by Greg Baranszky
Admittedly it takes a little courage, a healthy dose of arrogance, and a dash of good old-fashioned chutzpah to re-engineer one of the best-known lines in the history of English literature. But in no small measure, growing a consulting business in this environment requires a similar amalgam of attributes.
How could it be otherwise when a leading global conglomerate such as Siemens announced that it will bring its annual 500 million euro consulting spend down to zero in less time than it takes a Porsche Boxster to accelerate to a respectable cruising speed on the Autobahn? Or when Fortune 500 sourcing leaders are increasingly intent on rationalizing their organizations' consulting spend by attacking consulting fees with Don Corleone-style "I'll make them offers they can't refuse" negotiation tactics?
Charles Dickens died in 1870, just 19 years before the birth of the man who wrote the first lines in the history of management consulting: James O. McKinsey. One wonders how Dickens, if he were alive today (at age 196, no less) would have regarded the profession McKinsey architected from the foundations of 19th century Taylorism and the nascent field of scientific management. Would he have viewed the profession as having had a positive or negative impact on the world and the people in it? When was the last time you asked yourself this question—a question that hones in on the too-often neglected but also ultimate value-add we bring to the table.
This may seem to many like a hopelessly abstract question to pose to an audience consumed by daily duties like hitting the next project milestone, making the next payroll, and, of course, selling the next piece of work. But one man's abstraction is another man's strategic deep-think. The answers to this question can not only lead to tactical successes but the rejuvination, even re-invention, of management consulting—something more and more very practical and influential clients are demanding as they grapple with the same questions regarding their own businesses.
It's a tall order, but one Kennedy Information Advisors (KIA), the custom research and advisory unit of Kennedy Information, intends to explore in its on-going series of KIA Corner columns in Consulting. The column will provide real-world examples of fellow consultants who are successfully doing exactly that: using the right mix of tactics to generate business during the downturn while actively seeking to remake their businesses and rethink how they engage with clients. Each column will be written by a KIA managing director who spends his days, and sometimes nights and weekends, helping our consulting firm clients do just that.
Each issue, we'll focus on specific value drivers and value killers—and how your consulting colleagues are employing them to win business, block competitors, optimize operations, recruit & retain talent, target high-value verticals, employ evidence-based consulting methods, deepen client relationships, and, perhaps most importantly, hold up a mirror to take stock of their firms, who they really are, and who they want to be.
We'll underpin our findings with proprietary KIA research, conversations with consulting industry leaders and visionaries around the world. Each article will present a specific challenge and/or opportunity and discuss in detail how the firm overcome the challenge and/or leveraged the opportunity.
The worst of times? It may seem that way when you hang up the phone after a difficult call in which one of your clients, yet again, delayed an important project to Q-whenever. In times like these, it pays to remember a piece of wisdom from General George S. Patton—who, of course, knew a bit about tough times: "A good plan violently executed right now is far better than a perfect plan executed next week."
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