Of the Fortune 500, about 70 companies have been on the list every year for 50 years. The average age of these firms is 115. These firms have been built to last. What's their secret? Brad Jackson, co-founder and CEO of Slalom Consulting, suggests that the common denominator of those 70 firms is that they've built a culture of innovation. How they've managed to do that is another question, entirely. Jackson will shares his secrets of innovation, which have not only enabled the 30 percent year-over-year growth of Slalom, but also prompted Slalom's clients to move out of their comfort zones and consider unique possibilities they didn't even know existed. As part of Jackson's "5 Secrets to Creating a Consultancy with a Culture of Innovation" presentation at the Consulting Summit in New York on Oct. 24, attendees will learn some new techniques for innovating professional services firms and the clients they serve.
Consulting: What are the steps to creating a culture of innovation?
Jackson: There really are three areas of innovation that I would call "The Innovator's Trilogy." The first one is the "why"—finding the big purpose and the big problem statements that would impact society. The second is taking an idea and moving it to a prototype in the market. The third is around scaling. Actually, I think a lot of consulting firms know how to scale. And I think a lot of firms understand the why, as well. My presentation is going to focus on that second step, going from idea to prototype, and we've got something that we've been working on at Slalom around this step and it's had some amazing success.
Consulting: What's that?
Jackson: This gets to the whole idea of creating that culture of innovation. At Slalom, we've put a process in place for bringing innovative ideas to market. The first step is to sketch out your idea; put it down on paper. The next step is to run the numbers and show it to your local office leaders. If your local leaders like the idea, then, at that point, I'll actually get on a plane and show up at your office to try to help bring the idea to life. Most great innovations take time and lots of people may have half or even three quarters of an idea, but as a firm you really need to have that culture in place to get everyone's ideas out there, but you also need to see the numbers and you need to see the business case for them. We're only part way through this process but it's already making a major difference in driving a culture of innovation.
Consulting: Setting a tone internally is one thing, but what about actually taking these ideas to clients?
Jackson: I'm on a plane to Chicago tomorrow. We have 40 Slalom people participating with 14 different ideas they have that we're going to take to clients. That's the only way to make this happen. Like I said, it's a part of creating this culture of innovation. Another thing we are doing is creating a portfolio within Slalom of ideas—we have about 100 of them—that have been brought to life that everyone—Slalom employees and clients—will be able to see.
Consulting: What is consulting's ultimate role in bringing innovation to clients?
Jackson: I think what we're going to see—and this sounds a little bit lofty—is that the consulting profession will become one of the Top 5 professions in the world, as far as providing what the worlds needs. It'll be right up there with healthcare and utilities, for example.
Consulting: Why do you say that?
Jackson: If you add up the revenue of all the companies in the world, throughout time, we believe that it will hit $100 trillion this year, depending on when you believe the first sale took place. Let's say it's taken about 5,000 years to hit $100 trillion. If we get 6 percent growth, we're going to see the second $100 trillion in just 12 years. How does that happen? But the bigger question, I think, is how does this all connect together between people, devices and companies? So, we believe there will be both the biggest necessity for consulting—and the biggest opportunity for consulting—ever, over these next 12 years.
Consulting: And how should a consulting firm be prepare for this?
Jackson: For a long time we've been used to doing what our client tells us to do, but now we've become, and will continue to become, a lot more important in determining the outcome of the world. I know that sounds 'out there' a little bit, but we really believe it. Those companies that are not using a consulting firm, we really believe, will miss out on their part of that $100 trillion. I believe more and more in this whole thing breaking down if we're not more proactive as a profession in helping clients and consultants work together.
Consulting: Why do you think the consulting profession, in particular, is the key to this?
Jackson: Consulting firms work across organizations and we have the unique ability to see what should be. We have a unique perspective, and we should be trying to show leaders of companies more of what could be. It's more of an integrated approach that shows business leaders what their companies could, or should, look like. As a profession, We've been proactive about selling work, but I think the entire consulting profession needs to be more proactive about showing, what we believe anyway, are the opportunities for the future of a company. And then showing it to them in a way the company could actually get behind it.
To hear more from Brad Jackson and additional insights from his "5 Secrets to Creating a Consultancy with a Culture of Innovation" presentation, or for additional information about the Consulting Summit, please visit www.consultingsummit.com.
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