Focus: Client Industries

	Healthcare »So, What's Next? Jessica Blume is a national managing director for Clients & Industries for Deloitte Consulting. While there’s no denying that its been tough sledding of late for consultancies and clients, Blume is refreshed by clients who suddenly want to talk about the other R words: rebound and recovery. She also sees opportunities in what might seem like unusual places. Consulting recently caught up with Bloom to discuss this newly found optimism among clients.
	Public Sector »Breaking Down a Breakup Deloitte’s $350 million public services acquisition of BearingPoint means 4,200 new Deloitte consultants
	Energy »The Stimulus Effect How recovery funds are generating consulting opportunities
	Financial Services »Out of Office: Milestone's Jess Varughese Jess Varughese is the Managing Partner of Milestone, a two-year old financial services consulting boutique. In the midst of what he calls “the worst environment that the financial services industry has ever seen,” it would be easy to focus on day-to-day client struggles and ignore firm culture. Instead, Varughese turned to community service activities to bring his firm together.

Focus: Service Lines

	Information Technology (IT) »Geo Focus: A New Land of Opportunity Large consulting firms have been in China for decades, investing in what is now a large and fast growing market. But there are still ample opportunities for small to mid-sized firms in China, if you understand the nuances of the market.
	Strategy »KIA Corner: Never Let a Good Recession Go to Waste No matter what, consulting has gotten tougher. But there are some firms out there that seem to do surprisingly well. How come?

Travel Advisory

• »Flying the Stormy Skies A grim economic outlook for airlines means heavily discounted fares for corporate travelers
• »Continental, United Ink Cooperative Deal Continental Airlines and United Airlines have announced a plan to work together to cut costs, generate revenue and better satisfy their customers. To this end, the two airlines will link their networks and services worldwide, and Continental will join the Star Alliance of airlines.
• »Road Warrior: Flash Drives
  Consultants on the move need access to tons of data. PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and spreadsheets by the gross are just a few examples of the variety of computer files that a consultant needs at his or her side at a moment’s notice. Nothing can turn a sleek presentation into a train wreck faster than a corrupt file or a failed hard drive. With a USB flash drive, back-ups of your critical files can easily fit in a device the size of a pocketknife. Here are a few solutions to help ensure that presentation nightmare will never happen to you.

Book It!

• »A Memo to the CEO: Marketing Matters The Marketing Accountability Imperative is a practical guide on maximizing the effectiveness of marketing investments by Prophet CEO Michael Dunn, along with marketing effectiveness guru Chris Halsall. In it, they attempt to sort through the increasingly complicated marketing world by offering advice on metrics and analytic options in order to ensure your company’s marketing strategy will result in long-term, profitable growth.
• »Review: The Three Laws of Performance The book centers on the application of “The Three Laws of Performance,” and features numerous examples of companies that have successfully utilized them.
• »Review: Chaotics In Chaotics, authors Philip Kotler and John A. Caslione pool their expertise to provide business leaders with a system for navigating the turbulent times by providing examples of the insights, strategies and tactics of top business leaders to help companies turn all the uncertainty into an opportunity to thrive in the worst and best of times.
• »Review: Building a Winning Sales Force In Building a Winning Sales Force, ZS Associates founders Andris A. Zoltners and Prabhakant Sinha, team with former ZS Associates principal Sally E. Lorimer, to give sales leaders the critical tools they need to create successful sales organizations in these tough economic times.
• »Review: All For One Ben Franklin said at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, “We must all hang together, or else we shall most assuredly hang separately.” This turn of phrase embodies the idea of All For One, the latest effort by author and consultant Andrew Sobel.

Consultants on Consulting

• »Improving Process Across Dynamic Business Portfolios By definition, “process improvement” means to make things better. It’s not about fighting fires or managing crises as they come up. It is about setting aside the common practice of assigning blame for problems or failures and looking for better methods to react to dynamic market conditions.
• »Bringing Cloud Computing Down to Earth Executives around the globe are facing a conundrum. In the midst of widespread economic turmoil, there is a clear, collective mandate to cut the cost of doing business using technology. 
• »What if Consultants Didn’t Travel So Much? Seriously Ahh, yes—the life of a consultant—fast-paced, cutting-edge work that is both personally and financially rewarding. However, with those benefits comes a laundry list of givens (that some might call drawbacks), which are considered part of the job for professionals in the industry. Long hours, stressful, high-pressure engagements, and of course—the endless travel.
• »Government, Disasters and the Megacommunity In recent years, we have become all too familiar with disaster: Hurricane Katrina. The Sichuan earthquake. California’s raging wildfires. The Indian Ocean tsunami. Myanmar’s tropical cyclone. The images are seared into our collective consciousness: broken levees and flooded attics; mothers digging through rubble in search of their children; entire villages swept into the ocean. Whether in Sri Lanka or San Diego, China or Louisiana, these disasters are humbling reminders of the power of nature—and clarion calls to action.