It’s not every day that we have the opportunity to have the new CEO of a brand new, billion-dollar management consulting firm on our cover. This issue, we have Shumeet Banerji, the first CEO in the history of Booz & Company. (Booz Allen Hamilton, meanwhile, sold a majority stake of its public and government business to the Carlyle Group for $2.5 billion and will continue to operate that business from McLean, Va.)
Mark Goodburn can remember the days when clients couldn’t wait for KPMG to finish a consulting engagement and move on. Today, it’s a much different story. “They don’t want us to leave,” says Mark Goodburn, vice chairman and head of the advisory practice at KPMG. “Today, they have their next ‘to-do’ waiting for us when we finish a project.”
Hugo van Nispen is on quite a run. Since joining Kema five years ago, van Nisbet was integral to the launch of Kema’s management consulting practice and helped grow the new operation to about 30 percent of Kema’s overall revenue in just two years. He was the top-producing consultant for the firm four years running. “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good,” he says with a laugh.
I’m a change agent by nature and by business background,” says Stephen Brant, group managing vice president of Hitachi Consulting’s Products Industry Group. “Most of the work I’ve done in my career has been associated with coming into a situation where a business was growing or needed to be built. That was certainly the case here at Hitachi Consulting.”
Richard Schroth likes to ask CEOs a rather unusual question: How much does it cost to protect this company? The answer, or the lack of one, tells Schroth all he needs to know. “They always give me a blank stare; they usually don’t even know what I mean,” he says. “The area of security is the most mismanaged, out-of-control and uncoordinated element of most organizations. There is no central person in charge of it, and I find this dysfunctionality a real problem. It actually makes corporations much more vulnerable than they’ve ever been before.”
The Boston Consulting Group’s Antonella Mei-Pochtler, a senior consultant with a focus on branding, media and consumer goods, says there are nearly limitless possibilities for a brand if you invest in building it the right way.
Charles Farkas wants to transform healthcare. That may seem like a pretty lofty aspiration, but Farkas, a senior partner at Bain & Company and head of the firm’s North American Healthcare Practice, says now is the time for change. “I think it’s an extraordinary time in healthcare,” Farkas says. “I think we’re looking at global opportunities to transform healthcare—both at the company and system level. And if we get it right, I actually think we can do a lot of good along the way. I think we have to find ways to clearly articulate what high-quality healthcare is. Globally, healthcare is very expensive, and the people who need it most often aren’t getting it—not because of affordability or access to it, but because their symptoms are misdiagnosed or because other things interfere with that process.”
For as long as he can remember, Daniel Mahler has been environmentally aware. Growing up in Germany in the 1970s, he says there “was a real consciousness to the fact that we live in a world we can’t take for granted.” During the oil crisis that decade, he says, the U.S. moved on rather quickly, but in Europe there was much more public debate about the issues connected with the environment. “I think we realize that our planet is in a lot of trouble, and I realized that we have to take great care of the way we use it,” Mahler says.
Peter Cheese wrote the book on talent management—literally. Cheese, managing director of Accenture’s Human Performance practice is co-author of The Talent Powered Organization: Strategies for Globalization, Talent Management and High Performance. The book lays out some of his major thoughts around defining, discovering, developing and deploying top talent today. “There is simply not enough talent to go around,” Cheese says. “This is the reality.”
Shumeet Banerji made history last month when he was named the first CEO in the history of Booz & Company, the new global, commercial management consulting practice spun off from the 94-year-old Booz Allen Hamilton. “It’s a huge privilege, and I’m incredibly honored,” he says. “We’re going through a transformational experience and into a brave new world. There is huge possibility here and excitement for what the future holds. It’s an historic time at the firm, and it’s going to be one hell of a ride.”
full story
printer version
Mark Goodburn can remember the days when clients couldn’t wait for KPMG to finish a consulting engagement and move on. Today, it’s a much different story. “They don’t want us to leave,” says Mark Goodburn, vice chairman and head of the advisory practice at KPMG. “Today, they have their next ‘to-do’ waiting for us when we finish a project.”
Hugo van Nispen is on quite a run. Since joining Kema five years ago, van Nisbet was integral to the launch of Kema’s management consulting practice and helped grow the new operation to about 30 percent of Kema’s overall revenue in just two years. He was the top-producing consultant for the firm four years running. “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good,” he says with a laugh.
I’m a change agent by nature and by business background,” says Stephen Brant, group managing vice president of Hitachi Consulting’s Products Industry Group. “Most of the work I’ve done in my career has been associated with coming into a situation where a business was growing or needed to be built. That was certainly the case here at Hitachi Consulting.”
The Boston Consulting Group’s Antonella Mei-Pochtler, a senior consultant with a focus on branding, media and consumer goods, says there are nearly limitless possibilities for a brand if you invest in building it the right way.
Charles Farkas wants to transform healthcare. That may seem like a pretty lofty aspiration, but Farkas, a senior partner at Bain & Company and head of the firm’s North American Healthcare Practice, says now is the time for change. “I think it’s an extraordinary time in healthcare,” Farkas says. “I think we’re looking at global opportunities to transform healthcare—both at the company and system level. And if we get it right, I actually think we can do a lot of good along the way. I think we have to find ways to clearly articulate what high-quality healthcare is. Globally, healthcare is very expensive, and the people who need it most often aren’t getting it—not because of affordability or access to it, but because their symptoms are misdiagnosed or because other things interfere with that process.”
For as long as he can remember, Daniel Mahler has been environmentally aware. Growing up in Germany in the 1970s, he says there “was a real consciousness to the fact that we live in a world we can’t take for granted.” During the oil crisis that decade, he says, the U.S. moved on rather quickly, but in Europe there was much more public debate about the issues connected with the environment. “I think we realize that our planet is in a lot of trouble, and I realized that we have to take great care of the way we use it,” Mahler says.
Peter Cheese wrote the book on talent management—literally. Cheese, managing director of Accenture’s Human Performance practice is co-author of The Talent Powered Organization: Strategies for Globalization, Talent Management and High Performance. The book lays out some of his major thoughts around defining, discovering, developing and deploying top talent today. “There is simply not enough talent to go around,” Cheese says. “This is the reality.”
