company Partner Paul Leinwand and Managing Director Cesare Mainardi, co-authors of the recent Harvard Business Review article "The Coherence Premium," and the forthcoming book The Essential Advantage: How to Win with a Capabilities-Driven Strategy, say companies focus too much on doing what competitors are doing and not enough on their own unique and distinct capabilities.
“Too many companies use benchmarking as a crutch and rely on it as a competitive guide and a stand-in for real strategy,” said Mainardi. "The way benchmarking is practiced at most companies provides no insight into what they need to do to actually break away from the pack."
Leinwand adds: “Successful companies don't worry about benchmarking themselves against competitors. They don't need to because they have invested their time figuring out what makes them better than the rest."
Booz & Company’s major finding include:
• Benchmarking is often evidence of the absence of strategy. It establishes targets for spending, revenues, investment, and other decisions, but mostly without context.
• Benchmarking distorts the true nature of competitive advantage. Leading companies have a well-developed, differentiated approach to the market and will have no true peers to benchmark against.
• Benchmarking can discourage differentiation. Most companies struggle to find a differentiated way to add value in the market—and very few achieve it. It encourages companies to build capabilities similar to those of the competition, reducing the chance that they will actually distinguish themselves by setting new standards with new ideas, added value and a unique market position.
• Benchmarking can encourage complacency. While benchmarking can prompt companies to get up to snuff on activities—cutting the cost of invoicing, for example —it can encourage complacency among those on the far right side of the bell curve.
• Benchmarking copies bad examples. Many companies are not very good at strategy development. Copying such companies just internalizes their strategic weaknesses.
• Benchmarking ties up valuable resources. These initiatives generate a huge amount of activity and develop lives of their own inside of companies.
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