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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»One on One with Dick Finnegan--Part Two
 A consulting firm is only as good as its people. And as the economy continues to improve, and job opportunities emerge inside and outside the profession, voluntary attrition is becoming a paramount concern. To help firms get a better handle on this challenge, Consulting’s One-on-One sat down with Dick Finnegan, president of Finnegan Mackenzie, a leading advisor on staff retention issues to professional service firms. In the last edition, we focused on the common misconceptions firm leaders have regarding voluntary attrition. In this edition we focus on specific action steps firm leaders should take.Consulting: What’s one of the first things firm leaders should do to help improve staff retention?
Finnegan: There are a series of things they should do. Starting from the most broad, I think surveys can serve as a great benchmark. It can provide a valuable snapshot of how employee attitudes are changing from year to year or quarter to quarter. But firms shouldn’t stop there because surveys can’t offer solutions. Because it’s anonymous, benchmark surveys can only give us aggregated data. It can only point toward one-size fits all solutions—firmwide programs instead of adjustments to keep an individual motivated. Consulting: In the last edition, you brought up the idea of stay interviews — conversations designed to uncover what would make an employee more comfortable committing long-term to the firm. What’s the key to making those interviews successful?
Finnegan: In my new book [“Rethinking Retention in Good Times and Bad”], I stress the training necessary to conduct stay interviews. I believe the employee’s immediate supervisor should conduct the interview, not HR or someone several steps removed. This means that line managers need to have training on the skills involved in these interviews because these can be make or break moments of trust for that employee. And trust is the number one skill someone has to have to build retention. Consulting: Why is trust so important?
Finnegan: Trust is the basis of any relationship. Anecdotally, think about the best and worst boss you’ve had. At a basic level, the best boss was someone you trusted —you knew he or she had your back—and the worst boss was likely someone who you didn’t trust. The best boss had shortcomings you’d easy overlook; your worst boss had strengths you couldn’t see. Consulting: How important is manager training to retention efforts?
Finnegan: It’s amazing how often managers can make a bad situation worse. I’ll give you an example: An employee goes to his boss and says, ‘I’m worried my skills are becoming obsolete. I’ve found some classes that I think would be helpful and I think I could contribute more to the company if you’d be willing to pay for the classes’. Two weeks later, the manager tells the employee, ‘I think you’re okay, don’t worry about the classes’. The result is that that veteran employee starts shopping his resume immediately. The manager’s poor attempt at reassurance has only reinforced the employee’s fear that he will soon be replaced by someone younger, cheaper, and with more relevant skills. Consulting: Are exit interviews helpful?
Finnegan: They are, but I too often find that firms interview the wrong person. If you’re sensing an uptick in voluntary attrition, there’s a ton of data in the average firm’s payroll department that is usually untapped. You want to know who is leaving, by job, department and length of service. That last piece can tell you a lot because if you have high turnover in the first 90 to 180 days of employment, it suggests that you’re not choosing people very well. With that data crunched, I’d then conduct exit interviews with the managers who supervised the person that left. At my firm, I don’t sign off on hiring a replacement until we have that meeting. I find that this enables me to move the responsibility and accountability for each departure from no one to the supervisor.
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